We all have a pretty good gauge of the kind of aesthetic we want for our dream homes, but not all of us have pockets deep enough to attain it. Resale flats are infamous for bumping reno quotes up with added costs for hacking, removal of debris, rewiring, extensive plumbing and major retiling.
And for 5-room resale units, you can normally brace yourself for quotes that are upwards of $60,000. But, there are always exceptions to the rule. Here, we’ve sussed out 8 amazing 5-room resale transformations under $45K to inspire you.
1. Modern, woody-toned Yishun resale – $35,000
Image credit: The Makers Design Studio
Ask any contractor or Interior Designer (ID) about how to keep reno costs low, and the top thing you’ll be told is to keep your built-in carpentry to a minimum. These can often easily cost you in the tens of thousands for a feature wall, built-in console and shoe cabinet.
So it’s pretty amazing to see the sheer amount of built-in fixtures in this 5-room Yishun resale flat and a total reno bill of just $35,000.
It also comes with a carved out display shelf for the family’s memorabilia and recessed LED lighting.
Image credit: The Makers Design Studio
Soft curves are in, and beyond just a curved wall, these homeowners didn’t scrimp on practicalities for the sake of aesthetics. This seamless built-in floor-to-ceiling wardrobe starts at the entrance and continues all the way to the living room with a thoughtfully curved edge for a softer overall look.
The cabinet then extends to a glass display for more of the home’s knick knacks, and a slim TV console and a herringbone wood grain feature wall.
Image credit: The Makers Design Studio
The home also features another known reno price-raiser: a partially hacked wall. The flat’s study is a half wall that’s enclosed by glass windows and a door.
Image credit: The Makers Design Studio
While the kitchen is a typical monochromatic modern design, the entire living and dining area is decked in an array of wood tones, making the house cosy and warm. We’ve even spotted another section of built-in carpentry in the form of an in-house bar beside the dining table.
Total renovation cost: $35,000
2. Modern-Parisian Tampines resale with a touch of whimsical – $45,000
Image credit: Medina Design & Interiors
When attempting to recreate an interior style of decades past, there’s a fine line between classy and tacky. Based on first impressions, we can say that this 5-room resale flat in Tampines is Modern-Victorian done right. The best part is, the transformation of this home only cost the homeowners $45K.
Image credit: Medina Design & Interiors
As detailed by Medina Design & Interiors, the ID firm in charge of this project, the scope of work for this particular project included redoing the bathrooms. This gives the kitchen a Shaker-style makeover, erecting a curved kitchen peninsula, and fashioning the bedroom wardrobes and a vanity area, amongst other things.
Image credit: Medina Design & Interiors
Of course, there are other things to factor into the bill such as intricate wall mouldings, recessed curtains and a false ceiling. All in all, for all the work done, that’s a very reasonable final price to pay.
The master bedroom wardrobe and floating vanity.
Image credit: Medina Design & Interiors
Total cost: $45,000
3. Farmhouse-Scandi Segar Road resale – $40,000
Image credit: PHD Posh Home Design Pte Ltd
Scandi is an ever-popular interior design style that can be easily achieved with light reno, but we all know that the American Farmhouse aesthetic is all about carpentry. This $40K Segar Road unit is a synthesis of the two styles to give you a rustic chic home with cosy vibes all around.
While the living room is mostly a result of decorative furniture, we spot a false ceiling and an arched entrance to the home’s corridor – additions known to cost at least a few thousand dollars.
Image credit: PHD Posh Home Design Pte Ltd
The kitchen features quite a bit of cabinetry work with shaker-style lower and upper cabinets, and a standalone kitchen island.
Image credit: PHD Posh Home Design Pte Ltd
Over in the bathrooms, the shaker-style cabinet also makes an appearance in the form of the bathroom vanity. One other interesting feature is the suspended light diffuser that runs ¾ of the length bathroom wall.
Total cost: $40,000
4. Muji-inspired Canberra Street resale – $40,000
Image credit: Yang’s Inspiration Design
Will we ever tire of Muji-inspired homes? Probably not. And this light-wood Canberra Street resale is yet another minimalist’s dream with its neutral colour palette and clutter-proof design.
At $40K, this 5-room home reno boasts ample built-in storage along the entire length of the TV wall, a floating console, and more floor-to-ceiling storage beside the main entrance. What’s nifty is that all these come with power sockets built into the shelves for easy access to charging points.
Image credit: Yang’s Inspiration Design
On top of that, the windowsill storage seating that lines the adjacent wall is another built-in feature that’s known to ramp up reno costs.
Image credit: Yang’s Inspiration Design
The theme of muted colours and wood-tones is something you’ll see throughout the house with a dual-toned wood-veneered kitchen and a clean bathroom – the kind you’d expect to see in apartments in Tokyo.
Total cost: $40,000
5. Whimsical pastel Sengkang resale – $35,000
Image credit: Urban Home Design 二本設計家
This next 5-room home reno is one of the cheaper ones on the list at $35K, some might attribute its low price to it being a pre-Covid reno project. It’s also another home with a substantial amount of carpentry work with a floating featured full-length storage which extends to a terrazzo floating TV console.
Image credit: Urban Home Design 二本設計家
Designed by Urban Home Design 二本設計家, the home’s renovation covered the full suite of works from hacking and tiling/flooring to plumbing and electrical wiring. We also spy a false ceiling installed, and additional shoe storage to the immediate right of the entryway with a shiplap-inspired design on the cabinet doors.
Image credit: Urban Home Design 二本設計家
The kitchen sports a half-wall partition that is framed by glass and can be sectioned off completely with a hidden sliding glass door. The countertops and backsplashes of the kitchen are also clad in marble quartz with track LED ambient lights illuminating one side of the kitchen.
A peek at one of the home’s whimsical bathrooms (left) and the laminated doors of their master bedroom wardrobe.
Image credit: Urban Home Design 二本設計家
Total cost: $35,000
6. Contemporary-Scandi Fajar Road resale – $40,000
Image credit: Key Concept
Older resale flats are often regarded as reno sinkholes due to the age of the flat and the amount of wear that the property has already seen. Furthermore, existing homes would look dated, and this would require more extensive hacking and retiling to get the look you desire.
For Fajar Road HDBs in particular, you’re looking at flats that were built in 1970 and are 52 years old. And in this particular resale unit, we’re seeing an amalgamation of styles, with elements of mid-century modern and Scandi embracing styles of the past such as the home’s terrazzo flooring.
Image credit: Key Concept
Feature walls are one of the costlier design elements in any renovation, and this $40K resale unit has a fluted dark wood feature wall that partitions the living room from the bedrooms and entirely conceals both entrances.
Image credit: Key Concept
Apart from the living room, the second most transformed area of the home is undoubtedly the kitchen where modern design takes over with clean teal cabinets and homogenous flooring.
Image credit: Key Concept
A steel-framed glass front door sits in place of a traditional metal front gate. You’ll also see the combination of metal and glass in the dining area where glass sliding doors have been installed to section the house further.
Total cost: $40,000
7. Modern Jurong West resale – $45,000
Image credit: SHE Interior
The beauty of a 5-room renovation is the amount of space you’re given for free play. In this $45K Jurong West reno, SHE Interior went all out with a bold, modern design that showcases a shoes-stopping, two-toned herringbone entryway.
From the minute you enter, you’re met with a generous amount of built-in storage that lines the entrance. More hidden storage presents itself in the form of concealed wooden laminate cabinets that double up as the feature wall in the living room.
Fluted light wood panels on either side and an open-concept linear shelf break up the monotony of a dark backdrop.
Image credit: SHE Interior
Image credit: SHE Interior
Ask any ID about herringbone patterns tiles, and they’ll tell you that these normally come with added labour cost to lay them as such. The homeowners, however, didn’t scrimp on the details with herringbone making a reappearance in the U-shaped kitchen to demarcate a different living space.
There’s even herringbone in the backsplash in contrast to the otherwise monochromatic kitchen. Tiny details such as an LED-illuminated open shelf lets homeowners display their favourite ceramics and plants prominently.
Image credit: SHE Interior
The other spaces in the flat are equally as impressive with a good amount of built-in wardrobes in the bedrooms and contrasting styles in the bathrooms.
Total cost: $45,000
8. Retro-industrial Strathmore Avenue resale – $42,000
Image credit: The Interior Lab
The last resale reno project on our list is this retro-industrial gem in Queenstown that set the homeowners back a total of $42K. Bearing in mind that this reno was completed in 2016, and wasn’t subject to all the post-pandemic reno inflations, let’s look at the interesting aspects of this reno to see what bumped that bill up.
Image credit: The Interior Lab
In terms of heavy-weight reno fixtures, most of the work seems to centre in the open-concept kitchen where kitchen island and dining extension covered in Peranakan tiles stand. The juxtaposition of old-school ventilation blocks against a modern-industrial kitchen with a peggy board wall gives this home a heavy dose of character.
Image credit: The Interior Lab
Over in the bedroom, a feature wall made from actual bricks ties the industrial theme altogether whilst retaining a sense of warmth in the space.
Image credit: The Interior Lab
Both bathrooms in the home have been given a clean, monochromatic treatment with its pipes painted black for contrast and geometric tiles added that pop of dimension.
Total cost: $42,000
5-room resale renovations in Singapore under $45,000
Resale renovation is known to be a costly affair with the estimated cost of renovation for 5-room resale flats starting from $40K and going all the way up to over $100K depending on the extent of work done.
If you’re looking for reputable interior designers that can help you realise your #homegoals with the modest budget you have, this list of awesome-looking homes will give you help that reno miracles can happen on a budget.
Read our other renovation articles here:
- How to save thousands of dollars on reno
- Modern ways to use glass blocks in your reno
- Most common kitchen reno mistakes
Cover image adapted from: The Makers Design Studio, Key Concept, Urban Home Design 二本設計家
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