For most new BTO homeowners, renovation and home furnishing usually mean juggling multiple moving parts at once. There are interior designers to compare, contractors to coordinate, quotations to decode, and endless decisions to make across carpentry, lighting, storage, and furnishings.
But for this family of five, time and space were not a luxury they had. They needed a renovation that was quick, fuss-free, and easy to manage, while still incorporating smart storage solutions to house the needs of their large family.
That led them to IKEA’s Home Design Service, where the homeowners worked directly with IKEA’s design team to plan a home transformation tailored to the family’s daily routines, storage needs, and shared spaces.
The result is a 4-room BTO transformation completed for around $40K in under 14 days, with smart small-space ideas tucked into almost every corner of the home.
A move-in ready home with “custom built-in” storage
The 4-room BTO flat started with the standard fixtures provided by HDB, including pre-selected flooring for the bedrooms and living areas, along with the internal doors and sanitary fittings.
From there, the brief to IKEA was clear: maximise the home for a family of five while keeping the space practical and easy to live in day to day. With three teenage children, including a son in National Service, one daughter in polytechnic, and another in secondary school, the family needed the flat to work hard across storage, study, laundry, and shared living needs.
Rather than filling the home with standalone pieces, IKEA’s Home Design Service first mapped out the family’s routines and identified underused areas that could be better utilised.
In fact, almost everything you see in the living area, aside from the appliances and ceiling fan, comes from IKEA.
That approach is most obvious in the living room, where nearly we’re given the impression that the home has a tonne of “built-in” carpentry. Surprisingly, what you see is actually created using a combination of IKEA storage systems fitted seamlessly into the space, almost like LEGO blocks. The goal was to create a clean, tailored look with extra seating while giving the family as much concealed storage as possible to tuck everyday belongings out of sight.
The L-shaped TV bench and bay window seating, for example, is made up of IKEA METOD base cabinets customised with wood skirting and tic-tac VEDDINGE doors to achieve a more polished built-in appearance. Meanwhile, the glass display cabinet beside the TV was assembled using several glass door METOD wall cabinets, creating a feature that looks almost custom-made for the home.
Most of the dead spaces in this whole area have been repurposed as floor to ceiling storage for the family.
A fully-functional kitchen with custom dry pantry coffee bar
Since the family cooks often, the kitchen had to be designed around actual daily use. That meant prioritising proper worktop space, generous storage, wall cabinets, and lighting that could support everyday cooking without making the space feel overcrowded.
The kitchen follows the same highly space-efficient approach, with IKEA cabinetry, wall cabinets, a SALJAN worktop, and lighting forming the backbone of the space.
Through IKEA’s Home Design Service, the kitchen was planned around the family’s specific storage needs and existing appliances, with cabinetry customised to fit neatly around the homeowners’ chosen hob, hood, and oven system (sourced separately) for a more seamless look.
On the opposite side of the kitchen, the family also carved out a dedicated dry pantry coffee bar for their morning coffee-making routine.
Like the living room carpentry, this “built-in” feature is actually constructed using IKEA storage solutions paired with the same countertop material as the main kitchen, helping the entire space feel visually cohesive.
The practical planning extends into the service yard too, where additional storage was placed around the front-load washing machine to keep laundry essentials neatly tucked away instead of spilling onto every available surface.
Small but practical shared bedrooms that still feel personal
The children’s rooms are where the home’s space-planning really earns its keep. Designing for three teenagers can be tricky, especially when there’s only two rooms. After all, teenagers need privacy, study space, and clothing storage.
For the son, who is currently in NS, the room uses the VITVAL loft bed frame ($319) to free up space below for a gaming and study setup. It is a simple vertical solution, but it immediately makes the room more spacious.
Storage is also shared carefully between the siblings using the PAX Modular Wardrobe System. The son gets one side of the wardrobe, while his sisters share the other side, with additional shelving and hanging space worked into their own room.
The second bedroom is shared by the two teenage girls in the family.
In the girls’ room, a bunk-style setup uses IKEA’s SMÅSTAD system for the bed and wardrobe. While the system is typically designed for children’s rooms, the homeowner’s daughters chose it because it gave them each a private study space beneath the bed, alongside additional wardrobe storage on their respective sides of the room.
The IKEA SKADIS pegboard provides additional organisation while cleverly maximising wall space.
By combining sleeping, studying, and storage within a compact setup, the system makes far better use of the limited space available. While the room has been kept highly practical, it still leaves plenty of room for the girls to personalise the space according to their own aesthetics.
Practical storage solutions in the master bedroom
The master bedroom is a good example of how practical storage can have a softer, more personal side. Here, the wardrobe uses a clean white finish with open display areas, giving the room a lighter and more curated feel.
The wife was drawn to the idea of glass-front cabinets and display storage, while promising her husband that these open sections would remain neat. Cover panels were added around the PAX wardrobe to achieve a floor-to-ceiling seamless finish similar to built-in carpentry.
There are also smaller styling details, including an ottoman storage bed, blinds, and a statement pendant lamp that adds a sculptural touch to the room. These elements keep the space from feeling purely utilitarian, while still letting storage remain the backbone of the design.
Over in the bathroom, the vanity sink and mirror combination is also from IKEA.
Not every useful design decision immediately stands out, but many of them quietly shape how comfortable a home feels to live in day to day. In this flat, that includes the IKEA lighting used throughout the space, including a few smart lighting options that can be adjusted via remote or phone.
Expanding beyond the usual home furnishings, IKEA also incorporated smart lighting options that the homeowners embraced throughout the home from ranges such as JETSTRÖM for general lights, MITTLED for focus lights, and TRÅDFRI bulbs for decorative lights to better suit the different functions and moods of each room throughout the day.
BTO home completed with IKEA’s Home Design Service for around $49K
Renovation budgets can get blurry quickly, especially when quotations break things down differently across carpentry, furnishings, lighting, and installation works. Here, the costs are separated by area and the actual home furnishings, giving homeowners a clearer idea of where the budget actually went.
The living room and kitchen with dining space each took up almost one-third of the entire budget, with the remaining fees going to the master’s and childrens’ bedroom, two bathrooms, smart lighting and miscellaneous pieces.
This includes storage and study solutions for the three teenagers, along with lighting and other finishing touches across the home.
Based on the project breakdown, the transformation came up to around $40K, covering major IKEA systems, storage solutions, furnishings, lighting, and installation-related works. Selected elements, such as kitchen appliances, shower screens, ventilation fans, and paint, were handled separately by the homeowners with external vendors.
IKEA’s Home Design Service: a more streamlined alternative for BTO homeowners
For this family, IKEA’s Home Design Service offered a middle ground between a fully DIY furnishing route and a conventional full-service renovation process.
Instead of managing separate vendors across carpentry, storage, furnishings, and layout planning, the family worked within IKEA’s ecosystem to create a home tailored around their needs. It also gave them a clearer cost breakdown across different parts of the home, alongside the reassurance of IKEA’s established systems and warranties.
Most importantly, the family was able to complete their home transformation within a relatively short timeline, without the usual back-and-forth that often comes with coordinating multiple contractors and suppliers.
Find out more about IKEA’s Home Design Service here
This post was brought to you by IKEA.
Photography by: Vivien Del Valle
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