Renders vs. Reality: What My Home Really Looks Like
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- Minimalist
- HDB (BTO)
- ~1,000 sqft
- 3 br
- Couple Living
As our home's renovation was mainly done in our kitchen, we only had 3d rendering by our PM for our kitchen only. This was our latest rendering done after many changes and removal of carpentry to remove costs. This was how it looked like after renovation was completed in our kitchen. Admittedly, it did not turn out as how I imagined - the feeling of raw materials/wabi-sabi. It felt more industrial and cold. Because of that, I decided to paint the kitchen walls the same warm colour as the rest of my home to tie in the warmth into the kitchen. If I could decide again, I probably would have chosen a warmer tone laminate for my cabinets instead of this cool shade. 
Because we agreed to last minute changes in the kitchen carpentry as advised by the carpenter (which we should not have done), it has entirely realigned our entire setup above our countertop such as our kitchen hood, and our line8 power tracks. We really regretted agreeing to this last minute change as we trusted in our PM to have thought through the ramifications of such a decision. 
This was when everything was completed. As you can see, instead of having more counter space nearer to our sink, we had more on the other side which caused misalignments in everything above. In addition, we now have mini casement cabinets in between our oven that is impractical to have. It measures about 11cm width internally which is impossible to find a suitable storage solution unless it is customised. We would have preferred 1 larger casement cabinet vs many tiny cabinets for the flexibility to move around the space. Because of the misalignment, we weren't able to install our entire set of IKEA KUNGSFORS like we wanted as per the 3d render. We were so upset by this. Instead, we could only install half of the shelves we intended to have. 
This is a 3d design that I designed myself on an app and also based on our current living room design. We do ultimately hope to be able to incorporate more colours into our space one at a time. There will be lots more DIYs to come as we transition into a more eclectic home. 
This is currently how our living room looks now. It does still feel cosy and homely, but we are definitely ready for a change! I think this is the beauty of having loose furnishings - being able to constantly change up our space as we go through life. Overall, I think we did well with what we could with our limited budget. Despite having disappointments with our kitchen reno, we don't harp about it too much as we tried our best and learnt so much from this experience. I think it makes us feel better knowing that we both agreed to re-renovate our home again after our 5 years MOP is done. By then, hopefully, we would have more savings and be able to have our dream home. For now, we are content with what have now.
- 10 November
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