Home Refresh - Muji • Japandi • Minimalist

After living in this house for 16 years, we finally decided that it was time to refresh the interior of our home. Not a complete remodeling, but more a refresh to fit our style and lifestyle. For context, hubby bought this house in 2009 (we were just dating at that time and I happened to be there to help with his move before returning to Malaysia) but we haven't really done any renovation to the interior of this house that was built in 1989, so it was about time to get all the old fixtures refreshed. The main part of the project took 2.5 weeks to complete, but took us 6 months to be completely done as we were traveling for 3 months in between.

BEFORE

Downstairs - Living Room, Dining Room, Powder Room

Downstairs - Kitchen, Breakfast Room

Upstairs - Hallway, Bedroom 1, Bedroom 2, Guest Bathroom

Upstairs - Master Room, Master Bathroom, Master Closet

All these old and gold fixtures has to go...lol!

DURING

"Shopping spree" at Lowes, Home Depot, Amazon, Sherwin Williams, and Carpet One for all the things we wanted to replace/refresh in the house. We were pretty efficient getting everything purchased within a week (of course keeping track of everything with a spreadsheet). Too bad we couldn't get new credit cards fast enough to keep up with the outflow. 

 No fancy fixtures, as we know what we need (being in this house for so many years), prioritizing functionality and practicality. 

We've been in this house for 16 years and this was the first time we realized how many different switches, electric outlets, doors, lights, etc. we had. Yes, we had to count all of these, and that explains why a spreadsheet was necessary.

Bought 2 unfinished cabinets, door handles, and a plank of wood from Home Depot for about $300. Thanks to the Home Depot staff for his suggestion of using a plank of wood to add open shelves in the gap between the 2 cabinets.

We chose Sherwin Williams Shoji White (matte) for the walls and Pure White (semi-gloss) for doors and trims. Our contractor overestimated the amount of paint needed so we ended up with 10 gallons of extra paint. Spent a total of $2,485 for the paint, which should have been less than $2K.

Bought our carpet from Carpet One for $2,320. Our upstairs carpet has been there even before hubby moved in in 2008 so it was time to replace it. 

Packed up all our stuffs and moved out for 2.5 weeks while various work was getting done in the house starting 22 Dec 2025. Thanks MIL for letting us crash at her place over the holidays. 

Scope of work for the contractor:

Repaint all walls, trims and doors

Repaint downstairs ceiling

Replace all door knobs & hinges

Replace all door stoppers

Replace all light fixtures

Replace ceiling fans

Replace bathroom exhaust fans

Replace carpets

Replace door weather strips

Install laundry cabinets

All the paint work, laundry cabinet installation and door hardware replacement were done in about 4 days. After the paint work was done, we had the electrician come for 1.5 days to install the light fixtures and ceiling fans, and replace all outlets and switches. Also got the plumber to come check on the toilets to ensure nothing was broken after the paint job.

Final piece of work before we could move back in, carpet installation on 6 Jan 2026. Took a day for the workers to pull out the old carpet and install the new one.

AFTER

By 9 Jan 2026, all work was done in 2.5 weeks and it was time to clean up the house and move everything back. This was actually a good opportunity for us to clean, organize, declutter and get rid of a lot of stuff that we've accumulated over the years. Still a few minor things to do to complete this project, but we had to wait till May to continue working on those.

Downstairs. Pretty impressed with how our laundry cabinets turned out. Decided not to do much to the kitchen and bathrooms coz they were working fine as is. As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Upstairs with fresh new carpets. 

After returning from our cruise in January, we spent the week moving things back and organizing the office/game room.

Few more small additions after returning from our long Asia trip in May - Floor lamp from Target for $54, a shoe bench from Amazon for $155, and a Pax entryway cabinet from IKEA for $410.

 Also picked up photo frames, a tablecloth, curtains, and a dish rack, all from Amazon.

So how much in total did we spend on this project? A total of $38.9K, out of which $5.6K was a sunk cost for the deposit to another contractor who quoted crazy high prices.