We bought a resale 3-room flat (our first home) and got our keys a few months ago. We took some time to think through the reno design and source for a contractor. While waiting for him to get HDB approval, we thought it would be the perfect time to record our journey till now and follow through the entire process of renovating, furnishing and decorating our little space. We started a blog over at wordpress and thought it would be nice to do one here to discuss reno and decor ideas... So, join us as we Rumble In Style!

Here's our floor plan as a start. Just a simple 68m² 3-NG unit with standard layout.

Edited August 16, 201313 yr by RumbleInStyle

welcome..looking forward to see your journey

3NG is good! all the best to ur reno!

Welcome to the 3 roomer club!

Another 3-roomer! Congrats & welcome to RT!

Looking forward to follow ur progress & updates, sharing sharing our experiences with u!

[PS. Bro edd & Makan couple still lurking ard huh! Haha! ]

Another 3-roomer! Congrats & welcome to RT!

Looking forward to follow ur progress & updates, sharing sharing our experiences with u!

[PS. Bro edd & Makan couple still lurking ard huh! Haha! ]

no moar white powdery dust le, got moar time to lurk, but also nth to post!

Thanks for the warm welcome!

We are trying to be hands-on, so we designed everything ourselves (of course taking note of suggestions by the contractor). After we got our keys, we walked through the unit with our floor plan and took note of the locations of the beams. We went through a few iterations of re-quoting and redesigning with the contractor before settling on the "final" version of the design. Being a small place, our priority was functionality, and we also wanted to retain the two-room, two-bath layout of the unit. So, here's how we decided to modify the structure of the unit:

1. Integrate the space between the rooms into the bedroom.
   
2. Make kitchen smaller (we seldom cook) and giving more space for the living area and the yard. This is only possible because older units have larger kitchens.
   
3. Merge bedroom with existing store room, but segment the newly created space with roller blinds for flexibility as a walk-in wardrobe.
   
4. Enlarge bathroom 1 by expanding into the bedroom.
   
5. Large entrances (about one arm span) for the study and kitchen for improved ventilation, lighting and spaciousness.
   
6. Use sliding pocket doors for bedroom and study to increase usable space.
   

Pink - to be hacked

Blue - to be constructed

With all these modifications to the internal structure, we ended up having a floor plan that looks like this:

Edited August 16, 201313 yr by RumbleInStyle

Interesting space planning; can't wait to see the works get started!

Interesting space planning; can't wait to see the works get started!

Ya, some interesting space planning & re-config! [For example, any particular reason to have the dining area at the outer hall & the living/TV area in the inner?]

Any way, can't wait to see the transformation!

Wished I had done more for mine.. i only tore down my storerm (in between my living hall & kitchen) & re-erected it into the originally quite big kitchen to make space for a dining area in the living hall..

PS. Saw in a recent issue of SqRm (mayb 2-3 issues ago; sorry cant recall exactly) how one ID hse re-config a 3-rm flat. Really 改头换面! Very nice! U may wish to chk it out too..

Edited August 16, 201313 yr by jus4fun

Yes, another 3-roomer for me to stalk! Good luck and look forward to your reno!

Ya, some interesting space planning & re-config! [For example, any particular reason to have the dining area at the outer hall & the living/TV area in the inner?]

Any way, can't wait to see the transformation!

We opted to be more unconventional living/dining layout couple of reasons...

• We wanted the living area to be the central area of the unit. Anyway, we are more likely to use the living than the dining area as we seldom cook. A 3-room is quite small, so the new dining area and the kitchen are not that far apart anyway.
• Being a corridor unit, wanted more privacy for the living area, which meant having more distance away from the entrance.
• We wanted to get rid of the space between the doors, so we had to shift the door of the study to face the main areas... and we wanted that door to be large, so there's not much wall and floor space for the TV and sofa up front.

However, we might be having our meals too close to our shoe cabinet... better keep our shoes smelling nice!

We rolled our pineapple just before the 7th lunar month a couple of weeks ago.
It went 10 metres... all the way from the entrance to the end of the kitchen!

We rolled our pineapple just before the 7th lunar month a couple of weeks ago.

It went 10 metres... all the way from the entrance to the end of the kitchen!

Wow! 旺旺来啊

HDB has approved our hacking... 1 week before hacking commences!

All the best in your reno! Hacking is the one of the best parts - the place will be at its most spacious and open heh