Meet the studio, understand our process and discover how we move from first conversation to finished space.
Start With the Decisions That Will Save You the Most Rework
You do not always need a complete design package to make progress. Sometimes you need a professional second opinion on a floor plan, help deciding whether a renovation is worth it, clarity on what your budget can realistically achieve, or someone to stop you buying furniture and finishes before the room has been properly planned. Bella’s consultation service is designed for that point: we review what you have, identify the decisions that matter most and tell you what should happen next.
A consultation can focus on one room, an entire home, a commercial space, a proposed renovation or an existing design you want reviewed. Depending on the booked format, we can discuss layout, furniture scale, storage, lighting, material direction, colour, budget, programme, technical constraints, approval risks and whether your next step should be space planning, full interior design, fit-out, FF&E, renovation or simply a more focused purchase list.
Use the Consultation to Remove Uncertainty
A consultation is most useful when it has a clear decision to resolve. Bring the real problem—not only inspiration images—and we can spend the session on what is stopping the project from moving forward.
We review circulation, furniture scale, door swings, storage, fixed services and the relationship between rooms. If the issue needs multiple tested options or dimensioned planning drawings, we will tell you when the consultation should become a dedicated Space Planning scope.
We identify what should become the visual anchor and what can remain the accent. Rather than forcing a style label, we use your references to narrow material, colour, form and furniture direction into a combination that can actually be specified.
We separate professional design fees from construction, joinery, furniture, lighting, appliances, approvals and contingency. The purpose is not to produce a contractor tender during one meeting; it is to show which parts of your ambition are likely to consume the budget and where scope should be reduced or prioritised.
We compare dimensions against the room, circulation, focal points, existing pieces and doors / windows before you commit. A sofa, dining table or bed can look perfect online and still fail when the real room geometry is considered.
We distinguish cosmetic changes from layout, joinery, wet-area, MEP or structural work. Where the idea is likely to trigger technical drawings, specialist engineering, landlord approval or authority review, we flag that before demolition begins.
We can review the information you provide for layout logic, scope gaps, material decisions, buildability questions and client-side risks. A consultation is not a formal technical audit or certification, but it can help you identify the questions that need to be resolved before you approve the next stage.
Three Things a Good Consultation Should Give You
The value is not the length of the meeting. It is how many uncertain decisions become actionable afterwards.
We translate broad statements such as 'modern but warm' or 'more storage without feeling crowded' into design priorities that can guide later drawings, materials and purchasing.
The room is reviewed against what is fixed: structure, doors, windows, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, ceiling levels, furniture to retain, landlord rules and budget.
You should leave knowing whether you can act on the advice directly or whether the project now needs measured drawings, technical design, procurement, fit-out or another specialist.
Choose the Consultation Around the Decision
A one-room furniture question, a villa renovation and a commercial lease decision create very different conversations.
Useful when you need help with furniture placement, scale, storage, focal points, colour direction or an awkward room before purchasing or commissioning custom pieces.
Useful before committing to full design, renovation or furnishing. We look at priorities across the property, identify which rooms need deeper intervention and help define a realistic sequence of work.
Useful when walls, ceilings, lighting, joinery, kitchens, bathrooms or services may change. The session focuses on scope, technical implications and what drawings / approvals should exist before contractors price or start work.
Useful before signing a lease, reconfiguring an office, opening a retail or hospitality concept, or commissioning a full design package. We focus on occupancy, customer / staff flow, required rooms, brand, technical demands and programme risk.
What We Can Review During a Consultation
The session is prioritised around your brief and the information available. It is advisory unless the proposal specifically includes drawings, a written design plan, site measurement or another defined deliverable.
Clarify what the space has to support before discussing style.
Test the broad spatial logic before expensive purchases.
Narrow options into an intentional visual language.
Separate immediate affordability from later project cost.
Identify when advice needs to become drawings or specialist input.
Decide what you can do yourself and what needs a formal service.
A consultation is not a structural survey, MEP design, authority submission, contractor quotation, measured site survey, final procurement schedule or construction drawing package unless those deliverables are expressly included in the booked service.
How to Get More Value From the Session
A consultation becomes more useful when floor plans, dimensions, photos, references and budget expectations arrive before the meeting rather than halfway through it.
Tell us the property type, location, rooms / areas involved, what is not working, whether you are renting / owning / building, the decisions you need help with and the approximate budget / timing.
Consultation briefSend available floor plans, dimensions, photos / videos, developer drawings, furniture sizes, inspiration references, contractor proposals or material samples that directly affect the discussion.
Pre-review information setWe identify the highest-value questions and decide whether the meeting is best handled online, in a studio / showroom setting or—if included in the booked format—at the site.
Priority discussion agendaDuring the session we work through use, layout, scale, finishes, budget, technical constraints and the consequences of each major option.
Professional design directionWe separate ideas you can implement immediately from ideas that need measurements, drawings, samples, contractor pricing, engineering or authority review first.
Decision / risk listWhere a written summary or follow-up document is included, it records the agreed priorities, unresolved questions and recommended path rather than pretending one meeting has completed the entire design.
Consultation notes / roadmap when includedIf you continue with Bella, the consultation can feed into space planning, full interior design, 3D visualisation, FF&E, renovation, fit-out or another defined scope without repeating the original brief.
Clear next appointmentWhat We Check Beyond Style
Some dimensions below are planning references rather than codes. Final clearances should be checked against the actual room, furniture, accessibility requirements and project type.
For a layout review, provide wall-to-wall sizes plus doors, windows, columns, plumbing, sockets, AC grilles, switches and furniture you intend to keep. A marketing floor plan with no dimensions can support a conversation, but it should not be treated as a measured construction drawing.
Common residential planning references often place primary walking routes around 750–900 mm or more and coffee tables roughly 350–450 mm from sofas, but these are comfort starting points—not universal legal minimums. Accessibility, room use and actual furniture dimensions can require more.
Plumbing, drainage, AC, electrical points, structure and ceiling bulkheads can make an apparently simple layout expensive to build. We identify those fixed points before suggesting changes that depend on moving them.
A colour that looks warm in a showroom can shift under 2700K, 3000K or 4000K lighting and under Abu Dhabi daylight. Physical samples should be checked in the intended space before final paint, stone, timber or upholstery approval.
Online consultation can be effective for briefing, style, budget, furniture and plan review when the client provides good information. It should not replace site verification where millimetre-level dimensions, structural conditions, defects or MEP interfaces will affect execution.
ChatGPT can help brainstorm, analyse uploaded images and explore design directions, but OpenAI also notes limitations in image interpretation and precise spatial localisation. Use AI as an ideation / communication tool; verify dimensions, structure, services, approvals and product suitability with the appropriate project professionals.
DMT’s Abu Dhabi minor-works route includes certain non-structural interior modifications and finishes for specified residential properties, while deeper changes can require other permit / consultant routes. The consultation can identify that risk, but the correct authority process has to be confirmed for the actual property and scope.
Ordering custom joinery before site dimensions, purchasing furniture before the layout is stable, or demolishing before technical review can create avoidable cost. A consultation is useful when it prevents a premature decision as much as when it recommends a new one.
When Advice Becomes a Regulated Project
A consultation may conclude that your project is primarily furniture, colour and styling—or it may reveal that the desired change affects partitions, MEP, wet areas, structure, life-safety systems or other regulated work. In Abu Dhabi, the applicable route depends on the property and scope. DMT’s streamlined minor-works procedure covers specified non-structural interior / exterior modifications, maintenance and interior finishes for eligible residential properties, but that does not mean every renovation is permit-free.
Where a commercial fit-out or deeper building alteration affects fire and life-safety systems, Abu Dhabi Civil Defence guidance shows that fire alarm, firefighting, ventilation, emergency lighting, exits and interior finishing requirements may form part of the approval / shop-drawing process. Bella’s consultation can identify the need for further review, but submissions and engineering must be handled by the appropriately appointed parties.
Colour Direction During a Consultation
The 60-30-10 rule is a useful colour-composition starting point: roughly 60% dominant, 30% secondary and 10% accent. Sherwin-Williams describes it as a balancing guideline rather than a code. The 70/30 rule is different: it is usually discussed as a way to keep about 70% of a room within one anchor style / language and use the remaining 30% for contrast.
The HEX values below are concept directions only. We use them to discuss relationships between colours; final paints, stone, timber, metal and fabrics should be selected by real product sample.
Consultation Fees & What Happens After
Current UAE pricing shows a wide spread because 'consultation' can mean a free sales conversation, a room-specific retail design package or strategic professional advice. IKEA UAE currently lists AED 495 for its Complete Interior Design Solution for a room up to 20 m², including two 45-minute meetings plus planning work, with reimbursement when qualifying spend reaches AED 7,000. A July 2026 Dubai market guide places standalone consultations roughly from free to AED 300–1,500 and more detailed concept packages around AED 2,500–10,000. These are third-party / retailer references—not Bella fees. Bella’s current consultation fee should be confirmed against the actual format, duration, property and deliverables.
A consultation is intentionally smaller than a full design package. Current Abu Dhabi market guides for broader design-only services quote very different models—including per-area and percentage-based fees—so do not extrapolate a one-hour consultation price into the cost of full drawings, 3D, procurement or site supervision.
What a Consultation Can Look Like
These are temporary third-party references selected specifically for interior-design consultation and review. Replace them with Bella-owned / licensed photography before final production publication.
Consultation Questions, Answered Clearly
These answers clarify what a consultation can realistically solve, how fees work and which popular 'rules' are useful guidelines rather than industry laws.
It usually starts with your goals, how the space is used, style preferences, existing problems, budget and timing. Depending on the format, the designer may review floor plans, room photos, furniture sizes, colours, materials and renovation ideas, then recommend priorities and next steps. Drawings, 3D views, site measurement and written reports should only be assumed when the booked package says they are included.
There is no universal fee. A July 2026 Dubai market guide places standalone consultations roughly from free to AED 300–1,500, with more developed concept packages around AED 2,500–10,000. IKEA UAE currently charges AED 495 for its room-based Complete Interior Design Solution. Bespoke villa, commercial or technical consultations can follow a completely different fee structure, so compare the actual deliverables.
Yes. ChatGPT can help explore styles, palettes, furniture ideas, checklists and uploaded images, and it can help you prepare questions before meeting a designer. It should not be treated as a measured-site survey, structural or MEP consultant, permit authority or final product verifier. OpenAI also notes that image interpretation can be imperfect and precise spatial localisation is a limitation.
It is a flexible decorating guideline, not a regulation. A common interpretation is to keep about 70% of the room within one anchor style, colour or material language and use the remaining 30% for contrast and personality. It is different from the 60-30-10 colour rule and does not need to be followed literally.
There is no single universal 15% design rule. In UAE pricing, some full design services are quoted as a percentage of the project value—often within roughly 8–15% or 10–15% in current market guides. Separately, 10–15% can also appear as a recommended project contingency. Always ask what the percentage is being applied to before treating '15%' as a rule.
There is no official fixed list of seven. A useful way to group the industry is residential, workplace / office, retail, hospitality / F&B, healthcare / wellness, education / institutional and specialist / leisure environments. Many projects overlap more than one category.
There is no normal budget without defining whether you mean consultation, design-only or the full project. Current UAE references range from a few hundred dirhams for retail-led consultation packages to tens of thousands of dirhams for complete design-only scopes, while fit-out, joinery and furniture can move the total project into hundreds of thousands or more. Start by separating professional fees from execution.
It can be valuable when the decisions are expensive, the layout is difficult, custom work is involved, several rooms need to work together, or the project requires contractor / technical coordination. If your question is only whether one sofa colour works with an existing rug, a focused consultation may be more proportionate than commissioning a full design service.
Interior designers commonly work with space planning, circulation, built elements, lighting, materials, custom joinery and technical coordination as well as aesthetics. Interior decorators usually focus more on furniture, colour, textiles, styling and accessories without changing the underlying architecture. The exact professional scope still depends on the individual firm and local licensing requirements.
Bring the floor plan if you have one, current photos or video, key room dimensions, furniture you want to keep, inspiration references, your approximate budget, target timing and a short list of decisions you need help making. For a renovation, include any landlord guide, developer drawings, contractor quote or MEP information you already have.
Yes, especially for briefing, layout review, furniture, style, colour and budget discussion when you can provide good plans, dimensions and photos. It becomes less reliable when the decision depends on exact site dimensions, defects, structural conditions, complex MEP or physical material matching.
Only if the booked service says so. A consultation may be advisory, while an annotated plan, mood board, 3D visual, shopping list or technical drawing is a separate deliverable. Bella will define the output before the session so you know whether you are booking advice, documentation or both.
Yes. A plan-review consultation can help identify awkward circulation, furniture limitations, storage problems, likely renovation scope and whether the property appears capable of supporting your brief. It is not a structural survey, valuation or legal due-diligence service, but it can give you a design perspective before commitment.
It can help you identify obvious scope gaps, exclusions, provisional sums and questions to ask, particularly when the quotations are based on an existing design. A formal tender analysis, BOQ audit or technical certification is a larger professional scope and should be commissioned separately where required.
You may have enough direction to implement the next step yourself, or the consultation may show that the project needs Space Planning, 3D Visualisation, full Interior Design, FF&E, Interior Renovation, Design & Fit-Out or Cost & Pricing support. The point is to move into the right scope rather than automatically selling you the largest package.
Book the Right Consultation
Share the property / business type, location, rooms or areas involved, whether you own / rent / are still considering the property, what you need to decide, approximate budget, target timing and whether you want advice only or a written / drawing-based follow-up.
Attach a floor plan, photos, video, furniture dimensions, inspiration images, contractor quotation or landlord information if you have them. We will use those to identify the most useful consultation format and what information is still missing.
