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Woof! At Home With Vanillapup

Moving to Punggol is like moving to a new school for @vanillapup's Latte! Navigating around the new parks, picking up scents and even getting to meet new friends, the four-year old Westie terrier couldn't be any more excited.

But after a long day of play, nothing's better than coming back to a comfy crib. So, how does it feel to live like an insta-famous pooch? We take a peek into Latte's piece of doggie heaven, as proud parents Lionel and Sarah share how they designed their pet-friendly space.

Woof! At Home With Vanillapup
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Qanvast: What kind of design did you have in mind for the family?

Sarah (S): The main concept we had in mind was Scandinavian - a concept that is light, bright and airy. And we didn’t want too much built-in carpentry.

We opted for toxic-free vinyl flooring as it is scratch-resistant and easy to clean. Latte is really easy to take care of so there aren’t any special requirements other than space for her to walk around. I had big ideas for the common bathroom so that it’d be easier to bathe her, but due to the cost and lack of experience in doing something like this by our contractor, I scraped the idea in the end.

Woof! At Home With Vanillapup
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Qanvast: Why did you engage a contractor instead of an interior designer?

S: Engaging an interior designer does have its perks. Those that we met offered some good design ideas but it didn’t justify paying a few thousand dollars more - we didn’t want to stray too far from our budget.

Lionel (L): As for carpentry, we only wanted to do the shoe cabinet and the kitchen. We feel that the designers’ expertise is with built-in carpentry and the carpentry we needed was quite straightforward. After weighing what we really need instead of want, we decided to try out a contractor my friend engaged.

Woof! At Home With Vanillapup
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Qanvast: How was it like working with a contractor?

S: As first-time homeowners, it was pretty scary as we worried the design may not turned out as expected. The contractor was good at executing our ideas, but not as much when it came to giving design advice.

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L: There were many things we had to settle on our own, like getting the air-conditioner, paint and the vinyl flooring. We definitely had to do a lot of research to decide on certain matters like the wall colours, laminates and even door hinges.

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Qanvast: Any hands-on moments for your renovation?

L: Yes, for the master bedroom wall. Sarah and I painted the walls - the painters at Nippon wouldn’t take up jobs for half a wall. We started with light blue paint and after the first coat, our bedroom starts to resemble a kindergarten (laughs)! We headed out to get another paint colour. It took us a day just to paint half a wall!

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S: You’ll need a good eye for design if you’re going to do it on your own. My friend chose beautiful patterned tiles for her flooring but after laying it out, it didn’t turn out to what she had expected - it looked nice on it’s own in a catalogue but when laid out, the grainy pattern looked messy.

Woof! At Home With Vanillapup
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Qanvast: How did you feel designing your own home?

S: Apprehensive albeit fun - we didn’t have 3D drawings to work with. We were uninspired by the drawings the contractor did for our friend, so we visualised the design ourselves and crossed our fingers.

Woof! At Home With Vanillapup
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Qanvast: Where did you buy your home furnishings?

L: Our lightings and fans were from a furniture place in Johor. I think quite a lot of Singaporeans actually visit that shop because the sales personnel were familiar with HDB requirements, suggesting what we can or should do given our layout. The service they provided was good too. Pity their lights didn’t last that long. The one we had in our service yard fused quickly.

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S: We also checked out local brands like Castlery, CB2 (before it was closed), and Ethnicraft.


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