An acknowledgement to begin with...I owe this forum a blog since I have been greatly benefited by its contents in my own renovation journey. So thanks to everyone who have contributed here.. We bought a 5 room HDB at cantonment close...And our 1st task was to choose an Interior Designer. Did some research on this forum, facebook and websites of Interior designers in Singapore and shortlisted the following: 1. Arteliving - Recommended by a friend. Quote was 2nd highest. Slow to respond and hence rejected. 2. Weiken - Selected based on forum reviews (must admit reviews about his ID is mixed). rejected for no particular reason. 3. Rest n Relax - Contacted twice. Firm did not revert at all. 4. Triple S Interiors - Contacted twice. Firm did not revert at all. 5. Summit Design Studio - 3rd best quotation. Rejected for no particular reason. In fact obtained quote just for the sake of comparison. 6. ***** - Was shortlisted as Top 3. Could have selected but ultimately didn't since they didn't perfectly fir the bill. 7. Altier Tang - Was shortlisted as Top 3. Experienced designer, very knowledgeable but didn't select since the quote was on the higher side. 8. Renzz - Highest quotation (way above all others) naturally rejected. 9. Defong Trading - Selected for renovation. Best quotation (at least 10% below others). Kevin Tan was the ID (read a lot of good reviews about him in this forum). Very very impressive, very knowledgeable, very responsive. turned out to be the perfect choice for our renovation job. Our renovation comprised the following main tasks. Redoing whole of Kitchen and 2 bathroomsFeature wall/console, shoe, storage and display cabinet in the living roomFalse ceiling in the living roomPainting, redoing house grills and electricals.Note: We didn't go for any 3D designs. Whilst the designs give you an idea about how your house will look, in my opinion, they are overrated and the real output looks different from the designs since the designers do a good job of glamming up the 3Ds. that's my personal view and of course you are free to disagree which is fine. Kevin Tan was a thorough professional during the entire process of renovation. Absolutely helpful and very friendly & comfortable to deal with. Promised an end date and delivered bang on that date. Before and during the renovation process, Kevin accompanies us to select tiles and sanitaries. Gave good suggestions while selecting tiles (please only select homogenous tiles coz the others are crappy) and also during other stages of our house design. Not pushy, very very patient and super responsive. Very honest and straight to the point. Will highly recommend him to anyone. The thing which became apparent is, it doesn't matter which ID company or designer you select, it all depends upon how the workers are who do the job....and each ID has his/her own set of workers...so its important for the ID to have and maintain a good set of workers...in Kevin's case, he has a good team who did a nice job. At the end of it all, the house has come out very well and in accordance with our expectations. Will post pics soon for everyone to see and judge. To everyone who will go through this process...here is wishing you the very best and hope you end up having a house that you dreamt of....
