Interior design consultation
A paid session, on site or on video, with a designer from a studio that also builds. You leave with a written brief, layout sketches, a note on which approvals your project needs, and a fixed-fee proposal for the next stage — which you are free to take anywhere.
Most interior firms in Dubai offer one, and it does what it is designed to do: qualify you as a client and open a quotation. You leave with a feeling about the firm and nothing on paper. If what you actually need is advice — whether the villa you are about to buy is a sensible renovation, whether the plan you have in mind will get through Emaar, what it would really take to make a handover apartment lettable — a sales call is the wrong instrument.
Our consultation is paid, and it is structured to produce documents. A designer walks the property with you, or walks it on video if you are abroad, and you receive a written brief, sketch layouts where the plan is open, a note on the developer and authority approvals that will apply, and a fixed-fee proposal for the next design stage. Because we build as well as design, the advice is about what will actually work on site, not what will look good in a proposal. If you take the brief to another firm, it will still be the best-prepared document they receive that month.
When a consultation is the right step
Each of these is a question a single structured session can answer, and each leads somewhere different.
What it will take to make right, what the community will and will not allow, and where the money would go.
Which of the developer’s finishes to keep, what the building will require, and how to make the unit lettable or liveable.
Whether the floor takes your headcount, what Cat A the landlord has really delivered, and what the fit-out guide will allow.
Sketch options for opening up, moving a kitchen or adding a majlis, with what each means for structure and permits.
A review of drawings or a quotation from another firm: what will build as drawn, what will not, and what is missing.
Floors, walls, joinery finishes and lighting, with samples in hand when the session is at the studio.
Which developer, authority and building approvals apply to your project, and what each one will ask for.
The brief becomes the first stage of a full design engagement, quoted as fixed fees per stage.
How it works
The session is prepared before we arrive and written up after we leave. The conversation in the middle is the part you would expect.
Book a consultationYou send the address, developer plans if you have them, photographs and a few lines on what you want to change or decide. We check the community, the developer and the building before we arrive, so the approvals conversation is specific to your property rather than general. Owners abroad send a video walk-through instead.
On site, a designer walks every room with you, measures where it matters, checks the services and talks through what you want, what you dislike and the budget band the design has to respect. On video, the same conversation runs over the plans and the walk-through. Commercial sessions include the landlord’s fit-out guide if you have it.
Where the plan is open to change we sketch two or three ways of laying it out, with what each would mean for joinery, services, structure and approvals. For a pre-purchase or pre-lease consultation this is where you learn which option is the realistic one.
You receive a written brief, the sketches, a note on the approvals that apply and a fixed-fee proposal for the next design stage. The brief is yours to use with anyone. Many clients go on to the full design process; some take the brief to their own contractor, which is a perfectly good outcome.
Where consultations led
Downtown, Dubai Hills, Meydan, Abu Dhabi, The Greens and La Mer.
Scope & fees
A fixed fee, quoted before you book, for the preparation, the session and the write-up. These are the things that change it.
A site visit includes travel, measuring and a longer session. A remote consultation is the same designer and the same write-up, working from plans and a video walk-through.
A studio apartment and a six-bedroom villa with a garden are different afternoons. A commercial floor with a fit-out guide to read is different again.
A pre-purchase view of a villa, a layout rethink, or a second opinion on another firm’s drawings each need different preparation. We ask before quoting.
Where the plan is open, two or three sketch layouts are included. Developed drawings, 3D views and material schedules are the next stage, quoted separately.
If you go on to a design engagement with us, the brief is the first stage’s starting point, so nothing is repeated.
The brief and the sketches are yours. There is no contract to sign at the session and no pressure to continue; the proposal for the next stage is there if you want it.
Send the address, any plans and photographs, and what you want to decide. We will confirm the fee, propose a time on site or on video, and arrive knowing your community’s approval route.
Common questions
Fees, what you receive, remote sessions and what happens after. If yours is not here, call +971 50 448 3095.
Because a free consultation is a sales meeting and a paid one is a piece of work. Ours is prepared before we arrive, runs as a structured session and is written up afterwards into a brief, sketches and an approvals note you can use with anyone. If you go on to design with us, the brief carries straight into the first stage. If you do not, you still have the document.
A written brief covering rooms, uses, priorities and the budget band; sketch layout options where the plan is open to change; a note on the developer, authority and building approvals that apply to your property; and a fixed-fee proposal for the next design stage. For a second-opinion consultation, a written review of the drawings or quotation you sent us.
Yes. Owners abroad and off-plan buyers are a large share of our clients. You send developer plans, photographs and a video walk-through if the property is accessible, and the session runs on video. The write-up is the same. Where a site visit is needed later, we do it and report back with photographs and measurements.
Yes, and it happens. A pre-purchase consultation sometimes ends with advice to buy a different villa, and a lease consultation sometimes ends with advice that the floor will not take the headcount. That advice is the point of paying for the session rather than getting a quotation for free.
Yes, specifically. We are registered with Emaar, Nakheel, Meraas, Dubai Holding, Nshama and DAMAC and submit to Dubai Municipality, Trakhees and the free-zone authorities routinely, so the approvals note tells you which route your property takes and what each body will ask for. The approvals page explains the routes in general.
Yes. A second-opinion consultation reviews what you have been given: whether it will build as drawn, what is missing from the scope, where the approvals have been overlooked and whether the quantities are sensible. We do not re-quote in that session unless you ask us to.
Nothing you have not asked for. The proposal for the next stage sits with you. If you take it up, the brief becomes stage one of the design process and the consultation fee is credited. If you take the brief elsewhere, we wish you well with it.
Yes: offices before a lease is signed, retail units against the mall’s fit-out guide, restaurants on where the kitchen can go. The space planning page covers the test-fit work that often follows.
