Retro Rock

When Ping Tay appointed interior designer Mikael Teh of Monocot Studio to design her apartment near Little India, she presented him with a 30-page brief, detailing the colours, materials and fittings that she wanted, right down to meticulous hand-drawn illustrations.

More used to homeowners armed with a few magazine clippings, such details took Mr Teh by surprise, but we needed it as we were working on the project in two different countries.''

This was about two years ago, when Ms Tay was still living in Sydney with her longtime boyfriend. The couple had been living there for 14 years, and were in the midst of returning to Singapore to be closer to his elderly parents.

''I was dictating the project from many miles away,'' says Ms Tay, a former chef and film producer. Client and designer would communicate over email and WhatsApp, and eventually met up when the couple…