I'm surprised to see people paying more than $3000 for the curtains for their houses. I'm not exaggerate on this figure, you will believe me if you are getting a quotation for the curtains for your sweet home.

Customised curtains are expensive, and a house can't be complete without nice curtains, so this is normally the headache or even an unbudgeted costs to many new home owners.

I received many emails asking me where to get cheap curtains, I would say if you're venturous enough, try sourcing from JB Malaysia. It means you'll have to drive into JB at least 2 times, to source and to collect your curtains. It doesn't mean you can get any super deal from those curtain makers coming into Singapore from JB, cause they know they can get big buck from you, so why give you discounts?

If you do not wish to go into JB for certain reasons, you can try my method here:

1) I walked into a few curtain shops in those shopping malls, looking at the designs of the fabric that I like, talked to the owner to get a quote.
2) Using the code of the fabric I've chosen from step (1), I went to those curtain makers at the neighbourhood shops, and get a cheaper quotatation.
3) As Living Room and MBR are the two rooms more important to me, I only custom made curtains for the windows in these two rooms. Living Room is important because all my guests and visitors will see it, MBR is important because a good curtain will block away the sunlight and give me a good afternoon nap.
4) For other rooms, I bought those off the shelves curtain from the shopping mall during promotion or Sales.
5) All in all, I spent less than $800 on the curtains for my whole house.

The curtains in my living room. I like its colour combination with my furniture, TV console and wall paper. I believe the first sight is very important, this is what my guests will be seeing when they walk into my house, who cares about other curtains in other rooms?

A closer look on the fabric. Many insist on 100% sunlight block out curtain, or  day night curtains (i.e. one 100% block out + one half transparent curtain), but I chose a 70% sunlight block out  curtain. The reason why I did not choose 100% sunlight block out is because it is more expensive and a 70% can do the job pretty good, why should i pay more to get a total blackout?
 

 For curtains at those corners of the rooms, I bought this type of off the shelves curtain, full length, only about $25 per piece.

 I hope this post will give you an idea on saving cost on curtains :)

These are the companies specialising on Invisible Grille:
1) One curtain - Invisible Grille
Contact: David Phua 97222800 / 64451669
Website: www.invisiblegrille.com.sg
Address: 6001, Beach Road #19-06 Singapore 199589
Email: sales@invisiblegrille.com.sg

2) Legate Asia
Contact: Alvin Ng 9691-2925
Email: sales901@legate.com.sg
Website: www.legate.asia
Address: 7030 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 #02-39 NorthStar @ AMK Singapore 569880
T: (65) 6242 1911
F: (65) 6846 1922

3) E Marketing & Home Services
Contact: Alvin Chia
Address: 61, Kaki Bukit Avenue 1, Shun Li Industrial Park,Singapore 417943
Email: sales@ehomeservices.com.sg
Website: www.ehomeservices.com.sg
T: (65) 8337 1277 ‎


I got Legate to visit my place and quoted me for my 2 bedrooms, but at the end I got David from InvisibleGrille to do my grille for the living hall.
Price quoted by Legate is $12 per sft, by David is $12.90 per sft (heard that price has increased), but Legate charge $120 for powder coated track while David did not charge this, so I find David's quote slightly cheaper and I let him do the job. In total, I paid $750 to do the grille for my living hall window, including transport and labour charge.

Generally, the service from David was good, he had even cleaned the floor and windows for me. He had also helped me patched the wall after the installation and helped me paint the affected area.

There're many points I want to blog about this, I'll separate them in different header for easier viewing but before that let's take a look of my grille:

Do you find it invisible?

Take a closer look


Why Invisible?
Like many, we do not want to install the conventional grille in our rooms that make us feel like imprisoned, I'm glad that there're others who share the same thinking as us and come up with this idea. However, I do not suggest Invisible Grille in your bedrooms, you'll know after reading my below comments.

Is it really invisible?
It is not really invisible, it looks like wires across your window. There's once my SIL commented are those for hanging clothes? Fainted.
Anyway, to me I find it look nicer than the conventional type, at least those 'wires' are slimmer than the conventional grille, and those friends who had myopia do find it invisible...hahah, em.

Is Invisible good?
No. It is definitely not as good as the conventional type. The wires can be cut by wire cutter, thus not suitable for window on corridor and I don't think is suitable for bedrooms too.
Once installed, it is permanent, unlike the iron grille where it can be opened. Thus cleaning could be a problem.
My two bedrooms are installed with the conventional grille, sometimes I do hang my children clothes there for drying purpose, but you can't hang anything on the invisible grille, it'll be loosen. The conventional grille looked more durable.
Besides, do note the gaps between the wires are very narrow, thus it'll be hard to open and close your windows, especially if you're short. For me, I'll need to use a clothe hanger to close the windows....

Costs
It is about twice the price of the conventional grille. Legate quoted me close to $700 for my 2 bedrooms, but at the end I decided to install the conventional type which costs me only around $400.

What should you do before installing the invisible grille?
Clean your windows. Ha, sound funny but mind you, once you've installed the grille, is really difficult to clean it.
Repair your windows if necessary, I did not checked my windows during the renovation, after moved in I realised one of the windows can be closed but cannot be locked, but is very difficult to repair it now as I've installed the invisible grille. Whenever there is strong wind and rain, I'll have to pray that the wind would not open my window and the rain will not get into my living hall, sad.

So, after seeing the above review, will I install the Invisible Grille if given a chance again? Yes, I'll still install the grille in my living hall, as I need it to protect my kids from falling off the windows but I do not want to see myself in the prison like locker. But, before the grille is installed, I'll probably repair my windows first.

In summary, the only advantage of Invisible grille over conventional grille is the cosmetic result, so if you're not so particular about this, why not install the conventional type? Anyway I don't find those in my bedrooms look ugly, you may see below picture or refer to my other posts:

The feature wall is designed by myself after copy here and there from magazines and renovation forums. So, you might have seen similar designs from somewhere. My requirement for the feature wall is again, simple, I don't like complicated designs which waste resources. Example, many times you see those feature walls designed by the ID are with spotlights, spotlights might create nice effect for photo taking, but I can assure you that you'll not on the lights most of the time. So I do away with all the spotlights, or reflection lights, instead, I use downlights on my ceiling which give me clear view and classy design.


My feature wall is full height around 76 sft. For the price please click here.

This is how the feature wall look in my hall, beside my piano. The 2 display shelves above my piano were given by the carpenter FOC.


A closer look on the lamination. I've paid more to get a thicker white gloss laminate as some commented in the forum that for glossy laminate, you can see the wave or curve easily especially if the laminate is too thin.


TV console with sliding door:


A closer look at the workmanship:


Do visit other pages on the carpentry works.