‘SHOPHOUSE TRIO IN EMERALD GREENS & BLUES’

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This design is a love letter to a street where I used to live on the East coast Peranakan area of Joo Chiat!

These preserved iconic Singaporean and Malay shophouses sit side by side in beautiful ice cream shades on Koon Seng Road, a street hugely popular with photographers and visiting tourists alike as it offers a nostalgic glimpse into Singapore’s Peranakan past. Some of the houses on this street, with their beautifully painted exterior details, hide huge tall internal courtyards within them, traditionally open to the elements, designed to allow hot air to rise and light to flood into the otherwise dark spaces, with the rains falling into a shallow pool in the centre. They are also famous for having sheltered walkways at the front called a ‘five foot way’ where typically neighbours will sit outside and socialise or in days gone by, shop owners would have served their customers sheltered from the afternoon rains.

In my image I have added lots of fun little details taken from daily life, the often seen sun bleached brittle plastic chairs sitting outside, alongside vintage ceramics, tea flasks and tiffin carriers in delicate hues of Celadon green and Turquoise blues, a little vibrant blue Peranakan style teacup sits on a ceramic Chinese drum stool waiting for it’s owner to sit down for morning tiffin.

Whilst little embroidery butterflies and a vintage paper kite flutter on the warm breezes, two pretty hand painted old paper lanterns hang decoratively in the floral silk sky, to celebrate somebody’s happy event!