Apologies on not keeping on track with our Home updates! But we thought of explaining why we have been quiet on our home renovation process. The first reason is because we have been too busy at work (oops!). Also, we are not satisfied with some of the work done by the carpenter / ID company. Which is why, we have edited one of our previous entries and removed any names mentioned about the company.

As you know by now, we are not being sponsored by any companies whatsoever. So our blog posts are 100% real and honest feedback on what we went through for our wedding planning, actual day wedding, and home application processes. Naturally, we felt that since a part of our home renovation failed to last a few months since we moved in and after 4 unsuccessful rounds of them touching up the affected area, we do not wish to recommend the company to our readers for now. When we searched for an Interior Designer to replace our contractor, prompt service and good workmanship were the 2 main ingredients we were looking for in the company. Unfortunately, prompt is not an accurate word to describe the service right now (at the start, yes), and the workmanship was lacking in several areas throughout our renovation process, which we will touch on in a later entry.


Getting our home furnished

We requested for built-in cabinets in various parts of the house since we could maximize space by creating floor to ceiling furnishing. This was done for the shoe cabinet (plus altar) and wardrobes for both our master bedroom and the guest room. Other cabinets that we got them built-in was the TV console and some book shelf space above the living room TV.

If you've read our earlier Home entries, you would also know that our resale flat came with our kitchen already done up, and most of the toilet accessories had already been fitted in. Well the good thing is that we did not have to spend money to do it up, but the bad thing is that we had to stick with what we didn't like if we didn't want to spend money to tear it down and build it again! We chose to keep it and spend money on other areas that needed reno works, since the design was not that an eye sore any way!


What we were left to buy:

• Sofa
• Bed
• Dining Table and chairs
• "Balcony" Table and chairs
• Coffee table
• Ceiling fans
• Kitchen ceiling light
• Kitchen hob
• Water heaters and taps
• Racks for the storeroom
• Office / Gym room furnishing
• Home appliances
• Curtains / Blinds

Our Queen sized bed was our first buy before we got our home because we moved in to live with Ben's family after our wedding. We chose a queen instead of a king as we felt that it would be a more practical buy since we were not sure how big our master bedroom would be. Also, due to space constraints since we were sharing a room with Ben's younger brother for a few months.

With Ben's elder sister's recommendation, we decided on the Englander Queen sized bed frame that came with storage space, and topped up a couple of hundreds for a firmer mattress. The storage was perfect since we had limited storage options in our shared space for the first few months! The storage space under our bed now houses our luggage bags (4 of them!), Christmas tree and decor. Basically, things we don't need to use that often. Pretty sure we can fit more things in here!



Similarly, we didn't want a fabric headboard so we opted for one that was waterproof and easier to clean / maintain.



Getting a good bed is important. We've experienced mattresses in hotels that were too soft or springy, which gave us terribly backaches the next morning.




Thanks to our friends, Nikki and Shane, they recommended us to visit Comfort Furniture and we have been recommending this place to many of our friends, family and readers!!! Apart from home furnishing, they also sell office and restaurant furnishings. You need to check out this space, quite a few items similar to Courts yet at cheaper rates. So here's what we got from there...

The colour scheme for our home is towards the white-brown-beige palette so we wanted to get a table which had brown legs. Wasn't difficult to find that at Comfort furniture. We settled on the Putin Glass Dining table which came with a clear tempered glass top and rubberwood base.

Because we like hosting gatherings at our place, we wanted a longer table that could fit more guests at meals (or poker nights. Haha). Hence we got them to customize our table to 1.8m (or was it 1.9m) length! You can also request for the corners of the table top to be curved instead of sharp edged, so that it will be more childproof.



We had a bit of trouble finding chairs we both liked till Ben found a design that was on clearance! We paid only $100+ per chair and decided to just get 4, since on most days, it is just the 2 of us. On occasions when we would need more chairs, we would take out the foldable ones from IKEA, which we keep in our storeroom. Our home has a total of 13 chairs around the house, 14, if you include the piano bench. Haha.


Since we decided to do wooden decking at our "balcony", we bought the Alcorn table and 2 chairs and it has been a great spot whenever Mel's girlfriends come over for tea / wine, and also for our Sunday stay home breakfasts. We topped up for a glass top, so that it would be easier to clean.



At Comfort furniture, we also bought this set of 3 tables - Tempo 3-in-1 coffee tables. We saw something similar at IKEA and Courts but the price was not that reasonable at that time, not sure about now. What we love about this set of tables is that we could store them at the corner when we are not using them. This gives us more walking space in our living room. Also, we realized that it's not easy to tell your guests to remove their feet / legs from your coffee table. Haha! Isn't it? Most homes with a fixed coffee table near the sofa ends up being a foot rest!





For lights and fans, kitchen and toilet accessories, we found a place located at Kaki Bukit called Sense & Bedeck that sells them at affordable prices! We are not sure if they are still at the same location (address at the end of this entry) as when we visited previously. We actually bought some of our toilet accessories elsewhere before Mel's student's father recommended us to this place.

To save space at home, we opted for ceiling fans instead of standing ones. All 4 rooms plus the dining room at home now have ceiling fans which comes with an attached light, while the one in the living room doesn't since the previous owner had already installed ceiling lights and we wanted to keep that.

The ceiling fans we got from Sense & Bedeck were about $100 cheaper than other retail shops and they had a variety for us to choose from.

We also bought our kitchen hob and some toilet accessories here.

Photo courtesy of our friend who used the same contact for her office space.

Venetian Blinds

Venetian blinds were a mistake. Sure they look pretty but it's more difficult to clean the dust collected on the blinds. We've tried several methods and have resorted to keep the blinds up instead, which makes the living room much brighter now! Also, doing venetian blinds didn't help in absorbing sound in the piano room. We should have opted for curtains instead.

Korean Blinds