The living and dinning room.

 

I made the bold move to paint the door dark blue. I quite like the contrast with the woods.

 

 

 

 

 The Kitchen. My favourite part of the house!

 

This is the final veneer I have chosen for the kitchen. After using it for a month or so now... I think I have to say that while I like the look of veneer it is not a suitable material for the kitchen if you are a heavy user. It gets scratched very easily and I think its too 'fragile'. Next kitchen I will go for laminate.

 

I decided on granite as my table top material purely based on price. Otherwise I would have gone for ceasarstone for sure. But it would have cost twice the price so I took up the granite as I didn't like the corian tops.

So the Verdict - while it looks great... its also a delicate piece of material. I don't dare to let water sit on it for too long for fear that it might damage the top. Oil spills and other sauces must be wipe off immediately or at least not allowed to stand for long. With means its a pain in the *** for the kitchen! I won't use it again.

 

I have boxed up all my pipes above the cabinets. In retropsective - perhaps I should have turned them into storage space instead for practical reason but I did that for aesthetics. This just look better lah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The masterbedroom bedroom. I hacked on more room to include our study and wardrobe into my bedroom.

 

 

From the entrance. Left is the study/wardrobe, straight is bedroom, right is bathroom. 

 

Perspective from the study

 

 

 

This the my 4m build-in wardrobe. You can say i max out storage potential on this one :)

 

 

We have got our study tables opposite the wardrobe, below the a/c facing the wall.

 

I have a lot of hanging space and not enough drawers :( we have to supplement with another drawer in the bedroom.

 

One tip on drawers - chose the open drawer (the first drawer below) and not the totally close ones as those were harder to open. My contractor advised me to take the open drawers but I didn't listen to him :(

 

 

 

 

Some say its bad fengshui to place a lamp above your bed. While I am not superstitious I do think the lamp might be too big for the room. Oh well... will do better next time!

 

 

The spare room. Simple.

 

 

 

 

I used larger parquet for the living and smaller for the bedrooms for cost savings. I have to say the larger parguet makes a difference in the living area. If I have used the smaller peices it wouldn't looks as nice.

 

The common toilet

 

 

Remember I overlaid new floor tiles with cement after I hated the look of it? haha i quite like the floor now.

 

 

 I changed the toilet windows for asthetic reasons. Actually the old one works too but I was just vain. Haha. must apply permit to change but approval is fast. SOP.

 

 

I like th piping work. Its quite neat. 

 

 

Remember the sofa that I wanted? it turned out to be quite close but not exactly to what I want. However I am happy with it. And JJ the young owner is very responsible so I am pleased with their service. I have since requested him to do an ottoman to complement the sofa. haha yes I probably should have ordered a L-shape sofa in the first place but I didn't want it out of aesthetic purpose but realised now that watching TV is just not shiok without the leg raiser :)

 

the design inspiration

 

the end product

The master toilet

 

There are only a few things that I really regretted in this reno. Unfortunately this toilet alone has 2 mistakes - the laminate choice and the door.

 

The contractor initial advise glass door but i wanted to save $400 (why??????) and went for white laminate. DISASTER. The lock was not very well-constructed too.

 

 

 The laminate Screams U-G-L-Y. BUt nothing I can do liao. THe granite top (same as kitchen) works ok.

 

 

AFter my common toilet experience I changed the tiles to be the same as my kitchen tiles as I have already seen it and like it. I took some effort from the tiler to lay the large tiles in the small toilet but they were skillful to make sure that the floor is slightly slopped towards the drainage system to facilitate water flow, which is something I learnt from the tiler when TCSS with them on inspection. 

The bathroom looke really messy as I cannot conceal the a/c pipes above and below. No choice. Must earn more money to stay in condo next time kekeke.

 

Now come the furnishing, or at least... whatever we have for now. Still in need of a proper coffee table and hang up the paintings! The balcony could also do with a breakfast table. But I am in dilemma to preserve my view or to make the space more usable :)

 

Sorry for the mess :)

 

The living area.

 

 

I love the lamp. It looks better at night.

 

 

 

 Picket and Rails SUCKs. I ordered the chairs since last Sept during the Deepavali promotion - they have since deliver the chairs wrongly THREE TIMES. I ordered 4 white Eames and 2 yellow with steel legs and in fibreglass. They have only managed to deliver the yellow ones recently. So we are still on loan with the black ones. 

 

That's my dog - he is sooo cute haha. Guess his breed? he is a mix.

Now the kitchen. Neat kitchens are for people who don't cook. haha

 

 

I don't have enough work area so I added another steel table from IKEA.  The backsplash is also stainless steel. While it looks great - also pain to maintain. you must not mind the scratches on it (INEVITABLE).

 

 

 Just wanna show the contrast between the living and kitchen floor.

I am allegic to dust so we decided to hang blinds instead of curtains, though the latter looks much better.

After almost 1 month os sleeping without blinds (!!!) I finally got my act together and found 11novemeber. I read reviews on them at renotalk and decided to contact them as I was inpressed with their website and I cannot be asked to walk around town just to find the cheapers vendor.
The owners were very friendly; they came to my place to make the measurement and some materials for me to choose. SInce I want black-out materials there wasnt much choice.  In 1 hour we were done. I made blinds for my masterbedroom (1 large and 1 small for the windows) and guestroom (another large one) for under $800. They delivered in 3 weeks. Good workmanship.

 

 

Guestroom

Forgot to highlight the other mistake which is the folding toilet doors at the kitchen. When I saw it I was shocked - there was a hole in the door! I thought there is no lock for folding doors? just the lock from inside which is not visble from outside??! plus the finish is really poor on the door.

 

I expect just this lock. (see the finish on the edges are so bad, like a tape running thru it)

 

Not expecting to see the lock on the left... grrr

Some final notes:

 

The total damage for this reno was about $50k excluding furnishing and fittings but including the build-in works (kitchen, shoe carbinet and wardrobe). At the start of the journey I didn't know what exactly is the style I am looking for but I know it will be along the line of mid century modern and scandinavian influence. I spent many hours on the internet combing design ideas, managing the reno process (not much) and making sure that we were within the budget (very much).

 

Communicate! communicate! communicate with your contractor. Dun assume the standards. Try to have some proof of instruction either via email or sms to mitigate conflicts.

 

Try to avoid matt white laminate - it gets dirty easily :( Gloss one should be ok.

 

Parquet floor rocks! This was an investment worth its money.

 

Avoid verneer for kitchen. However I think liebingsg veneer kitchen in TBR is glossy (i.e. laminated over) and that should be less fragile than mine.

 

Invest in Blum and a dishwasher.

 

Try to connect hot water to the kitchen. It makes the dishes much cleaner. I can't connect mine for some reason and the contractor suggested a small heater below the sink which I declined. In retrospect I should get it cos apparent there are people that actually install them (my colleague's mum haha) But i have the dishwasher so its not so bad.

 

Below are some of my favourite inspiration website:

 

My kitchen inspiration is from:

 

If you are into wallpaper:(I love them... but they just dun fit into the design of my house)

 

Furniture:

 

Magazine:

http://www.habitusliving.com/magazine - this is a great mag but I dun see it in most places except at Holland V.

 

I hope you enjoy my tips and good luck to your reno!

Thanks Danielko.

The sofa was made by http://kmtradingamk.blogspot.com/

 

Such sofa generally cost $2k+. Mine was more than 2.5k becos my specs were more exp - stainless steel legs, begium fabric and high density foam.

 

If you choose wooden legs and normal density foam will cost a few hundreds lesser.