Space Sense Studio

A Personal Account - My Enriching Renovation Journey with Space Sense Studios ======================================================================== I am a first-time homeowner who had been a complete novice in the world of interior design. Before I decided last August in 2015 that I needed to renovate my apartment with my very aggressive move-in plans in December 2015, I had never read a magazine on interior design. Neither had I ever dedicated much thoughts in this dreadful topic of which many other home owners had often complained about their bad experiences with dishonest interior designers and their impractical design works or bad workmanship. The list goes on and on as according to what I have heard thus far. While I held much apprehension on this topic of home renovations, my immediate challenge was looking for an ID who would even fancy undertaking my tiny apartment renovation works for the fact that it merely measures a tiny space of 517 sqf. It was going to be super challenging and perhaps uninteresting for well sought-after interior designers was what went through my mind. And I knew hiring a contractor was not a good idea based on my needs for stylish, beautiful, creative home designs. How on earth was I going to find an interior designer who I can trust and rely on??? This had become a stressful thought. I needed professional help for my house. I started to consume interior design content ferociously both online and offline to get myself up to speed with this complex subject. Shortly after, I shortlisted a few interior designers – based on friend’s recommendations and research online. The interactions with several designers at the same time was a tedious and mind-boggling process. Some appeared good on the surface based on their strong portfolios but the real life interactions with them became a hugely disappointing experience by inundating me with tons of unconstructive questions of what I want. Others had ended up a 1-way process by imposing the designer’s one-sided egoistic views on what was good for me and turned a deaf ear to hear what I had to say. I am a humble prospect having limited knowledge and experiences but instinctively I knew those ideas were no good for my needs. Trusted Advisor ============= I was close to giving up until I met Kelvin Teo from Space Sense Studios who had changed my whole experience totally. A strong recommendation by a close friend of mine, Kelvin is apparently a cut above the rest. Unlike the rest, he was unhurried; he quietly observed me, showing me various options and dedicating time to two-way conversations with me and never for once asked me that painful question that I dreaded to answer “What do you want?”. He reminded me of an experienced doctor trying to diagnose a patient through understanding; or a professional consultant who is guiding me to uncover what I desire for my home. He totally understood that so often clients don’t understand what they want. Clients like me really didn’t know what I really wanted. I thought I knew so I just conveniently told Kelvin I like a Scandinavian house. That could be a disastrous brief from a client. And true enough soon I began to pick up new styles, new ideas. And it ended up that I seemed to like a variety of design themes. My taste in home design evolves quickly and only a highly qualified and experienced interior designer like Kelvin is capable of sensing and figuring out what was good and appealing to me. He amazed me with his tones of patience in trying to understand what I really wanted and he diligently studied my many cues. Along the way, he became my mentor guiding me and surprised me with his many creative ideas. His idea of transforming a house is exhilarating to me. His design philosophy of designing something that surprises people intrigues me. He opened my mind embracing unconventional views about home design. From a total stranger to my selected ID, Kelvin quickly became my trusted advisor. His consultative approach is highly appealing to me as I value two way interactions as well as his ingenious suggestions and creative approach to solving home design challenges. My instinct told me that I could entrust my house fully to his mastery of interior design. Trust is of utmost importance in finding the right ID. And I had made an excellent choice. Bespoke Interior Design ===================== During the design phase, Kelvin took great pains to understand me as a client e.g. my preferences, my lifestyle, my interests and so on. It became apparent to me later why he did that. His goal is to design a house that is uniquely tailored to the home owner’s needs and liking. And not another run-of-the mill home that just looks like another house. I realized that a home’s interior design is an extension of the owner’s “self-expression” – his personality, taste, life style – while delivering total comfort and exuding the right ambience and mood. No wonder the design phase requires time. Am guilty as a client for having an over simplistic views about interior design and overlooking this critical element at first. An interior designer can’t “x-ray” a client’s mind and able to know a client instantly. Therefore, it is a client’s fault if he or she forgoes the time required for design phase. I began to express my preferences for things like movie taste and sharing with Kelvin some movie posters of my all-time favourite art film, “In the mood for love”. This gave Kelvin an inspiration of injecting this movie element into the overall design. We also went into other aspects like my audio visual needs, whether I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, how do I spend my past time and what do I find mostly in my wardrobe. All these nitty gritty details about my personal interests and lifestyle form the eventual design. Of all the most important factor is space constraints. I have so little space yet so much storage needs! How to create more “space” had become a critical design element throughout my tiny house. It has to look nice, habitable and not look like a warehouse was what I was most concerned of! Kelvin obviously understood my pain points perfectly and did an excellent job in responding to my space needs. One of the greatest challenges was the idea of converting my study room into a walk-in-wardrobe. Kelvin came up with the brilliant idea of a semi-open walk-in wardrobe concept so that it does not look claustrophobic yet providing lots of storage space. To my greatest surprise Kelvin was able to give me a dressing table which is so important for a vain pot like me who spends a great deal of time in front of my dressing table mirror. Right from the beginning I thought this option would be impossible given such a small space but Kelvin surprised me with his clever design. As for the living room, Kelvin’s idea was to leverage the wall space for my storage. He created a beautiful semi-open cascading wall shelve scheme that combines with a working desk/bar table which is perfect for my needs. My favourite past time is chill out at bars enjoying wine. The outcome was a beautiful stylish design that provides me ample storage space as well as an open shelve giving me room for creativity to display my decorative items. Whereas for the TV console idea (I have 2 TVs), Kelvin proposed an unconventional yet incredibly space-saving co-sharing AV storage unit between both TVs in the living room and master bed room! What’s more, this AV Storage unit also conceals all wires and cables making my house looking incredibly neat. I am absolutely thrilled with this brilliant idea! Other highlights include my inviting entrance design that features my custom-made large oil painting of a beautiful shot from the movie “In the Mood for love”. Behind this painting is a very beautiful stylish brick wall that helped transform an otherwise boring looking wall. Sliding doors (clear mirrors and tinted dark mirrors) is a key design element of the house which really save a lot of space. Some visitors asked me where is my shoe cabinet. To their surprise it was “hidden” next to the kitchen behind the dark tinted mirror door that can store up to 50 pairs of shoes! Kelvin also proposed transforming my kitchen into a bistro/café by just adding a few simple tricks yet delivering dramatic results e.g. featuring large café posters on my kitchen cabinet doors. For my master bedroom, Kelvin proposed a bold interesting design (he called it experimental design) for my bed head as well as a “floating” bed frame. I told him I am all in for a bold concept because I wanted something unique for me bedroom! From the interior all the way to the exterior, kelvin also transformed my narrow balcony into a cool Alfresco Bistro area. Top Notch Customer Service ========================= Throughout the renovation journey, Kelvin is my sole go-to person whenever I needed opinions about my furniture and home décor choices. He is always so helpful, sincere and giving me solutions to almost every situation I faced in the house. It amazed me tremendously that such a busy chief designer like Kelvin actually conscientiously sees to every detail and responds to every requirement from me. He exhibits high level of patience and is genuinely interested in solving the client’s renovation challenges. He is always so professional in giving me unbiased viewpoints and always well-intentioned in every way. Not just a talented well-sought after interior designer in Singapore, he remains humble and genuinely cares about his customers and have their best interests at heart. While he cares about the aesthetics, he also cares about the practicality of his design and ensures it adds to the client’s comfort level. Small but Stylish ============== By the middle of Dec 2015, I have moved in comfortably to my tiny apartment. I enjoy the house totally – its stylish trendy design (Black and grey are dominant colour tones), its unique design style (Kelvin called it a rojak style) having blended vintage, industrial, hippy and minimalistic elements; the cozy ambience and mood I desired in a house (from lighting to decorative elements) and most importantly it does not appear cluttered! I am sincerely grateful to Kelvin that I could rely on him totally throughout the process. And kudos to his dedication and commitment to delivering my house in such a short time. On the other hand, I am deeply inspired by his undying passion about creating great home designs. I have no idea how he is able to juggle with multiple projects at the same time yet still remain steadfast with his mission of helping clients creating their dream homes. In my mind, he is more than a talented home specialist (Kelvin is very versatile in many different design styles!). He is also my mentor, my trusted advisor who had guided me throughout the renovation journey. Thank you Kelvin!

Space Sense Studio's interior designer, Kelvin Teo creativity and efficient space planing is one of the key reason which we've engaged him. He has been very patience and meticulous with our requirements and has also set high standards for his crafter's workmanship and quality. From the design process to the styling of your home, Kelvin ensure to give us a home to be called our own, he painstakingly also went around to search for vintage industrial lamps and customize one-off furnitures for us from dining table to pedant lamp to match the entire interior concept. I strongly recommend Space Sense Studio to anyone who is looking for a unique space and Kelvin will definitely transform your crib into a great work of art. Keep up the good work Space Sense Studio!