Choosing the Interior Designer (ID) for our House Renovation

After inspecting our new house for defects, we began our tedious hunt for a suitable Interior Designer (ID) or contractor for our home renovation. Below, we outline our experience during the search process.

Contractor or ID?

Generally speaking, an ID coordinates your renovation project and provides design ideas as well. Contractors execute the renovation works requested by the homeowners, but nowadays many contractors also provide design ideas and 3D drawings too. Therefore, we kept an open mind and shortlisted both IDs and contractors during our search.

A Long Process!

The whole process, from contacting our first ID to finally deciding on our ID, took about two months! It took so long because we contacted over ten IDs and contractors during our search. Basically, they would usually come to our house for a site visit, we would tell them our desired house design, and they would send us the quotation shortly after.

Experience with each ID / Contractor

Several of the IDs we met were pretty insistent that we follow their design ideas, which I felt to be strange because we wanted a house that would reflect our personalities. However, this type of ID might appeal to people who already like the style of the IDs.

The contractors we met were very experienced and understood what we wanted. This was because they had already done many renovation projects before. And we liked that they did not try to force any ideas on us. Below is our experience with the respective IDs and contractors:

• 0932 – We liked their designs but were told by their representative that for projects of our size (114sqm / 1230 sqft), the budget would be $75K onwards. This was definitely out of our budget. It would also take a minimum of 3 to 4 months which would not meet our timeline.
• Absolook – This is a popular ID company in Singapore with many branches. We visited the TradeHub branch and the ID was very friendly. She was very fast as well and came up with a 2D design and draft quotation for us in just a few days. However, we did not go with her as the quotation was out of our budget.
• Habit – This boutique ID company has nice Scandinavian designs but does not provide 3D drawings. We requested for an appointment via email but got a replying stating that they do not work on public holidays and weekends. We then tried arranging for a weekday appointment instead in May 2017, but was told that they would not take on any more projects until Aug 2017.
• Impress 21 – This is a local contractor company helmed by a nice uncle called Henry. He was quite prompt in his replies and provided us with the quotation shortly after the site visit. His price was quite reasonable too.
• Mong Studio – We loved the designs of Mong Studio. Our ID was very professional and willing to listen to us instead of trying to force her ideas on us. However, their price was out of our budget.
• Mr K – Very popular contractor from renotalk forum with nice previous projects. He was quite prompt in his replies. However, we felt his quotation was slightly over-priced for a contractor.
• O (not the full name) – This was an ID we found through Qanvast. He was extremely enthusiastic, but we could sense that he was very displeased when we disagreed with some of his design ideas. Therefore, we decided not to engage his services.
• YIS Living –  We found YIS Living (contractor) through the renotalk forum. Our contact person was Kenny. He came for a site visit and provided us with a quotation promptly afterwards. His quotation was very reasonable and he was extremely responsive to our messages. On the whole, his service was wonderful and we almost chose him to handle our renovation.
• L (not the full name) – We found this ID through Qanvast and ultimately, we decided to go with this company because we liked the style of their previous projects.
• UNO Interior – Boutique ID company. The ID kept insisting that we knocked down the service yard wall even though we did not want to do so. He felt that it would make our kitchen bigger, but we felt it would be unsightly because our laundry would be openly in view. The quotation came to about 100K which was out of our budget anyways.

Our Final Choice

Finally, our list was narrowed down to just “YIS Living” and “L”. To choose between them, we decided to go for site visits of their previous renovation projects so that we could check out the workmanship in person. In the end, we chose “L” because we felt that his company’s previous project had better design and workmanship.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed reading our experience of finding an ID! This article is not meant to serve as a strict guide. Rather, we just want to share our experiences so that you can get an idea of the search process for an ID or contractor. Ultimately, your final decision should depend on your preferred home style, personality compatibility with the ID, and budget. Good luck and we hope you will find the best ID or contractor for your renovation!

This article is part of our completely free and super informative Singapore Home Renovation Guide. Why spend weeks researching when all your renovation information is simply a click away?