Purchasing a home in Singapore is an exciting new chapter for you and your family. But, if you are not careful about your home renovation ideas, it could end up being the most stressful chapter of your life! You may also find that you run into some unexpected expenses along the way. So, what can be done to make this process go smoothly? Here are some home renovation tips and tricks for first-timers in Singapore!
10 Steps to Complete a Successful Home Renovation
Step 1: Choosing an interior design and style
Choosing an interior design style is a terrific approach to get your renovation project started. If you don’t know where to begin, Pinterest is a great place to look for ideas. You can do a broad search for popular house interior ideas, or you can start with our Pinterest inspiration board, which features a variety of beautiful interior designs. Pin the ones you like to your board. When you hire a professional, you can show them your Pinterest board so they can have a good concept of how you want your area to look.
Sharing some inspiration, the minimalist style is becoming increasingly trendy. Think clean, modern lines and simplicity if you want to follow the “less is more” philosophy. The lack of clutter is attractive to the eye and aids in mental relaxation.
Another popular interior design style is Scandinavian minimalist, which combines the clean lines and elegance of minimalism with the warmth of pastel hues, natural light, and wood or other organic components.
If you want to mimic the sophisticated ambiance of a luxury hotel, modern luxe is catching on. In current luxury residences, black marble, white marble, and gold are frequently used. Add a cowhide rug for an extra sense of luxury.
Step 2: Calculate your home renovation budget
Now that you’ve decided on an interior design style for your home, the next step is to figure out how much it’ll cost to make your idea a reality. When it comes to budgeting, there are a few things to think about:
- Fees charged by an interior designer or a contractor
- Size of the house
- Type of residence (HDB, condominium, or landed house)
- Furniture, appliances, and materials types
- Costs of relocation
- Allow for unexpected costs or modifications at the last minute.
To acquire a budget estimate for your Singapore home renovation project, utilize Qanvast’s handy renovation calculator, which uses expenses from $20 million in previous home renovation contracts. Either that, or go with the tried-and-true method of selecting a sample style from your Pinterest board or anywhere else online and sending it to interior designers and contractors with a request for a price.
A four-room HDB BTO home renovation costs roughly S$50,000–S$60,000 on average, while an EC home renovation costs around S$20,000.
Furniture and appliances cost between S$20,000 and S$30,000 on average. Add in professional movers, electricians, and cleaning professionals, as well as other incidental costs, then add it all up and budget for an extra 15-20 percent of the entire cost as a contingency reserve. If you are not on budget, you can gradually eliminate non-essentials once your budget is in place.
Step 3: Should you choose an Interior Designer or a Contractor?
When it comes to upgrading your home, one of the most difficult tasks is balancing the costs of what you want, what you need, and what your budget permits. Although hiring an interior designer is more expensive than hiring a contractor, there are some situations where you may not need one. Let’s start with an overview of the functions of an interior designer and a contractor:
Interior Designer
Your interior designer is essentially a project manager who will oversee your home remodel from concept to completion. The job of these experts is to come up with design concepts depending on your selected style. It could take the shape of sketches, 3D drawings, or renderings to help you visualize the eventual result more clearly. In addition, aninterior designer will oversee and manage your remodeling, as well as establish and oversee your timeline, source goods and compile a buying guide, and coordinate with contractors.
Contractor
You must be explicit with your expectations because a contractor is someone who can carry out what you need. Working directly with a contractor may make sense if you are doing a very minimal or simple refurbishment (for example, ECs come with a fully equipped kitchen and bathrooms). If you have interior design skills, a contractor may be all you need to make your ideal home a reality.
Step 4: Manage your Timeline
Your project’s backbone is your timeline. If you’re engaging a contractor, like we were, it’s vital to work out a timeline jointly. This way, you may change your expectations and work around each other’s schedules to arrive at a reasonable completion date that allows for great work. If you hire an interior designer, they will be able to assist you in managing your timeline and coordinating with vendors.
What milestones you want to include in your timeline is up to you and your hired pros to decide. It might be a weekly site visit to assess progress.
Step 5: Bring life to your walls with special effects painting
A proper color palette will be required depending on your house interior design to complement and complete the overall look. We advise speaking with professionals and seeking their guidance. The Colour My World 2019 catalogue from Nippon Paint was a lifesaver for us. When viewing the PDF online, go to pages 14-17 to see the color palette for a variety of popular interior designs, including Minimalist, Scandinavian interior design, Urban Modern, Rustic, Industrial, and more.
Step 6: Here’s the exciting part: Furnishing your dream home!
Here’s where you can show off your unique sense of style! And where you’ll most likely be visiting a slew of retailers in search of the ideal furniture components for your dream home. It might be a fun experience with your partner, but it’s also likely to be exhausting.
Step 7: Choosing your electronics and appliances
Now that you’ve completed the majority of the interior decorating, it’s time to add electronics and appliances to round out your space. The enormous array of possibilities available on the market may make it difficult to choose the items you require. Consider the following two factors to help you limit down your options:
Size of your space
The lovely two-door refrigerator may appear to be the ideal display piece for your kitchen, but will it fit in your apartment? Because most Singapore residences have limited room, take measurements before buying electronics and appliances. Multipurpose appliances, such as a washing and dryer, also save a lot of room.
Budget
Because electronics and appliances may add up quickly, sticking to your budget is critical. Megastores such as Courts, Harvey Norman, Best Denki, and Gain City are worth a look. They frequently provide home package packages that will save you money. Courts provided us with a wonderful home package discount when we purchased our refrigerator and washing dryer. These stores also price match, so spend some time looking for the best deals at numerous outlets and on their websites.
Looking for highly recomended top interior designers in Blk 48 Tanglin Halt Road Singapore?
Obbio Concept pte ltd is the perfect interior design company for Singaporean residents who are looking to renovate their homes at a low, affordable price yet quality interior design services. ObbioConcept can help you with any renovations you need and offers services such as: reducing snags during renovation residential and commercial projects, decreasing cost of the project by your needs, shortening schedules from 10 months down to 4-6 weeks or less than 5 days in some cases!.
Obbio Concept as interior design company focus is quality work within planned budgets that increase both cost performance and accelerate delivery times. Obbio Concept offer everything for an efficient home improvement experience including strategy planning – budgeting options based upon specific needs. Call us now for a free consultation, and let’s talk about your design needs.