HomeWorkflow-based, minimalist-inspired and functional 5-room BTO.
Workflow-based, minimalist-inspired and functional 5-room BTO.
245
Virtual House Tour
- Minimalist
- HDB (BTO)
- ~1,200 sqft
- 3 br
- Couple Living with Kids
Hi! Here’s our first post on Communa by HipVan. Our first home is a 5 room BTO, 113sqm. People often comment how much they liked the squarish layout that offers endless possibilities. We like how spacious it is, and adopted an open concept to living, playing, dining. We got a L-shaped sofa cos, why not? It’s super comfortable and the L-shape acts as an enclosure to the living/entertainment area. Left side of the sofa is electrical recliner. The raised height allows for robot to pass through. Behind sofa is the play area for kids. Right hand side next to kitchen is our dining area. We saved costs not doing false ceilings and using the original light points as it is. There are many fancy light designs out there but all we need is a simple, functional home. We used a website to calculate the required lights for each area, and found our current lights more than enough for our needs! 
Did a full length bay window that doubles up as storage, extra tabletop space, and seating area. Adults and kids love to congregate here. Without bringing out stools, our house can comfortably sit 20+ pax. We love our bay window, worth the splurge. 
Everything we need for living room storage is here. Thought through our workflows to design this carpentry, down to mm. ID said our plan wouldn’t work. Carpenter said it’s a good plan. Niche has a charging point for phones, portable chargers, once we got home. Tissue, wet tissue, recycle bags, bags, umbrellas, etc have a home somewhere in these cabinets. Everything we need when heading out and offloading after coming home is here. Useful for times when we forgot this and that, no need to go deep into the house and rummage through different areas of the house. 
It’s a little dark cos close to evening time and the photos are unedited. The living room is briefly separated into entertainment, play, dining. The area behind sofa can comfortably hold a standard sized playmat & fence. This is also why we got a 5 room, cos kids need space to play. Toys are conveniently stored at the bay window. Before the sofa for adults & tv area. Behind sofa for kids. 
Feature wall instead of cabinets so we can upgrade TV size if we want/need to. The groove line in between laminates is purposely made to match so it looks seamless. 
We believe in good use of space. This corner was originally wasted but we thought it is usable by switching box up to flip up. 
Next to sofa is flip-up storage too, otherwise too much clearance is required to open doors/drawers. There is also double socket to charge phone, laptop etc when seated on sofa. 
The kitchen was rectangular in layout, so we just adopt galley layout, with top and bottom cabinets on both sides. It looks more symmetrical and less troublesome to maintain with open shelves - which we considered. We are just too busy (& lazy) to maintain open shelves, especially kitchen where it can get oily. Our planning was done according to workflow, will elaborate more when we talk about kitchen in future posts. Example, drinks station and fridge are next to entrance, for easier access. Retained BTO floors and walls to save costs. Service yard doors and windows are not changed cos we wanted ventilation. But on hindsight, sliding door probably makes more sense here. 
Glad to have persisted in getting our auto sync kitchen glass door in white. ID only offered black and silver, non auto synchronised options, which doesn’t suit our home and is not what we really want. Since it is doable, we push forward even if it is not “standard”. There are too many so-called “standards”. No regrets! I may regret if I let ID choose what she wanted instead. When renovating, it is important to know what you want and stand your ground against all the noises. 
Initially, we intended to leave this room blank and only renovate in future when kiddo is older. Who knows kiddo may have opinions on the renovation? But moving from in-laws place (which is space constrained to fit a small family), we know that young children requires lots of storage. Their needs change frequently, and they may need to change clothes more often. There needs to be spaces for diapers, clothes, toys, books, toiletries and all sorts of things that are catered for different ages (before we manage to clear the younger stuffs). Super glad to have done storage here. It has been immensely useful and helps keep things organised. Moreover, renovation is dusty and chaotic in general and we feel less inclined to do any after we settled in comfortably. 
Finally, here’s our master bedroom. Love the laminate selection which seamlessly blend in to the BTO vinyl floor and door. The room is painted light brown/pink and the room just feels super cosy. The wardrobe is built in the niche area, which was probably meant for wardrobe anyway. Saw some of our neighbours using it for other purposes or expanding their wardrobes to other rooms. Since we have little clothes, we figured this 1.5m space is enough for us. Wall fan because it is super effective and easier to maintain. 
Our floor plan was all we had for a few years before the virtual house tour was out. Plans had to be changed as we knew about the electrical and water points locations. Some parts also had niches, beams and other limitations. There’s a lot of details to think about! Feel free to check out my Instagram on some of the carpentry details and pitfalls that we suffered so u don’t have to! Happy renovating!
