Latest Interior Designer Reviews

After I collected my keys to The Arc last year, my husband and I decided to shift to our new condo before Chinese New Year. We met with Living Gaia and were impressed with them. However, the female ID that we wanted to engage was fully booked and would only be able to start on our renovation after Chinese New Year. We were disappointed. Just at that time, another ID Desmond overheard it and started making contact with my husband, promising that he would be able to complete our renovation in time for us to move in before Chinese New Year. Although I did not like him, my husband told me to put my prejudices aside and gave him a deposit of $10K. After collecting $10K, he gave my husband 3 3D drawings and told my husband to pay him another $5K. My husband refused, saying too little work was done to justify another $5K. Desmond sent me a SMS that I must pay the remaining $5K by 6pm that day or the contract that my husband signed would be void and the deposit of $10K that my husband paid would be forfeited. I was scared that our $10K would be forfeited so I wrote him a cheque of $5K and he came to collect it that day. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was insufficient money in our joint account and my cheque bounced. Desmond called me and said my contract is void and the $10K is forfeited. I have reported this to CASE and am going to Small Claims to demand my money back from Desmond.

Saw this IG story when i already pay deposit then i know siao liao. The wife’s (denise) insider information already say the husband who’s the lead designer jaded and the tone they use is blaming type. Was not expecting much, just want to finish ASAP and i also cannot pull out cus signed contract and pay dep liao. Ended up with delays also, not as bad as the others i think, cus i try to follow up closely and i think the trick is really must micromanage them but it is rly taxing. Just felt the need to share becuz the service i received not exactly the best especially towards the end. Dun rly feel valued as a client but thank god my reno finally ended.

I would like to share my bad experience with S Illusion Interior also known as S Illusion Design & Build. We had engaged S Illusion Interior to carry out renovation works for our house back in June 2014. Tiffanie Ko and Alvin Kow from S Illusion Interior are the two contractors handling my renovation works. It's a business run by the husband & wife and they claimed that they have a boss and we had just found out there isn't any! This Tiffanie Ko had introduced me a banker who is actually her friend. Once the loan was approved she smartly headed down to the bank before notifying us to collect the cheque from the banker prior to even starting the renovation work. I had asked the banker to separate the loan amt into 2 diff cheques so that I can pass it to the contractor based on the reno schedule. But both the banker and Tiffanie had made separate arrangements and issued the cheque to her even before starting work at my place. As this is our first home and we had no idea how all this bank loan works, we were deceived by them saying this is the usual practice when you take reno bank loan. As she was putting on a very trustable professional image during the early stage, we consoled ourselves that she will do a good job. To our horror, renovation works done were all sub-standard. Incorrect finalized 3D drawings were furnished for carpentry works. This resulted in wrong design, colors and size for carpentry works which involves shoe rack, TV feature wall in living area and TV console. All this caused delay in the renovation schedule leading to another long wait to redo the carpentry works. All appointments set to discuss and finalize on the renovation items after she received the full payment were delayed and most of the times Tiffanie and Alvin did not even turn up for appointments. Upon rectifying the carpentry works, the TV console fixed came down crashing to the floor on 20th August 2014, which is less than 5 days after fixing it up. Because of this my TV also dropped together with the TV Console and its not even working properly now. All the HDMI ports were damaged and the visuals as well. When the crash happened, my 8 month old nephew was just inches away from the TV console! Thank god for that. We had informed them to rectify this on the next day itself as we could see it was giving way.They did not even bother to come down and have a look at the work until the day it fell to the floor. Here are some of the images. Following all the unsatisfactory service received from this company, we asked them to stop their renovation works on that very day itself and to refund the balance amount for all the uncompleted works. The refund amount was supposed to be returned to us on 1st October 2014. Even to get the signature from us, they dragged their own time saying today & tomorrows. After much pressure to settle this matter, Alvin handed me the cheque on 3rd October 2014. We were notified by the bank that the cheque got bounced back after banking in and it was due to insufficient fund in the account. Upon enquiring with S Illusion Interior, they informed me to bank in the cheque again once I get the letter from the bank. The second attempt of banking in the cheque was also unsuccessful and cheque was bounced back the second time. Tiffanie Ko had also failed to pay 3 of the respective vendors whom we engaged for part of the renovation works. I was not aware that the payment to them has not been settled until the vendors started calling me up and demanding for all the overdue payments after being unable to withstand Tiffanie Ko’s excuses. We had to pressure Tiffanie to settle the payment as the vendors were threatening to go up till small claims. They even forwarded us all the smses that were sent by her telling them today and tomorrow and never turned up to pass them the balance payment. Here are some of the msges sent when the works were ongoing and her rude reply when we asked for the refund after the cheque got bounced back. Till today, S Illusion Interior has not refunded us the unused balance loan amount and has challenged us to go to court to claim the amount. Msg replies sent were all rude and she did not even bother to apologize for all that she has caused us. We have made a police report as well as lodged a claim against them under the Small Claims Tribunal. They even failed to attend the first consultation held at the state court. We just want to create awareness to all those who are about to engage any ID / Contractors for your renovation to be very strict and do extensive research before you engage anyone. At all cost, NEVER NEVER PAY THEM IN FULL, even when you have taken a bank loan. They go around creating a very professional image before you engage them and only after starting work, you get to see how unprofessional things could get. What you see is not you get as the end product. This is our first experience handling renovation matters for our new home and it has been a very good lesson to us. We are under so much of stress and inconvenience caused by this company and we do not want anyone else to go through what we have been thru . We do not know if we can recover the loss from them but we hope no one else falls into the trap like us.

Jorence lim Kok Han aka Jo Lim had ran away after accepting $65,000.00 payment for my HDB renovation at Punggol Waterway Brooks. He is now un-contactable where he had switch off his handphone and left my whatsapp chat group on the 19 Feb 2016. Jo's previous employer Artisan Space Pte Ltd is also a victim of his unethical ways where he mislead Artisan Space's clients and many people to believe that a company J + Design Pte Ltd set up by Jo's collaborator Lee Wai Yee belongs to Artisan Space, causing a lot of confusion and misunderstandings between the victims and Artisan Space. I have made a police report against Jo Lim and Lee Wai Yee the director of J+ Design Pte Ltd, report no A/20160221/2039 at the Bukit Merah East N.P.C locate at the Police Cantonment Complex. The investing office is Nicholas Tang Weiwei. Currently the police has classified the case as a Breach of Agreement and they cannot act upon it unless there are other victims who are willing to step forward to make a report against Jo Lim and Lee Wai Yee. When there are enough victims, the police will treat it as a cheating case and they can take action towards them. In order to help victims of Jo Lim to locate him, I strongly suggest that the other victims make their police report at the Cantonment Complex located above Outram MRT Station and request the report to be sent to Mr Nicholas Tang Weiwei as the IO. This will help speed up the action of the police. When making the police report, it will be best if the victims can prepare a detail chronicle of instance or evident so that it can facilitate the IO's job. Example of chronicle of instance can be like a whatsapp chat log and evident might be bank transfer statements paid to Jo or J+ Design's OCBC bank account. I hope that the police can locate this Jo Lim and Lee Wai Yee fast so that they cannot cheat other people in the future.

I am here to share with you and hope that you will avoid getting scam by this con-man, Desmond Tan Yong Kwee from CP Design & Furnishing Pte Ltd (199900736C), Contact: 9626 9484 / 6534 1020. Below is the story; Desmond Tan was first introduce to us by a family friend as a contractor to renovate my pet shop back in Jan 2016. we then discuss on the design, the plan to carry out the work and the final amount agreed was SGD $39K for the renovation. (Attached the Quote). Based on the agreement a 30% upfront payment was make to Desmond upon confirmation which also confirm the beginning of my nightmare. The worker was either not present or did not complete their job leaving everything half done, it was a mess everywhere. Each time i question Desmond, he will be all calm, telling stories to cover the trace and not forgetting asking for payment which he mention to payoff the permit, insurance and other approval needs. It finally came to my attention when there are days no worker appear and he start to miss my called. Desmond surface 2 days later with ONE bangla worker to finish up the wet work at the same time asking me for more money to purchase the Air-con. I was reluctant at first but he manage to talk me out of its using one of his sympathy story and he disappear in thin air with $39K in his pocket. ( included added along the way and thing he promise to buy but nv appear) Left behind an uncompleted shop with rental burning daily and me broke. In result, i wasted 2 month rent and carrying a loan in order to complete what Desmond left behind in order for my shop to be ready for business. I rang him on a daily basis hoping Desmond would suddenly turn over and return me my money (off course never happen). He will answer at times asking me to give him time he will repay as his client didn't pay him or next week he will repay but nothing happen soon my number was block. Anyway i gave him whatever benefit of doubt to a man aged like my dad but he just busted the limit. Desmond not only cheated my money but he nearly destroy my dream. Therefore i hope no one will bite his bait and suffer what i had gone through. I'm 100% sure that till date he did not remorse and got no intention of repaying the amount he scam.

This is another irresponsible and cheating contractor case We are searching for any victims being cheated or having incomplete works by this contractor, by the name Eddie or Loh Yew Boon. His company is LYB Design & Renovation, registered address is 57 Ubi Ave 1 #03-03 Ubi Centre, S408936. His home address is Bukit Batok West and mobile number is 8777 XXXX. My reno was supposed to be completed by end Jun 2016, 1 week before end Jun informed us of 1st delay (to mid Jul) due to his poor management of schedule, even attempted to lay the blame on us. By mid Jun, he dropped the bomb of carpentry factory unable to produce due to lack of technical confidence for our design requirements. When questioned why he has confirmed that everything is on schedule for carpentry? His reply was that factory lied to him that work was in progress. And so another delay (to 1st week Aug) as he sourced for another carpentry factory to take over hence need fabrication time and he offered compensation. We counter-proposed and this is where it evolved into a nightmare, scheduled meeting was postponed bcos he need time to "think over". Time and time time again our request of timeline, outstanding job details and status update was ignored, Scheduled meetings for his clarifications was cancelled due to multiple reasons; injury, sudden MIA for days (without prior notice) to settle issues, no connection to line/internet yet can WhatsApp just to inform, and not answering calls or replying to WhatsApp and messages or line turned off. We are sick and tired of his delay tactics, his company (sole-proprietorship) has even expired during his repeated delays. We went to his home and neighbour said we aren't the first looking for him, no wonder his family refused to come to the door. He has caused great stress to the daily lives and finances for our family of 6, including my son who has been missing school, it was planned for our reno to completed by Jun holidays. Now my walls are bare; kitchen, hall and MBR is ZERO carpentry plus a partially done toilet. 70% of payment is in his pocket and yet not a single job is completed 100% without requiring further touches. We are sharing our plight in hope that any other victims can reach out to us and together we can take further actions against this irresponsible contractor. We also appreciate if any kind souls are willing to share on their similar experience on how to handle/proceed with such situation. Currently we are going to file a police report and consult a lawyer plus going to SCT. Most importantly, we'll be sourcing for another contractor/firm willing to complete the remaining job asap, pls share if have such contacts. TIA

The experience started well enough. The designer who got in touch with me was enthusiastic about the potential job. Then it got a bit wierd because he wanted $500 to 'secure the quote'. Which I stupidly paid because this was the first ID I ever worked with. He said that it would be fully refundable if I choose to not go with him, confident in his design. So 'Imagine' my surprise when they refused to return the $500 when I went with another ID, saying that it was for his services. Excuse me, what happened to the "free consultation"? Even after 2 months of going back and forth, they refused to refund me my full amount, even suggesting that my ID can get $500 worth of carpentry from them. Please lor, you think I will trust you after your scheming? I told them that if they continue to refuse this, essentially charging me for no services rendered, I would leave a negative review warning people away from their underhanded ways. I don't care how enthusiastic you are, or that you are a family-run company, what-not. But I gave you evidence of messages your designer sent me, and negotiated through a third-party app, and you still refuse to acknowledge your wilfulness? That is just unprofessional. Stay away from them, because you don't know what they may cut you with.

Please help to SHARE this post if you know of someone who had similar experience with this contractor. This contractor, Mr Devon Teng Kok Eng, S73XXXXXC, of Integra D’sign Pte Ltd has collected $44690 from me, but had delivered only 50% of the amount paid. His works are largely defective, dangerous and incomplete. He goes by the name Carvin on Line chat and has another company called Deetrend D’sign Pte Ltd. He does not have a factory for carpentry. Does all the wood work at your apartment and has only a tiny table space at warehouses in Toh Guan and Kaki Bukit. He speaks very well and promises to deliver premium works for premium charge. And has a PhD from Sheffield Hallam University. He brags that his company has the expertise to cover end-to-end works. But in fact, he had only been hiring unskilled part-time workers who does patchy work. That is why he needed to have access to the apartment at all times of the day (even at midnight) cos whenever he finds a slot for the workers, he will take them to the apartment. There are no dedicated workers in the project. I had unknowingly engaged his service because he was a friend's friend. But after all that he had done, he is currently on the run, not responding to my whatsapp, SMS and emails. And playing delay tactics with CASE. I have long gone beyond the traumatised period. Was truly shakened and disturbed when he hacked three(3) of my floor tiles from my apartment in an attempt to press for further payment – even though $44690 had already been collected at that point in time. It has always been his tactic to press for further payment when works are not done. And if I don't pay, work will be further delayed. That was how a total of $44690 was given. And it seems that I was always held at ransom. The last straw came when he hacked the tiles and removed the replacement tiles from my apartment, lying that the tilers had kept them and refused to return until I pay. But to sum it all, here are some of the highly defective and dangerous works he had delivered: slopping cove light holders that are on the verge of collapsing crooked and dislodged light and power points (this is very basic, isn't it? I feel like stepping into Alice in Wonderland when I step into my apartment) concealed wires thrown into the walls without tubing and incomplete cabinets with broken laminates Other unethical things he did: creating ruckus in my estate (not abiding to disposal regulations) visiting my apartment at wee hours of the night (sometimes for reno works, sometimes not) posting pictures that I sent him as reference and passing them off as his company’s work (I have sent him numerous warnings to request for him to take down the pictures but he refused). He has truly given me h*** the past few months and I truly do not wish for anyone to be in the same situation. Please get in touch with me if you had similar encounters with him. The police needs more people to step forward to investigate him under fraud, cheat and as a confidence trickster. This person MUST BE brought for investigation to prevent others from being harmed. Being a first-time home owner, this is truly truly traumatic.

I am writing this post to alert everyone on the questionable business practice of an Interior Design/ Contractor named Interior Factory Pte Ltd. The registered director is called A********* S*** W*******, and the interior designer for our project is Xavier. *** We got the keys to our BTO early this year. Just like other couples, we were exited to have a place of our own but at the same time, we were also nervous about choosing the right interior design firm that fits into our concept and budget. We settled on the above mentioned company after talking to several other IDs. It turned out to be a bad decision and the start of our ordeal. Long story short, we paid 95% (in accordance with the contract) what came up to be $31,000. A reasonable time frame for completion would be 1-1.5 months but 4 months into the project, many areas of the house like the Quartz kitchen top, window grills, shower screen and some other miscellaneous items are still missing. At this point, both the boss A********* S*** and the designer Xavier were unreachable. Even on the odd occasion when Xavier picked up the call from a number other than mine, he sheds all responsibility on this issue, claiming the boss has taken all the money and gambled them away. To compound matter, their workers damaged the timber flooring on all 3 of the bedrooms. The dents are obvious and irreversible. Engaging another contractor to varnish them cost us another sum, on top of the amount to complete the unfinished work. On Interior Factory, A********* S*** and Xavier -The address on the agreement is a home address rented by A********* S***. The problem is, he no longer lives there. Going down to this place, the other tenants told us he hasn't been living them for some time already. -If the above is true, then there's a conflict with the registered address on his NRIC. The address on his NRIC is the same as the address on the agreement. But if he doesn't live there and didn't update his current place of residence, doesn't that constitute to an offence under the Singapore law and penal code? This is all the more jarring as he intentionally conceals his real place of residence as an escape to con people of their hard-earned money. -From our understanding and talking to other contractors, he also owes other contractors and sub-contractors for the work they have done for him. While some have tracked him down and he promised to return them the money on a said date, he has never deliver and has been on the run since. -Xavier, while obliging and extremely friendly initially, started becoming less responsive and eventually uncontactable as the project drags on. Simple requests like rendering the color of cabinets, showing perspective from different angles all didn't get done. He even got the paint color of our walls wrong! He has already failed us on so many instances, building up empty promises like finishing this aspect of the renovation by a particular date etc. When confronted, he displayed an air of arrogance and proceeded to say there is no point looking for him. On hindsight, we should have: - Dictate our own payment terms. Some companies will point the industry practice of A% deposit, B% upon commencement of project and C% when blah blah blah is up. The point is, make progressive payment only when work is done, not when you assume the work will be completed. This way, if they run into cash flow problem (which is common) or any other issues, you minimize the damage and don't end up losing too much money. If they don't adhere to your request, take the business elsewhere. There are tons of companies out there. - Meet the boss of the company. Have a conversation with him at his office, not some other places like McDonald's. Be weary if he insists on meeting outside. *** At the end of the day, despite all this unfortunate happenings, we also have to hold our hands and admit that our inexperience. We were too trusting and too big-headed to accept advises. While I struggled to recount the experience, I believe it's our duty to highlight this case and bring it to the attention of readers here. It's been a rocky journey in building our first home, but it's even more depressing knowing that the law can't bring shady businesses like this to justice. CASE and SCT have limited power to act against matters like this. If we were to engage a civil suit against them, they could declare bankrupt and shut the business. Because these scumbags will continue to act in their own interests, it's best to know who are the black rats, avoid them and warn people you know about their questionable ethics.

Engaged Tiffanie Ko and Alvin Low WeiXiang to renovate my BTO in 2015. After paying them 90% of the total amount, they delayed our kitchen cabinet for 4 months and did not do the rest of the carpentry works. Kept giving excuses and lying that the sub-contractors are delayed or will turn up at an appointed time but never appeared, thus wasted a lot of our time. They even gave us the sub-con numbers to ask us to call ourselves as they are busy! Imagine having to live without a kitchen cabinet (and no wardrobe, no feature wall, etc) for months, meaning no cooking and washing with 2 small children. My children and I also had to bath in cold water because they delay installing the heater. We could not do any house-warming despite already moved in for months. So instead of having a joyous occasion of a new house, we went through months of suffering and stress, and that is not the end of the story... After we threaten to report them to the police, CASE and Small Claim Court, they went to lodge a report against us at the SCC first stating that we had harassed their sub-con. We counter-claimed and they were told by the court to drop their claim (since they have nothing substantial and they even tried to claim the final 10% when they did not even complete the works). After spending much time at SCC, we agree to settle on a token amount so as to put the whole case behind us but the payment was delayed again and again. After paying us only half the amount (almost 6 months later), they stopped paying us and was not contactable. Many of the sub-cons also came to harass us as they were not paid, saying that Tiffanie told them that we are the one that had not paid them. Now they had blocked our calls and facebook. There is no such company address at Kallang. Their company registered address from SCC is: 486 Admiralty Link #08-153 S750486. Contact: 98831448, Email: [email protected] and [email protected] Hope that no one else had to suffer the same stress and suffering as my family.