Tips On Designing And Renovating Your First Home

Congratulations on buying your first home! You can now transform your house into the house of your dream. Most of the house owners prefer to engage interior designer to let the experts design and focus on other life priorities, but you chose to design and renovate your first home.

Not only you get to save money but you got to add touch and designs that you have longed for into your new home. If your first home is a HDB unit, you have to be careful and familiar with the HDB guides as there are regulations which you will need to follow. But, if your first house is a condo in Queenstown, you can do as you please. Here’s some tips for designing and renovating your first home.

Colour

Pick a colour scheme by creating a palate of your favourite colours, from the wall to the flooring to the furniture that will complement and suit your mood. Do you know the colours of your walls in different rooms set different vibes and moods? For example, choosing baby blue for living room sets a calm and relax mood, yellow or orange colour is help increase appetite in the kitchen or dining room and so on.

In fengshui, it is believed that the bright colour used at home brings positive qi and dark colours, like black, darker brown or grey, brings negative qi as it sets gloomy vibe in the room. Dark colours are often associated with death and dull, so prevent dark colours at home. There’s even a guide for home colour scheme and their significance purposes.

Lighting

It is important for the house to look bright as it feels homely and warmth, lighting really plays a big part for the house. Although day time we can rely on the natural lighting from the windows and the bright colours that enhance the brightness but how about night time? You will need to install some lights in each room and you can mix and match the lights to get brighten up. It even helps to serve as a decoration with the light they emit to shine on your furniture or enhances the interior feels with the lights as the deco.

Be sure to know the lights’ direction if you want to light up certain dark spot in the study room or living room. On living room’s lights, check the number of lights needed based on the size of your living room. If it’s big, add some lights to brighten up and you can use bigger lightings like chandelier. For smaller rooms, you can use compact spotlights as it looks better.

Cabinets and Kitchen Island

Storage is important to keep your things organized and hidden. You may want to consider installing built-in cabinets in your condominium though some developer may have provided cabinets. This particular tips will cost you more as the cabinets would need to be measured by your contractors to fit your kitchen, bedrooms, living rooms and etc. However, costs can be flexible depending on the materials used, colours and quality.

As for the kitchen island, it’s getting trendy to build a kitchen island in the house as it strengthens the bond by using an open concept. Be sure to get trustable contacts from family or friends to recommend the best contractors around your area. You can add more storage to your kitchen island, now that’s what we call space efficient.

Carpets

Adding carpets in your room to create a focal point elevates the style of your house’s floors. Not only it gives warmth and texture, it also adds a psychological divider as well especially in between the living room and kitchen or dining room. It adds comforts to your life too. For bedrooms, you can pick some stylish and softer ones to soften the mood.

Bold ones are more suitable for living rooms that enhance the liveliness and activeness as it brings the jolly and active moods. Again, if you’re choosing carpets, make sure it is going along with your colour palate so your carpets don’t look awkward.

Furniture

If your condominium is in Queenstown or Changi, take a quick stroll to IKEA to get inspired for your furniture arrangements with different themes. Your choice of furniture decides your taste and style of your house. Do not skimp on sofas as it is one of the main piece the moment you step into your living room. Get a decent sofa set that match your colour palate or the theme you set for and make sure your coffee table matches your sofa set.

Besides, place some antique wood décor or furniture to uplift the style of elegance and soften the modernity of your home. For instance, get a worn leather couch, rustic coffee table and rug to bring the warmth to a white space – see how the furniture matches the wall colour. That’s how you should match it. Another instance, you can use marble top table to match your light blue or light green wall to give it elegance style.

Have fun designing your first home!

19 comments

Mimi Azirah13 March 2018 at 12:39
Absolutely agreed. Semua tios di atas sgt penting bila nak design dan renovate rumah.pilihan colour kena tepat dan sesuai.kalau tak nanti jadi buruk pulak rumah tuh nantikan
Hasif Hamsyari13 March 2018 at 12:43
wahh bagus betul tips ni! saya selalu skrol instagram, bilik atau ruang rumah yang saya suka saya akan save. suka tengok konsep design rumah yang simple dan minimalis tapi cantik. hihi
Ainyy Zain13 March 2018 at 13:10
dah lama cari tips macamni sebab ainy suka hias rumah tapi kadang nampak pelik je. so this tips sangat berguna untuk ainy. thank you share. :)
Amanda Suria13 March 2018 at 13:18
Im not that expert or creative to choose concept especially colour or design, normally i just hire the expert to do on behalf me..hahaha..that bad ha..agree with Hasif..nowadays concept minimalis is the most popular and i'm thinking to change and do minor reno with that concept..
Ezna Ahmad Khalili13 March 2018 at 13:27
Tips yang sangat bagus untuk mereka yang nak masuk rumah baru. Kekadang bila tengok rumah orang cun design sekian sekian tapi bila try apply kat rumah sendiri macam tak kena. Kena panggil expert jugak la.
Qbal Ramlan13 March 2018 at 13:40
Nice tips. Mmg kalau nak decorate rumah tu kena tengok dulu kesesuaian dan cita rasa. Bal are more too yg simple, nice, dan soft gold adalah warna fav, sebab nampak grand dan mewah.
Afizah Abd Rahman13 March 2018 at 14:04
Good info and thanks for sharing. Banyak benda nak kena fikir bila nak renovate rumah ni. Especially kos. Kalau pandai, boleh design and renovate sendiri ☺
The Smell of Coffee13 March 2018 at 14:34
Great tips..with the feng shui effect really useful for someone who really info this..renovation nowadays really such a pain and with all this really make us more prepare
Betty Liew13 March 2018 at 14:47
I usually will refer to magazine for some idea on how to decorate my house. I need good lighting so that I can use it for photo. You know, as blogger lighting is important to us so I seldom buy yellow lighting at my room.
Shesyira As13 March 2018 at 16:36
Thanks for the tips.I always refer to pinterest for decoration ideas hihi
Zharif Azis13 March 2018 at 16:53
When lah can i experience this. Decorating my house and go buy furnitures for my home. Choosing the right theme color is very important coz it will affect the mood of the house. Gonna use ur tips when i get to own a house one day
Bella Jamal13 March 2018 at 21:16
Kadang-kadang sampai diri sendiri pening nak pilih dan sesuaikan warna apa. Biasa memang selalu dapatkan inspirasi dekat IKEA tu sebab cantik sangat susun atur, color scheme etc. Kalau senang ada duit banyak tiru je bulat2 macm tu. Hehe.
alia farhan Said14 March 2018 at 00:54
I agreed with u..
There's so much things to decide the design, concept, budget n etc. Ikea is one of the biggest funiture shop that provide varities of concept dat we can design ourself n referring to our budget.
Syafiera Yamin14 March 2018 at 02:15
Bila baca tips ni,

teringat masa awal-awal pindah masuk ke dalam rumah baru,

dengan bajet yang tak seberapa banyak,

i dan husband ambil mana yang mampu sahaja,

kami prefer lampu led instead yang jenis fluorescent tu,

bentuk bulat kecil nampak lebih elegan instead of lampu panjang,

kipas kami ambil yang modern look with 5 bilah..

tapi kipas siling we all ada satu 2 je, bilik utama dan ruang tamu,

masih belum lengkap lagi sebenarnya,

kena ikut bajet kalau terover bajet pening pula hehehe...

apa pun thanks for the tips ;)
Jia Shin Lee14 March 2018 at 02:16
Great tips there, I love designing my own home and I'll take the time and effort, these are really good points to consider.
Hanny Abdullah14 March 2018 at 02:24
Sis tak mahir sgt bab design2 rumah ni..senang pakai interior designer je tapi cr yg murah2 je lah..hehehe.
Emas Putih14 March 2018 at 12:43
Thanks for the tips ! Insyaallah nanti rumah pertama tak perlu upah interioir designer sbb smua pon boleh buat sendiri kan .
Aliff Zainal14 March 2018 at 14:01
This would be so my tips for my soonest dream home (well its far to go). Maybe i start saving up money for my future home and follow these tips.
Rabiatul Adawiyah15 March 2018 at 08:29
Deko rumah memang best. Tapi bergantung kepada wang yang kita ada dan perbelanjaan yang kita perlukan. Nanti Ikat perut demi rumah cantik. Sekarang zaman kita mudah sebab ada banyak kedai DIY, IKEA, dan online beli barang hiasan. Beli sikit-sikit asalkan ikot tema yang disukai. Tapi manusia ni kejap-kejap mood lain kan. So, buat bilik tema lain, ruang tamu tema lain supaya bleh kreativiti tu efek pada mood harian kita. Kena refer tips ni supaya tak tersasar. Hehe