A millennial couple in Singapore bought a 3-bedroom public housing apartment for $450,000. They turned it into an airy, farmhouse-style home with Japanese influences see inside.

The couple's home is about a 15-minute walk from the nearest subway station, and about a 25-minute drive from the city center, per Google Maps.

High-rise public housing apartment blocks are a key feature of Singapore's skyline, and they're home to about 80% of the country's resident population.

Constructed by the country's Housing Development Board (HDB), these public housing apartments are also known as HDB flats among the locals.

The first HDB flats were built in 1960 and new estates are still being constructed today. They are considered leasehold properties and each new flat is sold on a 99-year lease.

An HDB estate typically consists of a few identical apartment blocks clustered together.

Wong and Ng's block is painted black and white, like the others in their estate. Only a small sign with each building's block number differentiates one from the other.

Despite Singapore — tied with New York — topping the list of most expensive cities in the world to live in, public housing is still an option for most citizens as long as they meet certain requirements.

But living in an HDB flat does come with its own set of rules. Technically you're not supposed to own cats, rent your home out on Airbnb, or add a mezzanine floor to your apartment.

The couple designed their 1,350-square-foot home in a farmhouse style, with strong wabi-sabi influences.

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept that's difficult to translate directly; it loosely describes the idea of seeking beauty in rawness and imperfection.

An example of this can be seen in the neutral color palette being used across the apartment, made up of sandy beige, warm brown, and the occasional pop of green and blue.

An arched display nook, filled with an assortment of small, leafy plants and ceramic sculptures, is located right by the dining table.

"I think it's just our way of living that inspired us. My husband is a chef by profession, and I've been in facilities management for the longest time," Wong told Insider. "We've always liked nature and natural, raw-looking materials."

HDB flats come in a variety of sizes, ranging from one-bedroom to two-story maisonette apartments. The couple's house is considered a five-room flat, by HDB's definition.

The first thing that anyone sees upon entering the couple's home is the open-concept dining and living area.

The study is to the left of the main entrance, while the kitchen is located off the dining area.

A whole wall of fluted panels in the living room hides two doors that lead to three rooms, including the primary suite.

Instead of working with an interior designer (ID), the couple decided that they wanted to design the home on their own and work with the contractors directly.

"We got quotations from various IDs, and they all came out to at least S$120,000," Wong said. "I know that in the market, your renovation is probably 25% more expensive if you get an ID. So we decided to bite the bullet and just do it ourselves."

"We haven't had a lot of people staying over here yet. It's just been my sister whenever she has to pet-sit for us while we're away," Wong said.

A lot of the furniture was brought from the couple's previous home — a rental unit in a conservation house along Rowell Road, which is in the central region of Singapore.

Many conservation homes in the country are state-owned properties managed by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). These are leased out via a bidding system for residential and commercial uses.

The couple decided to move to their current place because their rent was increased, Wong said.

"We stayed there for three years during the pandemic," Wong said. "And then the SLA decided to increase our rent. I think now the minimum bid is S$2,500 but we rented at S$2,000."

There's a handmade cardboard bunny house, along with a rabbit tunnel and some chew toys in the pen. A plastic pet gate seals off the entrance of the room to prevent their bunny from escaping out to the other areas of the home.

"She's a granny in rabbit years. She's already almost 10 years old," Wong said. "We adopted her from our friend who moved to Oslo."

There isn't a door that leads to the master bedroom from the living room, Wong said.

"The previous owner had already converted it like this," she said. "But in his configuration, his study room was our bedroom, while his bedroom was the bunny room."

When the couple bought their apartment last year, their block was already 27 years old, Wong said. With the 99-year lease, the couple will own the home for another 72 years — unless they choose to sell it. That said, they're only the second owners of this unit.

"The previous owner, he's the first owner. Design-wise, everything was very old-school. The furniture and flooring were probably the styles from years before," she added.

One of the reasons why the couple was drawn to this unit was because of the size of the common bathroom, Wong said.

The highlight of the bathroom is the stone basin, which the couple got from a local stone supplier.

"It's so heavy, we tried to bring it home ourselves but it wasn't possible," Wong said. "They usually do bigger projects, like for hotels but they agreed to deliver it for us if we bought two."

Metal rods had to be placed under the bathroom counter shelf in order to support the weight of the stone sink, which was about 20 kg, or 44 pounds, she said. The other sink is in their master bathroom.

"My niece and nephew came over one day, and they told me that it looked like a hotel," she added.

Because the two of them didn't have any design background, they weren't able to create the same kind of mock-ups as a professional designer would.

"I made a PowerPoint presentation with references to how things should roughly look, but my main contractor was just looking at me cluelessly," Wong said. "I think the lesson learned is we need to have a very specific idea of what we want and tell him that. And in return, he should be able to tell us if there are going to be changes."

As part of their DIY experience, the couple also painted the walls on their own.

"We decided to do it ourselves because we were quoted S$3,000 just to paint the living room," Wong said. "I was like, nope, I'm going to save that money and do it myself."

The wooden counters on the left are from IKEA and the couple brought them over from their previous house. The sage green cabinets with black marble countertops are custom-made, Wong said.

"We wanted to reuse our kitchen counter, so we told the contractor to measure out a space to fit them in and build the rest," Wong said.

Since the two of them cook quite often at home, they chose the standalone stove because of its design and functionality.

"This sewing machine belonged to my aunt — it's probably older than us," Wong said. "We refurbished it by screwing up the old wine crates and putting them over."

"It's actually two lampshades combined into one," Wong said. To make the side table, the couple flipped one rattan lampshade upside down and glued it to the other.

They also had an old IKEA tabletop that managed to fit perfectly into the opening of the lampshade.

"I don't have the brains of a content creator, so I just took pictures based on what I like and posted it," Wong said of their Instagram account.

That said, the couple's cozy home has been featured in a few different local home and living publications.

"I think if people really enjoy seeing pictures of my house, naturally I definitely want to continue doing it. But we still don't know what kind of direction we would want for our account, for now, it's really just for fun," Wong said.