A Fashionable Life: Inside Arissa Ha’s Quirky Smart Home
A beauty editor who’s just as passionate about tech, Ha’s apartment shows that a smart home involves more than the newest appliances.
By Nicole Ng - published
As it turns out, Harper’s BAZAAR Singapore’s Senior Beauty Editor Arissa Ha is really a Tumblr girl who’s all grown up. Certain parts of her home look straight out of the platform’s feed from the 2010s—a plaster bust sporting a skull-printed Alexander McQueen scarf here, a slouchy Rick Owens jacket that was a staple of off-duty models there—all unintentional, she intimates. Yet, other features in the 118sqm home in the Lavender area that she shares with her husband, Wong Wai Liong, and her cat, Cookie, reveal other aspects of her identity and aesthetic preferences.
The couple bought the recessed area from the Housing Development Board and transformed the space into a larger entrance way.
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Take for example the splashes of Klein blue that have become a signature not only in her home but also on the homepage of her Instagram, @northbridgenook. The grunge movement in the 2010s wasn’t just a phase for Ha, who sports a sharp, blunt bob and a wardrobe full of blacks and leather; but she maintains a love for this shade of blue. “I have always gravitated towards Klein blue because it’s so fascinating, like, how do you patent a colour?” She muses over a video call. “It’s a synthetic colour that was new and revolutionary in its time, and I really like that it stands out against the black, white and silver in the house.”
A custom-made parcel drop area for deliveries.
Compared to their previous built-to-order apartment in Toa Payoh, which had a heavier industrial feel with darker tones, concrete and wood, their new home, completed in June this year, is brighter, and has plenty of custom features that better suit their needs. A lot of planning, time and effort went into achieving this, as well as help from their interior designer Ruby Chong and her circle of friends in the home improvement community.
The glass dividing wall does double duty as display shelf for Arissa Ha’s and her husband’s treasures
First, a rejigging of the space had to happen: part of the living room that was by the front door was turned into Ha’s studio; the bedroom made way for the living room, and other parts of the house were reconfigured to fit a walk-in wardrobe—a non-negotiable for her.
Ha’s bag collection in her walk-in wardrobe.
The walk-in wardrobe is home to the piece de resistance of the space: a curved glass wall that faces the living room. The wall was a result of multiple sources of inspiration, including the old Tampines library, where young Ha spent a lot of her time; and a changing room in Melbourne. But it was the latter that gave her the idea of incorporating storage. “I was searching on Xiaohongshu for inspiration and I came across this picture of a boutique in Melbourne, which had a round glass block changing room, and they had these stainless steel shelves outside,” she recalls. “I never thought of glass walls with actual storage before, so it was an interesting design feature I wanted in my house.”
The result: a glass wall flanked with shelves on both sides. Embedded in the grout between the glass tiles are two thin stainless steel shelves that are extended to run along the length of the house. On it are some of Ha’s treasures, like a pair of Dsquared2 skate heels bought in Amsterdam before her last flight as an air stewardess for Singapore Airlines; the Atacoma wedges from Acne Studios, and a “melting” disco ball. The other side of the wall is a stainless steel shelf custom-made to fit the curve of the wall, and displays her love for fashion—bags like the Chanel 22 and the Givenchy Antigona.
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A coffee station sits near the kitchen, where the stainless steel shelves end.
Making the wall happen was no easy feat due to shipping delays for the glass blocks and having to get someone to calculate the curvature for the shelves to be inserted; but it was well worth it. “It’s a lot of pain and money, but I really like how it turned out.”
Ha in her studio with her cat, Cookie.
On a regular day, you’d find her in her studio, a cosy space fitted with a ledge with a folding door, a work desk, an oversized overhead lamp that doubles as a softbox light and a custom-made storage unit complete with a detachable rolling table she uses to film content. Ha designed the drawer to organise all the newest beauty releases she gets. “I showed the Taobao vendor a design I did on SketchUp, and we figured out the measurements to fit.”
Ha looking into her husband’s study through the porthole window.
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Across a nook with a window—carved out to allow more natural light into the corridor—is her husband’s workspace. A porthole overlooks the corridor, and a large glass cabinet houses an army of prize-winning Warhammer 40,000 figurines he’d assembled and painted for over 20 years.
Ha finds the contrasts in their interests intriguing, and so do their guests. “When his friends come to our home, they would gush over these things that they don’t usually see. Like a strait-laced guy who works in a bank would never see something like these,” she shares, gesturing to the sculptural Dsquared2 heels. Turning to the figurines, she adds: “Conversely when my friends come over, they find my husband’s hobbies super interesting.”
A lava lamp from Retro Thinc.
Ha is also BAZAAR’s resident tech head, and writes product reviews for harpersbazaar.com.sg, thus it’s no surprise her home is filled with the coolest gadgets. Among her top picks for appliances are the LG Styler—a steam closet to refresh her most prized fashion buys, without the need for a dry cleaner—and power strips from Nexen with detachable sliding power sockets units.
Creating a smart home goes beyond possessing the latest finds. “You shouldn’t limit yourself to just appliances or plugs or light bulbs; it should extend to material selection too,” Ha advises. Her devices, including ones as large as dual dishwashers, a camera dry box and a robotic cleaner, are stowed behind soft-closing doors covered in matte laminate that is fingerprint and oil stain-proof. The kitchen counter uses a nanotechnology material that has a self-healing effect in the event of scratches.
A custom-made planter embossed with specially designed “Nook” logo that was created for her home.
It’s one thing to make a house a home, and another to develop a living space this extensively to accommodate your needs, but Ha has achieved both with a spark of imagination, and a bit of tech magic.
Art direction: Sheryl Seah
Photographer: Mitchell Vong
Styling: Gracia Phang
Hair: Grego using Keune Haircosmetics
Makeup: Rina Sim using Dior Beauty
Photographer’s assistant: Kiong Wei Zhong