$120K Renovation for a Cozy & Warm Home
1052
Virtual House Tour
- Modern Luxury
- HDB (Resale)
- ~900 sqft
- 3 br
- Couple Living
Hi everyone! We are @ourdarklavender and are delighted to be part of Season 6 Ideas by HipVan! First thing first, an introduction of us and our home! We are a couple with a small dog, currently living in our newly renovated 20-year-old 4 room resale flat at Lavender. We started off not having a specific theme for the house, but we did have ideas on what kind of 'vibes' or style we would like for our home - cozy and warm, with use of walnut wood, neutral & gray tone. We also incorporated smart lighting for the house - not only we can control them through classic switches, we are able to control and adjust the temperature and brightness of lightings through the app. On top of this, curves are being used to soften the ambience of the house. 
So this is the original floor plan obtained from HDB. At first look, we already knew that we want to do away with the 'hallway' in between bedroom 2 and bedroom 3, as it is space-wasting in our opinion. And this is the finalised floorplan, jointly created by us and our ID. We removed the hallway, and sort of combine bedroom 2 and the main bedroom. And because of this, the study room is able to fit in two 1.5m tables with plenty of space left! Also, while we have quite a number of built-in carpentry, we make sure to have loose furnitures for our study room (orginal bedrom 3), in case we need the room for other usage in future. This aside, our living room + dining area is customised based on our habits as well - we would watch TV while we dine; and when our friends and family visited us in our rental apartment previously, we spend most of the time at the dining area, and hence the dining place becomes the center of the living room. Lastly, this floorplan is also customised based on fengshui rules and advices. 
Okay, let's start the house tour! Our requirement for a digital door lock is to have a face scanning feature, and multiple modes of entry - e.g. mechanical key, password. As such, the best option for us is Aqara D200i, as it also complements our Yeelight Pro Smart Home series. However, one thing to note is that it does not have a synchronised metal gate digital door lock. Yet it is not a requirement for us - in fact we did not want a synchronised one as we have a little dog, and hence an unsynchronised one actually works better for us in case the door lock fails and both doors open at once! (paranoid pawrents here! hahaha) But anyway it might not have been a concern afterall as our ID has helped to installed the mechanism to entry the door is always slam shut at all times. We actually have CCTV sockets planned on the ceiling, but in the meantime we are still leaving our CCTV on the ledge. And again, it is from Aqara! It also functions as an IR blaster which could control our aircon. And yes - the water fountain is part of the fengshui advices for HUATS! Also, for the keen eyes - yes our door is tilted, due to fengshui recommendations as well. Our home also faces a general direction of North so we do not have east or west sun as well! Here is the entryway of our kitchen. We wanted the kitchen door to be further out but due to stove placement (fengshui) requirement we needed to shift the door in - which end up giving us dry and wet kitchen separation, which we love as well. For the fridge we decided to go with this mirror version as other choices didn't have the shades of gray we wanted. Also drawer-style fridge is so much easier use! For the microwave and oven, we decided to go ahead with Tecno for the colours they have. Also when we select the size we made sure it is a common size that is easy to find and replace if we need in future. Next up, we have the entryway to our bedroom. We wanted a feature wall with hidden door that leads towards our bedroom for a more 'blended' look. Also because our living room is pretty small, a hidden door will elongate the look of the living room. And we are glad to say our ID delivered this piece well. And this is how it looks like when it is opened. The grey door leads towards our study room, which we will visit later on. 
Before we proceed to the bedroom, let's take a moment to appreciate this Apple HomePod Mini which allows us to control the lightings in the house using verbal commands. It could also announce the time, set timer, etc. This is how it looks like from outside when the door is opened! The fluted panel provides some privacy to the room as the bedhead faces the door. (also a fengshui requirement, haha) Initially we wanted just a huge piece of fluted panel but unfortunately the lift couldnt fit so it has to be done in two separate pieces. But i guess it still looks good in the end. There is also a gap between the door and fluted panel - so perhaps if we want to in future, we could have little cabinet there to put some deco items? 
This is our bedroom (day view / natural lighting view). We had a customised bedhead done and got a bed with a bedhead (talk about extra hahahha) but we want a cozy comfy look and hence we decided to go ahead with this double bedhead look. 
and this is how it looks like at night when we turn on the lights. and yes this is our display picture for now! So the master bedroom is linked to our wardrobe room. Not too much wardrobe space which could encourage us not to over-purchase clothes... we hope! Also the request of putting in a full body (3/4 circle) mirror worked out super well, along with the light strips + black glass and open shelves. Our dressing table, steamer, as well as a spinning machine are also in this room. Those are loose items that can be shifted around - and should we need to utilise out study room for other purposes in future, this room could fit in one more table near the window as well. And lastly we have our study. This is still a work-in-progress area but we have to say we super love this cabinet purchase from Taobao. Not in picture (the other side of this room) are our 1.5m study tables and chairs. Love this lighting's marbling too! And speaking about light - amazing light show through the blinds in our living room every evening.
- 19 July
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