How to choose the best interior designer in Dubai

I've been designing restaurants, hotels and workplaces in Dubai since 2012. In 2023 Commercial Interior Design named me Interior Designer of the Year, and I've judged for SBID, AHEAD and Frame. This is how I'd pick a designer if I were the client.

The short answer: the best interior designer in Dubai is the one whose finished spaces you can walk into today, who has delivered your type of project at your budget, and who can show you the drawings, not just the renders. Awards and Instagram tell you who's visible. Built work tells you who's good.

Go and stand in their rooms. Every serious studio in Dubai has projects you can visit. Have lunch there. Look at the joinery edges, the light at 7pm, how the staff move. A render survives anything; a room doesn't.

Ask for the same project type. A villa designer is not a restaurant designer. Restaurants are about flow, kitchens, acoustics and licensing; hotels about operators and standards; offices about change. Ask for three completed projects in your category, with the operator's name.

Ask who actually draws it. In Dubai the person who pitches is often not the person who designs. Ask who will lead your project day to day, and ask to meet them. If the answer is vague, that's your answer.

Check they can take it through authorities. Dubai Municipality, Civil Defence, DDA, Trakhees, the developer's own approvals. A beautiful concept that stalls at the permit stage costs you six months of rent. Ask how many approvals they've handled in your zone.

Check the fit-out relationship. Design and construction either talk every day or blame each other. Ask whether the studio supervises on site, how often, and who signs off on samples.

Look at the awards, then look past them. Awards from juries that visit the project (CID, SBID, Restaurant & Bar Design Awards) mean something. Awards you pay to enter and always win don't. I've sat on juries; the difference is obvious from the inside.

Fees. Expect a design fee of 8–15% of the fit-out cost for hospitality in Dubai, or a per-square-metre rate. Cheaper usually means fewer drawings, and fewer drawings means the contractor decides your design for you.

What I'd actually do: shortlist three studios whose built work you've stood in, meet the lead designer at each, ask the authority question, and choose the one who tells you something you didn't want to hear.

If you're looking for a studio that works this way, that's what we built 4SPACE to be — 300 projects across the GCC since 2012, from Dubai Mall to Riyadh. Start a conversation with the studio.

— Firas