PALIMPSEST REVERIE

Residential
Interior Design
Singapore

Palimpsest Reverie is conceived as a quiet dialogue between time, memory, and lived experience. The house, layered with decades of personal history, is treated as a palimpsest—where traces of the past are neither erased nor frozen, but gently revealed and reinterpreted. Rather than imposing a wholly new identity, the renovation seeks to amplify what already exists: the worn timber, the patina of antiques, the spatial rhythms formed by years of inhabitation.

The design approach is one of subtle preservation and poetic continuity. Contemporary interventions are inserted with restraint, allowing old and new to coexist in a soft equilibrium. Antiques are curated not as nostalgic artifacts, but as anchors of memory, grounding the homeowners in the stories embedded within the home. Light, texture, and materiality are orchestrated to evoke a sense of reverie—a contemplative, almost dreamlike state where time slows and reflection is encouraged.

As the homeowners enter their retirement years, the house becomes both a sanctuary and an archive: a living environment that supports present comfort while honouring a lifetime of memories. Palimpsest Reverie is ultimately an exploration of dwelling as remembrance—where architecture becomes a vessel for memory, and design becomes an act of gentle storytelling.

The house, located on the East Coast of Singapore, is one of nine Tudor-styled intermediate terrace houses developed in the 1990s. It was important to preserve the typology of the house to retain the street identity which has generally been untouched since the development of these houses.

The entrance and car porch to the house is a new insertion. With new full-sized tile cladding, aluminium trellis, and a new aluminium car porch roof, providing an aesthetic and functional upgrade to the space. A customized full-height natural teak door sits within two pieces of textured glass, and atop a green marble threshold to define the main entrance. A rain chain, a poetic termination of the roof onto the new gravel surface of an old grass patch.

The hearth of the home, is entire first-storey. It comprises of the living room, dining room, a sizeable island and dry kitchen, as well as the wet kitchen. This space had always been the soul of the house. It hosted family parties for the last 30 years. The walls of the old kitchen we removed, and a guest room removed, to create a large and open space, perfect for gatherings.

Old teak and chinese-hardwood furniture were re-stained and re-upholstered. They were planned as part of this new iteration of the home. New contemporary furniture like the sofa, lamps, and wall console were proposed. These loose furniture blended in with the new veneer and wallpaper wall cladding; marble floor; a textured painted TV feature wall that stored an extensive vinyl collection; and a series of customized kitchen carpentry which was tailor made for the home owners.

Beautiful antiques and art litter the space. A nod to the owners' extensive collection.

This is the owners' retirement endeavor. Accessibility aids like handle bars and a platform lift were added to the home to enhance its liveability

Adjacent to the lift lobby on the second floor, is a yoga space, a meditative spot, a family room, and also an extension of art and antique collection. This floor is defined by the spaces each of the owners use on their own time. For him, a study. For her, a music room (which doubles up as a guest room).

The inner-most sanctum of the home is the master bedroom. Furniture and antiques were retained, while a sensitive wall-cladding design skirted around these objects. A full-sized bathroom was reduced to a night toilet and is decked with waterproof wallpaper. An adjoining sitting room is demarcated by a series of aluminium shelves, while a 55-inch rotatable TV makes entertainment convenient.