Hougang 4-Room HDB — Full Carpentry Build

A Hougang 4-room HDB resale, taken over by a couple moving from a 3-room flat. Brief: maximise storage without making the space feel boxy, keep the budget within the mid-range, and prioritise the kitchen and main bedroom.

The brief

The previous owner had left the flat with builder-grade fittings and no built-in carpentry. The new owners wanted everything from kitchen to wardrobes done by one team to keep specifications consistent — same laminate family across the whole flat, same hardware brand, same edge banding standard. They came to us after a friend's referral, with two interior designer quotes already in hand. Our quote came in 18% lower because the budget went into materials and hardware rather than coordination fees.

Scope

Six pieces in total:

• L-shape kitchen, 12 linear feet, with tall pantry
• Master bedroom built-in wardrobe, swing doors, 2.4m wide
• Second bedroom built-in wardrobe, sliding doors with mirror panel
• Third bedroom built-in wardrobe, swing doors, narrow
• Living room TV feature wall, fluted timber accent, 3.6m wide
• Foyer shoe cabinet, full-height, ventilated

Design choices

The owners had a clear visual reference: warm timber tones, off-white walls, no shiny finishes. We picked a single laminate family (warm walnut grain with subtle texture) and used it across every visible cabinet front, with off-white laminate for the kitchen wall units to lift the ceiling visually.

The fluted timber feature wall in the living room is the centrepiece — vertical fluting, edge-lit with concealed LED, doubling as a TV backdrop. The fluting hides cable runs and the LED softens the screen edge in the evening. We routed the flutes in-house on solid timber, not laminate, so the texture is real wood rather than printed.

Master bedroom wardrobe uses swing doors — the owner wanted to see the whole wardrobe at once each morning, not slide back and forth. There's 1.1m of floor clearance between the wardrobe and the bed, which is comfortable for swing operation.

Materials

• Carcass: 18mm moisture-resistant plywood throughout
• Backs: 9mm MR plywood
• Fronts (visible): Lamitak laminate, two complementary codes (warm walnut + off-white)
• Feature wall fluting: solid teak, oil-finished
• Edge banding: hot-melt PVC, all four sides of every panel
• Hardware: Blum soft-close throughout (hinges, Tandembox drawers, magic-corner kitchen pull-out)
• Kitchen carcass joinery: confirmat screws + dowels, glued

Process and timeline

Site visit at week 0, measurements taken after flooring was complete at week 4. 3D mock-up sign-off at week 4.5, 50% deposit paid, fabrication started week 5. Six weeks at the Eunos workshop. Installation on site took three days, with one day of adjustments. Final handover at week 12 from key collection.

The owners moved in the following weekend. No defects logged at the 30-day check.

Cost range

This build fell in the S$16,000–S$22,000 mid-range for a 4-room HDB. The specifications skew upward slightly because of the solid teak feature wall, but the kitchen and wardrobes were built to baseline mid-range spec to balance.

Where to go from here

Looking at a similar build for your own HDB? WhatsApp Alan with your floor plan. Site visit and quote are free.

For pricing context, the HDB 4-room renovation cost breakdown walks through trade-by-trade numbers. For materials, the plywood vs blockboard vs MDF guide covers what's inside every cabinet.