Chapter 2: Engaging the Pro

With our “good” sense of taste and busy lifestyle, we knew that we could not do the renovation ourselves.

So the next step of our journey bought us to the professionals: The interior designers.

Searching the web and a walk along Balestier Road revealed a dozen of interior design studios.

Just a word of advice: when you go to the design studio, make sure you have your floor plan ready. You can order it from HDB’s website.

Since we want to limit our spending, we decided that we would ask the designer to revamp our living room, master room and the master toilet.
We would go for IKEA and trust our design instinct for both the common rooms.

We went for 3 studios to compare price:

Project I
- Cost: $18,500
- Relatively small studio but there is always customers
- Workshop is in Malaysia
- Craftsman and labor are from Malaysia
- Designer is very familiar with HDB rules and has a good portfolio for you to choose your preference
- Payment term is: 15%-40%-40%-5%
- Very educational in terms of all the HDB-No-No. And the comprehensive portfolio could give you many hints on how to renovate the house

Square Room
- Cost: $15,000
- Med size studio but it is always empty
- NOTE: Although it shares the same name as the popular SQUAREROOM magazine, they are not related
- Workshop and labor are both in Singapore
- The designer is OK but offer not much impressive information
- The portfolio is OK
- Payment term is: 15%-40%-40%-5%
- The only studio that absorbs the 7% GST

ARTREND DESIGN
- Cost: $17,000
- Large Studio and there is always customers
- 25 years in business
- Workshop and labor are both in Singapore
- The designer is very enthusiastic and keen to make sketches even before 1st payment
- The portfolio is OK
- Payment term is: 10%-40%-45%-5%
- 敏 got blown off the moment the designer shown her the 3D concept sketch

As many of you who might have guessed from the last statement, we picked Artrend and proceed to a more detailed price negotiation.

Eventually the price comes down to $10,000 + 2,000 for wiring and polishing.

With that settled, the next phase of our journey brought us to the favorite activity shared by many women: Shopping.
- Sofa
- Coffee Table
- Dining Table
- Lighting
- Bed Frame
- 1 x Shower Head

LIVING ROOM DESIGN


MASTER BED ROOM DESIGN