Unexpected cool

The house of designers Allan Chai and Ross Chng is full of fun surprises, with its mix of East and West, old and new.

Sat, Oct 16, 2010
The Business Times

By Melissa Lwee

ONE'S first reaction upon setting sight on the house of Allan Chai and Ross Chng is that one has walked into the wrong house.

After all, the all-grey, exceedingly modern facade of the semi-detached dwelling along Kembangan is hardly reminiscent of the work of the designers who are best known for their colourful fashion creations boasting intricate beadwork and embroidery.

As you tip-toe up the slated driveway in trepidation, a sense of relief washes over you the moment a brightly coloured living room greets you. Filled with an eclectic mix of pop-art inspired arm chairs, wooden tables, embroidered pillows and oriental art work, you know that yes, you have indeed found the right place.

East meets West Click on thumbnail to view

The relief however, doesn't last long.

Confusion returns as you walk a bit further along to find yet another living room, only this time, the theme has suddenly changed into one of stark modernity. Two Eileen Grey sofas - one black and one white interestingly bought 20 years apart - form the centrepiece of a room that is largely monochromatic. Only a bright red chaise lounge in a corner and the colours from the sprawling paintings on the wall serve as a reminder that it is still the same house.

This then opens up to reveal an East meets West dining room boasting a feature wall filled with antiques, ethnic lamps and a clear dining table surrounded by Philippe Starck ghost chairs in the middle.

The first floor tour ends with a trip to a bright green kitchen - a colour that not only helps perk Chai up in the mornings but is also a quirky homage to the 'five greens' fresh juice that he drinks daily - by which time you question if you've just walked through four different houses altogether and fallen through a rabbit hole of some sort.

'There are a lot of surprises in this house,' chuckles Chai. 'With so much space to work with, we wanted to create a house that was fun. Of the other houses that we've designed and lived in, they've varied in style from very Oriental to very classic but this time, perhaps because we're getting old, we wanted to really mix up East and West, old and new to create a place that is really cool and unexpected.'

Indeed, the surprises continue onto the second floor of the house. After showing off a chirpy little guest room and television room, he leads us through the doorway to the pride of his house - the master bedroom.

'This is my favourite room in the house,' he declares. 'It has my first-ever walk-in wardrobe which showcases all the colourful shirts that I've collected over the years but mainly I love it because we spend most of our time here just chilling and watching television.'

But of course, the moment Chai cheekily points out that it has two entrance doors on opposite sides of the room, you can see why he has a soft spot for it.

In what can only be described as 'architectural poetry' - it turns out that the master bedroom, in effect, forms the absolute epicentre of the building. The second door leads to a lovely little enclave of a study area, another guest room and surprise, another staircase that leads both to a third storey guest room and back downstairs.

Another 'trick' dreamt up by the duo's clever architect, the staircase is deliberately sequestered in between the two first floor living rooms and semi-hidden by a white Tokyo Pop chair (from the Italian furniture label driade) so that guests to the house would initially fail to realise its presence.

'We only moved in two weeks ago, but the few who have visited us are always so shocked after their tour of the house because we bring them up one flight of stairs and take them down another that they didn't know was there,' he says.

'They love the idea though, it's like a pleasant surprise. Two of us living in a house that has two living rooms and two staircases, I think most people think that's quite interesting.'

The beauty of the house, Chai says, is the fact that it is spacious. With a built-up area of more than 6,000 square feet, Chai reveals that the space is used to house all the furniture, art, antiques and knick-knacks that the duo has collected over the years.

'We travel a lot for work and wherever we go and see something that we like, we have 'itchy hands' and we buy them,' he laughs, admitting that lately, they've been making a conscious effort to buy less. 'So yes, although it may seem strange that it's only two of us living in this big house, we chose this piece of property because it provides us with the space to showcase our collections.'

Buying, decorating and then selling their houses, adds Chai, has become a hobby of his and his business partner Chng.

In the past 20 years or so, the duo has moved house at least 10 times, from a city apartment within the CBD to a conversation shophouse and a penthouse that had a great view of the National Stadium on National Day.

'To be honest, what we really enjoy is the building and decorating process,' he muses. 'We love to move about, travel and pick up new ideas. But ultimately, you must remember that we are designers by trade, so doing up houses really appeals to the creative side of both of us and keeps the juices flowing.'

It is for that same reason that the duo would be happy to sell their house soon, even though they've only lived there for two weeks, with the proviso that the buyers love their work.

'We really don't mind selling if somebody really likes it,' he concludes. 'We've put in so much effort into doing the place up so if somebody comes up to us and tells us that he/she appreciates our work, I don't see why we wouldn't want to sell it to them - for the right price, of course. Plus, it'd give us an excuse to start on another project again, which we always look forward to.'

This article was first published in The Business Times.