This is a looong overdue post but good things are always worth waiting for right?
For someone who likes to cook, kitchen is the most important area in the house.
I am lucky to stay in an old HDB where the kitchen is considerably big for today’s standard. I had a proper “L” shaped kitchen, and a separate work station for preparation.
These are the overall view before the renovation
However, the kitchen just looked so cluttered no matter how i clear it (ok well… I always clear so that I can get new items). This is how messy it was!
Also, I always fancy a open-concept kitchen with wet and dry kitchen. Moreover, the 8 years old kitchen was wearing off and I know it’s time! Blah blah blah.. with 101 reasons and YES I’m in for a new face-lift for my beloved playground.
I went around hunting for renovation quotation for my kitchen and it took close to a year before I managed to find 1.
Reason being… To renovate just the kitchen area, it is consider a very small project for most of the renovation firms. Cost of materials will be higher and some will purposely quote sky high figures to “scare” you off. Part of my house was renovated like less than a year ago so kitchen was the only area that I wanted to renovate.
My criteria for the renovation are –
Hack away the wall facing the dining hall (and all the existing fixtures in the kitchen), Build an Island, Built in kitchen cabinet (both upper and lower cabinets), Basic painting work and Solid surface kitchen top
And I had quote as high as $30k for the above reno works for a 120 sq ft kitchen; That was also why the whole hunting process took about a year.
Until we met Benson from RENOLUTION. He is a very friendly and creative guy who gave us a lot of suggestions and ideas. There are some restrictions based on the layout and structure of my kitchen and some of my ideal design and layout did not work. He came up with alternatives which is even better than the initial ideas I had in mind.
We were very happy with his service (and quote of coz) and we decided to engage him for the renovation. He quoted approximately $16K for the whole project, which included the changing of floor tiles, wall tiles, windows and my toilet door (my toilet is inside the kitchen area), beside those mentioned above. Moreover, the quote given by RENOLUTION was not based on solid surface kitchen top. My kitchen top is the best quality kitchen top which is heat and scratch resistance – Quartz Top.
*This is not a sponsored/ advertorial post or subsidized.
The renovation took about 1 month and we were living inside the house during the renovation.
To be frank, living in a renovating premises is not fun at all. It was dusty and messy and dirty and inconvenient. Moreover, I got 2 puppies staying with me. However, this is what you have to endure if you are only renovating part of the house and want to live in it. Otherwise, stay in the hotel for the time being. Benson was also very kind in helping us to ensure that the floor are properly laid and his workers will clear up after the job is done for each day.
Also, because I was staying in the house during the renovation, I saw and understood a lot of the renovating process.
We, as a consumer, might not understand why were we charged with such a high price where the cost price of the items are like a fraction of the overall price. Actually, yes material costs are low but the effort that the contractors spent on every single corner of the kitchen was really worth the price. I witnessed how much work is needed throughout the renovation and I really felt that every single cent spent was worth it.
Here’s a video on part of the hacking process.
This was the artist’s impression given
and this is the end-result!
I am super satisfied. If you are also looking for a reliable interior designer/contractor, you can contact
Renolution Interior LLP
3 Lorong Bakar Batu #04-05
Tel: +65 9687 1711 (Benson Koh)
Email: bensonkoh@renolution.com.sg
These are few of the projects that Renolution had done.
I would like to reiterate that this post is not sponsored and was written as part of eckitchensg.com transformation. Also, I am very satisfied and happy with the new face-lift of the kitchen and would like to share the process with all readers who are also looking into renovating part of their house and was having problem looking for a good and reasonable-priced one.