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I've always believed that a well-designed home tells a story about its occupants. You know they've succeeded when the character of the inhabitants speaks to you through the selection of furniture and choice of interior design. These are homes that integrate form with function, and centre on the lifestyles of those who live in them. One such home in Sengkang does just this. In this apartment owned by Jackie and Tobbie, the clarity of their preferences is crystallised in every nook and cranny, and comes alive at first glance. As cliché as it may sound, this home reminds me literally of how knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Just by having a good grasp of their habits, the owners have modelled their home in a fashion that facilitates their desired way of living. One thing I particularly like about this home is how personal touches, which the owners refer to as 'side-hustle furniture', fill the space. To the left of the main door sits a shoe rack that was custom made by their designer. Jackie and Tobbie explain that it also acts as a bench for them to sit on when putting on their footwear. This shoe rack saves space and adds personality to their home – the reason for why they call it a 'side hustle'. Again and again, the owners pepper their BTO flat with these side hustles that surely but quietly exist for practical reasons. Those who aren't in the know will simply look at them and think they are merely decorative pieces. Take the example of the cobalt blue pull-up bar that hangs over the entrance of the living room. A cursory glance will not give away its true identity because of how the owners have seamlessly harmonised the bar with its surroundings. This intentional move was motivated by their desire to not turn their home into a gym with workout equipment. The result is a piece that serves multiple functions: Pull-up bar, rod on which to hang decorations, an extension of the bookshelf, and an architectural structure. Jackie's and Tobbie's gallery wall is the one other thing I can't not talk about. Who would have thought a TV wall could double up as a canvas for the expression of artistic flair? Now while it's getting common these days for homes to have feature walls, it's not all that common for the television to be given a role that isn’t the centrepiece. In the owners' interpretation, art takes centre stage, and the television forms one of the many completing the gallery they have artfully curated. Jackie and Tobbie have, clearly, also figured out the extra functionality that mobile furniture can bring about. Another 'side-hustle furniture' in their unit nested in Blk 401e is the serving trolley. It is concurrently a storage box for laundry, and when it's not being used, it is wheeled back into the cabinets. I too, for sure, did not miss out on the larger-sized, black storage box that can be pulled out from the TV console to be used as a dining table chair. One consistent thread runs through the design language of Jackie's and Tobbie's: Dual purpose. Every piece of furniture can be used in more than one way. Simply by maximising the utility of each item, Jackie and Tobbie have optimised the use of their living space – for instance, the living room is also a space for them to engage in workouts. In this regularly sized one-room BTO of 47 square metres, Jackie and Tobbie have maximised their desired lifestyle through clever design that allows for flexibility and at the same time, amplifies what they value most. - Denise Media from: YouTube (Never Too Small)

I discussed the possibility of living in tiny houses in Singapore in an earlier blog post. But as we know, it isn't an option to begin with – no thanks, of course, to our lack of land space. Someone also pointed out that the idea of tiny houses is "romanticised" – which, I don't deny (but hey, that's why it's a dream). While it's clear tiny houses aren't going to work out here, the concept of 'tiny living' is; not just physically but also mentally. Anyone who has lived enough years locally would observe that homes have become smaller. I take myself – an inhabitant of this island of a few decades – as an example. I may have had to spend about a minute to get from one end of an old house to the other. In a newly built flat with the same number of rooms though, I might well only need half that amount of time. These gut feeling estimations aside, are we imagining the relativity of the size of our living spaces? Or is this truly the case? According to research meticulously done by Stacked Homes, HDBs have i n d e e d gotten smaller over the years. This, however, doesn't apply across the board. 3-room flats are seemingly spared from the "shrinking" phenomenon. Through the test of time between 1966 and 2019, the average size of HDBs with three rooms has stayed faithful more or less to the magic number: 68 square metres (sqm). The same cannot be said of their 4-room counterparts, which tend to be a popular pick among Singaporean families. Just how much have local homes shrunk? Apparently, where we stand on the scale of time will tell a different tale of size. In the 70s and up to the 80s, 4-room HDBs saw sizes that ranged from 80 sqm to over 100 sqm. Then the 90s came and 4-rooms started averaging 100+ sqm. Somehow this trend did not persist into the 2000s. Today, the size of 4-room HDBs lurk around the 90 sqm mark and has remained so since. One explanation that's commonly dished out to justify the downsizing is quite literally the increasingly few people occupying the houses – the modern nuclear family. If there's going to be at most three persons living in a flat, why bother packing in space that accommodates five? From an urban planning vantage point, this is strategic and optimum. Yet as the ones who live in these homes, it's possible for us to get the impression that our lives also got "downsized". Those who knew what once used to be will feel this more acutely. Say you've lived in a large house for more than half of your life; having to move into anything smaller would naturally lead you to feel like you're made worse off. But judging from how the numbers have been trending, variations in our home sizes are likely not going to sway the graph in a vastly different direction – at least not in the foreseeable future. With physical constraints featuring strong in the grand scheme of things, how do we circumvent the perceived feeling of reduced quality of life? How do we make peace with what has become our reality? I reckon a change of perspectives can, for example, by going tiny. Rather than 'tiny living' in the context of tiny houses, I'm suggesting applying the notion to maximise our living space and our lives constructed within. This will require two things. We're already familiar with minimalism: Owning less and living more as a result. The other key element in the equation is to increase the number of uses for each space. This can be achieved through interior design, either by a remake of the home layout or furniture that allows for versatility. Singapore isn't the only city that's confronted with urban planning challenges. Places like Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Milan are one with us in this problem that plagues densely populated, highly developed cities. Some have found solutions to much success and that means so can we. In a series of a few blog posts, we'll take a look at some of these cleverly designed homes (a.k.a my personal favourites) with fresh perspectives we may not otherwise have thought about. So, keep your eyes peeled! - Denise Media from: Unsplash

Imagine a living space fully equipped with sleeping lofts, a shower, kitchen, lounge area, and picture-perfect outdoor scenery to boot, at half or even a third of the size of your regular house. Add a trailer with wheels for those with wanderlust, and your tiny house is complete. In case you're wondering, here's what a tiny house looks like! The birth of 'tiny living' Unbeknown to many, tiny houses have stuck around for centuries. The movement that popularised the concept of living in tiny homes started, interestingly, only in the early 2000s. The 'tiny living' wave emerged when the 2008 Subprime Mortgage Crisis caused several American homeowners to lose their property. Many took to tiny houses to put a roof over their heads and avoid being slaves to exorbitant housing mortgages. Today, the Tiny House Movement has swept the United States and gained traction in New Zealand, Australia, parts of Europe, and even Asia. Rather than serving utilitarian objectives, tiny houses are now a coveted way of life. Scour through YouTube, and you can easily find channel after channel dedicated to featuring tiny houses around the world and the alternative lifestyles they offer their owners. An obsession with tiny houses Living in Singapore has made me an advocate of the Tiny House Movement. The reason? The city dweller in me yearns for uncurated greenery and horizons that stretch endlessly into the distance. And perhaps the grass is truly (and literally) greener on the other side, I would love to experience a downsized life away from the daily hustle and bustle. But most importantly, tiny homes allow me to deviate from the typical prefabricated homes we get in Singapore: Design my home, from scratch One of the best things about tiny houses is that they are entirely customisable. From the materials and building blocks used to construct my tiny house to positioning my sleeping loft and carving out a cosy nook for my library – it's all my call. Interior design's a solution for built homes, but it can get costly. It also means that I have little or no say over how I would like my home to be unless I'm willing to fork out a hefty sum for refurbishment. With a tiny house, I get to decide the most minute detail at its inception. Live anywhere, any time The mobility of tiny houses has unlocked many more living spots previously hard to imagine for its owners. As long as it's legally permissible, I can anchor my tiny house on farmland or in a backyard and move right next to a serene lake whenever I wish. This idea is appealing because tiny homeowners get to keep the things they value in close proximity and construct a lifestyle around them without investing in a fixed asset. Being family-oriented, I relish the possibility of parking right up the family home. That way, I can keep my loved ones close by even while maintaining some degree of personal space that's independent of each other. Tiny living in Singapore..? Sadly, I'm fully aware that what attracts me about tiny houses will not work out (on large-scale) in the context of Singapore. We grew up learning that our land's a scarce resource to make sense of the towering skyscrapers we see whenever we lift our heads up. It is one of the reasons for our unaffordable property prices – in 2022, we were ranked sixth amongst the top 10 cities where ultra-prime residential properties were transacted. Tiny houses may cost a fraction of the price tag on a regularly-sized home in other corners of the world, but this relative affordability isn't true here. If we had to secure a piece of land to park our tiny home, that would already cost the average wageman their entire life savings and more. Well, though it seems what weaved my dream of having a cute little space to call mine remains a dream, I hope it will one day materialise. For now, I shall indulge in my favourite doses of tiny houses – Living Big in a Tiny House – and continue dreaming big on living tiny~ – Denise Photos from: Adobe Stock