Childhood Bedroom, 200 sq. ft.

I can't create an interiors portfolio without featuring where all this got started - DIY projects at home in our public housing apartment, with the great rain trees outside, with my dad. I've also thrown in photos from beyond the room because N, Z and the waterfront feel like home. 

My childhood was set in Singapore. I strongly identify with being, and am very proud to be, and am very audibly (you can hear me from a mile away) from Southeast Asia, kingdom of the scrappy (next billion users y'all!) and the skeptical (we've been colonized too many times).

A metaphor I've heard used is Singapore being a dad and California being a boyfriend. Here's what I think about that: we women gotta find less terrible metaphors. Identities feel very additive to me and I'm lucky to be able to explore them both.

Right before COVID sprawled itself on the world, I took a go at reorganizing the bedroom my sister and I grew up in that's now become a spare bedroom. The specific challenge was that it felt impossible to keep tidy, especially given that it's exclusively being slept in by travelers living out of ziplock bags and suitcases.

Bed out from the wall (a tale as old as time, Street Overlook Nook), chair as counter space, play 2 accent colors off each other (there was a time where shocking pink was in vogue). And then lay out my skincare grandly because there is nothing like a childhood room to remind you you're not getting any younger. 

I've thought about refurbishing the room completely someday but am always stopped by how strong and heavy our childhood furniture is. That stuff is reaching 30 and just wont quit. I do think things used to be made better, more solid, back then. 

In retirement, this room is kind of a maker workshop for my dad now, whom I revere as the OG resident creative -- one hand opening computers to show me circuitboards, the other completing ambitious home reno projects on a budget. He also did this really whimsical thing with our school uniforms (which most kids in public schools wear in Asia) in test tubes, which really delighted me. I'll keep this a making space and see what it looks like when I next visit.