Home Tour: A finance & tech couple’s $29,000 renovation for their 4-room HDB SBF flat in Dakota
A young couple create their gorgeous first home with $29,000, some 3D modelling software, an online renovation platform, a little bit of trigonometry and a truckload of attention to detail.
By Gwyneth Goh -
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For most homeowners, renovation starts with hiring an interior designer. But for this couple in their early 30s in the sales and fintech sectors, doing things differently—and deliberately—seems to be their style. Rather than hire an interior designer, homeowners Cheryl and Shadi approached their first renovation with curiosity, initiative and gusto.
Armed with little more than online research and YouTube video tutorials, Shadi learnt how to model 3D layouts in SketchUp and developed his own floor plan—nailing down every single detail including carpentry dimensions and lighting calculations. With the help of renovation platform Homeez’s project manager and contractors, the couple then translated that vision into reality, delivering a family home that is thoughtful, intentional, and warm—all within a $29,000 renovation budget.
Who Lives Here: A couple in their 30s working in sales, their three-year-old son, and a helper
Home: A 4-room BTO SBF flat in Dakota
Size: Approximately 1,001 sq ft
Interior Designer: Self-designed by the homeowners, with project management support from Homeez
A wide view of the living room showcasing the 3.2-metre L-shaped sofa.
DIY Renovation
For Cheryl and Shadi, the decision to do it themselves was firstly motivated by cost. The two newlyweds at the time were about to start their own family, and wanted to cut costs as much as possible. “We wanted to save money and didn’t want to spend so much on the renovations.” The couple share very practical views on interior design, believing that most people spend way too much money on renovations and feature walls, which in their words “don’t improve your quality of life or stay.”
“Yeah, the TV feature wall should be banned. It’s 2025. No one has it anymore.”
Yet it wasn’t just about saving money. They were also sceptical of the value most interior designers bring to the table. After meeting several firms, they felt that many behaved more like salespeople than collaborators. “During the discussion, they didn’t really understand what I wanted to do,” Shadi mused, “I bet I can do it myself…” And he did.
“I like to be hands on and do things myself,” says Shadi who has a voracious appetite for learning, “… even if I fail, then okay, so be it.”
The couple didn’t want to pay for what they saw as unnecessary markups or decorative elements that wouldn’t improve the quality of life in their home. “We don’t believe in building unnecessary carpentry,” they explained. Instead, they focused their budget on layout planning, quality appliances and a smart home system, forgoing costly built-ins and feature walls entirely. Doing so allowed them to complete the renovation under $30,000, and still leave room to splurge on durable, high-performing essentials like their TV and fridge.
Both being in sales, the couple is used to thinking about value and function. “So, during the planning stage where we planned the house, we were quite intentional on the function of each zone,” they shared. “We both work from home most of the time, so we need a place that’s more conducive for work,” she explains. “But we also wanted a place to chill after work, and take breaks during the day.”
The reconfigured living area, where the sofa and TV placement maximize lounging and hosting space in a compact HDB layout.
Living Room Design
From the start, the couple knew they wanted to challenge some default assumptions about HDB layouts. “I mean, it’s never good to put a TV opposite the window because of the glare,” they point out, “HDB already allocates the TV points by putting all the sockets in a certain place, so that’s just where your TV is meant to be. But we made it change to fit our lifestyle.”
Instead of mounting their TV on the wall adjacent to the windows, they flipped the prescribed orientation and positioned the TV facing the window. This reconfiguration allowed them to fit a 3.2-metre L-shaped sofa in the living room, creating ample lounging and hosting space.
Neutral-toned finishes and soft furnishings contribute to the calming, restful mood of the living space.
TV Feature Wall
The TV wall is now a textural focal point in the room. Painted in limewash, it provides subtle depth and character without overwhelming the muted, sand-toned palette. Being both quite sensitive to clutter, the couple wanted a clean, neutral, and calm aesthetic that would offer a relaxing vibe after a long day of work.
“A lot of our friends, when they came over, said they feel like sleeping because the house makes them so comfortable. And, actually, a lot of our friends fall asleep on this couch.”
Meticulous renovation planning
To call Shadi “meticulous” would be an understatement. His approach to designing the home was not merely careful and precise, but almost academic. He revisited lessons from school—including trigonometry—to calculate the precise cast angles of the light fixtures, ensuring they wouldn’t reflect off the ceiling fan blades and produce a dizzying, strobe-like “disco” effect. Even the cove lighting was positioned with exactness to emit a warm, ambient glow without creating any harsh hot spot.
Proportion and harmony were equally important. Having studied photography in school, he applied certain design rules across the home.
Colour Palette
Using a 70-20-10 rule in curating their colour palette, they anchored each space with a dominant neutral cream colour, a secondary wooden tone, and a subtle accent like black to maintain visual balance throughout. He also strictly adhered to the “two-third rule”, which translated into picking a coffee table exactly two thirds the size of their sofa. “When you are trying to fill a space,” Shadi shared, “Just pick something that is two-third the size of it.”
Thoughtful planning and careful execution also helped them achieve seamless aesthetics which would have otherwise have cost a lot more. For instance, their Ikea TV console appears to fit the TV wall perfectly like a built-in would, leaving no wall space on either side. “It’s like built-in,” the couple explain, “but actually it’s not. The wall was actually extended to exactly the length of the TV console.”
Sintered stone countertops offer a clean, low-maintenance surface while echoing the home’s soft, minimalist aesthetic.
The dining area is anchored by a wooden table and modern dining chairs, with rattan accents that add warmth and texture to the space.
Dining Room Design
The dry pantry is where Shadi makes his coffee every morning, and the dining area is where the family shares their meals. A slim bar counter sits behind a wooden dining table flanked by a set of modern dining chairs. While their silhouette is clean and contemporary, rattan accents provide a soft contrast to the otherwise streamlined setup. This subtle detail adds a layer of organic warmth, tying in gently with the natural textures used throughout the home.
The concealed kitchen door is finished in matching wood veneer, allowing it to blend seamlessly with the dry pantry and dining cabinetry.
Concealed Kitchen Design
Bucking the popular open-concept kitchen interior design trend, this couple opted to fully enclose their kitchen—but in a way that made it feel almost invisible. “We also concealed the kitchen door,” they said, when sharing about how they like everything to be flush with nothing “sticking out.”
The result is seamless. The entrance to the kitchen is neatly tucked next to the dry pantry unit, carefully disguised in the same warm walnut finish that frames the dining area.
A concealed entry and matching wood finishes allow the kitchen to blend seamlessly into the surrounding dining area.
Kitchen Design
Behind its camouflaged door, the kitchen is carefully outfitted. It features an open overhead shelf and counters topped with sintered stone—a durable, low-maintenance material that mirrors the clean, minimalist feel of the rest of the home. “If we had an unlimited budget, we would probably use marble instead,” they admit. “But marble is like three times the price of sintered stone.”
The master bedroom continues the soft neutral palette, with clean lines and built-in lighting in a recessed headboard niche.
The bedside cupboard is designed flush against the wall, maintaining a clean silhouette in the compact master bedroom.
A built-in niche above the bed doubles as a ledge, softly lit by integrated warm lighting for nighttime convenience.
Master Bedroom Design
The calming palette continues into the bedroom and bathroom, where simplicity guides every design decision. In the bedroom, a recessed niche above the bed serves as a practical ledge, softly lit by warm, integrated lighting. An L-shaped wardrobe offers Cheryl a little more storage while staying discreet and flush with the walls.
“We also learnt from our friends’ mistakes,” they chuckled, recalling how their friends had to place their baby cot in their walk-in wardrobe after having an entire bedroom converted into a closet. “They can’t even open the wardrobe at all without moving the cot… We didn’t want to go through that.” The couple shared that they were thankfully able to adapt their home design midway after discovering that Cheryl was pregnant. This let them “future-proof” the house and make allowances for possibly having a second child.
Wall-mounted fixtures and mirror cabinets keep the space streamlined, efficient, and easy to maintain.
The bathroom is clad in large-format matte tiles, with slim black fittings adding contrast to the otherwise neutral palette.
Bathroom Design
The bathroom echoes the same calm simplicity—clad in large format tiles with a matte finish, accented by slim black hardware. Wall-mounted fixtures and mirror cabinets keep the layout efficient and uncluttered, while the overall tone remains understated and cohesive.
DIY Home Renovation on a Budget
Would they recommend this DIY route to other homeowners? “I think for regular homeowners, I wouldn’t recommend to design your own house,” Cheryl laughs. “You save money…” Shadi says, “but you also trade a lot of your own time and effort to do it.”
“I would definitely recommend to set up a smart home,” Shadi smiles proudly, explaining how he’d designed the whole set-up himself after studying YouTube and TikTok videos, with only the help of an electrician. “It changes the way we interact with the house. You open the door, the light turns on. You open the kitchen door, the light turns on; you close it, the light turns off… This is a very good quality of life improvement.”
A small candle warmer adds ambient glow and a subtle scent to the living room, reinforcing the home’s calming, restful tone.
$29,000 Renovation
The entire renovation underutilised the couple’s initial $40,000 budget, and took only around 10-12 weeks to execute—although planning began around 6 months before they collected their keys. “We made a TikTok account to document the renovation process and our home journey. I think that also attaches a sentimental value to the house. There is actual documentation… on how we grew with the home,” the couple share. If not for the limited space in the house, they’re very happy with how it has turned out. “Definitely if the opportunity arises, we will want to have a bigger space, but we will be here for the next 3-5 years.”
When asked if he would pursue a career in interior design after such a successful first project, Shadi blithely shared that he’d already turned down requests to design some friends’ houses, since this was “not something I want to deal with because I work in sales and didn’t want to have to deal with it.” Wanting to stay true to his practical and design sensibilities seems to be the main reason why. Cheryl explains, “He decided not to go for it because he won’t be considered a designer but an executor.”