HDB Living-Room Glass Partition Study Room — Tampines

01 — The brief

"We want a study room for the children"

The owners came to us with a clear goal: a dedicated study room for their children, partitioned off from the living area. The catch — like most HDB living rooms, this one earns its brightness from a single window wall. A solid floor-to-ceiling partition would have boxed the new room into a dark, sealed cube and dimmed the living room behind it.

So the real problem wasn't building a wall. It was dividing the space while keeping light and a sense of openness on both sides — a quiet zone the parents could still see into.

Bare living-room wall in a Tampines HDB flat before renovation — **Before.** The living room as we found it — one long blank wall beside the window, and no defined space for the kids to study.

02 — What they pictured

A drawing, and a few reference photos

The clients had clearly thought it through. They handed us a measured sketch of the room — fan in the centre, a 280cm whiteboard wall, bag cupboards and a printer shelf along one side, an 78cm glass door, and a run of half-wall, half-glass facing the living room. They even scaled it (1cm = 20cm) and spec'd the desks: three IKEA MICKE units, 73 × 50cm each.

Client's hand-drawn, measured floor plan of the proposed study room — **The client's drawing.** A measured plan — glass door, half-wall/half-glass run, cupboards, printer shelf and three desks, all to scale.

Alongside the sketch they sent reference photos of the look they were after: a framed glass partition with a glazed door, the lower half solid for privacy and to hide cabling, the upper half glass to borrow light. That gave us everything we needed to price it accurately.

Client-supplied rendering of the intended glass-partition study room — **The client's rendering.** The family also shared this rendering of the look they wanted — a half-wall glass partition with a glazed door. A visualisation they made themselves, not a photo — but it set the target we quoted and built to.

03 — Site visit & measurements

Confirming it on site

Before quoting, we visited the flat to take our own measurements and check the things a drawing can't show — ceiling height, the existing fan and lighting positions, where the power points sit, and how the new partition would meet the window and the floor. We confirmed the partition line, the door swing, and where the electrical points for the study would need to go.

A drawing tells us what the family wants. The site visit tells us what the flat will actually allow.

With real measurements in hand, we could price the job accurately.

04 — The final quotation

What it came to

The family went ahead with the partition. The quotation covered the glazed panels and door, the partition wall, electrical works and painting — the core of turning one blank wall into a light, glass-fronted study.

A few extras were added along the way as the job progressed: fan and lights for the study, a couple of extra power points (including one on the partition facing the living room), relocating the living room's ceiling fan and lights, a small change to the window grill, and skirting — the skirting thrown in at no charge.

All in — partition, glazing, electrical, painting and the extras — the job came to a little under S$4,000. Every project is priced to its own measurements, scope and finishes, so your figure will differ.

05 — The build

Framing the partition

With the quote approved, our team got to work. We framed and boarded the new partition with sound isolation inside the drywall — important for a study sitting right off the living room — and formed the half-wall, leaving a clean opening for the glazing to drop into. Electrical points for the study were run in before the boards closed up.

Drywall partition framed and boarded on site, before the glass panels are installed — **During renovation.** Drywall up and the half-wall formed, with the opening ready for glass. Sound isolation sits inside the partition.

At this stage the shape of the new room is already there — you can read the study taking form off the living area, with the window light still reaching both sides.

06 — The finished result

How it turned out

Here's the completed study. The half-wall glass partition does exactly what the family asked for — solid below for privacy and to hide cabling, glass above to borrow light from the window wall, and a glazed door that closes when it's time to focus. A long shared desk runs the length of the glazing, with open shelving and storage alongside — a proper study for the children, carved out of the living room without darkening either space.

Finished study room with a long desk and chairs, seen through the glass partition — **After — the study.** The completed study: a shared desk along the glazed partition, storage and shelving alongside, and the living room still visible through the glass.

Finished Tampines living room with the glass-partition study room behind the sofa — **After — the living room.** The partition from the living side — the study tucked behind the glass, and the window light still reaching the whole space.

A glass-partition study room, carved from the living room