Chromatic COMPENDIUM

Designer Lim Wenhui's colour-filled apartment reflects her adventurous spirit and love of all sorts of artistic expressions. 

- LUO JINGMEI

Tangerine, canary, cobalt, vermillion, mint, cardinal purple, walnut, midnight—these are but some of the colours that punctuate designer Lim Wenhui’s apartment. Bright colours are often associated with loud and exuberant personalities, so it is surprising to find that she is drawn to such a rainbow palette given her elegant and tempered demeanour. “I like it. It makes me happy. If I don’t like it, I’ll just change it in my next home.” And there you have it—beneath her cool exterior is the intrepid spirit that this psychedelic world embodies. “Perhaps it reflects my sense of adventure and experimentation? And the love of beauty,” she reiterates. If you look at the energising work of the founding director of Singapore-based architecture firm Spark, everything comes into place. In 2011, she helped to transform Starhill Gallery in Kuala Lumpur into a faceted jewel writ large with nary a straight surface in sight. She also breathed new life into the former POMO mall at Selegie with GR.iD—a youth social hub with a neon-lit Tetris grid structure and multi-hued graphics.

Lim had previously stayed in Singapore’s eastside, where her colourful collection of furniture and objet d’art popped against a white shell. In her hunt for a new place, she decided she wanted to go all out on the colour front. “I was seeking an older property with spacious interiors that I could convert. Fortunately, I came across Sherwood Towers. While it is a new location for me, I am always open to exploring new things and places. Sherwood Towers represents the next iteration, affectionately referred to as Project Moving House—a playful continuation of the design journey,” says Lim on the 43-year-old building in the west of the island.