Our Home Renovation Journey - Finalized Design

After meeting our ID several times again to change details of the design here and there, we finalised everything including the 3D drawings and the carpentry drawings. Like FINALLY.. The house is just sitting there waiting for us..

Also, another thing to point out is somehow the colour in the 3D drawings from this ID company does not seem to be a close match to the actual laminate that we chose. For example, if we compare the laminate picture below (on the right) against the 3D drawing of all the main carpentry in the living area, somehow the laminate in the 3D drawing appeared quite yellowish to me. 😖 I was constantly faced with the situation where we were worrying whether the true colour in the end when put together with everything else will look nice. There will be many more pictures in which the 3D drawing does not carry out the real colour of the actual tile/laminate we chose. Makes me wonder if we are the only ones facing this problem or the 3D drawings from other ID firms are a close match.. 🤔

3D drawing of the living room TV feature wall that will accomodate husband's fish tank and an open display with a glass door (so that dust cannot get in). Since the fish tank comes with bottom cabinet, we will get the carpenter to replace the doors of the bottom cabinet so that the whole system looks flashed together with the overall carpentry. The TV console will have black tinted glass so that we can use remote controls without having to open the door and we added more powerpoints as well. There will also be a false ceiling in front of the feature wall where we will have cove lighting and downlights. Really hope that the cove lighting can bring out the cosy atmosphere in our living room. 🙏

Initially we wanted them to construct a half wall with the glass panel on top to segregate the study area from the living room, similar to that of the kitchen half wall. Our ID then suggested to construct the study table using carpentry with exposed backing instead (finally a good suggestion from him 😂). In this case, instead of the normal wall finish, the "half wall" will have the laminate finish and we can have powerpoints on the other side (on both sides of the sofa). The study table will be a thin one with drawers underneath, we also requested to have those flip up door with compartments at the back so as to take care of the socket and wire management. 

We also have a full height bookshelf with open display area (also has glass doors to prevent dust from entering). We changed the open display laminate to be the same laminate as the main body of the bookshelf. Nearer to the glass swing door, there will be a half height cabinet with some display on top to accomodate the air con unit on top. 

Beside the main door will be the shoe cabinet with settee and our dining area. The settee with mirror will mask the DB box door (stole this idea from another ID's proposal). Also, in order to make that sure the whole piece of carpentry was not too bulky, we will have an open display (we changed the laminate of the open display to be the same as the main body) in the middle and also an open area below (may be to put our more commonly worn shoes). These 3 sections will have LED lights. 

Since this area does not have any false ceiling, our ID proposed to use can/cylinder lights for this area and the walkway to the rooms as we like to ensure that the house has adequent amount of lights. Better to have more lights than too little and have the house looking dark and gloomy. 

For the kichen, we decided to have the same laminate as the living room for the bottom cabinets, but for the top cabinets, we decided to go with a lighter tone to have some contrast. We chose the off white quartz top (Blanco Pacifica) and the grey colour (Gray Rail) as the kitchen glass backsplash. We also chose to have track lights for the kitchen. All this were chosen by us (coordinated mainly by husband instead of our ID who was just sitting there waiting for us to decide 🙄). 

I decided to go with more drawers as it is more functional as compared to the normal casement cabinets. He quoted us with 6 drawers included so the rest we had to top up for the drawer tracks. On the left of the built-in oven, I will have larger drawers in which I intend to put condiments for cooking on the top and heavier stuff like rice, pasta and cereal on the bottom. On the right of the oven, I will have the Blum inspired tower inventory for dried goods and stuff! 😍 Got the ID to follow the Blum brochure to get his carpenter to make the internal pull out drawers as its much cheaper than getting from Blum, though all the drawer trackers are still from Blum! Cant wait to see my kitchen! 😍

Similarly for the other side of the kitchen, I opted for more drawers as well. On this side, I will have drawer in drawer concept. I plan to put cutlery and cooking utensils in the "sub" drawer and have plates, bowls or baking stuff in the main drawers. The bigger bottom drawers will be used for bigger items like pots and pans. The casement drawers on the left will be used to store my steamer, KitchenAid mixer, blender and such. Sitting down to plan what and where I want to keep my stuff really helped me alot in planning the storage in the kitchen. Really satisfied with what I came out with as I think it will be very organised and  functional! 😍

This is another picture that seriously failed to depict the true colour and texture of the feature wall tiles. Seriously when I saw this 3D drawing, I was so worried that the end result will look horrible. 😖Anyway, we decided to go with a framed mirror so that there would be more contrast and we could have LED lights under the frame to illuminate the sink area to make it look more "hotel-looking". This was our own idea in the hopes of trying to salvage this common bathroom. 😂 I really hope that the actual bathroom will look nice because from what I see in the 3D drawing now, I am just not feeling it... 

The master bedroom was the best out of all the 3D drawings. We liked the very first draft and hence we didnt do much changes in terms of design. The headboard and bedside table will be made using carpentry and there will be LED lights on the headboard and the top of the wardrobe (not shown in the 3D drawing). The headboard will have gold stainless steel strip and our ID chose a unique laminate finish (on the right) that we liked. Love the vibes of the room already. 😍

The view of the wardrobe in the 3D drawing. As we were mostly sastified with the 3D drawings of the master bedroom hence when we chose the grey floor tiles, our ID did not change the flooring in this and the previous picture for us (how convenient right?!). Anyway, we decided to remove the false ceiling in the master bedroom and hence we will have surface mounted downlights instead of those recessed downlights. On both sides of the mirror, the electrician will install LED lighting (cool white) so as to illuminate the vanity table. 😍 The laminate finish of the wardrobe is finger-print resistant. Really like the texture of the laminate. 

Lastly, since the master bathroom is not any bigger, we have to have a curved vanity to accomodate the toilet bowl. We will have some open shelving on the side to put our laundry basket and may be clean towels. Similarly, the mirror will be framed so that we can have LED lights below that will showcase the texture wall behind the sink. We chose the mosaic tiles for the shower area. To be honest, when I saw this picture, I was geniunely concerned. But our ID explained to us that the 3D drawing is not true to the actual tiles (he also know that their 3D drawing sucks 😂), in which the number of darker pieces are much lesser. 

All in all, I would have to say that this ID firm's 3D drawings were absolutely not up to our expectations. Previously when we were showed the past project's 3D drawings (before signing the contract), those really did not look like that. Our ID wasnt as patient as before to answer our concerns or to come up with alternative ideas. We felt that if we mentioned that we did not like what he proposed, he will end up just giving up and let us decide on our own rather than try to propose something else that will better suit our taste/style. 

It was really a rather stressful and frustrating period for the both of us and even when we look through the finialized 3D drawings now, we are uncertain if it will turn out the way we like it to be. We will be praying that everything turns out nice...... Afterall its OUR design in the end.. 😂🙏