Home tour: this heritage Joo Chiat shophouse is given new life with a beautiful art collection

This gargantuan project could not differ more from Lim’s pre-war conservation shophouse home. The building features traditional orange terracotta roof tiles and a facade with patterned breeze blocks, wrought iron window grilles and shutter windows. The terracotta five-foot-way is lined with potted plants and capped by a timber ceiling, providing a rustic welcome to the home, which Lim has proudly adorned with a small but heartfelt art collection.  

Working with a shophouse was challenging—and costly. Lim reveals that he had to fork out a five-figure sum to replace all the roof tiles, as the roofing works by the previous owner, while functional, did not adhere to conservation regulations. But it was all worth it, as living in a shophouse is a dream come true for Lim, who had admired the vernacular building type as a child.

“They are a bit sentimental to me,” he says. “I always noticed the shophouses in the Spottiswoode area from the back seat of the car when my dad would pick my mom from work at Tanjong Pagar. I would ask him: ‘Why don’t you buy a shophouse? They’re so nice’—I didn’t know then that they were expensive,” says Lim, who grew up in a public housing apartment in the Tiong Bahru area. 

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Lim refers to this shophouse as “a lucky find”. The matriarch living in this home had passed away, and her 10 children decided to sell it. Lim engaged Studioshen to work on the project. A rear four-storey block was added to the original two-storey front block, separated by a courtyard. The latter was intended for his family to move into with him, but it is currently being tenanted out.     

“The main challenge for shophouses is to introduce natural light into a deep, narrow space, so we added skylights,” says Lim. One caps the first-storey courtyard, while another illuminates the rear block’s fourth storey. One encounters the courtyard after walking through an arched portal from the living room. Here, an abundance of natural light washes down to illuminate a sculptural staircase, which adds a dose of theatricality to the home’s quaint bones. 

The staircase is painted white like the rest of the walls, bringing a sense of calm into the home and highlighting conserved features such as the timber floors and ceiling rafters. Austen Chan, founder of Studioshen, highlights Lim’s commitment to preserving these features “that tell the story of this nearly century-old structure”.

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Above the living room, the master bedroom ensuite overlooks the staircase through new shuttered windows, detailed to mimic the front facade’s fenestration. Gestures like this free up the plan from its formerly cloistered feel. Likewise, the provision of more light makes the interiors airier.  “Every decision reflects a balance between a reverence for the past and the demands of contemporary life. At the same time, we took into consideration the needs to provide personal space for each potential family member, future-proofing the home with an elevator. Even little details like rounded corners help to prevent the elderly from getting cut in an event of a fall,” says Chan. 

On this, Lim refers specifically to his beloved maternal grandmother who had raised him, and whom he has immortalised with a tattoo on his arm and a hyperrealist painting by Italian artist Simone Mulas. “She’s 92, but has dementia. Now she can’t remember me but comes for dinner sometimes,” shares Lim. 

His art choices are diverse; in the home, numerous paintings by Singaporean artist Ong Kim Seng take pride of place, alongside framed technicolour Hermès scarves.  

One of Ong’s paintings illustrates former leaders like Lee Kuan Yew visiting the victims on the site of the famous Bukit Ho Swee fire. “Early in my career, my first F&B concept, Sin Lee Foods, started in Bukit Ho Swee. The original painting was from 1992,” explains Lim, who commissioned the artist to repaint a special piece for SG60. Decisions like these reflect a life guided by intentionality, empathy and emotion. In a home, they bring authenticity, warmth and joy.

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