Step through the front door and the most noticeable thing about this apartment is how opulent it is. There is texture and high gloss everywhere, coming together to create a space that is rich and dramatic. Conceptualised by DM Interior Design, The Interlace Penthouse is a sensorial experience up in the sky.

The direction was deliberate. The owner had requested a luxurious home that would accommodate his family of four across the two-storey, 3,800sqft apartment. He also wanted a darker colour palette, which explains the lashings of dove-grey and chocolate-brown liberally applied throughout.

Although it is a penthouse situated on levels 12 and 13 of one of the blocks in The Interlace condominium, all of the renovation was centred on the lower floor, where the living areas are. The upper storey is a entirely made up of a rooftop terrace.

Wang Linfeng, DM Interior Design’s Managing Director, opted to gut the entire space on the 12th floor, retaining only the parquet flooring and most of the walls of the three bedrooms. “It was easier this way,” he admits. “It would have been too challenging to modify the original apartment to suit the brief.”

He saw to the expansion of the master bedroom so as to accommodate a walk-in wardrobe and dressing area. The corridor was also cleverly modified to create nooks and crannies where each have their own functions. But his design skills is most evident in the way he dressed up the apartment for that high-end feel.

The most obvious manifestation of this is in the public areas. Running the length of the dining area is a 2.8m feature wall made up of three slabs of book-matched Italian marble. Let the imagination take flight and this could be a piece of contemporary Chinese ink painting or a wall in a precious stone mine.

Reflecting the wall is a recessed ceiling above the dining table, covered with a piece of stainless steel textured to look like a lake on breezy, sunny day. Completing this triptych is a pendant light, made of pieces of crystal, that when turned on, brilliantly shimmers off both surfaces.

Cross over to the living room and the recessed ceiling there has a different effect, this time of silvery clouds created using corrugated metal panels. Underfoot, large-format, Italian-marble tiles complete the luxe look, a complement to the L-shaped sofa.

Just as unmistakable is an aquarium set in the background, positioned between storage cabinets that have piano-gloss doors. “Because the owner believes in feng shui, we were careful to introduce all the elements into the social areas, where they spend most of their time,” explains Wang.

A long, three-part corridor connects to the bedrooms and a powder room in the rear of the apartment. Several of its walls have a fluted panelling covered in a laminated wood polymer composite (commonly referred to as WPC) that contrasts against the smooth walls.

At the end of the first part of the corridor is a full-height, built-in display shelf backed by a piece of Alabaster stone. It is barely noticeable until it is lit up – glowing ethereally as a backdrop against the rows of artefacts on show.

Adjacent to this is the master bedroom, which also contains a sizable walk-in wardrobe. The bedhead has a stunning midnight-blue velvet covering, framed by gold. Inspired by the facets of a diamond, it has diagonal lines on the sides cutting through it.

In the second part of the corridor, a cosy corner has been carved out, complete with a high-tech massage chair and another recessed ceiling. The latter, in this case, is plastered then perforated to allow pinpricks of LED lights to shine through – evocative of being under a starry night sky.

“It is always challenging to design apartments with long corridors. In this case, because it was a bit wider, we seized the opportunity to turn it into a functional space as well,” adds Wang.

The two remaining bedrooms are set side-by-side along the final section of the corridor. One for each of the owner’s two children, they are contrasting in their styles, since it is for a boy and a girl.

The owner’s infant daughter can expect pure delight as she grows into her pink-and-white room, what with a slide attached to her custom-made bunk bed. On the recessed ceiling, white pinpricks of LED lights once again shine down, sparkling like stars.

The owner’s son, who is of primary-school age, has a room that every young boy will be happy to stay in. Taking cues from the gaming world, Wang had bold, straight lines cut into the built-in furniture and back-lit with any colour preferred. They can even pulse and flash if there are ever plans to have an in-room party.

Outside the living room, a generously sized deck runs the length of the apartment. Wang introduced a reflection pool under the spiral staircase that leads to the rooftop terrace. Climb it and unmistakable are the glass cubes that cover small solar powered outdoor lights dotting every few steps.

From the upper floor, there are 360-degree views of the neighbourhood. The architecture of The Interlace, by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, is on full display, as is the uninterrupted canopy of Labrador Nature Reserve in the distance.

While Wang was not involved in the design of this area, he did take it into consideration as he conceptualised the lower floor, “I knew that the owner had these contrasting views to enjoy. I therefore made sure that what I came up with was a type of interstitial and liveable space, even as it is grandiose. I think he appreciates it.”