The top interior décor trends and faux pas you cannot miss during HDB home renovation
21 February 2022
About to move into your new home? Does the bedroom look too impersonal? Does the living space feel boring? Does the bathroom lack the coziness of your previous dwellings? There are ways to spruce up your home without emptying your savings account. You may have been combing through interior décor magazines and looking at furniture shops online, but who decides what is hot and what’s not?
HDB apartments in Singapore come with the necessary groundwork for personalizing each room and passage. Apart from adding new furniture and furnishing, you need to think about color schemes, themes, and flooring to claim your personal space.
Finding your unique taste amid the clutter of special features and discount offers can be a bit tricky. Since interior design trends are always evolving, you might find it challenging to pick one theme and stick to it without some help from the experts of HDB interior design. Here is a list of 5 top trends and 5 faux pas every homeowner must remember before beginning remodeling work on their HDB flats.
Top five trends that are going strong among HDB apartment owners in Singapore in 2019.
No conical lampshades and indeed no white LED lights. These are the two conditions every Singaporean homeowner puts forth while browsing lampstand options online or at a store. Flat white LED lights, or cool daylight variants can take away the warmth of any room.
People are showing their love for Edison lamps and old school studio lights for their larger living rooms and bedrooms. The carefully wired lamps come in several variants, including smart lamps that you can connect with your home cloud/control system.
Dimmable lights are still a strong trend for those willing to go with a minimalist look for their apartments. It is especially popular among small homeowners, who may want to vary the intensity of the lights depending upon the time of the day or the work they are doing in a shared open space.
One long lampstand with bare minimal decorations, hanging LED lampstands and Edison bulbs hanging from coir-wrapped electrical wiring are great options for the larger bedrooms that need some personal touch.
2. Marbled walls
You must think we are crazy to recommend marble walls in such a market! Well, your walls don’t have to be marble, they just need to look like they are.
You can go with vinyl covers or wallpapers that look exactly like real marble. You can even tile your walls to look like marble.
Interior décor in Singapore has evolved to give every homeowner a slice of luxury at pocket-friendly prices. From stickers to tiles, you can check out at least ten options to create a marbled look for your walls.
The benefit? Well, when your walls have a personality of their own, you can put in the minimum effort with the furniture and furnishing in all rooms. You can choose fifty shades of grey to ornate your apartment, yet the guests are going to be marveling at those marbled walls.
3. Step up for Hygge
Hygge is the Danish term for simple yet comfortable living. Therefore, it boils down to one concept – throw out what you don’t need and keep your furniture to the bare minimum.
Your Hygge home décor can include framed vintage posters from your college days, lampstands we have spoken about earlier, and functional furniture that double up as storage space. Throw in some cozy touches like hand-woven throw blankets, handmade cushions, and rugs.
It is the marriage of functionality and minimalist design. A little touch of comfort cannot overthrow the balance or your budget for remodeling your HDB apartment. Choose warm but mellow colors and go with softer furniture to give yourself the ultimate treat of comfort.
4. Add a touch of green
No matter how committed you are to your minimalist home dream, you should consider adding indoor plants. They can liven up the place and offer better quality indoor air at the same time.
We know what you are thinking! There’s no balcony. Well, you don’t need elaborate plant-and-pot setups like the older days. You can go with a wall-garden or a dedicated shelf of self-watering planters for your kitchen-cum-dining area.
Pick non-flowering plants that do not create pollens if allergies are a concern. Go with neutral plants like small bamboo and succulents to brighten up the indoor space. Adding plants to your interior is a smart and classy way to reduce your carbon footprint and keep your living space elegantly decorated as well.
5. Add contrast
If you are going with the minimalist or Hygge concept, you will have a lot of white and creamy color palates throughout your home. Sometimes, you need to add a splash of dark colors to break the monotony.
While you can do that by adding bright warm tones to the mix, someone with an eye for sober elegance will go with navy and slate grey.
Truth be told, navy is the new black in the Singapore renovation market. Do not limit your imagination while adding some contrast to your bedroom. The inclusion of navy can be in the form of furniture, upholstery, picture frames, and art, or a single isolated wall.
The five mistakes of HDB home renovation you cannot afford to make
As much as we need to know what’s “hot” in the world of home renovation, we also need to know what you should avoid. So, here’s a list of faux pas you should NEVER commit while remodeling your HDB apartment.
Well, white is excellent and so are the creamy tones, but avoid recreating the Kardashian museum home look inside your HDB apartment.
While white looks good in print and photos, if you are thinking about using your home for living, you might want to keep the furniture welcoming and comfortable.
All-white is the biggest faux pas in homes with children. You need to let them play freely and grow up without thinking they ruined the walls or furniture every time there’s a mishap.
Add much necessary contrast to the wallpapers, doors, doorframes, and windowpanes. It will add to the personality of your home and keep your living space warm and welcoming.
2. Metallic finishes
Copper is NOT the new metal people! While larger homes with dedicated Scandinavian interior design do look amazingly pretty with copper detailing in magazines, they are a pain to maintain in real life.
You need to consider the rest of your furnishing and interior theme before you think about adding metallic finishes to your coffee table, dining table, bed, and upholstery.
Home remodeling is an investment for any HDB homeowner. You need to consider the possibility that metallic finishes may not last as long as the other remodeled elements. You might need to spend some extra dough on maintenance and replacement.
3. Walk-in closets
Well, if you have space, go for it! However, Singapore is not replete with HDB apartments that have spaces for walk-in closets. If you are dreaming about getting one, we’d like you to reconsider.
You should consider your budget and the space requirement before you think of cutting out space for the closet during the renovations.
Instead of walk-in closets, you can think about hidden wardrobes and cabinets for your clothes, jewelry, shoes, and other knick-knacks. You should also consider hidden dressers with pull-to-reveal features.
Save all that space for a larger bathroom or a separate functioning kitchen in place of a kitchenette.
4. Floral wallpapers
There’s nothing worse than watching the floral patterns of the wall peeling off, revealing the grey wall underneath. The humidity in Singapore does a number of the best quality wallpapers within a year or so.
If you are interested in wallpapers, go with those that offer moisture control. Using the air conditioner dedicatedly indoors and the addition of plenty of indoor plants can control the humidity. It can add life to your wallpaper.
Go with marble finishes, stripes or pastel shades to keep matters simple. You can easily replace a piece when the patterns start to fade, or the paper comes off.
5. Adding chandeliers
HDB apartments might be comfortable, but they are rarely large enough to complement a chandelier.
Instead of investing your entire lighting fixture and wiring budget in one large piece, choose smaller lampstands and handing lampshades for the entire home.
As we have mentioned before, Edison lamps are pretty and functional enough to elevate the aesthetics of your home without lampshades. Choose the right kind of wires and coir to hand them in your dining area, kitchen, or living space.
Place spotlights on your shelves and the planters strategically to keep the room well-lit without creating harsh zones of light-and-shadow in the usable spaces.
These simple do’s and don’ts can aide you in making the right decisions while picking out new furniture and furnishing for your new HDB home. Learning what’s in and what’s out before you make the buying decisions can keep you from misspending your hard-earned money. Always remember that your interior décor choices will reflect your personality. So make all decorating decisions carefully, and if possible, with an HDB renovation expert to make the most of this upcoming project.
