This app is the best way to find interior designers in Singapore

Getting an interior designer is a rite of passage for many Singaporean families. It’s a big financial commitment: they’d typically commit at least S$25,000 (US$18,600) to doll up the whole house, and could pay up to S$40,000 (US$30,000) after adding air conditioning, electrical wiring, and furniture. Many families shell out more, adding up to a lot of credit card debt.

Finding an interior designer is painful too. Homeowners take many meetings with shortlisted firms to go through floorplans and quotations. You need someone who can match your tastes and ensure quality workmanship. There aren’t any great places to find interior designers either. Sites like RenoNation and Home & Decor are hard to use and quite frankly, painful on the eyes.

Qanvast, however, may be the first app in Singapore that gets discovery right. Take my word for it. I’ve been using the app for months in search of a designer, and it’s the only online avenue I’d recommend.

Unlike RenoNation and Home & Decor, Qanvast is primarily a mobile app. The user interface emphasizes beautiful visuals and doesn’t overwhelm you with details. The limited screen size on a phone means information can be displayed only as a single stream, but the simplicity adds to its user experience instead of taking away from it.

As a person with a rough idea of what style I’m going after, I find Qanvast’s stream and filter features useful. While other sites emphasize interior designers, the app focuses on projects – the finished works – on the home screen. That’s the way it should be. The filter lets me sort projects by style and budget, so I can quickly zoom in on companies with the right design sensibilities.

Qanvast functions a little bit like Pinterest. You can save photos you like to your own “Boards.” This allows you to document not just the looks you’re eyeing but also the designers behind them. You can then contact the firms you like by calling or emailing.

In terms of usability the app is miles above the competition. There’s a decent selection of interior designers and projects, as well as some editorial content with practical tips. It has even ventured into home appliances and furniture, allowing you to browse items to fill up your dream home with.

The nuts and bolts

Qanvast is started by Chee Yang Tan, an engineer by training. Tan did not disclose the number of users Qanvast has, but its website puts the number at about 10,000. He adds that monthly active users have grown by 20 percent month-on-month as of late.

The app has gotten this far without any external investment, though Tan says it charges interior design firms S$1,000 (US$744) a month to appear on the app. “They have a pretty good rate of return, so relatively speaking, we are not really expensive,” claims Tan. Qanvast does not take a commission for referrals.

There’s also the matter of how big Qanvast can become. Assuming there are 1,600 interior design firms in Singapore, and suppose Qanvast captures ten percent of the market, we’re talking about an annual revenue of S$1.92 million (US$1.43 million).

That’s a nice business if Qanvast wants to stay small, but it has bigger plans. “Home remodelling and renovation will be a trend that will pick up in urban centers. We see Qanvast filling this gap for Southeast Asia, not just Singapore. Immediate countries we will explore are Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.”