Macho, Macho Mien

A STRICT, "No floral motifs" decree does not necessarily mean your home will look masculine. But couple this with dark timber panelling on the ceiling, a Mad Men-worthy Eames lounge chair and ample animal skin accents, such as a cow skin rug and pony skin cushion covers - and you will inevitably end up with a home that almost oozes testosterone. And so it is with the home of Steve Tan, 43, an executive with a local data services company.

One only needs to look at Mr Tan, a former triathlon competitor, to see where the macho mien for his new home in Laguna Park in the East Coast comes from. Like the musculature of his chunky Eames lounge chair designed in 1956 for Herman Miller, Mr Tan is a big guy who probably needs tough furniture to support his solid frame.

So apart from the lounge chair, there are equally high performance engineered dining chairs of construction-grade steel designed in 1976 by Michel Cadestin and Georges Laurent for the Pompidou Centre in Paris to bear the load.