By Annie Ooi | Dec 6, 2010

Red, rich and warm

	Gallery

Selina in her dining area. Colourful rugs are placed strategically on the floor.

It would be an understatement to say that not many people can live the lifestyle of former model and television host Selina Perera, who still looks fantastic despite challenges in her life.

Furnishing and decorating every corner of her condo home, Selina obviously can’t stand the sight of a bare surface or wall.

“Life is short,” says the 44-year-old. And in terms of decorating the place you live in, “I believe that even if you are renting, you should do it up as if you owned the place,” she asserts.

Living in a rented condominium unit on level three of a low-rise development with only seven floors, Selina’s home is extraordinarily exotic. While the typical Malaysian condo home is usually sunlit, whitewashed and decorated either in a minimalist or Balinese style, this amazing owner’s decorating fervour starts even before you reach the grills of the condo’s entrance.

Just like passionate house owners of landed property who landscape the public area outside their home, this lady has “appropriated” the space by placing a couple of chairs and table as a welcoming feature.

Potted plants, tinkling mobiles, tealights, orchids and little decorative items placed around this area give the visitor an inkling of the home owner’s decorative style.

Greenery is abundant ... usually house owners talk about bringing the garden into the home, but this lady not only brings in the garden, the garden is IN the home.

She has lost count of the number of pots. Perhaps being born in the Year of the Snake, according to Chinese astrology, she has a certain affinity for lush greenery, she jokingly ventures.

But green is not her only colour. The walls are painted a striking red, the floor is not left in its bare ceramic state, but rather covered with rugs of diverse colours, and all types of mobiles and lanterns hang from s-shaped hooks here and there.

It is all rather overwhelming for the firsttime visitor, as the eyes adjust to the dark and “moody” interior. Lamps provide little circles of light, adding to the feeling of being in a rich, warm interior.

Throw cushions and statues of Buddha can throw you off balance as your eyes search for one dominant feature in the room. There is none, as even as the specific areas are well defined, each area vies for attention.

Housekeeping must be a nightmare, but not if you have an obsessive-compulsive personality about neatness, as the house owner admits she is.

One can see that if she is not on top of things, the place can easily slip into “clutter mode.” Her inventory of household items must be one long list.

But luckily, there is ample storage space. An apartment which has plenty of storage space hidden away is a sure winner. Her everyday shoes are stacked in the usual wall cabinet near the main door, and inside the unit, in the space designated as the foyer, sliding doors covered in a material from Ikea hide another stash of more “occasion” shoes.

The dining table is just next to the foyer and is placed at an angle, and it seems just not her style to place it right in the middle of the space, down to the exact measurements.

From left to right: (a) The Moroccan corner is set in vivid red and colourful textured floor cushions. (b) The custom-made sofa in the living area is a comfortable spot for the house owner. (c) The bedroom is also richly decorated.

It is no surprise then that the sofa set in the living area is custom-made. Not for her the usual sofa combo of a three-, two- and single-seater set. It has an odd shape, described as a “curry-puff” shape and covered in brown corduroy, a material that harks back to the 70s. “I sit - more like, lie down - here with my two kids, Alexandra, eight, and Brendan, five, and we watch television together when they are here for the weekends.”

The built-up area of 198sq m (2,200sq ft) has three bedrooms and a maid’s room. The living area is well-utilised, with a reading corner and a “Moroccan” corner, where the home owner can do her work on her laptop.

The condo unit comes with a covered patio just outside the living area and has a “kopitiam” table for a breakfast corner. With a total of 81sq m (900 sq ft) for a garden, the green-fingered home owner has more than enough space to do her thing.

From left to right: (a) The red and golden look. (b) The colour red at the front door signifies energy, and a get-up-and-go attitude. (c) In Selina’s books, bathrooms deserve more.

Back in the living area, a corridor leads from the dining area, down to the bedroom. The dry and wet kitchen sections, the maid’s room (turned into a laundrycum- store area) and the toilet are all on the right of the corridor.

A sink on the right side of the corridor caters to the needs of guests, and the children’s room and the study, which looks out to the garden, are on the left.