"I feel very blessed to have them working on my house and I know I can trust them to do a good job."
At a glance
- Mui Sim, in her 40s, human resource in a government service
- Size: 720 sq ft / 67sqm
- Home to: 1 adult
- Location: Bedok North, 3-room HDB
- Cost of renovation: $15,000
- Interior Design Firm: LifeArt Reno
- Interior Designer: Joe
Beneath this simple 3-room flat was an extensive search of hunting down an interior designer that best fits her budget and someone whom Mui Sim can rely on.
Get the story on her renovation journey below.
Qanvast: Where did you do your renovation research?
Mui Sim (MS): I started with browsing a couple of websites and renovation forums. However it wasn’t exactly useful as the conversations in the forums are pretty generic and vague, which is not helpful to me. Plus, I find it hard to trust the comments when they say that the services of a particular interior designer or a contractor is good.
A friend recommended Qanvast to me, and I liked the design ideas and homeowners' reviews on the interior designers in the app.
Qanvast: What made you decide to use Qanvast?
MS: The app is nice and easy to use. I love the fact that it had reviews compiled neatly within the app, that was a huge plus point for me! I read almost all the reviews and I find them to be more useful than what I previously read online.
Coincidentally, the article on “10 Beautiful Homes Under $50,000” was circulating on Facebook at that time and I thought I could give Qanvast a try.
Qanvast: Your research was pretty extensive! How did you manage to narrow down on who to engage?
MS: From Qanvast, I shortlisted interior designers with good reviews on the app.
I emailed my requirements to close to a dozen interior designers, including those not on Qanvast. Among those, only a few have got back to me, including LifeArt Reno. What caught my attention however were the reviews left by homeowners on LifeArt Reno firm.
He didn't have a lot of reviews as compared to other interior designers, but his reviews had keywords like “reasonable quote”, “honest”, “reliable” and those traits caught my attention. I met up with Joe, and he turned out to be what the other homeowners described him, thus I decided to engage him.
Qanvast: Tell us, how was the experience like with Joe and his team?
MS: It was a really good one. I have heard about horror stories on interior designer who sub-con the work out to inexperienced workers and the job was not done up properly. This was not the case with Joe. His team members actually shared the same ‘honest and reliable’ qualities as Joe. I chatted with them and found out that they were very seasoned and experienced workers!
I feel very blessed to have them working on my house and I know I can trust them to do a good job. His team also took the initiative in helping to touch up certain areas of the house, and even highlighted and improved on little details that I didn't thought of.
I didn’t have to constantly check on them. If I need a status update, Joe will promptly get back to me. Overall, I'm really satisfied with Joe and his team.
