My Nest

It's been one and a half year since we moved into our new nest, "Our Home @ Adora Green. I could still remember the excitement when we first retrieved our keys from the developer in Nov 2013, followed by the many discussions on the interior designs and numerous trips to IMM to source for the idea furniture. It was really a tiring and challenging process to design our house within a tight budget of only $12,000 inclusive of furniture. While we could have gotten a interior designer to design our house (which also means upping our budget), we choose to conceptualize the design ourselves while seeking advises from our dear interior designer friend. After all, this is our first house and we wanted to design it ourselves.

Our humble house is a 4 room DBSS flat. "DBSS" stands for "Design, Build and Sell Scheme". Basically, the design, building and selling are done by private developers and agencies. When the project is done, it is handed to the HDB for management. The flat comes with a fully furnished kitchen and toilets, balcony, wardrobes and air-conditioners in all bedrooms and living room, and lastly flooring. Buyers can move into the flat upon getting the keys and hence not a hassle for those who need a house urgently.

Although the price of the DBSS flat is slightly higher than a normal HDB flat, we bought it because of its close proximity to the well-established North point Shopping Centre and MRT station. Furthermore, the location of the flat is surrounded by lush greenery. There is also a Safra Club right next to it. The DBSS project was very well received by many applicants and were almost sold out since its first launch. We were glad to be able to secure one unit on the 7th floor with a nice garden view.

Floorplan for Adora Green Project

Our nice garden view :)

When it comes to designing and buying furniture for your flat, my advise is that always try to set a comfortable budget and stick to it. If you are considering getting a ID, always browse through their portfolio and customers reviews. Of course, you need to also compare the pricing offered by the different IDs. Shopping for furniture is also no easy job which entails lots of consideration such as durability of the material, design and style, comfortability etc. Never buy the furniture on impulse or at first sight. It's necessary to visit as many furniture shop as possible to see and feel the material yourself.

Before renovation, our living room

Before renovation, kids room

Before renovation, Master bedroom

Built in Wardrobe, cabinet

Kitchen

Our Idea Design

Our preference was either Minimalist or Scandinavia style. In the end, our design was somewhere in between. We used light color tones to make our rooms and living room appear bigger and our furniture are mostly of Scandinavia styles. Initially, we wanted to paste the Santorini wallpaper on the wall section at the dinning area but aborted the idea because it can be quite difficult to get matching furniture off the shelves. In the end, we settled for the ropes wallpaper which gave the house a very warm ambience.

Ropes wallpaper

As our DBSS flat comes fully furnished with flooring, there is no need for us to renovate the floor. However, we decided to touch up our living room with false ceiling, TV console wall (to hide the cables) and create a altar for religion purpose. The wall in the master bedroom was also not even and hence we had to patch up the unevenness.

Patching up the uneven wall section in Master bedroom

Fake TV console wall to hide cables, a cheaper alternative to constructing TV console cabinets

Instead of the normal boring L Box, I opted for curved false ceiling

Blocked one of the sliding door to make way for the altar. Noticed that the side is curved instead of just plain rectangular.

Flushed in glass cabinet on the TV console wall

We sourced our furniture from various places in Singapore but I would say that IMM is really a good place to shop for edgy and stylish furniture at affordable price. We purchased our furniture from picket and rail, star living, Maxcoil and some other shops which I cannot remember the names. I am pretty satisfied with the purchases, especially the Kuka sofa and our King size mattress that comes with free bed frame.