What started as a way to market themselves to a wider audience on TV turned into a pandemonium of confused people and critical voices against D5 Studio Image, the interior design firm involved in an episode of home makeover reality series Designer In The House.
To recap, the firm helped renovate a four-room BTO flat at a princely sum of S$95,000 — a price that many believed to be highly exorbitant for a house supposed to sport minimalist, Muji-like aesthetics. It was even more surprising that the homeowners — Max and Michelle — were happy to fork out the money despite the price going way over their initial budget of S$60,000 and the completion massively delayed by six weeks.
Following the uproar, some online digging by netizens revealed that the homeowners were actually affiliated with D5 Studio Image. Max was apparently an employee of the firm, and both him and his wife were pictured going on a company retreat in Bangkok. This was not what audiences were led to believe in the show — the couple was presented as clueless homeowners who picked D5 Studio Image because they liked its past renovations.
More questions and criticism were directed at the interior design firm, as many believed that the company could have duped Mediacorp in some way or another. And of course, this translated to knee-jerk reactions of 1-star reviews on their Facebook page.
About a week since the clip from Designer In The House went viral on Facebook, D5 Studio Image finally issued their own statement to clarify the issues the public have been bringing up. We’ll just let you run through their explanations below.
On being transparent and upfront with the homeowners
“…the program was filmed more than 6 months ago and we were unaware of how the final show would be edited and presented until we saw it on TV.
Unfortunately, the show did not mention that the homeowners were actually consulted and well informed of all the prices and extended timeline throughout the renovation process. All amendments were discussed and agreed before work commenced.”
On Mediacorp’s choice to use Max and Michelle’s home
“…we wish to clarify that we had also submitted other projects for Mediacorp to choose for the show. As explained by Mediacorp in its public statement released recently, Max’s house was chosen by Mediacorp for its home design.”
On Max being an employee
“We understand that there has been a misconception propagated recently that Max was not employed at the time the show was filmed and produced.
We wish to clarify that this is an inaccurate statement.
Indeed, the owner of the house, Max Lee, is also an employee of our company. This working relationship was disclosed before filming had begun. Moreover, Max and Michelle are our clients in that they did sign a contract with D5 and paid us for our services.”
On the renovations being massively delayed
“…the extended timeline was due to the owners’ last-minute request for additional mechanisms from Germany which had a delivery lead time of 3 weeks. We also had to re-fabricate new kitchen fittings to accommodate a bigger fridge which was not in the original plan. All these changes were communicated to the owners and they were agreeable to it.”
On the sky-high cost of renovation
“…price-wise, the owners were highly aware of the individual cost breakdown and the total cost of $95k was made known to the owners before we proceeded with the requested works. The high cost was due to the extensive carpentry and tiling works.
Also, the entire house was customized and built from scratch. The only thing that was unchanged was the HDB windows. However, this was not portrayed in the TV episode. We would like to further add that we would not have proceeded with the works had we not have some form of assurance that we would be paid for it.”
