The last time we renovated a place was when we got our first resale flat in 2004. We hired a contractor and designed the toilets (we ended up with very nice toilets in our flat), then added some build-ins in the Master bedroom. As my in laws stayed with us, and due to a tight budget, I could only renovate the Master bedroom and toilet.
We recently purchased an old apartment in an area that both my hb and I liked (this property has been built 32 years ago in 1985!). Newer properties in this same area are about $600 – $800 more in price per-square-feet. Having stayed in private apartments previously and staying in a rental right now, we realise that a beautiful landscape and nice amenities is not enough to convince us to fork out a premium on a newer property. Another concern we had over newer properties was the space, or the lack thereof. One has to be prepared that the kitchen layouts will be tiny, living and bedrooms are smaller.
The downside to getting an older property is that more work is needed to re-furbish the interior of the home. However this was an exciting endeavour to undertake, since this opportunity would allow me to decide how I wanted this new home to look like.
Thus getting a good interior designer to work with is pivotal, to put ideas on paper and to implement ideas as painless as possible.
My Experience Selecting an Interior Designer
1. Do the research
I shortlisted the interior design companies by looking through local home interior magazines like Home and Decor, Square Rooms, and online sites like Qanvast, Renopedia, Renotalk etc.
From there, I was able to see what I think I could consider for the new home, browse the current design trends adopted by other home owners.
Some trends I spotted were retro style (Peranakan tiles, 60-70 memorabilia and furnishings, SMEG appliances etc), Industrial style (more hardware, metal, stainless steel, red brick walls), Minimalism (Japanese, Scandinavian style of furnishings).
The less common styles were eclectic (a mishmash of concepts under one roof, one of the more challenging styles to adopt as the owner or interior designer needs a keen eye on how to bring everything together seamlessly) and lux (expensive and luxurious furnishings mostly adopted by home owners with larger homes like landed property or Good Class Bungalows)
2. Get in touch with the interior design firm
I got in touch with the Interior Design companies when hb and I met the lawyers and started the purchase process for the home. It took about 6-8 weeks for the buying process to be completed and for the collection of the keys to the home.
We got a copy of the floor plan from the housing agent of the buyer, as it is useful to refer to a floor plan during layout discussions with the interior designer, even if the home has gone through many owners and many rounds of renovation.
3. First impressions do count
I only shortlisted two interior design firms; Three-D-Conceptwerke and Eighty-Two. Looking through their portfolio through features in the home interior magazines and their website, I thought these two companies had the best fit to my design preferences.
I liked how Three-D-Conceptwerke was able to adopt unique concepts that was not run-of-the-mill, as their homes reflected the personalities of the owners. While Eighty-Two was on the other side of the spectrum, as minimalism was their forte. I could not decide if I wanted a house with personality, or one that was clean and minimalistic, yet stylish.
I sent both companies the floor plan, existing photos of the home and a budget of how much hb and I planned to set aside for renovation.
Jack, the senior designer of Three-D-Conceptwerke was prompt and got back to me quickly through my email enquiry, and fixed up an appointment at a coffee place in the vicinity of my new home. Jack made a positive impression the first time we met, with his friendly and unassuming personality. He made an effort to print out the floor plans and pictures for discussion and showed positive energy and enthusiasm while the shared on the possible concepts that I hope to create with the home.
He shared many inputs and his creative ideas at our meeting and made a remark that made sense to me, “We want the home to age well with the owner, one that will not go out of trend over time. A timeless style is something we hope to achieve.”
While the people at Eight-two did not make a positive impression from the start. They took a while to get back to me, and despite the request to meet someplace closer to where I was, Terence, the designer, reply was, “We usually meet clients at our office for the first meeting”. I made my way to his office at East Coast, waited for him for 30mins before he turned up.
For that 30 mins, I sat 1 metre away from his colleagues at their work tables, listened to their gossip and discussion where they wanted to go for lunch. This gave me glimpse to what to expect if I planned to work with this company.
Where is the punctuality? And should it be common sense that they should avoid inviting the client to their office if they don’t even have a proper area to host them…😳
I decided to reserve my judgement on the company or the designer till the discussion ended. The discussion was disappointing, I expected more creative inputs from him, but all I got was ideas of wanted to shift rooms around, when I communicated my preference of where I wanted the Master bedroom and K’s room to be. His cynicism and ‘jaded-ness’ shone through while I interacted with him. After a while, I started to get rather irritated with the comments that he made.
When I shared, “I like to consider minimalism, but I am not sure at this point,” His response was “We specialised in Minimalistic style and we should be able to work with your budget.” That got me thinking, so if I decide to change my mind and not go with minimalism, you might not be able to do it?
The conclusion that I ended up with was that Eighty-Two could only do minimalistic styles well, and I wasn’t confident at all in their company to add on personality to a home, which they didn’t seem to be interested to find out more from their client. And I question why I should be paying for something minimalistic when I can just hire a contractor to help me execute minimalistic ideas.
I didn’t even wait for Eighty-Two to present the top-line ideas 2 weeks after, I called them 2 days after our meeting to let them know I have decided to go with another Interior Design company.
4. Be decisive and know what you want to achieve
It was easy to decide which company I went with in the end, as I didn’t want to waste time comparing quotes or confuse it further with any indecisiveness. For me, it’s as simple as, what ideas can you share and are you able to deliver these things as we discussed within the budget?
5. Be realistic on timelines
Once I decided on the Interior Design Company to go with, there was another 1-2 subsequent meetings for the Jack from Three-D-Conceptwerke to come back with a more concrete design plan, which included a revised floorplan and a detailed price quote.
When hb and I approved the revised layout of the floorplan, Jack presented 3D layouts of how specific areas of the home will look like. Once we approved this, he started to source for tile and flooring samples, a as well as material samples for build-in carpentry and we further discuss on the timelines.
Right after that meeting, Jack submitted the renovation work plans to the Management Agent (if this is a private property) or to HDB (for HDB flats). There was another 5-7 days before we got the approval from the building management to start renovation works.
Depending on the scale of the renovation works, I think 2-3 months should be a comfortable timeline to work with as it is always good to give the Interior Designer ample time to work with.
Next post on The New Home – Design Concepts
Thanks for sharing some great ideas. I’ve hired a very experienced interior designer last year and she designed our house nicely and saved a lot of money.
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You have shared 5 ideas that’s really good. i appreciate it!
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This brings back memories of our ID search.
Although the quality of some of what she gave us is a bit suspect, but we’ve never let it descend into bitterness, and ultimately the workers involved were very apologetic and they come running when I call them now. But back to the initial choosing: We went with someone who didn’t even show us a portfolio–she spent 2-3 hours getting to know us, our needs, and our preferences. We met up with one other guy who wanted us to go over his entire portfolio and show him what we liked from there, and I remember that he wasted my time by asking me to fill in a questionnaire before our meeting, which he didn’t read (because he asked the same questions at the meeting).
This would be exciting creating and renovating. Me as well, hired a professional designer that could help my needs. And it really saves your wallet.