A Lawyer Couple Transforms Selangor Triple Storey into a Family Oasis

Renovating a house without the help of an interior designer can be both an exciting (read: challenging) and daunting endeavour. While the prospect of personalising every aspect of your home is thrilling, homeowners often find themselves navigating a maze of design choices, budget constraints, and technicalities.

Despite these challenges, lawyer couple Shira and her husband, Akmyr, chose to take on the renovation of their first family home themselves. Though they lacked formal interior design experience, Shira had an abundance of creative ideas. The result is a truly unique residence, perfect for them and their 4-year-old son. We spoke with Shira about her renovation experience and the setbacks they encountered along the way.

About Shira and her family

Prior to getting this home, my family and I were staying in a rented condominium in Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur. As our child grew, the space felt increasingly cramped, prompting us to seek a larger home to better suit our expanding family. Additionally, our families love to throw family gatherings at least once every two weeks, further highlighting our need for a bigger space.

About searching for their dream home

While searching for a new house, we had a few specific criteria in mind. We wanted a larger home that would allow our son the freedom to move around. Since he was born during the MCO and grew up playing indoors, we wanted a home with a yard where he could play outside. We also wanted a private space to host birthday parties and set up bouncy castles and other outdoor activities.

When we found this home, in Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, we quickly put down a deposit. At 4,232 sqft, this three-storey home has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. It’s challenging to find a spacious landed property in KL within the same price range.

We also like the fact that the house comes with a bedroom on the ground floor. We plan to move our master bedroom down there when we get older. For now, this is also beneficial for our parents, who may struggle with stairs when they come to stay with us. Additionally, the bedroom has an ensuite bathroom, adding to its convenience.

About her choice of contractor and suppliers

At first, we consulted several interior designers for our home renovation, but the quotes they provided were beyond our budget range. So we decided to take the risk of undertaking the renovation project ourselves, with the help of a contractor, Arch Basis Design. My husband has been working as a contractor for quite some time, as they renovated a number of his co-owned restaurants.

As for the house design, I used photos from Pinterest and show the contractor what I’m looking to achieve.

While I handled the design aspects of the house, my husband took charge of overseeing the on-site renovation work. He was present for the installation of cabinets, flooring, stairs, and other details.

The contractor we hired only did wiring, kitchen extensions, wet work, and painting the house. Everything else, such as the cabinetry installation, mirror installation and flooring installation, are done by other vendors that we found online and offline.

We also furnished and decorated the entire house ourselves, prioritising affordability when selecting these items. So we did a lot of comparisons between different vendors and shops to find the best deals. Our go-to includes platforms like Shopee, Instagram, and TikTok. For example, we purchased all of our lighting from Shopee. We often visit various lighting shops to survey the fixtures before ordering them online.

Of course, there were times when we ordered online and the product was not exactly what we imagined it to look like, but that only happens rarely.

About the design chosen

The theme leans towards modern luxury with a lot of curved details. I didn't specifically look for modern luxury interiors, but I paid particular attention to the house's earthy neutral colour scheme, which shaped the overall concept.

My parents are also house decor and design enthusiasts, and their home was frequently featured in interior design magazines back in the day. I drew inspiration from their house as well.

About the home renovation

Initially, the house had plenty of windows, which made it too warm and bright. To enhance privacy and reduce heat, we closed a total of 12 window openings throughout the house. This includes the right side of the entrance, the living room, the guest bedroom, and the master bedroom. Some of the original window installations appeared awkward or unattractive, which prompted us to close them.

Despite closing several windows, the house maintains a balanced level of natural light. If needed, we would add more lighting.

Living room

Originally, the living room had a high ceiling, which we slightly lowered and enhanced with additional lighting, and we used a plaster ceiling to conceal all the wires. Around the TV area, we installed cabinetry and incorporated curved details to soften the overall look of the room.

In designing the living room, we aimed for simplicity to avoid a cluttered appearance, opting for simple furniture designs.

The dining room and kitchen

My favourite parts of the house are the dining room and the kitchen because they look exactly like my Pinterest vision board.

In the dining room, we installed a floor-to-ceiling mirror along the walls to create the illusion of more space. Additionally, two chandeliers were added to illuminate the area, complementing a dining table set that accommodates up to 8 people.

I didn't want an all-white kitchen, so this colour scheme suits my preferences perfectly. The kitchen counter and backsplash feature a material called deco top, known for being waterproof, easy to clean, lightweight compared to natural stone, scratch-resistant, and more affordable than porcelain. We chose this material for its modern appearance and wide design options.

A highlight of the kitchen for me is the unique lighting fixture above the island, which I purchased from Shopee.

The kitchen was initially small, but we extended the backyard and converted it into a wet kitchen. We divided the wet and dry areas with a sliding door. In the future, I plan to fully extend the backyard to create a dedicated wet kitchen for heavy cooking.

First-floor living area

On the first floor, there is a second living room that my husband particularly adores for its double-height ceiling, which floods the area with plenty of natural light. This feature was also one of the key factors that drew us to purchase the house. We enhanced the room by adding a chandelier and a floor-to-ceiling feature wall with a TV cabinet. The space is furnished with furniture featuring curved details to create a softer look

Master bedrooms

The house features two master bedrooms, one on the first floor and another on the second floor. The difference between these rooms is that the first-floor master bedroom includes a walk-in wardrobe and a bathtub, while the second-floor master bedroom incorporates an office and a TV area. The renovations we undertook in these rooms focused on installing wardrobes and vanity areas, adding more lighting, and installing plaster ceilings to conceal all of the wires.

Bathroom

To save money, we didn’t make any changes to the bathrooms. However, we had to replace the tiles in the lower-ground bathroom due to a leak that occurred during construction. This required us to hack the floors and do some plumbing work, which added about a month to our renovation timeline and cost us an additional RM7,000 from our initial renovation budget.

About the challenges faced

If you hire an interior designer, they typically oversee the project, but in our case, we had to manage it ourselves, making us responsible for any issues that arose. Also, since we source various materials like the flooring, stairs, and plaster ceiling from different suppliers, sometimes they tend to cause damage to other suppliers' already completed installations or works.

It’s hard to pinpoint who’s responsible because we’re coordinating with multiple parties simultaneously, and numerous individuals were involved in the renovation process. Often, they would point fingers at each other. Rectifying these issues also required additional costs that we had to cover ourselves.

To sum up

Nevertheless, we’re very happy with the outcome of the house renovation, and we wish to inspire other homeowners out there that it is possible to achieve great results without overspending and undertaking the renovation yourself.

In total, we spent around RM450,000 to renovate the entire house. This includes furnishing and decorating the house for RM70,000. Compared to the quotes we received from interior designers, the renovation cost without the kitchen extension and furniture was estimated at RM450,000. By personally sourcing the most affordable vendors, we managed to save cost throughout the project.

However, do expect plenty of challenges along the way, and these kinds of challenges are quite stressful, so if you cannot handle the amount of stress, I won’t recommend overseeing your home renovation yourself!

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