Eschewing the common practice of modernising the old, film-maker Daniel Yun chose instead to pay tribute to the time his Housing Board flat was built - the 1980s.

The 1,500 sq ft flat in Ang Mo Kio is kitted out with fixtures and fittings from that era.

Inside, old-school highlights include terrazzo floor tiles in the main rooms, ribbed glass for door panels and an earth-and-black mosaic combination for the kitchen and toilet floors.

It took him almost three months to unearth the elements he wanted and he "left no stone unturned".

Yun, 57, who moved into the flat two months ago, says: "It is my way of being faithful to the time. But it's not like you're walking into a time warp. A modern concept would also work, but this is the style that I feel most at home with."

Yun, who grew up in the Thomson-Bishan neighbourhood, has long coveted a unit in the building.

"I would take a longer route to the city just to look at the building. I was attracted to it because of its unique shape and its history. It doesn't look like a typical HDB flat."

Moving in felt like a "homecoming". In the 1970s, when he was in his teens, his family of six moved into a two-room flat in Sin Ming Road - an upgrade for them in what was the early years of public housing.

He lived in a corner terrace house in Thomson Hill for 12 years, then moved into a rented condominium in Sin Ming for another three years, before buying this flat.