Coastal Life

We invite ourselves over to the house of interior designer and mother-of three HEGE TORGERSEN, to find out how she’s created her ideal family abode.

- Amy Brook-partridge

 Hege and her husband started their Singapore life together in 2000, initially living centrally in St Martin’s Drive. They then purchased a house on University Road near the Botanic Gardens, before selling up and buying their first home on Sentosa. “As soon as Sentosa opened up we came here. We were one of the first families to live here and we honestly haven’t looked back. Nothing beats that Friday afternoon feeling of coming home across the water; I love it.”

After three years in their first house on Ocean Drive, they decided to sell up and move again, to this larger property just down the road. “What I love with this house is that it grows with us; it’s easily adaptable. It’s not really that big, but it’s very well done.”

Although she studied bio-technology, Hege’s career in Singapore took a somewhat different direction. Looking for help to finish off the design and styling of her University Road house, a friend recommended she get in touch with Nikki Hunt, partner at Design Intervention. With a keen eye for design, and looking for a job that afforded her time for both a career and a family, Hege then began assisting Design Intervention with projects.

Design Intervention has had a hand in the look of each of Hege’s subsequent family homes, including this one. “They don’t just design a house; they make a home,” she says. “Also, they don’t do what everyone else is doing; they’re distinctive, and they put their souls into their work.”

Sentosa Style

Moving to this current home, Hege was keen to work around the furniture she already had. “In the previous house we went all out, even matching the tables to go with the sofa. When we bought this place, and it was much bigger, I decided to see how we lived in it first before designing it inside and out.”