An interior designer in Dubai costs from AED 80,000 for full-service villa design at LC Interiors, and the fee scales with scope. According to the studio’s 2026 villa cost guide, that fee covers concept design, 3D visualisation, material selection, contractor coordination and supervision through to handover.
The only fee figure LC Interiors publishes is the one above: AED 80,000 as the starting point for full-service villa design. Everything past that depends on scope, and the fee pays for design and supervision, not for the build.
LC Interiors publishes no percentage-of-build rate and no hourly rate. A quote in either form needs a written scope behind it before it means anything.
Scope is the useful variable, and it is the first thing to pin down. The full interior design service is led personally by founder Lana Challis, a UK-trained architect and interior designer with over a decade of experience in Dubai.
Interior architecture work is included in every full project, and Lana holds a Master’s degree in Architectural Design. LC Interiors also takes no commissions from suppliers, so material recommendations follow your budget and the design.
A fee for an interior designer in Dubai should buy documents and oversight, not only mood boards. Ask for these in writing:
The service runs in four stages: discovery and brief, concept and design, build and install, then styling and handover. Each stage should show up as a deliverable you can see.
The drawings matter more than they look. LC Interiors’ apartment cost guide calls skipping design and documentation the most expensive saving available, because it keeps three contractors pricing the same project rather than three different ones.
Renderings do a similar job. They let you adjust marble, lighting and furniture choices before construction, which reduces change orders.
Budgets rarely drift because of the design itself. They drift because of a few decisions made under time pressure, and LC Interiors covers them in its guide to the five decisions that rewrite a fit-out budget.
The order the guide recommends is structural scope, then the joinery list, then MEP relocations, then the lighting concept, then a schedule with lead times. Only after that comes a detailed budget.
Structural scope alone can hurt. The studio has seen a simple wall removal add weeks to approvals and pull four other trades into rework.
Lighting shows the same pattern. A fitting specified late forces the ceiling to be redrawn, so the lighting plan and the ceiling design have to move together.
A designer who runs the site as well as the drawings keeps that order in place. On LC Interiors projects, Lana maintains direct oversight as both designer and project manager.
The design fee does not pay for the build. LC Interiors’ 2026 villa cost guide puts a full villa renovation between AED 400,000 for mid-range work and AED 1.5 million for luxury, and that money goes to contractors.
The fee pays for coordinating those contractors, which means they are still hired and paid separately. Plan the two budgets side by side.
Expect the total to run above the first quote, too. The villa guide advises a 15% contingency.
The same guide names permits, temporary housing and MEP rework as the costs that surprise people. Ask any designer which of them the quote covers before you compare totals.
Compare what each quote contains, not the headline number. Check the drawing set, the renderings, the number of site visits and who supervises the work through to handover.
Ask about supplier commissions, and ask when the material package is fixed. LC Interiors reviews an allowance schedule at concept stage, so the contractor prices what you approved.
The apartment guide, written from a decade of Dubai residential projects, describes the studio’s method: work backwards from a fixed total, cover the fundamentals first, joinery second and decoration last. You see that allocation before any contractor is engaged.
According to the same guide, the first conversation with the studio costs nothing.
An interior designer in Dubai working with LC Interiors on a full-service villa project starts at AED 80,000, and the fee scales with scope. LC Interiors publishes no percentage-of-build or hourly rate, so any other figure needs a written scope before you can trust it.
At LC Interiors, the fee covers concept design, 3D visualisation, material selection, contractor coordination and site supervision through to handover. Interior architecture work is included in every full project, and the studio takes no supplier commissions on the materials it recommends.
The interior design fee does not include the renovation work itself. LC Interiors’ 2026 villa cost guide prices a full villa renovation separately, from AED 400,000 for mid-range work to AED 1.5 million for luxury, and the contractors carrying out that work are paid separately.
LC Interiors’ guide to the five decisions that rewrite a fit-out budget recommends this order: structural scope, then the joinery list, then MEP relocations, then the lighting concept, then a schedule with lead times. Only after those does a detailed budget mean something, because late decisions in one trade surface as costs in another.
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