Terence Cao Gives 60-Year-Old Childhood Home a Modern Makeover, Shocked He Lost a Room
Local actor and live-commerce entrepreneur Terence Cao has offered fans a tour of his newly transformed childhood home. The 58-year-old gave his interior design team total creative freedom to overhaul the nearly 60-year-old apartment, but he was caught completely off guard when he walked through the front door and realized one of the bedrooms was gone.
When Terence handed over his keys to senior interior designer Nigel Lim from Saege, his brief was minimal. He simply requested that the final result be functional and instructed the team not to consult him until the project was completed. The designers aimed to make stepping into the property feel like escaping into an entirely different environment, using an industrial-inspired aesthetic with stainless steel accents, raw textures, and pops of red and orange.
Working with an apartment nearly six decades old presented significant structural challenges. The design team had to navigate awkward ceiling beams and exposed piping runs spanning the main living area and kitchen. To smooth out the transitions between rooms without sacrificing structural integrity, they introduced curved false ceilings, partition walls, and retro white ventilation tiles to lend character to the layout.
The decision to hack down a bedroom wall created space for an expanded dining area featuring a Italian black granite island, which Terence noted resembles a wild horse running through clouds. The actor, who founded his own live commerce platform, noted that the island will double as a functional set where he can host food shows, record podcasts, and run livestreams.
Other custom features in the flat include a converted balcony that now houses the main kitchen, a bathroom lined with red terracotta tiles and gunmetal fixtures, and a hidden bedroom door clad in a stainless steel laminate to seamlessly match the surrounding industrial walls. Despite losing a room, Terence expressed delight with the radical redesign, calling the island centerpiece his favorite aspect of the entire transformation.
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