At A Glance
- Denny Wilson, customer relations in Marina Bay Sands
- Area Size: 69 sqm / 742 sqft
- Location: Toa Payoh North
- Renovation duration: 8 weeks
- Cost of renovation: $50,000
- Cost of furnishing & appliances: $30,000
- Interior Design Firm: Mr Shopper Studio
- Interior Designer: Ben
Wanting to save the hassle of designing a home, Denny sought help from Ben from Mr Shopper Studio. The firm, like no other, also help homeowners with the sourcing and purchasing of home furnishings, to ensure the interior design stays consistent. Read on to find out more about the exceptional fuss-free service Denny experienced.
Qanvast: Where did you source for interior design inspirations?
Denny (D): I referred mostly to Qanvast and online portals. I like how user-friendly and relevant the Qanvast app is. It is easy to pick out ideas that I am only interested in by narrowing down by size and budget, plus it's informative as I can view the entire home in a few swipes.
Qanvast also shares a lot of renovation hacks which are helpful for first-time and even experienced homeowners.
Qanvast: Why did you decide to choose Ben from Mr Shopper Studio?
D: How their firm operates caught my attention. While I was researching on interior designers, I noticed Mr Shopper Studio also sourced and shopped for home furnishings on behalf of the homeowners.
I told Ben at our first meeting on the requirements and he came out with a good design proposal. I checked with a friend of mine, who happened to be an interior designer too, on the prices Ben quoted and she finds it reasonable judging from the amount of work they had to do.
Qanvast: Tell us more about these personalised services.
D: Ben was given a budget and he got to work on designing our home and sourcing for the right decor and furnishings to fit the theme. He would take a picture of the item he intends to purchase and seek my approval before purchasing the item. I like how Ben made it a point to get me involved in the decision making process.
Needless to say, with someone handling the shopping for me, it was a fuss-free renovation. Ben took charge of all the deliveries so I am not required to be at home to receive the deliveries. I have heard from other homeowners about timing the delivery of the furniture and appliances can be frustrating at times. Ben really covered all grounds, right down to the forks and spoons used!
Qanvast: Tell us more about the design for your home.
D: I wanted a lot of storage space as my unit is small. Ben was able to design storage spaces that complemented the Scandinavian design of the home.
We also wanted bulky appliances to be hidden from plain sight and Ben found a way to ‘hide’ the washing machine and other appliances from plain sight.
Qanvast: What advice can you share with first-time homeowners?
D: Do your homework. Homeowners should get quotations from at least two interior designers so that they can compare and see which quotation is more value-for-money.
Homeowners should also be aware that the price of renovation for BTO flats and for resale flats can differ greatly; for resale flats, they should be prepared to spend more for the renovation.
Lastly, if your interior designer is designing your wardrobe, you should let the designer know what items will be stored so that they will know the layout and height for each partition to be to store the things.
Trawling sites after sites to look for a suitable interior designer can be time-consuming. Skip the legwork and let us help you! Tell us what your renovation requirements are and we'll match you with 5 interior firms for free right away!
If your key collection is more than six months away, we'd recommend you get started on collecting home ideas from the app. Browse thousands of local interior ideas, renovation prices and reviews, and save ideas to your boards. Get the free app from App Store or Google Play.