At A Glance
- Chai Hing and Geok Fong, both 40, and their son and daughter
- Size: 127 sqm / 1367 sqft
- Location: La Fiesta
- Cost of Renovation: $32,000
- Cost of Furnishing: $50,000
- Interior Design Firm: Space Define Interior
- Interior Designer: Joann Ku
For a design as classic as it is timeless, Chai Hing and Geok Fong turned to established interior design firm, Space Define Interior, to come up with a design for their family of four.
Read on and discover how Joann’s methodical nature made the renovation journey a breeze for Chai Hing and Geok Fong.
Qanvast: How did Joann from Space Define stand out among all the other interior designers you met?
Chai Hing (CH): Out of the five interior designers that we met, Joann was the most responsive. After we gave her our floor plan and told her what we were looking out for, she got back to us with a quotation within two or three days.
Geok Fong (GF): We could sense her eagerness, whereas the other interior designers took quite a while to get back to us and we even had to ‘chase’ some of them for the quotation.
Qanvast: What else led you to choose Space Define Interior?
GF: We took a look at their portfolio and felt that their designs had the look and feel that we like.
CH: Joann also brought us to one of her projects so that we could assess her workmanship. After seeing the quality of her workmanship, we were very certain that we wanted to work with her.
Qanvast: What was your design brief to Joann?
GF: I wanted a design that was clean and easy to maintain. The layout had to be simple, classy and timeless so in the case i wanted to make any changes to the home in future, I would not need to do a complete renovation again.
While we wanted the design of our house to be simple, we didn’t want it to be boring and Joann was able to propose a selection of clean-cut designs that we could choose from.
The monochrome design for the cabinets and open shelving in our master bedroom were all proposed by her. The same concept was applied for the feature wall in our living area. We asked her to do a few more variations, just because we wanted to explore other options to be sure, but we still ended up with the one she initially proposed!
Qanvast: How did Joann help you during the renovation process?
GF: Joann helped us to fill in and submit all the renovation permits to our condominium management for approval. She also gave her contact details to the management so that they could contact her if they needed any clarification. Without her help, it would have been hard for us to liaise with the management about the renovation works.
CH: We had hired our own contractor to do the wallpapering and Joann was very accommodating. Even though it wasn’t within her scope, she made sure that she was on-site to help us to do the overseeing. She really went the extra mile for us.
Qanvast: What was it like working with Joann?
GF: She was very easy to work with. When I told her about the types of lighting that I liked and she did her best to incorporate it into her designs so that I could see how it looked and felt. She would also give us her opinions if she felt that there were better options that would match our home design better.
Qanvast: What were some practical considerations that went into Joann’s designs?
GF: I wanted to store things like luggage under the beds, so she factored in the sizes of our luggage when planning the height of the platform. She also made sure to leave a bit of space at the edge of our platform so that our kids can use that as a step to climb onto their beds.
Qanvast: What did you like best about Joann?
GF: She was very organised. From the moment that we signed the contract, she gave us a clear briefing on the renovation timeline and informed us exactly which renovation works will be carried out during a particular period. In the end, everything went according to what she had mapped out on the timeline.
Like what you see? Check out Space Define Interior's portfolio here.
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