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Suffering from Hot Sun in Your Home? Here's a Solution

A fuss-free solution to help you deal with the sweltering heat.

Getting your first home is always something special, and it’s no different for Geraldine and her husband Vincent, the people behind the popular home interior styling Instagram account, The Ochre Home.

While their home had everything they wanted - large space, open layout, bright light - they were still plagued by one issue: it’s West-facing, which means hot afternoon sun everyday. Even with blinds in place, rooms like their study tend to feel like ovens in the afternoons, and they knew that they needed something more to keep the heat at bay.

That’s when they found out about Jestac and their range of 3M Prestige Series Window Films. In our bid to find out more about these films, we spoke to Geraldine about her experience with them, and how it’s changed their home.

Can you tell us more about yourself, your home and how your Instagram account The Ochre Home came about?

Geraldine (G): Hi! I’m Geraldine, and I’m self-employed, doing freelance interior styling and art commission for homes. My husband Vincent is a finance analyst, and we have 2 dogs, June and Luna.

We all live in this executive apartment in Tampines, which we moved into 2 years ago. We initially had a BTO in Tampines, but when this apartment came up for sale, we just thought, “Hey you know what? Let’s just give it up and get this flat instead.” I ended up snapping so many photos of our new home that I needed to offload them into a separate Instagram account, so that’s how The Ochre Home came to be.

Even though we had to forego our BTO deposit, we have no regrets. If we had stuck with it, it wouldn’t even be ready today, and this account wouldn’t have existed!

There seem to be a lot of elements of nature in your home. Why do you like this design concept, and what were your main considerations when you were house-hunting?

G: My parents’ home was an executive apartment, and we knew we wanted a similar-sized home - nothing less than a 5-room flat. What drew us to this apartment was the squarish layout, because there was a lot of potential to open up the space to create an open layout. It didn’t really require much thought, since all it takes to do this is to knock down the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room.

In terms of design choice, it was mainly inspired by our travels. Rather than staying in cities, Vincent and I have always liked to head to the outskirts to do some trekking, so we wanted to incorporate a lot of natural elements in our home to remind us of our time in nature. We were also inspired by the Airbnbs we stayed at during our travels, because most of these homes had a lot of character, and you could tell what they like from things like their books, art, and plants.

We also chose to go with darker browns for the mid-century, luxurious look, which you can’t really achieve with lighter brown tones.

What were some issues you faced with your unit and choice of interior design?

G: We were actually advised against getting this house by our parents, since it had West-facing rooms. But honestly, we didn’t really care about the sun, because it was more about the layout and balcony. Besides, it meant that our house would be really bright, which is good for plants. It’s so bright that we don’t even need a specific place to put our plants, because we can simply just, well, put it anywhere (laughs).

But it does get hot, especially our study room. We usually leave the blinds down and keep the fan on, even when we’re not inside, just so we can minimise the heat. My husband always complains about the heat and says that it feels like an oven.

You must have thought of ways to try and combat the heat. What were some of the considerations you had while choosing a solution?

G: Despite the fact that all our rooms have blinds (yes, even our balcony), rooms like our study room, which bears the brunt of the afternoon sun, still felt warm. Our parents advised us to go for tinted windows to prevent our furniture from fading due to the sun’s UV rays, but we didn’t want to darken the house.

And honestly, we weren’t keen on getting window films at first, because we thought that they were all either grey or black, which would darken our home and look out of place. We’d rather deal with the heat than prevent natural light from entering our home.

You eventually decided to go with the 3M Prestige Series Window Film. What drew you to it, and why did you eventually choose to get it installed in your home?

3M Prestige Series Window Films. From left to right: PR20, PR40, PR50, PR60, PR70

G: We were drawn to them because of the transparent films they had, with different opacity levels. But even though they’re transparent, they’re still able to filter out most of the heat which works as effectively as darkly tinted films.

We installed PR70 (the lightest film) everywhere and PR60 (a slightly darker one) in our study room to reduce more heat. And we can really feel the difference, especially in our study room - it doesn’t feel like an oven anymore, thankfully!

What was the installation process like, and is there any maintenance required on your end to keep it working well?

G: We were quite impressed! It took about 2 hours for them to do the entire house, and it was a clean and fast installation. They were also very careful about it, seeing the way they laid out plastic sheets on the floor and our furniture to prevent any damage or messes.

They also pointed out to me that because our windows had existing bumps and scratches, there may be some air bubbles in the film after installing it. But even after the installation was done, there were no air bubbles that we could see. It’s almost as if the film wasn’t there!

Have there been any changes in your home after installing it?

G: Well, we couldn’t tell the difference at first because it was cold and rainy after we installed them. But when it became sunny again, the house really felt quite different.

For our study room, we used to have our blinds down and leave the fan on, even when we’re not using the room. But now, we don’t do that anymore, since it doesn’t feel as hot. We don’t even need to put the blinds down in the afternoon, and even if we leave the fan off, it won’t be warm after we come back.

It was also quite warm in our kitchen, in which we spend a lot of time since that’s where we do the laundry, and it’s also where our dogs do their business. We’d always be sweating whenever we’re in that area, but ever since the film was installed, it doesn’t feel as hot anymore, and the floor, which was initially warm to the touch, is much cooler.

Would you recommend the 3M Prestige Series Window Film to homeowners?

G: 100% recommended! Especially if you don’t like dark-tinted window films, these ones reject heat and light (but not until the point that your house becomes dark), and it really worked out for us. The film also comes with a warranty period of up to 15 years – backed directly by Jestac and 3M Singapore, so you’ll have some peace of mind down the road.

Our advice to homeowners: get the film from the start, especially if you live in West or East-facing units. Don’t wait a few years like we did, because we really suffered under the heat. Our furniture hasn’t started fading yet, since we’ve only been in this home for 2 years, but if we had known about these window films from the start, maybe we could’ve kept the fading at bay from the very beginning.

Contact Jestac to install the 3M Prestige Series Window Film in your homes today!

Being the only authorised distributor of 3M Window Films, Jestac is your go-to for all your installation needs. And now, you can even get 20% off the 3M Prestige Series Window Film! From now to 31 October 2021, snag that discount by quoting “Ochre Home” when you Whatsapp Jestac at +65 8332 2912!

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