AS an interior designer, Elizabeth Acland shapes the way her clients live. "They come with a brief of how they want their home to look, and I make it a reality," says Ms Acland,

co-founder of E & A Interiors. But when it came to her own home, she was almost at a loss. "It was more difficult. I had so many ideas, I had access to everything you need to do up a home - it was much tougher to pick what I wanted." In the end, she opted for an eclectic look for the two-storey conservation home in Emerald Hill, where she lives with her fund manager fiance Timothy Hay. "The look is a mix of old and new, which is befitting of the house itself," she says. "Its location is right smack in the middle of Orchard Road, and yet the home retains its old charm."

The couple moved to Singapore last year, when Mr Hay found a job here. Like most expatriate couples, they went house-hunting, viewing apartments and shophouses. "We visited a friend who stayed in a shophouse, and fell in love with the idea of doing the same. So we picked this over living in an apartment," says Ms Acland. "But had we moved into an apartment, the look of it would definitely be more modern." Their conservation home had been left empty for a while, but the couple saw the potential in it. "I loved the high ceiling, which makes the house feel cooler."