BTO Renovation Diary: 10 hacks that I learnt from renovating my HDB

My partner and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary as official homeowners, with our family of 3 moving into our freshly renovated 4-room resale HDB unit in 2022.

We purchased this considerably new unit which was completed in 2015, knowing that we did not want to spend too much on renovation and had planned to keep as many original fittings as possible. 

Our total renovation cost ended up being close to $30,000.

The 2 toilets and the kitchen were overhauled, with some hacking works to the existing carpentry, and a spanky new wardrobe constructed for us. We kept the vinyl flooring as it is in the rustic wooden design that we have no complaints about, and in fact, many of our guests have complimented how lovely the floor looks.

There are some home renovations that we intend to carry out subsequently, such as changing the look of our doors with door laminates, fixing up bi-fold toilet doors, and installing solar films to our windows.

Homeowner: Jyn
Home: HDB Resale, 4-Room
Location: Pasir Ris
Moved In: 2022
Renovation Cost: $30,000

10 Home Renovations I did not regret

We always hear about the renovation regrets from others, but here are my 10 renovation wins as a first-time homeowner that you can keep in your considerations for your home renovation too.

1. Corner fan

Having good airflow and ventilation is important while living in a hot and humid country like Singapore. Which explains the big part of my obsessive desire to install as many fans in every corner of our home. We have a ceiling fan installed in every bedroom and in the living room too. 

Instead of installing another ceiling fan, we decided to go with a corner fan instead for our dining area, as we wanted a statement pendant lamp above our dining table. The small but mighty corner fan is installed in a strategic position, where its significant wind speed is able to reach the open concept kitchen upon oscillation and making food preparation more bearable.

2. Ceiling fan with light

In all of our bedrooms, we have a ceiling fan that comes with light. It is multifunctional and saves us the trouble of installing other light source, since the ceiling lamp is sufficient for night use when required. We prefer to turn on our warm and cosy ambient light at night, but ceiling lamps are useful if you need to study or work at night.

There are many stylish ceiling fan designs today, where we see sleek blades in light wood and walnut tones. Ceiling fans are mostly remote controlled, so much easier to toggle than having the traditional manual pull switch, which gives me unnecessary anxiety for fear that the entire ceiling fan would collapse from the pulling action.

3. Concealed switches

The number of large kitchen appliances, from the oven, microwave, and dishwasher, is equivalent to the number of electrical switches that you will have to plan the switches location. 

This is not inclusive of the light switches that you may have, as we also have undermount LED lights installed too. What I am trying to say is that there will be many switches that you will have to account for, and the last thing you want is for the switches to kill the look of your beautiful kitchen. 

We engaged a professional and experienced electrician that helped us with our electrical works, where he gave us a brilliant suggestion of hiding our electrical switches within kitchen carpentry. The considerations behind installing electrical switches are mainly easy accessibility, while keeping the unsightly switches from being too jarring at the same time.

4. LED light strips as task lighting

The LED light strips that we have installed above our kitchen counter and in our toilets see more use than the main ceiling lamp. They are less glaring and more pleasant to the eyes, as LED lights are less likely to cast awkward shadows when you are in the middle of doing a task.

Today, you can easily purchase smart LED light strips online and install it without breaking a sweat as they come with ready adhesive backing. Smart LED light strips are accompanied with physical remote controls that enable you to adjust the brightness and colour temperature in a press of a button.

5. Shelves in DB cabinet

If you are living in a newer HDB development, you will be familiar with the distribution box, otherwise known as DB cabinets, where the electrical supply system component is located. The look of a DB cabinet may not be the most pleasant with its awkward 4-door design, as some homeowners have chosen to hack it all away and construct proper storage shelves and drawers.

However, many homeowners like myself will choose to keep it, as it is functional in its own way. We managed to get our carpenter to help us install a shelf, so as to house our internet modem device. There are savvy homeowners that have fitted slanted shelves to turn the DB cabinet entirely into a practical shoe cabinet with handy mirrored doors, useful for a last outfit check before heading out of the door.

6. Full height carpentry wardrobe

It is true that carpenter-made wardrobes are more expensive than those ready-made wardrobes that you can buy off the shelf. The idea behind having an open wardrobe is tempting with the affordability and novelty, where you get to also have a full height wardrobe system too. However, I am glad we decided with a closed door wardrobe with sliding doors instead, as we have a curious and crawling baby now.

Additionally, having a full-height carpenter-made wardrobe allows us to make full use of the space above by storing less used items like empty product boxes, spare hangers, and travel-related items. We also do not have to worry about dust accumulating at the top of the wardrobe too, since the wardrobe is built from floor-to-ceiling.

7. Mounting TV to TV console

We made a conscious decision to leave our living room free from built-ins and refrain ourselves from making any permanent drill hole in the wall, as we wanted the flexibility and option to shift the furniture and refresh the layout and space freely. 

The storage solution that we chose was the IKEA BESTA modular and customisable system. We got a sitting bench near the main door which runs all the way to the living room where the TV console is. The BESTA system comes with an add on TV bracket that you can choose to mount your TV to the console. Please note that the TV bracket supports up to 55 inch television only.

8. 2-way light switch

I did not see the point in having a two-way light switch initially, since our 4-room unit is not the biggest to begin with. The two-way light switch was done by the original homeowners, and one thing that irks me is for the switches to not be fully uniform at the closed position, even when all of the lights are out.

Since our two-way light switch is particularly installed for our dining lamp, I soon found it useful to reach out for the dining area light switch by the door the first thing when we reach home, and switch off the same dining lamp when we are heading to the bedroom at the end of the day.

9. Venetian blinds in the service yard

We did not realise that the service yard come without actual window panes, but the original homeowners installed venetian blinds instead. The absence of windows panes provided good airflow in our service yard, and thus allowing our laundry to airdry efficiently.

Furthermore, the venetian blinds also function as a privacy screen since we are able to adjust the angle of the blinds for optimal airflow and block out any kaypo neighbour from peering in at the same time.

10. Open-concept kitchen

When we purchased the resale unit, the original homeowners had either knocked down or opted out of kitchen doors. We loved the idea of an open-concept kitchen since it helps to open up the living space. A chimney hood with high extraction strength is in place to stop the cooking fumes from spreading to our sofa and curtain in the living room.

As we do not cook as regularly, the open concept kitchen is great and it works for us. Nevertheless, we have had many older folks cautioning and advising us to have a proper baby gate in place to block out our curious and crawling newborn baby, for the “just in case” moments to prevent him from ever reaching out for dangerous objects like knives.

This article was originally published in Home and Decor.