Designer fees
How much does an interior designer cost in Dubai?
Four ways of charging and one set of published numbers. Choose the method that suits your home, then hold every proposal to it.
The short answer
The published fees, method by method
How much does an interior designer cost in Dubai? It depends first on how the fee is set, and only then on the size of the home: a percentage of the project, a rate per square metre, a flat sum or an hourly charge. The figures below are what Dubai firms publish for each method, read in September 2026, with the firm's name beside every number.
How much does an interior designer cost in Dubai?
Interior designers in Dubai charge 10 to 20 percent of what the project costs, AED 120 to 200 per square metre of floor on larger homes, or a flat AED 20,000 to 150,000 and above that grows with size and scope. Advice without full drawings costs far less: a one-off consultation is published at AED 2,000 to 6,000, and hourly rates run from AED 150 for a junior designer to AED 1,000 at firm level. The full fee table credits each figure.
Which fee method costs less for your home?
| Method | Published figure | The fee moves when | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of the project | 10% to 20% | You upgrade a finish or add a room | AI Designs; Euphoria Interiors |
| Rate per square metre | AED 120 to 200 per sq m | The floor area changes | Couture; Amitis Design |
| Flat fee | AED 20,000 to 150,000+ | The written scope changes | AI Designs |
| Hourly | AED 150 to 1,000 per hour | The hours run over | Dehleez Studio; AI Designs |
A percentage keeps the fee small while the budget is small and lets it grow with every upgrade; a rate or a flat fee is known on the first day. Run the numbers both ways before choosing. At Couture's AED 120 per square metre, a 1,000 square metre villa pays AED 120,000 in design fees. The same villa fitted out for AED 2,000,000, a figure inside Ray Fitout's published luxury turnkey range, would pay AED 200,000 at 10 percent.
Ask three designers to quote one scope
How much does an interior designer cost in Dubai for one room?
Of the firms on our fee page, only Studio 11 publishes its design fees room by room:
| Room | Published fee in AED |
|---|---|
| Living room | AED 40,000 to 120,000 |
| Kitchen | AED 50,000 to 150,000 |
| Bathroom | AED 30,000 to 100,000 |
Those are full design services, with drawings and a specification. If one room needs a plan and a direction rather than a drawing set, a consultation costs far less, as the next section shows. For a whole flat or a villa, our apartment interiors and villa interiors pages carry the bands by home.
What does a consultation-only designer charge?
- One-off consultation: AED 2,000 to 6,000 (Algedra).
- Half-day consultation: AED 2,500 (AI Designs).
- Site visit with concept suggestions: AED 5,000 (AI Designs).
- Junior designer by the hour: AED 150 to 300 (Dehleez Studio).
- Mid-level designer by the hour: AED 300 to 600 (Dehleez Studio).
- Firm rate by the hour: AED 500 to 1,000 (AI Designs).
A consultation buys judgement: advice on layout, colour and furniture from someone who has seen the room. Ask in advance whether you will leave with anything a contractor can price, such as a sketch layout or a product list, and whether the fee is credited if you go on to commission a full design.
How do you estimate the fee for your own home?
- Measure the floor area in square metres, dividing square feet by 10.76: a 2,000 square foot apartment is about 186 square metres.
- Find the method the firm uses, and its own published figure where it has one.
- Multiply: at AED 140 per square metre, Couture's rate for homes of 500 to 750 square metres, a 600 square metre villa comes to AED 84,000.
- Add what sits outside the fee: the build, the furniture and the community's approval charges.
- Check whether VAT is added on top, and when it is invoiced.
The hub's VAT guide explains how VAT applies to renovation and design invoices.
What sits outside the designer's fee
- The build itself: materials, labour and the contractor's margin; the hub's renovation cost guide sets out what builds cost by room and by home.
- Furniture, curtains, light fittings and accessories, bought through the designer or directly.
- Community fees: Emaar's NOC costs AED 1,000 for minor works or AED 2,000 for major works in total, including an AED 500 review fee paid up front; a Tilal Al Ghaf plan review is AED 5,250 including VAT; Town Square asks AED 160 for interior repainting and wallpaper.
- Authority permits where the design needs them, such as Ajman's AED 1,000 maintenance permit.
- Extra revision rounds, 3D views or site visits beyond the number agreed.
We ask every firm to mark each of these lines as inside or outside its fee, so two proposals can be compared on the same basis. For the build quote that follows, the hub's quote checklist lists what it should carry.
Designer fees in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman
The firms on our fee page publish Dubai figures only, so fees in the other three emirates are confirmed from the proposals themselves. The permits around the design are where the emirates differ. Tasareeh, Aldar's delegated permit reviewer for plots in its scope, lists a building maintenance permit at AED 2,000; Ajman charges AED 1,000 for its maintenance permit; and in Sharjah, Municipality engineers set the fees for modification work application by application. Our Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman pages cover each emirate, and the Dubai design company page explains how we brief firms in all four.
Related
Questions
Related questions
- How much does an interior designer charge per hour in Dubai?
- Published hourly rates run from AED 150 to 300 for a junior designer and AED 300 to 600 for a mid-level one (Dehleez Studio), and from AED 500 to 1,000 at firm level (AI Designs). Hourly billing suits advice and reviews. For a full design, ask for a percentage, a rate or a flat fee so the total is known before work starts.
- Do interior designers charge for the first visit?
- Some do, as a service of its own. AI Designs publishes AED 5,000 for a site visit with concept suggestions and AED 2,500 for a half-day consultation, and Algedra lists one-off consultations at AED 2,000 to 6,000. Ask before the visit whether the fee is credited against a full design if you go ahead.
- Does the design fee include furniture?
- Not unless the proposal says so. The fee pays for design; furniture is bought through the designer, directly, or inside a turnkey contract. In that last case, Xworks' published base of about AED 1,500 per square metre counts the furniture in with partitions, ceilings, flooring and MEP.
- Why do two designers quote such different fees for the same flat?
- Two fees for one flat can describe two different jobs. One designer may charge a percentage of a budget it has assumed, another a rate on an area it has measured, a third a flat fee for fewer deliverables. Put the same written scope and the same floor area to each, and ask for the method and the deliverables in writing.
- Is the design fee paid upfront?
- Payment terms are set in each firm's contract. Ask for stages tied to delivered work, such as the concept, the layouts, the working drawings and the site visits, rather than to calendar dates, so each payment matches something you have received.
- Can I buy the drawings only and use my own contractor?
- Yes. A design-only contract ends with drawings and a specification you can put out to tender, and Bestimate publishes design-only fees of AED 15,000 to 60,000 and above for a whole apartment. Make sure the contract says you own the drawings once they are paid for.
Who you are dealing with
- OperatorWebsiteOS LLC
- Licence2646567.01
- Cost to homeownerNone
- Figures datedSeptember 2026
Tell us about the space
Rooms, floor area, community and what you want designed. We come back with design firms who quote against the published bands, and show you where each quote sits against them.