THE REHAB QUEENS

If you didn't toss out your old furniture during Spring Cleaning… hold thy hand! Why not let Cheu Koh and Belle Waring take your unwanted furnishings and breath new life into them? Think of them as fixer-upper archaeologists: they rescue abandoned tables or discarded chairs, dusting away the neglect and debris before splashing on a new coat of paint or reupholstering them with funky fabrics, giving the furniture a new lease of… well, usage. We spoke to them at their rehab surgery/showroom a.k.a. Like That One.

What’s the first piece of furniture you guys worked on together?

Cheu: The faux bois [false wood] sideboard.

Belle: Our faux bois was very exaggerated and cartoonish. It was bright green and I had painted pretend wood grain on it until it looked like a drawing in a Bugs Bunny cartoon kind of way.

Cheu: It never sold. I took it home after a year and a half and people were later talking about this other faux bois piece that was made in Germany and people were buying it for about €3,900! We made a similar piece and nobody thought it was cool enough to buy it.

What is it about the past that interests you?

Cheu: When I attended college in the U.S., I lived by myself and didn’t have any money to buy anything. So I either dumpster-dived or frequented the thrift store and redid stuff that I thought was cool. And growing up in Singapore, everything’s polished and new and I got tired of that. I wanted an alternative aesthetic.

Belle: Well, I grew up in a home that always consisted of old things, which led to an interest in vintage stuff and antiques. My parents would dumpster-dive for or rescue genuinely antique stuff from the side of the road.

And it was this mutual love for the past that drew you guys together?

Belle: Well, it was because of some crazy girl… her [Cheu’s] roommate was my best friend’s girlfriend.

Cheu: It was at the Tiki party. That was the first time I met Belle.

Belle: So really, we’ve been friends since… 1996. It’s been a long time. I’ve visited Singapore several times prior to moving here because my husband is a professor at NUS. Then, Cheu returned home and we got in touch again.

So, Like That One wouldn’t have existed if the two of you weren’t in Singapore.

Belle: Nobody catered to quality vintage stuff, specifically Singapore-designed furnishings.  And that’s what I like about our store: we don’t cull general vintage stuff from eBay or Craig’s List; we get stuff with a Singaporean flavour. We rescue something from the past in a city that’s all about tearing something down and building something new in its place. Here, people can exclaim, “oh, I used to see this at my aunt’s place,” or “my Grandmother used to own this”.

What do customers usually look for?

Cheu: Customers sometime have a sensory overload from all the stuff in our store. We help curate their viewing experience. Usually, they enter with a piece and want to work it into a décor. We’re not averse to telling them to get something from Ikea to compliment their overall look.

Belle: I think expats want something that represents that they have lived in Singapore for a while. Usually along the lines of something from China that's made to look vaguely old, but we propose things like a Singaporean 1960s teak sofa with low seating; Singaporean furniture and not some general pan-Asian thing or a Chinese import.

Sounds like you read up a lot on furniture styles in Singapore.

Cheu: The vintage furniture you see in stores is actually made in places like Thailand. If you have an interest in old Singaporean furniture, you look it up in old magazines and photos, local ads and newspapers that were in style at that time. There isn’t an authoritative guide to refer to. We also talked to local carpenters.

Belle: I’m fascinated by old photos from Singaporean families, from their attire to the furniture they had in their homes. In a new HDB flat in those days, grandma would have had that one quality set of pearls and some new custom-made furniture. Singaporean families didn’t go to showrooms to buy their furniture; they went to carpenters to have items specifically made for them. Singapore has its own interesting mix and style of furniture. When I see certain lines or curves, I can tell when the item was made.

Is it hard parting with the things you create?

Belle: That’s the thing about this business. We get to shop and re-envision furniture without having to keep it.

Cheu: We get to make stuff and that’s all we ask for.

Like That One is located at Skytech, #01-02, 2 Bukit Batok Street 24. Their hours are Wed – Sun (11am to 5pm).