Any Interior Design Firms to recommend?

[condovshdb]

1) No need change floor tiles, therefore no need waterproofing
2) Size no matter so long your toilet can accommodate, take note of the "size" of your P trap or S trap, measuring from the wall to the middle of the trap.

my resale condo unit comes with Geberit wall hung toilet bowls

can i ask, will it be more costly to replace them?
and must i use back the same brand?

 

[Sojourner-]

Hi all, I am new here. Can check with you all how is haulage calculated? I have three quotations and the haulage fees quoted by diff firms are significantly different, from one in the hundreds, to another $1200 and a $2800. But the one who quoted $2800 priced almost every item in quotation cheaper than the other two. Any advise?

In the quotation, if I dun see any ID fee, it means it is inclusive in the quotation?

Thanks a lot.

 

[sherica]

Hi all, I am new here. Can check with you all how is haulage calculated? I have three quotations and the haulage fees quoted by diff firms are significantly different, from one in the hundreds, to another $1200 and a $2800. But the one who quoted $2800 priced almost every item in quotation cheaper than the other two. Any advise?

In the quotation, if I dun see any ID fee, it means it is inclusive in the quotation?

Thanks a lot.

thats quite normal. different ID companies mark up different kind of thing and yes if you dont see ID fees in your final quote means included inside already or they just park it under "professional services" portion.

 

[sherica]

Does anyone engage Chapter 13 Interior Design? Going to visit their showroom tomorrow~

How about WeiKen.com? Saw a lot of bad reviews, but when we talk to one of their ID am feeling ok...

if you go for mass market ID like weiken, absolook and casa etc how good they are depend on your luck which ID you get assigned to. most of this companies have over 100 IDs

 

[albertchan659]

Wa my friend almost went to meet with this firm previously. Lucky i remember i saw their company name was mentioned somewhere then i found this: https://www.hometrust.sg/interior-designers/haqq-creations/review/3364

Really is super cnmi, pity the homeowner who engaged that company man

 

[albertchan659]

my resale condo unit comes with Geberit wall hung toilet bowls

can i ask, will it be more costly to replace them?
and must i use back the same brand?

No need to use back same brand, but to replace there certainly will be a cost. Mostly depending on the style which you want to change to

 

[Beta_Tester]

I have replied all with quotes n also done the viewings.

 

[AikiBoy]

lately i saw ad on this one call "i-chapter"

anyone tried? good?

 

[edwonder]

Not sure if anyone asked/answered before, i used qanvast as a platform to find ID, just curious how true are those reviews? Like can the firm delete those bad ones? Lol

Thinking between these 2 now - carpenters匠 and SHE interior.

Anyone happen to use them before/using them?
Can share? Tia~

 

[hosehbo?]

hello guys, getting keys to my resale in a month's time.

place is newly mop and pretty well renovated to our liking so not planning to do major renovations.

might look to do some light renovations like

- painting of the place
- re-laminate some of the carpentry (heard of 3m di-noc but not sure whats the cost like)
- maybe change toilet bowl (very undecided on this)
- add countertop in service yard on top of washing machine/dryer


so far these are the stuff we've thought of but not confirm yet as we might want to decide after taking our keys.

my question is, with such small scale items, will it be better to approach individual contractors? if so, any recommendations especially for laminating of the carpentry?

 

[dilphinus]

hello guys, getting keys to my resale in a month's time.

place is newly mop and pretty well renovated to our liking so not planning to do major renovations.

might look to do some light renovations like

- painting of the place
- re-laminate some of the carpentry (heard of 3m di-noc but not sure whats the cost like)
- maybe change toilet bowl (very undecided on this)
- add countertop in service yard on top of washing machine/dryer


so far these are the stuff we've thought of but not confirm yet as we might want to decide after taking our keys.

my question is, with such small scale items, will it be better to approach individual contractors? if so, any recommendations especially for laminating of the carpentry?

3m dinoc is a sticker, not a laminate. Carpenters usually don't like to stripe and do re-lamination. Laminate and stickers are different.

Can just change the WC covers. No need to change the entire bowl.

 

[Nethergate]

Can PM me the name of ID ?

This is the third time renovating my house but it is the worst experience ever. We approached them for quotations as they were having promotions in August 2020. Before we signed, the ID were all smiles and friendly and kept pressurizing us to sign. we went ahead with them as their was the lowest quote among the few we went too. However, it seems the attitude changed after we signed the contract. The ID could not even give us ideas on the design after telling them what we wanted for the house. All the designs were from us and even when choosing the laminates, he could not even give recommendations. We thought being such a reputable company, their quality and workmanship will be good. I guess I was wrong. The laminate grains were done wrongly, there was uneven in the laminates, screws were missing from every hinge. Worse of all, they drilled into my water pipe while installing the kitchen cabinets. Ended up, more restoration works to be done to my unit. ID was slow in responding and as compared to when we first met him, he didn't even bother to say "Hi" or "Bye" to us anymore. He will just walk off after meeting us. Until now, still doing rectifications.

 

[babywoolf]

Just to share about my ID company

This is the third time renovating my house but it is the worst experience ever. We approached them for quotations as they were having promotions in August 2020. Before we signed, the ID were all smiles and friendly and kept pressurizing us to sign. we went ahead with them as their was the lowest quote among the few we went too. However, it seems the attitude changed after we signed the contract. The ID could not even give us ideas on the design after telling them what we wanted for the house. All the designs were from us and even when choosing the laminates, he could not even give recommendations. We thought being such a reputable company, their quality and workmanship will be good. I guess I was wrong. The laminate grains were done wrongly, there was uneven in the laminates, screws were missing from every hinge. Worse of all, they drilled into my water pipe while installing the kitchen cabinets. Ended up, more restoration works to be done to my unit. ID was slow in responding and as compared to when we first met him, he didn't even bother to say "Hi" or "Bye" to us anymore. He will just walk off after meeting us. Until now, still doing rectifications.

Can PM me the ID firm and ID name? Thanks

 

[cookiemonstereo]

Anyone engaged lemonfridge, jialux or charlotte’s carpentary before? Any review?

lemon fridge studio and charlotte's carpentry are also part of my shortlisted!

recently also came across 1618design on instagram..

has anybody engaged any of the above before?

 

[cookiemonstereo]

I have the exact same problems with both of you too. Defects picked up by me, and I suspect my ID didn't do any site visit inspection too. The industry is damn cow boy. Personally Im not going to let my ID off so easily. I hired those professional inspection firm to inspect the renovation and they picked up some stuff that a layman consumer like me wouldn't know is defect. And if I dont hire professional defects inspector to check, I wouldn't even know these things, and if my ID dont tell me all these, I take it as they are mis-selling me, a fraud. Stuff like

- The rubber lining around the window panel having a gap and not end to end
- hollow floor tiles
- kitchen cabinet doors not aligned
- kitchen cabinet drawer not even
- kitchen cabinet soft close doesn't close fully
- The Blum drawer system bar installed inverted
- Oven installed slanted
- Oven switch causes power trip
- Wall plastering badly done
- Painting job missed out some places
- Shower screen handle bar installed slanted
- toilet floor tiles uneven
- not to mention the project is severely delayed
- and quite a bit of poor workmanship here and there

These are just some things. We are all working people, if they are professionals, I really cannot understand how these kind of things can happen.

understand it's been a while, hope you can pm me both the ID firm and the inspector firm & name as well!!
thank you!

 

[pureice]

Hi guys! Anyone use Swiss interior before? Any reviews??

 

[hmsweethm]

Hi guys! Anyone use Swiss interior before? Any reviews??

https://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/78756-swiss-interior-design-pte-ltd/

some companies are good but lousy id.
when I choose a reno company, I look for reviews and the likes. If the company is setup like 5years ago and have less than a certain amount of likes, then probably those likes are from friends and relatives. And I will not choose them.

 

[pureice]

https://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/78756-swiss-interior-design-pte-ltd/

some companies are good but lousy id.
when I choose a reno company, I look for reviews and the likes. If the company is setup like 5years ago and have less than a certain amount of likes, then probably those likes are from friends and relatives. And I will not choose them.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[lazibum]

anybody heard or review about Plus 65 design?

 

[cookiemonstereo]

I chance upon this forum because I was looking for a new apartment to buy, while exploring this forum I found this to be closes to my passion, interior design.

I have been doing both residential and commercial for more than 20 years and what I found problems in most residential projects are this:

1) Clients/Owners are torn between choosing an ID vs Contractor, why? One of the biggest reasons is cost. At the same time, by choosing a premium service (ID) doesn’t equal to less headache. They then have to sieved out the good and the average.
2) Design/Creativity is another issue. Most of the design here are generic, (aka copy and paste). The better designers will morph into something that clients like. Those top tier design will draw inspirations from clients needs, couple with functionality. However, that takes time and patience which now a day many clients lack, which I can understand.
3) Expectation, this happens when communications are not clear or transparent during the selection period which results in disappointment and dissatisfaction during delivery. To lower this risk, client/owners need to know and understand the basic mechanism how the industry work, especially for residential. Sometime clients/owner will be taken in by those snake oil salesmen pretending to be a Designer. An industry sad story because of supply and demand.
4) My own conclusion is local qualified interior designers are not getting those recognition they deserved. A lot of those reputation are tarnish by salesman disguise as “interior designers” hence putting a bad name on this industry.

Therefore, I have decided to put in a little effort of my contribution to this industry by giving people real solution with their interior design need absolutely free, yes free. Because its free, there are certain conditions:

1) I will only consult those with major renovation, example revamping the whole house whether is it HDB, Condo, Landed. This type of project will involve many mechanisms which most owners do not have the knowledge or the time to deal with it.
2) Each design brief session will not take more than 1.5 hrs.
3) I will only take in 1 or 2 people a month that requires this free service subject to my time.
4) I will only do space planning & designs (no artist impression), interviewing of your pre-selector contractor and giving them construction solutions.
5) 2D drawings of proposal can be given so you could show when choosing your contractors. The reason why I don’t want to recommend contractors is conflict of interest and of course will invite unnecessary comments for those who are skeptical of my intention.

I came out of retirement years ago as I need to find something to do beside golfing and travelling. Now that travelling is limited, I was telling myself why not help those people which I can contribute with my knowledge.

I can't upload any images yet, so you could email me for more information. sorogsoro@gmail.com

hi sir, would like to ask your advice on this since you have years of experience in this industry.

am still deciding if we should go with just contractor or an ID.
so far, a number of people telling me we should go for contractor only since we already know the kind of design/concept we want. we have been marking out on the floor plans what we want to do, doing mood boards for each rooms and also been shortlisting the furniture/appliances etc). have been doing quite a bit of research but i feel like we dont know enough to just go with a contractor?

but like you said, nowadays there are a lot of salesmen ID which is not what we need.
what we need is for someone with experience to reduce margin for errors, tell us if something works or doesnt work, or if something is impractical or if there is a better way to do things and why. bonus if able to help narrow down design choices like should we go for this/that and any pros/cons that we might not see etc (i say bonus because i feel maybe this is something we can still research on and ask in a forum like this if necessary).

would a contractor be sufficient? or still better to go with an ID? i still see the value in hiring an ID but im not sure if it's worth the extra cost.

thanks in advance for your advice!!