Diva's Interior Design Pte Ltd

A belated thank-you and recommendation for James Lim at Diva’s Interior Design. I would recommend James Lim unreservedly. He is dependable, professional and, most importantly, humble. He really puts his heart and mind on the work he does, treating every house as his own. My renovation project started in the beginning of June 2021 and was completed in late August 2021. This is a 45-year-old 4-room HDB flat. I considered myself extremely blessed that a friend’s friend referred James to me for the first ever renovation project in my life, before I gave up and went with the least disappointing of the six other interior designers whom I spoke to before meeting James. In the end James gave me a delightful flat to live in, which I am forever deeply grateful for. The workmanship is top-notch with military-grade attention to detail; demolition, carpentry, tiling, plumbing and painting was all done with amazing efficiency; James also patiently spent massive amount of time educating me about the basics of renovation, given this was my first time doing it. The project was completed [almost] on time (2-week delay amidst severe post-covid labour shortage) and on budget (amidst skyrocketing raw material and labour costs). We did encounter a handful of problems/mistakes during the process (as with almost all the other renovation projects; there are a million things to juggle after all), but James always swiftly and responsibly rectified each and every one of these – sometime working with workers until past midnight. It has been almost one year and everything is still looking / functioning as new.

DIVA’s had one of the most reasonable quotation among a lot of other ID firms we have been to. We have no particular issue with the ID firm so we will comment on our ID more. Our ID is Dan Sim (whom we understand that he is no longer with DIVA’s anymore). Pros : He is quite flexible with the things that we propose. Will not insist in his own style nor pushy. Generally friendly and easy to speak to. He was also rarely late in our meeting with him which is a plus point! Cons : VERY slow in reply. We communicated mostly via Whatsapp. But when we asked him for advice etc, he typically take 1-2 days to reply. This is not helpful if you are in a furniture/lighting shop seeking for advice. Can cause some delays. We had like two weeks where our house was left empty with nothing done. We had no idea that nothing was ongoing until we questioned him about the progress for our house. He then quickly said that he would arrange for some tilers to go over etc. There was no explanation why nothing was being done though. We suspected he had too many projects and forgot to schedule for ours. Towards the end when we were fixing the defects, he had missed out quite a bit of defects amendments after we told him. He had to call the carpenter/plumber/tilers back again a few times. This resulted in some delays as well. He is an ID who needs a lot of prompter. If u are not in a hurry to finish your house, you can consider him. Otherwise you might not want to.

Maybe it is not right to say the company is no good but rather which ID you engaged in its company. This guy, Roy, certainly failed its duty and responsibility as an ID. His supervision on quality and taste was bad. Kitchen wall tiles was not even, just so ugly. Master room toilet floor tiles was as bad, not even, the feet can feel the edge of each tiles. Just one month, it is already seen with little corrosion marks. Terrible service. What he could suggest is to hack off and re-do. You see, we had moved in for a month, is hacking off just an easy job without dust and noise ? Lastly, this ID DO NOT CONSULT and confirm to us before any change in parts/products. His details pure weak, can't foresee and advise on dimensions that may not be suitable. He took it as it is his own home renovation work. Diva's is not CASE certified by the way. Well, your choice.

I know Diva's interior design at facebook, after seeing his review, i engage him to renovate my house. After all renovation, the quality was bad, so i said it is possible to change, he say there is charges. If you don't say you want a better quality, they give you the lousy quality, the wonder the quotation was the cheapest. but poor quality. Never ever trust this Company again. Beware of those scammer ID, they look rich to scammer your guys like they are rich. to make you feel that they can settle your house nicely.

I was referred to Alfred Wong from my friend who is doing his house renovation. Despite providing all details and reminders send. Alfred Wong just giving empty promises and let me waited endlessly for his quotation. He could politely declined my quotation request, if he felt the contract amount was too small for his commission, rather than rudely ignore me. My friend's unit who in-charge by him, was given the 3D drawings before selection of materials. There were also no amendment made to those wrongly drawn areas and no update when materials were confirmed. In this manner of working, how could the house owner virtualized the prospective of the completed work. This is the worst ID I had encountered, which seems more a sales ID than a professional ID, and was glad I did not engage them.

Some works were rectified after our feedback. The sales director came over. However, there were some complex rectification works that required hacking that we declined. After some hagging, we were offered mere $xxx as refund. As to close the case, we were forced to accept it. After 2 months, we were still left hanging without this promised, agreed refund. Since, the sale director requested us to email the 2 bosses. Now, from 29July to date, we have sent 3 email and it went dead. More issues arising also realising from HDB, our unit is concealed piping but the reno turned out to exposed these pipes. We seek clarificaiton but to no avail. I reckon we will close this chapter as the pathetic refund can be overlooked. Encountering companies like this, left us irate and helpless.

The firm was selected as the original designer promised excellent workmanship for the price premium paid. Main design inputs and spatial planning were by us. Renovation started in February and supposed to complete end of April. ID has no project management in place(overall project schedule, schedule or works, project updates etc), worksite management is also poor (poor housekeeping, no administrative controls etc). Urgency is also lacking as 1 month prior to lockdown, we requested to expedite carpentry which they did not feel a need to, resulting in a delay of another 4 months. Material selection (choice of tiles, doors etc) resulted in delays as well as ID is unaware of material unavailability. Generally, this is due to lack of ID's experience. ID was relatively honest and respond within a day or 2. Due to lockdown, carpentry could not be delivered (claimed to have missed out by 1 day, which could have been avoided if they have expedited). As part of the agreement, ID agreed to completely wrapped and protect all carpentry. When renovation resumed, a new ID Eric was added to the chat, saying that he is assisting as the original ID is stuck in his home country (1st of many dishonest conversations). Subsequently, he created a new chat group citing he could not find the old chat group (1 of many unconvincing lies to come). Eric is an ID which expects his client to update him on progress (very diva attitude). Out of trust and urgency to complete the reno, we believe Eric that the carpentry is all in order and we immediately made payment. We were shocked when we saw the state of the carpentry on-site, full of birdshit, water seepage and poor plywood quality (reused boards, bubbles on pvc, misaimed nails, defects in excess of 500). Subsequently, the dimensions for carpentry were found to be incorrect (kitchen, foyer-shoe cabinet, display cabinet and dining settee) and the redesign to salvage the carpentry was done by us (ID was clueless and did not want to commit to replace all the wrongly dimensioned parts. The carpentry exceeded the change in tile design and he thinks it is OK.). We understand the Covid situation and we're very willing to compromise. Eric took advantage of our compassion as a weakness and literally waited for us to question before he react slowlyand arrange for things to be done. He have zero project management planning or contractor management. He is also unaware and unsure of the items outstanding. Technically, he is severely lacking in knowledge of reno or interior design (don't even know that there is a difference between normal and drywall wall plug, using a normal wall plug on a drywall) In one instance, he was unaware we had pet access door flaps on our room doors, and suddenly it was delivered one day with the flap installed wrongly. He came out with various excuses and subsequently provided a drawing which we have never seen before to justify he is right. Currently, I have to replace all 3 doors and 3 flaps myself. Other defects included the evorich flooring which has plenty of hollowness which is due to the uneven screeding done which both Diva and Evorich blame each other but don't want to take responsibilities. Damages (someone drills into my kitchen tile), defects (plaster, paint, grout etc) were not rectified and I had to get a third party to complete as Eric went missing for 20 days without replying. Would not seek firms from qanvast. If you seek to pay a premium and get a nightmare, this is the company to engage.