9-12 Months Before: Understand Your Renovation Needs
At this stage, your priority is to prepare for meetings with interior designers.
To do that, you'll need a good understanding of your renovation needs.
This includes:
1. Knowing What Type of Renovator to Engage
The 2 most popular types of renovators that homeowners engage in Singapore are interior designers and renovation contractors.
Deciding between the 2 comes down to your renovation needs.
Here's an article to help you decide on whether to hire an interior designer or a renovation contractor.
2. Setting a Realistic Renovation Budget Range
A realistic renovation budget is about finding the sweet spot where your renovation needs are satisfied while remaining grounded in current market prices.
To guide you, check out this article on the latest renovation costs.
Why is this soooo important?
...because it helps you start the search for interior designers who can work within your renovation budget.
It also provides interior designers with a starting point, as they understand the limits they need to work with when proposing ideas to you.
Additionally, Interior designers often have min. and max. budgets they can accommodate to based on their personal preferences and experience-level.
^A mismatch can lead to issues such as being ghosted or receiving inflated quotations — these are common tactics that interior designers may use to "reject" homeowners.
3. Think About Your Aesthetics & Lifestyle Preferences
This involves visualising how your dream home looks like:
- Lifestyle: Who lives in the home and what are their lifestyle needs? How does that translate into renovation features? E.g. investing in a kitchen peninsula if you do a lot of prep work when cooking etc.
- Aesthetics: Start saving photos of homes on Instagram or Pinterest. You can also create a moodboard to help your interior designer visualise the look and feel you’re going for
Clear communication is essential! Helping your interior designer visualise your dream home will reduce the risk of them proposing irrelevant ideas.
Even simple reference photos of homes you like or description of activities you do at home can go a long way!
6-9 Months Before: Find Suitable Interior Designers to Meet With
How to Find Suitable Interior Designers to Meet With?
You're not alone!
Finding suitable interior designers is the number 1 pain point homeowners face due to the shady renovation industry in Singapore.
Trying to shortlist suitable interior designers from a mess of 5000+ firms in Singapore is a severe pain in the (...you know what).
That's why... your life will be much much easier if you use HomeMatch to find renovators:
- You'll find the most suitable renovators based on your specific needs (evidence here)
- You'll only be working with reliable CaseTrust-accredited renovators. We have the most stringent screening process (evidence here)
- You'll be protected with the most comprehensive guarantee in the industry, the Safest-Smartest Assurance e.g. 100% deposit protection, warranty, itemised quotation, contract review etc. (evidence here)
Why Start Meeting Interior Designers 6-9 Months Before Key Collection?
6-9 months before key collection is the sweet spot as it gives you ample time to prepare and your renovation quotations will be more accurate.
Starting too early (key collection >9 months) is unnecessary as most renovators would not be keen on having discussions with you yet.
Discussions can also be unproductive because: 1) renovation quotations given too early will not be valid due to price fluctuations, 2) you may have a change of mind, leading to changes in the renovation quotation.
How Long Does the Shortlisting Process Take?
The shortlisting process typically takes about 1-3 months on average if everything goes smoothly.
Homeowners usually have ~2-3 meetings with an interior designer before engaging them.
If you're curious about what to expect during each meeting with interior designers, check out this article.
The process may extend longer if you cannot find the right fit.
How Many Interior Designers Should I Meet?
A good rule-of-thumb is to meet ~5 Renovators.
It helps you make fair comparisons and be extra confident on which renovator to engage.
2-3 Months Before: Decide on which Interior Designer to Engage
Deciding on which interior designer to engage 2-3 months before helps you avoid rushing the material and design selection process.
Finding a suitable interior designer goes beyond surface requirements like your budget and aesthetics; it ultimately comes down to:
1. Credibility
Treat this as a pre-requisite!
You wouldn't want to engage a shady interior designer and become the next victim of a renovation nightmare.
A shortcut to finding reliable interior designers is to check if they are CaseTrust-accredited.
2. Comparing them Objectively
Instead of using your gut instinct, make better decisions by comparing your interior designers based on factors like: 1) quotation, 2) ability to meet your specific needs, 3) vibes and work ethics.
We've written a detailed guide on how to go about choosing the right interior designer here.
1-2 Months Before: Prepare for Your Home Renovation
Assuming you've engaged an Interior Designer at this stage (🤭 we hope)... the priority would be to confirm the nitty gritties, ensuring your home renovation can begin immediately after you collect your keys.
This includes:
- Finalising on material selections and the design of your home. If you’ve engaged an Interior Designer, they will likely take you for material selection and possibly present 3D renderings of your renovation.
- Shopping for furniture and appliances. Do keep your interior designer in the loop on purchases you make (especially appliances) so they will take them into consideration e.g. plumbing works and space allocation for a washing machines etc.
- Preparing for miscellaneous arrangements such as renovation loans, temporary accommodation etc.
👇 Looking to meet Trusted & Suitable Renovators? We will help you get it right the first time!
