[Kneeling Mom’s Home Sharing]A pen gave me a brand-new dream home feeling—easy and budget-friendly second-hand house renovation!!

Kneeling Mom’s family has been renovating the kitchen recently, so we’ve all been living on a construction site lately.

This renovation reminded me of November 2011 when Kneeling Mom and Iron Dad were in different cities, busy preparing for our hectic wedding while waiting for Iron Dad to return from Singapore to be the groom (by the way, let me introduce Iron Dad—he’s also Taiwanese, as many people thought Kneeling Mom married a foreigner~NO!). In the end, Iron Dad was non-stop house-hunting in Singapore, and before the wedding even took place, he sent Kneeling Mom several photos from Singapore for her to choose one. My goodness—it was faster than buying a gift~ So we planned the wedding and bought a house simultaneously. Iron Dad even mailed documents back to Taiwan for me to sign to buy the house, all in such a rush. And just like that, Kneeling Mom and Iron Dad ended up owning a house abroad.

There were two reasons why Iron Dad was in such a hurry to buy a house. First, rent in Singapore is really expensive—we paid $600 (New Taiwan Dollars, which was around 13,000 TWD at the exchange rate at the time, and now rent is even scarier!) just to share a small room with others.

Second, he wanted to give Kneeling Mom a sense of belonging, because she wasn’t used to living there initially and kept complaining about wanting to go back to Taiwan, which further accelerated Iron Dad’s decision to buy a house. And indeed, it was only after buying the house that Kneeling Mom started settling down in Singapore. Because a woman truly feels married once she has a home, right? Thank goodness Iron Dad’s decision back then was the right one.

At the time, we bought the house with the mindset of not knowing how long we’d live there, so a place that didn’t need renovations and was move-in ready was the top choice. In the end, we picked a house where the previous owners had emigrated to Germany. The advantage was that the former owner left behind many nice pieces of furniture, and we even got lucky with a bunch of appliances. All Kneeling Mom had to do was buy a bed, a rice cooker, plus two tables and four chairs to roughly complete the foundation of a home. Knowing Kneeling Mom had a passion for design, Iron Dad was very reassured and told her to go wild with her imagination and design. It felt amazing to have a home where I could freely create—I’m so grateful that Iron Dad has always supported me and let me indulge in my design passion. So the renovation was up to Kneeling Mom. See how Kneeling Mom tidied up this house that had been ravaged by the kids!! ^^

The previous owner (judging by the photos Iron Dad sent at the time, it looked super messy and really unappealing—I almost ended up choosing an empty room with no furniture instead!!)

Bathroom~

[Let Kneeling Mom show you how a single pen can give your home a brand-new feel]

Put in a little creativity and effort^^!!

Wall decals are a great tool to make your home more distinctive!!

Initially, Kneeling Mom wanted to buy wall decals—they’re hassle-free—but there were some challenges to overcome!!

There are limited options for wall decal materials, sizes, and patterns. If you want a larger area, it’ll easily cost 1,000–2,000 TWD!! You could just buy paint instead~ (A 100cm x 60cm decal costs around 900 TWD, but the advantage is that you can peel it off if you don’t like it.)

In the end, I decided to paint it myself!! The house had workers repaint it for me. To match the old furniture, I chose white, gray, and coffee tones, and I bought an extra can of dark iron gray from the painter for accents!! (Later, the painter owner gave it to me for free^^ So thankful!)

Then it was just me dragging my grocery cart to the new house every day to clean and paint~^0^

Let’s start the new home project with this pen!! First, sketch the outline.

I found that leaving it unfilled can actually look quite beautiful too!!

Finished!! This TV wall took Kneeling Mom 18 hours to complete!!

Guest room blooms with flowers!!

For the vanity, I bought an IKEA straight wooden frame mirror. I placed the mirror horizontally, painted the frame, and added some totem designs on the upper and lower walls to make it cohesive.
(All the curtains above were handmade by Kneeling Mom)
Alright!! Kneeling Mom hit a wall with the kitchen—I couldn’t paint there, so I bought wall decals for 250 TWD to fix it!! But just a little creativity can really change the environment!!
These curtains and throw pillows are all Kneeling Mom’s creations (saved a bunch on curtain costs)
Even with simple methods, you can give your home a fresh new look—go ahead and take the bold step to paint!!
If you’re afraid to take the plunge, wall decals are also a great option and can give your home a brand-new appearance!!
Simple renovations of second-hand homes can still help you achieve your dream home!!