At A Glance
- Heng Wah, 40, civil servant and Vivien, 32, homemaker
- Home to 4 adults and two children
- Size: 146 sqm / 1, 571 sqft
- Location: Pipit Road
- Cost of Renovation: $153,000
- Cost of Furnishing: $28,000
- Interior Design Firm: KDOT Associates
- Interior Designer: Kobe
You know your designer has done a good job when your friends decide to enlist him to replicate aspects of your design in their home. That was a situation which Vivien and Heng Wah found themselves in after their friends saw the beautiful design of their maisonette apartment and wanted to have a similar design for their home.
We sit down for a chat with the couple and get them to share more about the ‘wow’ areas in their home.
Qanvast: What were your thoughts going into the renovation?
Vivien (V): As our family has expanded, we wanted a spacious home so our children can have enough space to play and everyone can live comfortably. Therefore, we needed an interior designer to help us with the space planning of our home as we didn’t had the time to oversee the process.
Qanvast: Tell us about your search for an interior designer.
V: I used the Qanvast app as I can view the interior design projects of many interior design firms and get a sense of the average budget for homes of a certain size. We saw KDOT Associates’ projects on Qanvast and we found that their designs were quite interesting so we set up a meeting with them. During the meeting, I discovered that the designer, Kobe, was my former colleague! Since his designs met our requirements and there was mutual trust between us, we did not meet any other designers and decided to proceed with Kobe.
Qanvast: As a couple, how did the both of you coordinate during the renovation?
Heng Wah (HW): We drew the line very clearly – I am in charge of the finances and planning the layout, while my wife is responsible for the aesthetic aspects. We decided on this as we do not want to have any conflicts [laughs].
Qanvast: How was it like working with Kobe on the design of your home?
V: I told Kobe that I wanted a clean-looking home with a white and grey colour palette. I also told him that I like light-coloured wood. With this in mind, he came up with a design for my home which incorporates his trademark of using black as an accent colour. I quite like the black accents as I find that it adds a sense of freshness to my home.
Qanvast: What do you like best about Kobe’s design?
HW: Kobe created a few ‘wow’ areas in our home. One of them are the swings on the upper deck, the other is the staircase and the third is the entryway into our home – I like how he incorporated a folding bar area there.
V: I like that Kobe implemented a lot of hidden storage in our home. Recently, I even discovered a hidden cabinet behind our bathroom mirror!
Qanvast: How was working with Kobe like?
HW: He is responsive. Whenever there were any changes that needed to be made, he would get it done efficiently.
V: During the renovation period, I saw him on site many times overseeing the renovation works such as the running of the pipes and the wiring. He even helped with shortlisting things such as the laminate. That was very helpful of him as there are too many available options and we were unsure which ones would complement the design of our home.
Qanvast: How did you childproof your home?
V: Besides minimising the number of sharp edges on our furniture, we also kept furniture to a minimum. This was why we made the decision not to buy a coffee table yet as children tend to run about and may hurt themselves if they knock into the coffee table.
Qanvast: Were there any other things that you did to make your home child-friendly?
V: No sharp edge for furniture, and we kept furniture to a minimum. We opted for push opening systems instead of handles for our cabinets so that kids won’t hit into them when they run. We also requested for the platform of our bed to be lowered to a level where our son can easily climb onto our bed.
HW: We used odourless paint for the walls in our home. This type of paint is washable so we can remove any drawings that our son makes on the walls.
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