Sense of place

Keen to ensure that her East Coast residence was sympathetic to its surroundings, Smith looked to classic Peranakan architecture for inspiration. The house sits on a former orchard, with the original plantation dwellings just across the street, and she wanted to honour the area’s heritage. The pale grey and white combination that she chose feels at once nostalgic and contemporary—this play on eras continues throughout the rest of the property.

Black and white marble flooring runs throughout the home, although the more typical chequerboard has been given a glamorous lift that feels distinctly Art Deco in style. Floor-to-ceiling French windows open up the whole of the front and the back of the house to allow a breeze to waft through, but there is also a discreet air-conditioning system that takes over on humid days. True to Peranakan form, the ground floor features a double-height ceiling supported by vintage-style pillars, which in this instance have been given a sleek finish.

Garden state

While there was no doubt that an Asian home was what she wished to replicate, Smith also wanted to be able to entertain on a large scale. She instructed the in-house team of architects to come up with an open-plan layout that would heighten the sense of space—but this created a design dilemma. “I love the use of colour inside a home,” she explains. “But with an open plan, there are no natural termination points in any of the rooms.” Smith worked around the issue by painting the ceilings in her favourite shades and using rolls of botanical wallpaper that, while varied in print, all feature a white background. This allowed for a sense of continuity without her having to opt for plain white interiors.

One floor down, a vibrant tropical wallpaper by Designers Guild gives the mezzanine a lively dimension, which has been finished with a sky-blue ceiling. Smith selected a simpler black-and-white version of the bracing green to decorate the adjoining study, again maintaining a sense of flow between the rooms. The ground floor, with custom-made furniture, is exactly the elegant entertaining space that the homeowner imagined back in 2013 when planning began. An eclectic art collection and the trompe-l’oeil wallpaper lend drama to the walls, with the effect tempered by the clean lines of the furniture and the wrought ironwork of the banisters and chandeliers overhead. While there’s plenty to take in, it all works beautifully.

For the couple, the pièce de résistance is the kitchen. Fisher & Paykel appliances are found inside every bespoke cabinet and their enormous fridge-freezers run the length of an entire wall. A temperature-controlled wine cellar also keeps the couple’s vast collection of wines in optimal condition. Little nods to her British roots also feature, from the Dualit toaster to the broad selection of afternoon teas. The kitchen is the very heart of their home—it’s where the couple heads to relax over the weekends or to cook up a feast for the steady stream of guests that tends to drift through their doors. As Smith puts it simply: “It’s the place that I look forward to returning to—beyond all others.”

Words: Polly Sweet | Art Direction and Production: Khairul Ali | Photography: Jasper Yu | Assisted By: Tan Ming Yuan

Originally published in the latest Philippine Tatler Homes, which is now available in all leading newsstands and bookstores, and downloadable via Magzter, Zinio, or PressReader.