'Scandi-boho-eclectic i just hope it does not become weird' home

[Jolene Heng 6]

Hi ALL, i collected my keys in Jan 2017, in Boon Keng area, and finally works are starting!! This is my floor plan!

[Jolene Heng 6]

Been a silent lurker for a while, and really got a lot of inspos and useful feedback from you guys so decided to contribute!

What a funny theme i have right? Even i am unsure how it will turn out since we are engaging a contractor and not an ID, so i dont get to see those autocad drawings. However, my contractor draws very nicely too with his trusty pen and paper, so for now i am still hopeful i will get my desired home!

Some of the major works i will be doing

1. Hacking away my kitchen wall. this was an ongoing debate between my husband and I. Hacking the wall really makes the area more spacious. we don't cook, neither do we know how to cook. However, i do have those dream one day i can be whipping up delicious meals that my mum does, and i think my husband think that this cooking activity is more of playtime rather than really filling up our stomachs because he claimed it's expensive and time consuming to cook for 2, and there are so many food choices near us. I have also heard of stories of friends telling me that even frying an egg is disastrous in an open concept kitchen. the whole living room gets oily too Nonetheless, i pat myself on the back on the decision finally made and hope i don't regret.

2. Tiling my living room, passage way, and 3 bedrooms with wood-like tiles! 8K went into here, and i just had to choose my made in italy tiles

3. Converting 1 room into a wardrobe. Due to those structural walls in the wrong places in the house, i basically cannot hack any rooms. So i guess i can't call my room a walk in wardrobe. At best, i can only call it a changing room. my dad is even worse, he calls it a storeroom for clothes.

4. Building a 5 feet vanity cabinet at the master bedroom toilet with quartz top. This is another ouch cost! But i just cannot withstand solid surface top and the potential stains it will give me

5. My master bedroom toilet door. Not sure if you can see from my floor plan, but the layout of the masterbedroom toilet is horrendous!! we can't even build a swing door for the shower area due to the HDB given door that obstructs all space. So off the door goes!! one of the saddest thing my husband witnessed. He hates to pay money to remove existing stuff and pay money to rebuilt it. So he is shaking his head in helplessness at my 2 vanity basin and the bathroom door all removed!

Wont really share my quote here, as this contractor is from a friend recommendation and i think i had a better price, and i dont wish to share till i really see for myself the quality of his carpentry! But you can see some of his drawings below! Really not bad right!! (Yes, i am having a dark green wall- and i think i am going blind from choosing all the green)

Edited March 6, 2017 by Jolene Heng

[Jolene Heng 6]

Sharing some of my favorite buys thus far from taobao and Singapore retail shops!

Commune, Bruno TV Sideboard. This was expensive, even at 20% off, but i loved it and i saw some renotalkers who have purchased it!

Castlery, Tana Sectional Sofa. Snagged it during the recent Castlery Warehouse Sale at a good price. A little scared that this gigantic sofa will make my living room even smaller, but the husband just love to nua his leg on the L shaped.

Bohemian Tapestry. I love this, gotten it from taobao, not that cheap, at 70 bucks, but luckily it's quite pretty irl!

Now the headache is for dining tables. anyone has any recommendation for solid wood dining tables that are reasonably priced? Any reviews on wihardja? saw that the prices are quite reasonable but not sure of the quality? HELPPP!

[matchalatte 16]

thats a pretty nice drawing from your contractor! would you be sharing on your contractor-sourcing journey or is it someone you already know? i spoke to a couple of contractors who rejected me outright because they deemed my design & requirements too "classy & complicated" which i really dont think so. then again, i cook and bake alot so planning the kitchen is a challenging task hence contractors think its complicated to have to build an oven cabinet + island. therefore its always back to the drawing board after each visit

im a taobao junkie as well and will be buying most of my stuff like rainshower, mixer tap, sink, lighting, even bedsheets from there lol. i saw the particular sideboard you bought on tb and i realized all the 北欧实木家具 are very very ex. yours is from sg right?

Edited March 6, 2017 by matchalatte

[Jolene Heng 6]

@matchalatte My contractor is a friend's recommendation. My contractor also doesn't really get my theme of like boho, eclectic too. he summarized my theme as ' i just want different from others'. I think he is too accustomed to doing the more older generation kind of houses, but he definitely knows his materials and colours well la. 

Yes, i saw that commune sideboard on taobao too, but it's so ex and its not on prime ezbuy so went to get it from local! I am getting lightings as well from taobao. my contractor (because he is more traditional) said no no to sinks from taobao, he just cannot trust the quality 

[fifteenmay 40]

cute title! looking forward to your updates!

[POX 0]

Exactly mine theme too! Just that mine might be a bit industrial-ish too. Can't wait to see how yours turns out!

[spooky 6]

Wow I love the drawings by your contractor. Looks impressive!

[Jolene Heng 6]

@fifteenmay hello! waves! wanted to tell you i am also probably going to tile my home with the tiles you were planning to use for your balcony! it's oxford roble right?

@POX are you engaging a contractor too? yes, sometimes it really takes a lot of imagination man. Pinterest is nice to follow, but when you mash up different pinterest together, you wonder if the outcome will still be pinterest worthy

@spooky yes right! i was so impressed as well! helps me to visualize a bit better. Although i am still afraid i will get all my paint colour and laminates all over the place!

[fifteenmay 40]

32 minutes ago, Jolene Heng said:

@fifteenmay hello! waves! wanted to tell you i am also probably going to tile my home with the tiles you were planning to use for your balcony! it's oxford roble right?

@POX are you engaging a contractor too? yes, sometimes it really takes a lot of imagination man. Pinterest is nice to follow, but when you mash up different pinterest together, you wonder if the outcome will still be pinterest worthy

@spooky yes right! i was so impressed as well! helps me to visualize a bit better. Although i am still afraid i will get all my paint colour and laminates all over the place!

great choice! it will make your house more cozy!

[Jolene Heng 6]

Tiling works.

Actual tiling works have not started yet as Contractor M workers are still busy with another project. Will probably only be able to start next week. Waiting with impatience because i am so eager to see how this bulk of the reno will turn out to be. We visited SBH a total of 4 times (WHAT?!), i am on good terms with the staff already.

Living room and bedroom tiles

Was adamant on wood-like tiles after seeing so many gorgeous inspiration on pinterest. We did consider Vinyl too, but among all the contractors and IDs we met in the initial selection phase, most contractors, albeit they are the more traditional kind (including my chosen one) were against vinyl. Not sure is it because Vinyl is relatively new in the market, and they are less receptive to new things just like elderly tend to shun technology. One contractor remarked: she would earn a higher profit if she did vinyl for us as compared to her profit margin if she tiled our house. We didn't want to take any risks of in the future of going crazy over a small puddle of water on the floor and the need to wipe it immediately (not sure how true this is), so we went with tiles! SBH had quite a huge range of wood-like tiles. with eyes, without eyes, in different shades and sizes. Look at the samples that we lugged home! Husband said that we can go every week and ask for sample, and soon we can tile our house with all these sample pieces (things the weird husband says)

This was my favorite! Photo from SBH website. It's woodessence Beige. So pretty!! A pity we didn't pick it as contractor M said that this kind of short and thin tiles looks best on herringbone laying and not the normal random/steps laying. It was also pricey at 5.30 psf, and he said that he would have to charge us more too, since more tiles and more labour needed to lay this kind. BYE BYE MY FAVORITE TILE

We settled for this in the end! Oxford Roble. at about $4.60 psf irc. That's the husband kissing his 8k worth of tiles.

Brick wall tiles

We have a small area of brick wall at our kitchen area, if you look at the drawing above. Didn't spend much time on this and we picked this! Classic white. We were actually contemplating to use hollow bricks to build that wall and paint it over. But i didn't to have cleaning issues because of the rough edges, and future child safety issues so we opted for this below!! Not as rough, and equally aesthetically pleasing. Photo koped from SBH website. It's brick white, and it costs like 4.90 psf after GST. Contractor M say he will close one eyes on the price since we are tiling a small area only

Kitchen backsplash and toilet wall tiles

Finally a less expensive option compared to the other 2 tiles. it's less than $3 irc and contractor M assured us that it will still be beautiful. I liked the marble look, and we decided to go for uniform tiles for the toilet wall (3 sides at shower area) and the kitchen backsplash area

I decided to use the same tiles that he did for a project a while back. Cheap and nice, he said. Hoping this won't go wrong too. Below is the picture he sent over, on the toilet that he tiled for his previous project. Looks pretty decent!

So this is probably all the tiling works we are going to do! if budget permits, i would have like to tiled my non wet area in the master bedroom toilet too! However, i figured the HDB white tiles will suffice, although i am a little worried about now my SBH tiles will protrude out against the HDB tiles

Edited March 7, 2017 by Jolene Heng
upload pic

[Raylowwl 1]

Hi,

Have u try looking for the tv console in taobao... Similar one....at evita homes.... I'm also looking at similar one. Sorry.... Don't know how to paste link here

Edited March 7, 2017 by Raylowwl

[Jolene Heng 6]

6 minutes ago, Raylowwl said:

Hi,

Have u try looking for the tv console in taobao... Similar one....at evita homes.... I'm also looking at similar one. Sorry.... Don't know how to paste link here

@Raylowwl Hi, yes i did see this website too!! they have a similar one i know, but its also quite pricey at almost 1000 dollars and they are not on ezbuy prime so i dare not think of the shipping costs. In singapore i bought it at 20percent off at almost 1.2k only, rather pay slightly more then to have any defects or exorbitant shipping fees!

[spooky 6]

Wow looks like you're doing lots of tiling work! I was quoted $900 for overlaying the entire shower area, which I found expensive so I'm only overlaying the shower head wall in both bathrooms. May I know how much Contractor M quoted you for the overlaying of the shower area?

[swirl360 0]

We may be neighbours. Looking forward to your updates!