Scour the internet today and you’ll find hundreds, maybe thousands or more, of interior design inspiration.
And while the countless options may seem like something great on the surface, the truth is, they can soon be rather overwhelming. Especially for the first time home owner just trying to decide on the best cabinets for their home.
Given the challenging situation, we wanted to find out how do professionals choose the cabinets they need.
Not just for their homes but in critical situations. Situations where the selected cabinets make a direct impact to their sales.
A do or die scenario so to speak.
Here’s what we discovered…
Moving Beyond Current Design Trends
The funny thing about any fad is that they usually move in cycles.
What seems popular today might suddenly be seen as “old-fashioned” by tomorrow.
So how do everyday home owner like you and me stay ahead of the design wave?
The first thing we could easily do is to study the premium interior design portals for inspiration. Read their latest articles and pick up on the topics they’re covering.
After all, an advantage of following these premium interior designers is they tend to be the industry leaders. Most fashion trends start from these premium range of product and fashion before they pass down to the “cheaper” models.
Hardly surprising when you think about it.
The top-tiered designers are constantly finding new and innovative ways to present their creativity. And as these designs become popular, the other manufacturers will attempt to “recreate” these designs while making it more affordable for the general masses.
In fact, sometimes these manufacturers take the ideas to the extreme and create exact replicas.
Such was the case in the UK which led to a new copyright law being passed down in 2016 that outright banned dealers from importing and selling replicas.
Thankfully we’re not advocating buying replicas but getting useful inspiration when it comes to choosing your home cabinets.
And there’s a rather simple way to get world renowned architect expert advice for free.
An Unconventional Way To Receive A Free Million Dollar Interior Design Advice
Real Estate agents and realtors are going to hate us for this suggestion but it’s a great way to get not just cabinet inspiration but an entire home design inspiration. For Free!
Many times home owners commit unexpected errors with their own home renovation because they lack the understanding of design trends like colour scheme, appropriate material selection, and placement of furniture around the room.
That’s why we wrote a guide on common bathroom mistakes and again another on kitchen renovation mistakes.
Mistakes which could easily be avoided by “seeking the advice” of world-renowned architects.
How do we solve this?
By visiting new launch condo showflats and viewings!
Unconventional but very effective.
After all, property developers spend millions engaging top tier architects to design their showflats, since the experience is key to “pushing” their viewers to make a purchase. And we’re talking about close-to-million dollars purchases.
The design has to be top-notched or else.
Naturally, all we’re doing is going in to get the inspiration we need for the layout, the materials, and the colour scheme.
And we want to take it one step further by narrowing down the condos we visit.
Choosing Specific Condos For Your Inspirational Viewing
With so many new condos popping up, we need to be selective about those we do choose to visit.
The first option we choose is to go to condos with a specific theme to their overall concept.
An example is The Line Condo @ Tanjong Rhu, a condo located very close to Singapore’s popular East Coase Park which they highlighted the design quite heavily around.
Given that they are expecting interested buyers to love the idea of staying near the sea and love water activities, the condo furnishing and design reflects this idea. Not just in the exterior but more importantly, for us at least, in the interior design.
This gives water sports lovers options on the type of cabinets great for storing their water sport equipment, which usually tend to be bulky without giving up on critical design aspects.
However, it isn’t always we can find an upcoming new launch that matches our specific interest.
In such situations, we like to go to new launches by famous property developers, famous for their expensive design work and beautiful condo concepts.
The best way to do this is to take note of new launches which are just starting to appear in the market and wait for the launch date to secure a private viewing once it’s available. (Told you agents will hate us for this.)
For example, an upcoming condo by developer, Roxy Pacific Holdings Ltd, RV Millenia, is still in the early initial stages. Right now they’re only accepting interested viewers to indicate their interest as the showflat isn’t even ready yet.
But by registering early, you become privy to the latest development on the project with each update. You get “insider access” to the design trends the developer is taking. Trends which represent how the interior design scene is moving as a whole.
With so much inspiration on hand, it is time we actually get down to choosing the type of cabinets we need.
How Cabinet Retailers Select The Right Models To Sell
As you know, there are many different types of cabinets, each with their own specific roles and purposes.
And while there are many online furniture stores, we found only one online vendor that specialises in cabinet furniture in Singapore, as the site contained many useful buying guides for the various types of cabinets.
From our research on their ecommerce site, we discovered that they focused solely on cabinets which was an interesting angle considering most online retailers focused on providing variety.
But because of their niche focus, it makes our research process that much easier.
We didn’t have to browse through hundreds of models but could jump straight to looking at the models the retailer chooses to focus on.
And given that they are the experts in this area, the models they select sort of represents the models buyers are interested in, making them safe choices for the everyday home owner.
Take their coffee table selection as an example, on the same page, they included a buyer’s “Things to Consider” guide helping home owners to understand more about the various options. Prior to that, they also included some of their popular coffee table models as well as those on sale.
The same process was created for their other cabinet furniture options. There is an article to help home owners select from their range of TV Consoles, and again, another for their series bookshelves cabinets.
This does make selecting the right cabinet easier as we get to take one step back and uncover why a specific model was chosen for each specific category. All of which can also be found on their cabinet furniture store that follows the usual format practised by the other online furniture retails – for users who are familiar with that common process or simply enjoy the online browsing experience.
So, by observing the trends retailers are following, we in turn get an insider glimpse to the models gaining in popularity.
A great option for the home owner stuck choosing the perfect cabinet for their home.