hi all! seeking your opinion on this..

we are considering hacking away the store-room of our 4-rm HDB apartment to make more space for the living-room (it stands between the kitchen and living-rm).

as such, the view will be an unbroken one from the living-rm all through to the end of the kitchen.

we are then considering using a full height tempered glass divider to separate the functional areas of kitchen and living-rm.

is this a good idea? we are not heavy-duty cookers, so fumes is not so much an issue.

our renovator quoted $1.2k alone for the glass - is this a good deal? has anyone done a similar renovation before?

please share your advice and experience..

thanks in advance!

choo+angel

hi all! seeking your opinion on this..

we are considering hacking away the store-room of our 4-rm HDB apartment to make more space for the living-room (it stands between the kitchen and living-rm).

as such, the view will be an unbroken one from the living-rm all through to the end of the kitchen.

we are then considering using a full height tempered glass divider to separate the functional areas of kitchen and living-rm.

is this a good idea? we are not heavy-duty cookers, so fumes is not so much an issue.

our renovator quoted $1.2k alone for the glass - is this a good deal? has anyone done a similar renovation before?

please share your advice and experience..

thanks in advance!

choo+angel

Practical wise not very useful if not heavy cooker.... I expanded my kitchen entrance and do without the glass door, no regards even though I cook everyday. Can check my blog...

Unless it really make a lot of difference in design wise of your place.... $1.2k can save for better usage.

Or you can keep it as an future option, do without the glass divider first. Then decide in future, if you still think the glass divider is needed, can always add in after that....

Just my 2 cents. Cheers.

Edited February 2, 200818 yr by Brainstorm

You should worry more about losing storage space. You'd be amazed how many "things" accummulate.

yea..storage is a huge consideration too..

so its a issue of Space vs Storage..

asking for you guy's advice..

for those who hack away their storeroom, how do u manage? do you create another storerm elsewhere or do you have some ingenious way of storage? pls share! =)

thank you again~

yea..storage is a huge consideration too..

so its a issue of Space vs Storage..

asking for you guy's advice..

for those who hack away their storeroom, how do u manage? do you create another storerm elsewhere or do you have some ingenious way of storage? pls share! =)

thank you again~

Hi everyone.... Is 1.2k considered reasonable for exp?

Stereo box, how big is ur proposed glass divider?

You should worry more about losing storage space. You'd be amazed how many "things" accummulate.

I totally agree. One less concrete wall, means one less location to place/build up cabinets. And we're talking about a whole storeroom here.

Edited February 3, 200818 yr by Chunky Monkey

please don't make the mistake of demolishing yr storeroom !

in fact, i consider a storeroom an essential room in any flat, so much so that i spent much time agonizing over where and how to create my storeroom -- before i called in the renovators.

the 4R resale flat i bought recently was built in those days (70s and 80s) when hdb focused on providing flats quickly and cheaply to house the population -- so balcony, attached toilet in mbr, storeroom, were considered luxuries, and were not provided for !

i can do without the balcony or attached toilet (though nice to have), but i cannot do without a storeroom !

the storeroom is where i keep my cleaning eqt (vacuum cleaner, brooms, dust-pans, even pails & mops as i don't want my bathroom to look cluttered), ladder, extra stools, etc.

i finally created the storeroom as part of the kitchen -- what a coincidence, exactly as in yr case, b/w living room and kitchen!

in my case, i wanted a bigger living room, so i hacked away one bedroom instead, the pictures later will be uploaded on my blog .

Edited February 15, 200818 yr by BlueFly

Totally agree with BlueFly that its vital to have a storeroom to keep the place in order. So much so that I intend to create a storeroom in the petite 3rm unit that i bought. Built in cupboards can't simply store all my bulky stuff such as ladders, extra chairs, pails and vacuum cleaner, big pieces of luggage and golf sets. The unit had no storeroom and by partitioning a storeroom i had to have a smaller room, but still a reasonable size for spare room that can accommodate a 4-door wardrobe & queen size bed.

You can't find storeroom anymore in the new HDB flats.........so please think again.

Design is all about practicality & aesthetics. Do what you think is necessary & what you can afford.

It's an issue of Space vs Storage.

Basing on design point of view, after you had hack & removed that wall & puts up a glass divider, it will make your living rm looks bigger & wider & at the same time you would have a brighter looking kitchen.

As for storage of your brooms, mops, pails, ladders & dustpans, you can ask your ID to create a full height tall cabinet & store these items together with your vaccum cleaners.

The con side of it is, you will face the shortage of storage space in your kitchen.

As for the dining area, you can request for wall mount bench with storage compartment using the "flip up seats" or "flap down compartment doors". Your Dining tables can also be specially tailor made to store items as well such as plates & cutleries.

If you're worried abt where to store your luggages, you can ask your ID to play with the ideas based on walk in wardrobe facing the bathroom but you've to sacrficed your bedroom space. Or sacrifice one room to become a full walk in wardrobe to store away all your clutters.

Or another Idea is, you can ask your ID to think abt the idea to construct & raised platform in your bedroom with storage places e.g. what Systemind located at Millienia Walk sells.

The last solution is to have specially tailor made king / queen size bed with storage drawers or so call box bed in your children's room to store away all your clutters.

As for the New HDB flats, the so call build & order / fabricated flats, it will come with a bomb shelther & there's nothing you can do to it. You can't demolish it, your can't nail anything to the wall on the inside, you cannot paint the door. The only thing you can do to your bomb shelter is to hide it with a feature wall using the tic tac door that opens in the same direction with the metal door. You cannot take out the round metal ventilation plates that is above the metal door as it's against the FSB rules & regulations.

Edited February 15, 200818 yr by zacky_ling

You can't find storeroom anymore in the new HDB flats.........so please think again.

But then the new HDB flats have huge bomb shelters where most people use it as whole or partial store room.

wow, thanks guys for sharing your experience and insights! especially to zacky_ling for the detailed suggestions.

after much thought, we decided to leave the storeroom as it is. number 1 reason being financial considerations, as we won't be hacking away any walls or rebuilding them afterall.

now researching ideas how to build an efficient and neat storeroom system =)