\n<\/p>\n
Recalling the first time he saw the finished home, Cao said: \u201cThey overdelivered beyond my expectations. For me, it was totally mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The home has an industrial-inspired look, with raw textured walls, stainless steel finishes and darker tones offset by pops of burnt orange and red. Retro ventilation blocks add character to the space.<\/p>\n
The renovation was sponsored as part of a collaboration, though Cao revealed that it would have cost \u201csix figures\u201d.<\/p>\n
Terence Cao has a long history with the flat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually grew up in this neighbourhood,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m turning 60 next year. That\u2019s how old this block is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renovating a home that’s close to six decades old came with its share of challenges, with the designers having to work around existing beams, pipes and other structural quirks.<\/p>\n
Instead of fighting them, they used curved false ceilings and partition walls to create a smoother flow between the living room and kitchen.<\/p>\n
Giving his ID complete creative freedom also meant Terence Cao was in for some surprises.<\/p>\n
The biggest? One of the bedrooms had been hacked away to create a spacious dining area, with a sleek black granite island taking centre stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came in and I was totally shocked. I said, \u2018Hey, I lost one room,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
His remaining bedroom, meanwhile, is concealed behind a stainless steel hidden door and is deliberately sparse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a place for me to actually rest, recover, rejuvenate,\u201d said Cao, adding that he shouldn’t spend too much time in his bedroom as he \u201cshould be more productive\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Recalling the first time he saw the finished home, Cao said: \u201cThey overdelivered beyond my expectations. For me, it was totally mind-blowing.\u201d The home has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--35mUF9Fs--\/c_crop,h_1125,w_2000,x_0,y_81\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/04\/terence_cao_renovate_home_toa_payoh.jpg?itok=pakRcGhj","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3622,29449,3928,1147,2453,469,9926,5261,4447,29450,1096,501,29448],"class_list":["post-82096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-actor","tag-cao","tag-designer","tag-free","tag-gave","tag-home","tag-interior","tag-lose","tag-redesign","tag-rein","tag-room","tag-shocked","tag-terence","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}