Help! What Can I Do If I Need To Use Back My Existing Furniture In New Home?

[whiteseals 0]

Hi

I am very happy that finally I found a new place nearer to my mum's place. Just bought a HDB resale flat. The condition of the flat is very bad. Definitely need to redo everything which is good for me. But with limited budget, I cant do complicated design and definitely have to use back all my existing furnitures from my current home.

My headache - I have always wanted to achieve the urban resort kind of theme for my home. With a bit of oriental feel. In my current house, I made mistake by not engaging ID and had done the design based ideas gotten from home decoration books. At the end, the total feel is completely out. So this time round, I want to make sure that I dont repeat the same mistake again. However, due to budget constraint, I cant afford to engage an ID. I have to rely on contractors who can help coordinate the work. I also cannot spend alot of renovation woodwork. So, u can imagine that my new home will be quite simple which will not be like those extensive designs that you see from those renovation companies' website. I hope I can get advise from you experts on what is best for me if I have following restrictions:

Need to use back existing furnture pieces - For Living Room, the pieces are mostly teak wood furnture i.e. those indonesian teak furnitures (1 TV console, 1 shoe cabinet, 2 coffee table) and 1 rattan cum wooden cabinet which i used as prayer altar.

So, now I am lost and I dont know how do I make use of these furniture to blend into the urban resort cum oriental theme for the living room. So, who can I approach for help to translate my idea and also to help on the colour scheme?

Do you have any suggestions for me? Looking forward to learn from you guys. Sorry for the long story...

Regards

Lost

[summerflowers 0]

Maybe you can put up pics of your current layout, pics of your current home and your furniture and see how we can work from there. Hard to visualize this way. Show us pics of your intended looks too!

[tracy 0]

Maybe you can try laminate flooring, cheaper and can acheive an antique feel. my contractor told me laminate will be a little diff to maintain. but if you do maintain it well, it also can last long.

try not to spent too much on made to order carpentry work. focus more on the overall feel. sometimes, a painting and few downlights create perfect atmosphere!

My house is solely designed by me, my contractor just follow my instructions and give constructive suggesttion. i believe you can do it too!!!

[jaskel 2]

Hi

I am very happy that finally I found a new place nearer to my mum's place. Just bought a HDB resale flat. The condition of the flat is very bad. Definitely need to redo everything which is good for me. But with limited budget, I cant do complicated design and definitely have to use back all my existing furnitures from my current home.

My headache - I have always wanted to achieve the urban resort kind of theme for my home. With a bit of oriental feel. In my current house, I made mistake by not engaging ID and had done the design based ideas gotten from home decoration books. At the end, the total feel is completely out. So this time round, I want to make sure that I dont repeat the same mistake again. However, due to budget constraint, I cant afford to engage an ID. I have to rely on contractors who can help coordinate the work. I also cannot spend alot of renovation woodwork. So, u can imagine that my new home will be quite simple which will not be like those extensive designs that you see from those renovation companies' website. I hope I can get advise from you experts on what is best for me if I have following restrictions:

Need to use back existing furnture pieces - For Living Room, the pieces are mostly teak wood furnture i.e. those indonesian teak furnitures (1 TV console, 1 shoe cabinet, 2 coffee table) and 1 rattan cum wooden cabinet which i used as prayer altar.

So, now I am lost and I dont know how do I make use of these furniture to blend into the urban resort cum oriental theme for the living room. So, who can I approach for help to translate my idea and also to help on the colour scheme?

Do you have any suggestions for me? Looking forward to learn from you guys. Sorry for the long story...

Regards

Lost

Try bali resort theme.Use mostly warm lights for your house.

Edited March 11, 2010 by jaskel

[summerflowers 0]

How about French boudoir? Very lady like.

[whiteseals 0]

Hi

Thanks for all the suggestion. Really appreciate it. Yup, its great idea to take photos of my current furnitures to show first so that you guys have better idea and can help me with more ideas. Am planning to do so after next week as we are also taking photos of the current home for valuation purpose. Keep u guys posted. Thanks guys for ur constructive suggestions.

Regards

Lost

[seesee 0]

honestly if you are having a budget. I suggest you drop the interior design idea..

Can I assume you are planning to stay at this flat for a long time since is near your mums?

Maybe you want to consider focus on your budget on the following

1) Make sure all sides of the wall got 2 electrical point and the wires and hidden.

2) Every room have TV and phone point(if you are in IT)

3) pick a flooring that can stand the test of time.

4) plaster the whole flat. + sealant

5) ensure there are piping for aircon.

6) do the windows

7) ensure there are 2 lighting point in every room and 4 or more in the hall and kitchen

If you are done this, in early stage of your house you can do renovating any other time in future and your house will still look nice. The problem with renovation work is, if your base is ugly you will have to spend a lot on patch up work..

[whiteseals 0]

Hi

Finally took photos of my home furniture pieces to show you guys. Hopefully, with this, I can get some ideas from you on how I can create an urban resort theme with oriental touch. As I have too many of them, I have grouped them to the space area I intend to place them in.

Living Room

Will post furniture for study room seperately. Thanks

[whiteseals 0]

Furniture pieces for Study room are not coordinated pieces. Intend to use my existing dining table as study table for the children. Any suggestion as to how I can improve on overall look for study room?

Will post up photos of decorative pieces I have at home seperately.

Thanks

[whiteseals 0]

I have some decorative display pieces. Would like to use them in the living room to enhance overal look and bring the oriental feel in.. But not sure how to do it. Do I put them all in living room or I should split them up into different room? Any good suggestions as to how I can make good use of these decorative items?

[whiteseals 0]

Lastly, For the Kitchen, I intend to re use this hanging lamp. Will be buying a round dining table due to space contraint in kitchen. What type of round table do you suggest - Glass top or Chinese marble top round table? And also for kitchen cabinet, what sort of theme do you suggest?

For my master bed room, I also wonder if I should paint the bed frame and chest drawer to teak wood colour. One of my friends commented that I have too many different 'theme' in each room. So, do u guys suggest that I should make the bed frame and chest drawer the same colour as those furniture pieces I have in the living room too?

Would appreciate your suggestion. If you have photos of your home decor which match the oriental urban resort theme that I am trying to achieve, would greatly appreciate your help to show me as a guide. Dont think will do alot of woodwork as already have so many furnitures. So, probably will need to look at the colour theme for the wall, kitchen, etc. Thanks for your advises and suggestions in advance. And also Thanks for your patience in reading this post.

Regards

Lost

[whiteseals 0]

Oh.. here's my current home layout and overall look..You can see that I didnt succeed in creating the oriental cum urban resort theme. U can also see my kitchen cabinet colour scheme is totally out from the urban resort theme too.. Dont ask me why.. I just choose design from a magazine and get contractor to do it. And I regret.

For the new house, I already have any idea where to place the furniture. Just that, I wonder what I should do to enhance and create the overall look to be more oriental cum urban resort theme if I am using back the existing furniture. Eg. Colour of floor tiles, skirtings, kitchen cabinet colours, study room cabinet colour if I have budget to do. Wall colours? Don't intend to have feature TV wall as that will cost alot. So, is there any type of painting I should opt for and where to find them to enhance the TV console area.

Thanks alot.

[jaskel 2]

Change the flooring tiles to laminate or parquet.