$40k MacPherson BTO to $9.5k Pasir Ris kitchen: 3 homes styled like showrooms by Ikea

SINGAPORE – More budget-conscious Singapore families are styling their Build-To-Order (BTO) flats to look like Ikea showrooms.

Here, three home owners reveal their experiences and expenses in tapping the Swedish retail titan’s new one-stop Home Design Service after bypassing contractors and interior designers.

Each home owner’s journey has been expedited by an Ikea specialist, progressing from initial space planning to final installation.

Cost: $40,000
Flat type: Four-room BTO (90 sq m)

Inside a stylish living room at MacPherson Weave, a family of five gathers for a cosy movie night with the blinds drawn and popcorn passed around. The traditional-modern space exudes a calm aesthetic that belies the initial terror felt by the homeowner, who wants to be known only as Seng.

“How am I going to fit the family?” the 53-year-old church worker recalls asking himself, during an interview with The Straits Times a fortnight after the family’s mid-May move-in.

The downsize to a 90 sq m flat was stark for the family, who previously lived in a more spacious 115 sq m resale flat in Pasir Ris. Last November, out of ideas, Seng bundled his wife Sharon, 52, an executive assistant, and their three children to Ikea Tampines for dinner.

That casual discovery trip sparked an epiphany. Strolling through the kitchen showrooms festooned with Christmassy lights, the spatial efficiency clicked. Spying a QR code for Ikea’s new Home Design Service, they left their contact details.

From the start, the couple ruled out heavy structural hacking. Instead, they chose HDB’s Optional Component Scheme for doors and flooring, which cost about $8,000.

Over the next few months, they popped into Ikea six to eight times, walking the floor for ideas and sitting down for intensive co-design sessions with home design specialist Shikin Ghani.

“I told my wife that I didn’t want to think anymore,” Seng recounts. It would be better to have a clear, itemised breakdown of costs, he says.

Unlike interior designers who may push fixed packages, he felt Ikea’s process was open. “Packages are a horror,” he gripes.

The cost breakdown was so granular that they once spent almost six hours locking in their final order with Shikin, ending up with a thick file of invoices. This also simplified refunds later for unused hinges and lights.

About 98 per cent of their home was handled directly by Ikea. Contractors stepped in for special components like the gas hob and made-to-measure shower screen, while Shikin worked with the family’s electrician when the kitchen’s power points needed repositioning.

Their completed home, with full installation taking eight days, stretches out horizontal and vertical spaces. In the living room, she customised an extra-wide, continuous bench seat across the bay window that doubles as deep storage.

Down the hallway, the bedrooms are optimised for three young-adult lifestyles. For their eldest son, 22, who is serving national service, a Vitval loft bed frees up floor space beneath for a sleek gaming station and guitar racks.

His sisters, aged 20 and 16, share a bright room anchored by dual Smastad loft beds featuring integrated study desks and wardrobes. The overflow of their belongings is stashed in his room.

In the master bedroom, a floor-to-ceiling Pax wardrobe system was built with illuminated glass door panels to showcase dresses and handbags, while a Malm ottoman bed adds hidden storage for seasonal clothes and bedding.

The contemporary, country-inspired kitchen has an extendable Nasinge dining table, and herb canisters line the fridge. A whiteboard dotted with handwritten notes that affirm one another is an affectionate, analogue design choice, inspired by mum’s love of Ikea’s classic corkboards as a teen.

“The real magic revolves around turning architectural obstacles into daily opportunities,” Shikin tells ST.

“Like most modern flats in Singapore, space for a family of five was the primary constraint. We tackled it by treating storage as a seamless structural feature rather than an afterthought.”

For the family, the transformation has been full. “This was the best decision we made,” says Sharon.

“We wanted functionality, but we got the aesthetics too. It’s like a showroom.”

Cost: $9,500
Flat type: Three-room BTO (69 sq m)

For retired hotelier Tony Quek, 67, and his wife Cheryl-Ann Kee, 53, relocating back to Singapore after his 17 years in senior management roles in China soon presented a structural challenge. 

For their retirement years, they downscaled from an ample 128 sq m resale flat to an intimate 69 sq m three-room BTO unit in Pasir Ris in 2025.

While the square footage shrank, their culinary standards did not. Kee, who is Peranakan, loves cooking heritage dishes like ayam buah keluak and babi pongteh for her foodie husband.

Naturally, the heart of their home is their kitchen, requiring a logical design within a tighter space.

It helped that design is Quek’s professional forte. “I also deal with design, so I’m a detailed person,” he says. “How do I maximise my space, so that the place isn’t boxed in? It can be small, but beautiful.”

While browsing at Ikea Tampines in 2025, the couple enjoyed touching and testing the kitchen displays. Interior designers might show a catalogue, he says, but Ikea has showrooms for home owners to experience layouts and colours in person.

Also, Kee preferred not to deal with the possible “headache” of communicating with contractors.

In July 2025, they booked a consultation with Shikin, paving the way for their mid-November move-in.

She mapped out an efficient “working triangle” that optimises the steps between the sink, gas hob and refrigerator. She helped the couple select the modular Metod kitchen system with over 12m of top and bottom cabinetry, and comes with a 25-year warranty.

Other choices include a custom quartz countertop, matching backsplash and integrated under-cabinet lighting to subtly brighten work surfaces.  

A simple grey-blue Raskog utility trolley sits adjacent to the hob, keeping essential spices and Peranakan sauce bottles within arm’s reach. 

Counting other parts of the home, about 80 per cent of the flat’s furnishings and lighting items were sourced from Ikea. 

Quek evaluates the brand’s freshman service through a hospitality lens, and has offered feedback.

Enhanced ground operations will help seed thoughts of patronising Ikea among the younger generation who seek more choices, especially in a season of mushrooming BTO completions.

Where the retail giant clearly excelled was installation speed. “They said it would take 10 days for the full kitchen. I got it in eight,” he says.

Their visitors have responded with wonder. “Our friends ask if this is a four-room flat,” he says. “They start taking photos and say, ‘You mean Ikea can do this?’”

Cost: $30,000
Flat type: Four-room BTO (93 sq m)

For security industry professionals Zack Tay, 31, and Kelody Goh, 29, managing risk is a daily job. So, they prepared defensively for the chaotic parenting reality of moving into their 93 sq m flat in Woodlands with two active sons, aged five and seven.

With that scenario in mind, the couple devised a triple design brief: child safety, storage and style.

“Our boys play very roughly,” Goh says. Having witnessed painful incidents with little fingers getting jammed in conventional cabinets at her in-laws’ place – where the family of four stayed before moving across the street – she wanted to eliminate home hazards.

She needed a space where her sons will not collide with sharp edges, without sacrificing the clean, contemporary look she loved.

They sought out interior designers, Tay says, but quotes came back high at $40,000 to $50,000. The turning point was in July 2025, soon after getting their keys, during a shopping trip to Ikea Tampines. Spotting an advertisement for the Home Design Service, she registered online.

Goh told her Ikea design specialist Hailey Chin that she envisioned a palette of black, white and grey.

For the kitchen, they chose the Metod cabinet series paired with Voxtorp handleless door fronts in dark grey. With gentle push-to-open mechanisms, the cabinetry banishes protruding hardware that might clip running kids.

A central island with a light grey marble-effect quartz countertop also acts as a room separator, keeping Goh close to the family energy while she cooks.

To foster bonding, the brothers share a bedroom. This keeps the guest room free for visiting grandparents, and the space-saving sliding doors in the Pax wardrobe system allow freer movement.

The room is tenanted now, but can easily convert into a bedroom when the siblings grow up, or into their study room.

Storage is plentiful, to Goh’s delight. Chin integrated extra vertical storage atop the wardrobes, for instance, to keep Goh’s collection of family-essential shopping bags and backpacks.

Overall, by embracing a minimalist design throughout the small flat, it feels open and airy.

The family moved into their home last Christmas – a gift for themselves.