Home With A View

With wraparound views across Orchard Road and its surrounds, RIONA BONNET-ISRANI certainly got the central location she wished for when she and her family arrived in Singapore just over a year ago . We fi nd out what else made her pick this apartment, as well as her tips on making a place feel like home.

- Amy Brook-Partridge

Riona’s list of places she’s already lived and worked in is enough to make most people green with envy. Growing up in Geneva, she then spent four years in Toronto at university, studied for her masters in London and Paris, gained post-masters work experience with Hermès in New York City, before returning to Geneva where she started her career with Procter & Gamble (P&G). It was here she met her now husband, Sylvain, who also worked at P&G at the time. Their son Kavi was born while they lived in Cincinnati, before their move to Singapore in December 2015.

“My aunt used to live here, so I had visited as a child, but I really didn’t remember much if anything about the city,” says Riona. During a recce in July, she pinpointed the Orchard, Cairnhill and Newton areas as potential spots to live in. “We were definitely looking at newer properties; our agent did show us a house down the road that was interesting but we felt new would just be easier to manage.”

Settling on this St Thomas Walk condo, Riona says the location and size of the building were perfect for her family; “it’s not too big, but still sizeable enough to meet new people. However, what really attracted us to the apartment was how much light and brightness it benefited from; this was a really important consideration for us.”

Full-time passion