So who says there's a slowdown? Tell that to interior designer Lillian Cher, who has her diary booked with appointments for new and existing projects until May. 'I still have clients who have invested in property who want them done up either for themselves or for sale,' says the fashion boutique manager who accidentally discovered her forte in design just three years ago.

From managing boutiques like Skin Couture, Ms Cher is now managing the design work of private residences and even commercial outlets like the Manchester United bar.

It all started when friends loved what she did to her Cote D'Azur condominium unit a few years ago. 'It was one of the places where I could really decorate to my style,' says the fashionista who is in her 30s. They started getting her to help in projects, to the point where she thought she might as well make a business out of it and set up Area Infinity, an interior design company.

Part of what fuels her passion is designing her own residences, and in 2007, she and her husband Nicholas Goh, who works in the financial industry, bought a house in Mountbatten Road which now also doubles as a showcase for her design work.

'I'd always been eyeing the houses in that neighbourhood, to the extent that I had agents cold-calling up the residents to find out if they were willing to sell,' she recounts.

Her agent managed to find a willing seller one day, for a bungalow built in the early '80s. In fact, because the house hadn't been occupied for a while, Ms Cher remembers wondering if it was haunted! As it turned out, the owner had just bought it as an investment, and hadn't really bothered to rent it out.

'We made an offer that he was happy with, and he sold,' she says. The bungalow turned out to be the ideal drawing board for Ms Cher's design flair, which is more 'fashion-oriented' and on the opposite side of minimalism in the style spectrum.

The property's unique architectural element is the 'bridge' linking two squarish buildings, with a pool in between. Because the original house hadn't been lived in for a while, there were extensive renovations to be done, says Ms Cher.

But not wanting to change the structure because it would have required building approvals, she decided to give it more of a cosmetic rather than a structural makeover. Despite the seemingly extreme makeover, renovations took only four months, as the main work had to do with breaking down the walls and replacing them with glass so that the bungalow was practically turned into two glass buildings.

Another unique feature is that both glass 'cubes' have square attic-like rooms at the top - like a smaller box stacked on top of a big one. The cuboid glass tops are the first things to catch your eye if you're driving by - especially with the large balls of lights hanging from them, in white and black, and in various sizes.

The glass walls clearly give the house an ethereal, open look, but Ms Cher has made a strong decor statement inside with black and white for the living and reception area (the first house), and continuing with lighter-toned greys and browns for the second building which houses the dining room and open kitchen.

'Use a lot of wallpaper and mirrors if you want to transform the look of a place and to create the illusion of space,' advises Ms Cher, doling out design tips. She freely points out how showrooms look good because of the use of mirrors - she employs several mural sized mirrors herself in her house - while the swanky look comes from the use of wallpaper, patterned floor tiles and carpeting.
For the living room, the masculine effect of the black and white-striped wallpaper is softened by the eclectic mix of rococo as well as modern furniture.

Ms Cher says that her design influences come from fashion - the Fendi sofa is the centrepiece of the dining room-kitchen - and also her travels. A recent trip to South Africa, for example, saw her bringing back a cashmere throw lined with ostrich feathers and bed coverings with faux leopard skin trimming.

'I also love staying in boutique hotels wherever I go,' she says, which explains her penchant for different fabrics and textures in the bedrooms.

Ms Cher's favourite furniture stores here include Space, ModLiving and Platform, and she has a knack for mixing and matching the various looks well. The dining room cum kitchen area was designed around the brown-black striped and monogrammed Fendi sofa and a grey-white Bravo kitchen island, for instance. 'I used the floor tiles to bridge the two groups of colours,' she reveals.

She and her husband both entertain a fair bit, she says, so the house was also designed for that in mind.

Having found her niche in interior design, Ms Cher says that she always makes it clear to her clients what her style is, because it may not be in keeping with their tastes. 'And I always make sure I know whether the client wants a makeover to live in, rent out, or re-sell,' she says.

It's that kind of practical, hard-nosed advice that makes her popular as a designer, one reckons. 'Clients will often ask me to look at the properties they think of investing in, because I'll advise them on the cost of renovations and interior design work and whether it'll be worth their while,' she adds.

Bitten by the design bug now, Ms Cher has influenced her husband to 'invest' in properties. 'What I like most is to redesign residences ... in fact, if someone wants to buy this place, I'd be willing to sell,' she admits. The challenging part was to design it, she points out, and although it's not that she's already tired of the house she's lived in for just over a year, the designer is already thinking of other avant garde features to incorporate into her next house.

This article was first published in The Business Times on Jan 10, 2009.