Cover The spiral staircase in full view against the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, a wabi-sabi touch of natural wood set beneath the double-height ceiling of the reading nook
The spiral staircase in full view against the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, a wabi-sabi touch of natural wood set beneath the double-height ceiling of the reading nook
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A balance of wabi-sabi warmth and contemporary restraint, Keith Gan, owner of Big Brain Furniture, crafted his own Johor Bahru home around reclaimed teakwood, Italian marble and a sculptural spiral staircase
Designing a house for a client, Keith Gan has learned, is a different discipline from designing one for yourself. There is no brief to work from, no outside eye to argue against your own instincts. When the house is his own, in Johor Bahru, on a 9,000 square foot plot with a built-up area of about 10,750 square feet, Gan was both designer and client, answerable only to his own judgment about what four bedrooms, three living areas and two dining spaces should feel like for his family of two adults, two children and two helpers.
Above A closer view of the staircase’s curved underside, with its proportions refined over several rounds of adjustment
Above The floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, styled with ceramics and books, with a pair of upholstered swivel chairs set in front
A closer view of the staircase’s curved underside, with its proportions refined over several rounds of adjustment
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The land size first drew him to the site. “We wanted the freedom to create our dream home and have enough flexibility to shape the spaces around our lifestyle,” said Gan, owner of Big Brain Furniture. That extra room let him test different spatial relationships and moments where the interior opens toward the outside, instead of settling early on a fixed layout.
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The double-height living area, with the sculptural spiral staircase rising beside floor-to-ceiling glass and a boucle sofa arrangement
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The resulting house sits between two references. One is wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy that finds worth in imperfection and age. The other is a tighter, more contemporary vocabulary. Gan resisted picking one over the other. “We were drawn to the quiet imperfection, natural warmth and sense of authenticity associated with wabi-sabi, but wanted to interpret these qualities through a more refined contemporary language,” he said, describing a home that feels “refined without being overly polished, and contemporary while still retaining a sense of warmth and soul.”
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A low sectional sofa anchors the main living area, with the kitchen visible beyond the dark cabinetry
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Materials do most of that work. Reclaimed teakwood, brought in from Indonesia, forms the open-concept kitchen, the long dining table and the lounge sofa. Its grain and small imperfections were meant, Gan said, to soften the scale of the rooms and bring some sense of craft into daily use. Saint Laurent marble tops the main dining table, chosen for its veining. In the bathroom, a bathtub cut from Rosso Levanto marble sits darker and more dramatic against the rest of the palette, and it’s the piece Gan singles out as his favourite in the finished house, along with the way light shifts through the double-height living area over the course of a day.
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A wider view of the same dining area, opening onto a sofa and living space beyond
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The teakwood does more than set a tone. Gan treats it as the house’s real environmental gesture. “Sustainability was incorporated primarily through our material selection, particularly the use of reclaimed teakwood,” he said. “The reclaimed timber carries its own history, character and individuality, while giving an existing material a new life within a contemporary residential setting.” Technology has less to do with it, in his view, than the discipline of choosing materials that will age well.
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The living area opens toward a planted courtyard visible through floor-to-ceiling glass.
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The spiral staircase gave him the most trouble. Its position at the centre of the house meant any error in its proportions would be hard to miss, and getting it right meant a long run of small corrections. “It became a process of continuously adjusting, stepping back and looking at the space as a whole, then refining the smallest details until everything felt visually effortless,” Gan said.
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The open-concept kitchen, with backlit teak shelving set into pale cabinetry above the cooktop and sink
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Above Caos Creativo wallpaper, framed rather than hung flat, behind a teak table and woven armchairs
Above A second-floor hallway with floor-to-ceiling glass, sheer curtains, and a teak-framed accent light beside a framed artwork
Caos Creativo wallpaper, framed rather than hung flat, behind a teak table and woven armchairs
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Other fixtures got similar attention. A Carrara marble basin, paired with an AXOR Starck V faucet, went through several revisions before it controlled water splash without losing its sculpted shape. It’s a small detail, Gan said, but one of the things that makes a space feel considered. A run of Caos Creativo wallpaper is framed on the wall rather than hung flat, closer to a piece of art than a wall covering. A Floatation pendant by Ingo Maurer lights one of the living areas; the bathroom carries an Antoniolupi Raindrop shower head. Most of the loose furniture, including the dining table, sofas, bedframes and rugs, came from Gan’s own company.
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Above One of the home’s four bedrooms, with a dark wardrobe wall and sheer curtains softening the light from the window
One of the home’s four bedrooms, with a dark wardrobe wall and sheer curtains softening the light from the window
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One trade-off still bothers him. A larger plot would have made room for a proper pond and more landscaping; instead, that space went to the interior. “Looking back, I still think it was the right decision for the way our family lives,” Gan said, “although a larger garden and water feature would have added another layer of tranquillity to the home.”
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Above The same bathtub viewed from across the room, with woven baskets and a teak shelving unit visible against the window
The same bathtub viewed from across the room, with woven baskets and a teak shelving unit visible against the window
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Above Twin vessel basins in veined red marble, set into a teak vanity beneath a single backlit mirror
Above The Rosso Levanto marble bathtub is sunk into a raised platform, with a rain shower positioned directly overhead
Twin vessel basins in veined red marble, set into a teak vanity beneath a single backlit mirror
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Ask him what he values most, and he skips past the marble and the staircase. He mentions the sofa area built around a tatami platform, where the family tends to end up together, and a reading nook set in front of the staircase, under the double-height ceiling. “There is something especially beautiful about the morning and evening light, when the sunlight slowly filters into the house and gently warms the interior,” he said. “Those quiet moments are perhaps what I love most, when the house feels less like a designed space and simply becomes a place to live, pause and enjoy.”
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Jennifer Choo is Regional Managing Editor of Tatler Homes, covering architecture, interior design, and art across Asia. Based in Malaysia, she oversees regional content on luxury residential design and contemporary art collections. Legally trained but choosing to pursue her passion for design, she previously led notable design publications and worked as an interior stylist and art consultant for property developers, design firms, and private clients.
