Yep, seems like there's not much info on Outlook Interior on the net, including renotalk forum. No website as well.
We're currently looking at renovating our 4A in bishan. Have stayed there for 12yrs. Started approaching various IDs in mid-april, taking our own sweet time as not in hurry, but probably going to confirm very soon.
IDs we approached are firms like chew interior (cannot click with uncle assigned, although showroom is nice), weiken (total and absolute frustrations!), u-home (ok), innerview, darwin (ok), vega5 (ok, but a bit pricey), squareroom, violet, northwest and outlook interior.
Narrow our choices down to northwest and outlook. The others were either over our budget, no impression left on us on the showrooms we visited, or we don't feel comfy with the ID assigned to us.
We approached a couple of contractor as well, but seems like the prices they quote are not any cheaper (some even more expensive?), so we drop that option.
Recently, we drop northwest from the list, after reading through the forum. Was a pity as frankly we were most comfy with the nw designer as compared to the rest. Well, that's the power of internet, which is good as it keeps these IDs on their toes.
Well, looks like we are going to sign-up with Outlook, but nothing is in black & white yet, so we can still pullout if they start to get pricey after reading this post.
Comments on outlook :-
We walk-in into Outlook when we were at IMM checking out the row of IDs. This lady entertain us, we didn't talk much as we were only at the very initial stage of sourcing for ID, so only took her namecard. Email all the IDs our floorplan and she was the first to quote. Her quote was very reasonable (like 2nd - 3rd lowest) and detailed as compared to the rest. Made an appointment to meet at IMM. Wasn't very comfortable the first time round as she is not really the 'salesman' type. (By 'salesman' type, I mean those type that can sweet-talk and make you feel as if he/she is your long lost relative and you start addressing each other brother/sister after the very first meeting type. We felt that way probably because we met her straight after meeting the 'salesman' at NW.) Anyway, me & wife had a conversation that night on the pro/con of engaging 'salesman' type of ID, and my point was we shouldn't penalise someone just because they're not salesy, and we should instead beware of such 'salesman', and that's from experience after buying a car from those $#@% parallel importer.
Anyway, our first meeting was short, asked a few question and look through their portfolio. Design flair-wise, we didn't really evaluate as (1) we are going to give alot of our inputs anyway, and (2) there's probably only 1-2 real designers in any firm, and probably not the one dealing with you directly. Experience-wise, after meeting so many IDs, we can only draw one conclusion. Every ID will almost tell you different things, so you must decide base on your budget and preference. One ID say parquet for bedroom better, won't get termites, another say laminate is better, another recommend tile as he received too many complains about laminate in bedroom etc etc. Very confused.
After reading through the forum, recently send a message to her saying we are pretty ok on price but have concerns over quality. She send a quite sincere message, saying she cannot guarantee minor defects will not happen, but gave assurance and invite us to view their project. (To me, I think that is very fair, as I believe nobody can expect 100% perfect on such a big job. It's how the defects are rectified that is more important.)
We requested for viewing their ongoing/completed project and went to a unit in YCK where the reno was recently completed and owner is already staying-in. Overall quality and design was good, and I would be happy with the same quality if it was my home. Anyway, they time the visit together with another family, and outlook also had some guys there to fix a minor tap leakage at the master bathroom. Well, good to know that at least they follow up on such issues.
Sorry for the long story, arranging to meet them this weekend for 'further' discussion. Ciao,
