Damai Perdana

Recently we had a lady who was very adamant to see the full colour 3D design before job confirmation. Try as we might, we cannot convince her that software designs are time-consuming to prepare compared to sketches and that we normally present quotations together with sketches, which is enough to let most customers know what it is that we are quoting on.

You see, kitchen showrooms are able to produce 3D designs fast because they just present a modular cabinetry design without considering the surrounding tile colours, the wall colours, the usage of surrounding areas, etc. A few years ago, when we were just doing kitchen cabinets, that was what we did. MERELY design the cabinets, without considering the surrounding areas.
I later empathise with the house-owners who, despite spending lots of money on house renovations, just didn't know how to get it right for the rest of the areas - the plaster ceiling was wrong, the electrical points were wrong, the furnitures were of wrong colours, the wall colours and tiles were all not matching, etc.

That's why now I go on site visits ( which I did not do a few years ago ), to meet clients to understand their likings so that I can incorporate the information that I gather into my designs. That way, I will understand which direction the sunlight comes in, whether to propose thick curtains or just sheers, whether my proposed designs will match the exterior of the house, whether the exterior colours will match the interiors etc.

I would like to share the various stages of my work from quotations to 3D designs…

We are currently halfway through renovation work at Damai Perdana. These are the stages of our work.

1) We asked client to give a budget for us to know what to propose.

2) I did some hand-sketches and submitted these along with the price quotation.

3) When customer agrees with the pricing, then we asked for a 10% non-refundable deposit to start the designing work.

4) I submit the 3D drawings with a few colour combinations for them to choose from. When the colours are agreed upon, then only we start the actual renovation work with the collection of another 20% payment.

5) Subsequent payments are on a weekly basis as work progresses.



This job costs :


A. Living Hall

Divider at entrance RM1,750.00
Altar RM980.00
Carpentry work at TV area RM3,660.00
Divider at TV area RM2,950.00





B. Dining

Framed mirror c/w bevel edge at dining area RM1,650.00






C. Kitchen

Wall cabinet RM2,100.00
Base cabinet RM1,200.00
Solid surface RM1,260.00
Tall unit RM1,800.00
Fridge cabinet RM1,200.00
Tear down dividing wall RM1,200.00
Concrete slab c/w 2'x2' tile RM3,150.00
Under slab door frame, door & drawers RM1,795.00
Mosaic tile @ hood area RM1,200.00
Sink 2 bowl with tap RM580.00
Plumbing work
- reposition inlet & outlet & reconnect RM600.00



D. Painting

Exterior wall & interior wall painting job (incl. Nippon paint) RM5,200.00
Skim coat on uneven wall surface only RM800.00

Updating The Client


Because this customer is working overseas, I will take pictures of the house every few days to update him on the progress. Our payments are collected on a progressive manner depending on how much the job has been delivered. I have an idea to write a posting on determining progressive payments and how much to pay to help those renovating the house on a DIY basis so that you reduce the risk of contract workers absconding with the money.

Helping Us Make Interior Design Affordable - Part 2

Today, I'm continuing on my previous posting about my passion and mission :

"making ID work more affordable."

I need to put up this 2nd part quick because I'm getting an avalanche of enquiries but the people who enquire about our service are getting it all wrong.

To help us lower our costs so that we can pass cost savings to customers, we need customers to cooperate. This is how to go about it :

1) We can only pay you a site visit when you have received the keys to your house.

TIME is a major cost. If a customer asks us for quotes on a house that is not ready, we will need to put in much more time than if we go in when it's fully ready. There would not be any urgency to confirm the designs and the work will drag on and on. That's why we don't quote using just layout plans. ID work is not cabinetry work alone but includes electrical planning, colours, restructuring, etc.

2) We need customers to plan own budget first.

Plan how much you need to allocate to buy electrical items, how much for sofas, beds, etc. Then you'll arrive at the left over figure that you can spend on renovation work. We need customers to give us a budget so that we know what to propose, what materials to propose, what areas to concentrate on ( because most people will have a LIMITED budget). Again, this will help us save time so that we do not have to play the guessing game not knowing what to propose. I've written on another article that a bungalow owner has only minimal budget and only wants the cheapest
materials but another condo owner has a budget that is 5 times larger and is expecting trendy items. We also do not quote per sq ft because a kitchen of the SAME size can be RM10k or even go up to RM40k! That's why we can work much smoother and faster if we don't need to guess.

3) We need customers to find out their own likes and dislikes.

Most people will approach an ID and say " Design this house for me" without identifying their own likings. Customers think that " I'm paying you to do the designing so why must I spend so much time thinking?" THAT'S THE REASON why IDs must charge very expensive for their service! This category of customers use up a lot of our time - changing and changing the concepts and proposals without knowing what they actually want in the first place. Can you imagine what our time costs will be if the designing process stretches over many, many rounds of endless discussions?

4) We cannot allow more than 3 times amendments to 3D designs.

This area is one of our big advantage over many designers ( young graduates who rely too much on computers ) and traditional contractors - both Chee Hoong and I are equally able to draw free-hand. By being able to draw free-hand sketches, we are able to present our ideas and concepts QUICKLY to customers on the spot and get them to confirm the layout and internal of cabinetry work. When we give a price quotation, we are able to show what we are quoting by attaching the relevant sketches. Free-hand sketches done on the spot are much faster than having to go back to the office and reworking changes to designs on computer. ONLY AFTER the design and pricing is agreed on, will we do a proper colour design in 3D.

5) What I'm trying to do is making ID service more affordable.

This doesn't mean we are selling low! What I mean is, by keeping close watch on time efficiency, we are able to sell considerably lower than other IDs but we are not skimping on other costs like materials or workers' wages.

From the Cost Triangle above, I'm presenting to you the relationship between COST=TIME=QUALITY . The Cost of a service or product depends on how much TIME and QUALITY we put into the production. All these elements are inter-linked. In order for Meridian Design to pass cost savings to customers, we need to reduce either TIME or QUALITY.
Reducing QUALITY is definitely out of the question here! We didn't strive our butt off over the last few years to build credibility and reliability for nothing. So the only logical and workable thing to do is to keep TIME under control and reduce it by striving for better work efficiency.

Helping Us Make Interior Design Affordable - Part 1

Some readers are asking why I'm updating this blog more regularly nowadays. The reason is…there are not that many interesting activities to distract me lately. What I mean is, reading is my topmost hobby but my current reading lists are unusually dull and dry - in the car is the book Businomics, for bedroom reading is Project Management and the only bright spot is the colourful Practical Feng Shui in the living hall. So blogging is a nice alternative to fill my spare time!

Today, I would like to share my vision and passion.

This was what happened and is still happening in the renovation industry :

1) In our parents generation, renovation work was done by the traditional contractors. Contractors are skilled but they were unable to give much consultation. Interior design was exclusively for the very rich.

2) In the present day, there are still many contractors operating in the traditional manner. They normally sell cheaper in order to compete with their many competitors that engage foreign labour. There's nothing wrong with this. In fact, competition brings better value to the consumer in terms of cost savings while helping the company to be more efficient and reduce wastage. Again, these groups have not progressed beyond providing the basic construction skills which is labour based.

3) IDs are still very much exclusively available to those who are willing to pay the big bucks for it. Exclusive ID studios will ask to collect a designer fee before starting any work.

4) Many IDs are also based in kitchen studios where they are fully concentrating on kitchen design. If people are wondering why many people like to do the kitchen business, it's because they come in modular sizes and are easier to manufacture and easy to train workers to install or sell a kitchen set. Besides, the market for kitchens is huge.

My vision and passion is :

" Making interior design affordable "

… at least, to more people. Notice that I don't say for everyone because there are some people who are looking for something of the best quality but of the cheapest price. In reality, whether such a product or service is in existence remains to be proven.

The costs of every product and service roughly come from these items :

1) Design -
Ideas and creativity are not cheap. That's why traditional contractors are fighting based solely on price alone.

2) Skills of craftsmen -
Ever wonder why in your own office, some people are paid higher and some are paid less? Point made.

3) Materials -
Contrary what most people think, materials are not the main contributor to product/service costing. Just pay RM20,000 to 2 contractors for a home renovation. Contractor A may come up something but Contractor B will come up with something very different even though both are paid equal price. Why? Because, there's something called intrinsic value! 2 jobs may require the same cost but it take the soft skills of creativity and a craftman's skill to produce something that Contractor A cannot see nor realise.

4) Overheads -
While materials and labour are variable costs that fluctuate with production activity, there are many other costs that are factored into the product pricing. Fixed overheads include salaries for non-production workers, advertisements, rent and rates, etc.

…and how am I going to do it?

I'll share more of what I'm doing in the next posting.