Emma - Our Em In The West

[tarzanboy 6]

Hi, may i know how much where did you purchase the philips htl-5140B.

[ricepapergirl 21]

Hello! I totally understand your excitement to buy all the furniture even before moving in. We've also bought most of our pieces, and are also getting our keys end of the month, or early Feb! Loving the look so far. Enjoy your reno journey! =)

xx Warm, Earthy, and a Little Bohemian xx

Ooh! Haha I'm with you on this! But how did you manage to buy your furniture so early? Most places we asked would only hold it for us for 2 to 3 months only...

[ricepapergirl 21]

Hi was following some topics on renotalk and saw ur blog.

I can totally relate to ur experience, lol... I recently bought a 20 yr old 5-room resale flat in Woodlands, size around 121 sq m. The home owners were e first owners of e she so the flat has not been renovated for 20yrs.

I just collected my keys more than a wk ago, and alr started hacking works.

Initially I was like u, went to research and did furniture shopping, biggest mistake was putting a $100 deposit before I had even decided on my design, haiz....

I had a prerequisit when shopping for IDs, they all must have in-house carpentry cos I have a lot of carpentry works. My initial Budget was $50k, however along e way I had to raise it higher and higher and now it's $70k. All e IDs were quoting like $80k to $90k and after seeing e quote I dare not include anymore items that I wanted.. On TOP of Reno I may have to spend another $25k on soft furnishing lol.... Gonna be broke

Old flats are sometimes the best, but also sometimes such a drain on the wallet! Everything must go hahaha oh well. Yeah fortunately or unfortunately for us, most of the places don't hold pieces for that long so we've not bought much yet. Our budget also had to go up quite a bit! But hopefully with our chosen ID/contractor it can be slightly closer to our original budget than our raised one. For us, we preferred not to get carpentry (I've had bad experiences with carpentry and would much rather get non-built-in furniture) but also had to give up buying certain pieces till phase II, or phase III lol. But because we don't intend to get carpentry, doing a phased approach for furniture is actually possible.

[ricepapergirl 21]

+1 on ikea kitchen. Do note the butcher style blocks are wood. I don't think the acrylic ones have wood design.

There are 2 types. 1 is solid wood the other has solid veneers. Anyway their tops are cheap. So don't need to care much about longevity. You can change them once every 1-2 years for 10yrs to be the same cost as granite/quartz.

Ikea cabinets needs to be installed on flat walls. If there are pipes you'll have a problem. i wanted ikea look so much that I did cabinets customed to ikea door fronts.

Hi Changbp!

Actually the current range does have acrylic/laminate (or at least non-veneer non-wooden) wood-style countertops! They only have the Saljan series online but if you go to the actual Ikea store there are quite a few. Still trying to debate with myself whether to get the wooden ones or just the wood like ones.

I'm actually quite curious about this Ikea-cabinet-need-flat-walls issue. We are going to be redoing the kitchen almost completely and thought that it's just a matter of running the plumbing and electrical wires at the leg area and then finding spots to pull it up to the countertop, is this not the case? I've also seen someone build a false wall for this.

[ricepapergirl 21]

I didn't think of getting ikea cabinets cos e first thing that comes to mind is 'filmsy'. Just e hassle of renovating every few hrs is a headache, hahah....

I too bought my electronics b4 I got my keys. Now LG having promo so I rushed to buy their tv n fridge. Their smart TV is no1 for 2015. I got a 55inch Tv and they give 1 free 43inch TV, but that one have to self collect. I also bought Yamaha sound bar system cos I was so impressed when I heard it at courts, it felt like I was at e cinema.

Electrolux also having promo for washer and dryer.

Hi foxygal!

Yeah my husband is also slightly uncomfortable with the idea of an Ikea kitchen, though I really believe that certain pieces in the Ikea range are different in terms of level of flimsiness. For example, I've had the PAX series for a while now and they are really hardy, but the Billy series 80cm wide is not that great (40cm wide is okay). I've even been able to pass down my Ikea bedframe and mattress to my niece after using it for years and it's holding up fine. It's a matter of knowing what in Ikea is okay and what is not good. So far, my data gathering from people who actually own Ikea kitchens seem to indicate it's about the same probability of failing as any other ID/contractor created kitchen (you run a risk with carpentry as well) so I figured why not.

Buying stuff before we get our house is a bit of a dream right now. We're probably only going to move in around June-ish so that's 6 months more of trying to store it somewhere in my parents-in-law's place lol.

[ricepapergirl 21]

Hi, may i know how much where did you purchase the philips htl-5140B.

Hi tarzanboy,

Sorry I haven't actually bought it yet. We saw it at Gain City Sungei Kadut though.

[ricepapergirl 21]

Been away for a bit, sorry for the silence! We were in Japan for a 10-day holiday and are finally back! Not much to update except that we are possibly going to confirm our ID/contractor this weekend if all goes well!

Meanwhile, whilst we were in Japan I managed to settle a piece of furniture! It's quite an esoteric piece though haha. I've been collecting second-hand kimono since my teens and have amassed quite a collection, and one of my dreams was to have a proper japanese kiri tansu (paulownia wood chest of drawers) to store it in. It's really difficult to find proper kiri tansus in Singapore since you can imagine there's a lack of demand for them (they are very specialised to keep kimonos in them and are good for the humidity and to keep out bugs and to protect the kimono in case of fire). There are some places online that sell them but it's not clear whether they are selling proper kiri tansus (built by master craftsmen) or knock-offs, plus many of them don't really ship furniture overseas (they cater to japanese domestic market).

So I was very lucky that on our trip, I happened to mention that I was in the market for a kiri tansu to the kimono rental place, and the lady in charge said that she could help to sell us one! She uses the same brand in her own shop so I could see for myself the quality (hers had been in constant use for 7 years!) and the price was within my budget, even after including shipping to Singapore! I only needed it to be shipped after my place was ready so we got them to ship it in time to reach by July. I paid in full there and then in Japan. Now super excited for it to come! I don't even know where in my house I'm going to put it!

I'm getting two of the 5 drawer ones!

[foxygal 0]

does Ikea customise to fit ur kitchen? I think what changbp meant was e gas pipes or water pipes, etc. I like customised carpentry cos less thing to wipe for lazy ppl like me heheh.... Everything should be hidden in cabinets. My hub likes loose furniture n we almost had a fight over e TV console, settee beside shoe cabinet n dining settee cos I kept insisting on customising.. In e end We only agreed to buy a bench for wearing shoes, Guess e one that cleans more will have more say

Anyways, I ended up buying my dining n living set from Taobao, hope it arrives in gd condition..

[Changbp 5]

Hi Changbp!

Actually the current range does have acrylic/laminate (or at least non-veneer non-wooden) wood-style countertops! They only have the Saljan series online but if you go to the actual Ikea store there are quite a few. Still trying to debate with myself whether to get the wooden ones or just the wood like ones.

I'm actually quite curious about this Ikea-cabinet-need-flat-walls issue. We are going to be redoing the kitchen almost completely and thought that it's just a matter of running the plumbing and electrical wires at the leg area and then finding spots to pull it up to the countertop, is this not the case? I've also seen someone build a false wall for this.

Was refering to upper cabinets. Their cabinets are designed to be hung on the wall. U can check out the install manual and you'll see that they use a metal rail to be mounted at the rear cabinet and the wall. So if you need to cut the rear of the cabinet to accmodate pipes than the rail has nowhere to tighten to.

Not too sure about bottom cabinets but I suspect it's the same.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Changbp

[owlNbear 2]

Hello! How did the rest of your ID search go? I was reading through and you stopped at ID #5...was actually waiting for more elaboration on the rest! Hahaha. I think that's one of my favorite parts to read on the t-blogs here

[ricepapergirl 21]

does Ikea customise to fit ur kitchen? I think what changbp meant was e gas pipes or water pipes, etc. I like customised carpentry cos less thing to wipe for lazy ppl like me heheh.... Everything should be hidden in cabinets. My hub likes loose furniture n we almost had a fight over e TV console, settee beside shoe cabinet n dining settee cos I kept insisting on customising.. In e end We only agreed to buy a bench for wearing shoes, Guess e one that cleans more will have more say

Anyways, I ended up buying my dining n living set from Taobao, hope it arrives in gd condition..

Hi foxygal!

Yeah I think Ikea kitchen works well in my case because I don't intend to box up my kitchen pipes and don't intend for the kitchen to cover the entire wall (mine is going to be sort of like an L-shaped kitchen), so no need to worry that much about needing to use cover panels to box up the unused areas. Also, no gas pipes cos got no citygas . I just wonder whether the issue is just getting the contractor to help run the water pipes low (under the cabinets where the legs are) and to run the electrical lines below the top cabinets, or there's more systemic issues than that.

In our case, I'm the one who cleans more but I actually prefer non-customised carpentry! Haha to each their own? But we look out for other things when considering cleaning, like our bookshelves and TV consoles need to have doors, and we look for lights that don't accumulate too much dust.

Was refering to upper cabinets. Their cabinets are designed to be hung on the wall. U can check out the install manual and you'll see that they use a metal rail to be mounted at the rear cabinet and the wall. So if you need to cut the rear of the cabinet to accmodate pipes than the rail has nowhere to tighten to.

Not too sure about bottom cabinets but I suspect it's the same.

Hi Changbp!

Thanks for the information!! I managed to pick up this price list from Ikea itself, sounds like they do already take into account the possibility of cutting the frame for the water outlet for the sink. I wonder whether it's just the electrical cables I have to worry about if so (as I have no citygas lines to worry about).

[bykaraanne 30]

Babe, speak to the peeps at the AZ interior at Alexandra. Also the kitchen designers there. They can alter the cabinets to hide existing piping.

[ricepapergirl 21]

Babe, speak to the peeps at the AZ interior at Alexandra. Also the kitchen designers there. They can alter the cabinets to hide existing piping.

Ooh thanks for the tip! Is AZ Interior the same people at Ikea who do the kitchen? Or different?

[twinklecloud 2]

Ooh thanks for the tip! Is AZ Interior the same people at Ikea who do the kitchen? Or different?

Hey ricepapergirl,

wow u really fast leg and hand.. hehe.. so fast gotten yourself the price list! I think u need not have to worry so much if you r going to get ID, he will be able to solve most of your ikea cabinets problem for you! =)

[bykaraanne 30]

Ooh thanks for the tip! Is AZ Interior the same people at Ikea who do the kitchen? Or different?

AZ Interior are the people at IKEA Alexandra who does the installation for bathroom and kitchen cabinets. When you plan your IKEA kitchen cabinets with the IKEA peeps upstairs (at the kitchen area) they can actually liaise with AZ interior to make certain modifications to suit your kitchen better. I was already waiting for kitchen shipment when I cancelled my order -- so I did the entire process. They are professional and quite good there. I THINK it's AZ interior la! Cannot remember their name. BUT never go to the Tampines one AT ALL COSTS. Just go to the IKEA Alexandra branch and use their installer there.