Spaces · Guide

Turnkey Interior Design: Process & Budget Guide

How We Work, and How We Price

Turnkey interior design means that a single team is responsible for the whole process, from design through to construction — you are not left coordinating dozens of trades and suppliers; we coordinate them. This guide sets out how an interior project runs from start to finish, what lengthens and shortens the programme, and what actually determines the budget.

Our Kadıköy-based studio has been handling design and construction under one roof since 2015; all 94+ completed projects have gone through this process. What follows is not a marketing promise but the method we actually work to.

What does working turnkey change?

There are two ways to renovate a space. In the first you take the design from one party and have the construction done by another, lining up the trades, the joiner, the plumber and the suppliers yourself. In the second, a single team both develops the design and runs the site.

The difference is invisible while things go well; it appears when something goes wrong. Where the work is split, and a dimension does not hold, a material arrives late or a detail cannot be built on site, the parties point at each other and you are the one left in between. On a project running under one roof, it is clear who answers for that problem.

• A single point of contact — the same team for design, manufacture, installation and handover; no separate list of suppliers for you to chase.
• What is drawn can be built — we draw knowing who will make each detail and in which material, eliminating the phrase “that cannot be done like that” before it is ever said on site.
• Managing the sequence — which item of work comes before which, and when each dimension must be fixed, is the backbone of the programme; most delays arise from that sequence.
• One budget table — because the items do not arrive from separate places, you see the total from the start.

The difference between an interior architect, an architect and a decorator

The three are often confused, and going to the wrong one costs time. In short: an architect deals with the building itself — its envelope, its structure, the whole of it that is subject to permit. An interior architect sets out the space inside that existing envelope: the layout, the wet areas, the lighting and electrical scheme, fixed elements such as wardrobes and kitchens, and decisions about materials and details. Decoration is the movable layer that comes on top of that arrangement — furniture, textiles, accessories.

The practical distinction is this: if reversing a decision means taking down a wall, altering services or removing fixed joinery, that decision belongs to interior architecture. If it can be reversed simply by moving or replacing something, it is decoration. That is why expensive mistakes almost always come from the first group.

Our process

Every project goes through the same four stages — the stages we also describe in our philosophy, summarised here in terms of process and programme.

Of these stages, the second is the most often underestimated. A decision taken at concept stage is a few minutes' work on paper; the same decision changed after manufacturing has begun costs many times more in both money and time. That is why we do not rush the approval steps.

How long does a project take?

What governs the programme is not floor area but the depth of the scope. A surface refresh (decoration, flooring, changing light fittings) is the fastest kind of work. An apartment in which the kitchen and bathrooms are renewed and the services partly replaced takes noticeably longer. A full transformation, in which the plumbing and wiring are installed from scratch and the partition layout changes, requires the longest programme; at villa and commercial scale that is spoken of in months.

The items that actually extend the programme are usually these:

• Lead times on bespoke items — kitchens, wardrobes and custom furniture do not arrive immediately after ordering, and do not go into production until dimensions are fixed.
• Natural stone and selection-dependent materials — viewing and choosing the slab, cutting it and transporting it form a programme of their own.
• Surprises after demolition — failed pipework, damp and unexpected structural elements are common in older buildings.
• Management and regulation — the building or estate management's working hours, use of the lift and rules on rubble removal; in commercial spaces, permits as well.
• Requests added during the process — every addition to the scope takes its place in the programme; we prefer to make that visible from the start.

What determines the budget

We do not give a specific price range — every space is different, so a real figure is only meaningful after a survey. The per-square-metre prices you see online are misleading for the same reason: the same floor area corresponds to wildly different sums once the scope changes. The factors that shape your budget are these:

• The size of the space (m²) — the most direct factor, but not decisive on its own.
• Scope — is this only a surface refresh (decoration, flooring), or a transformation including the services?
• The number of wet areas — kitchens and bathrooms carry the densest concentration of services and joinery per square metre; adding a bathroom moves the budget far more than a room of the same size.
• Material class — the price band of the natural stone, timber and fittings you choose. The same design can be built across a wide budget range by changing the material class.
• The proportion of bespoke work — there is a difference in both cost and time between storage solved with off-the-shelf units and a wardrobe made for the space.
• Type of space — residential, villa and commercial spaces carry different technical requirements (durability, regulation, acoustics).
• The existing condition of the building — in an older building, renewing the services is an invisible but very real budget item.

When discussing budget, our advice is to set aside a portion of the total from the outset and keep it in reserve. That contingency, held for the things that cannot be seen until demolition opens them up, is what stops you having to change your mind halfway through the project.

The right step towards a real proposal is a free site survey.

What should be in the contract?

In interior work, most disputes arise not from bad faith but from assumptions never written down at the start. Whoever you work with, ask for the following to be set out in writing:

• A schedule of scope — which items of work are included, and what is not included, each stated separately.
• Material specifications — not “natural stone worktop” but which stone, which thickness, which finish. A vague specification is the source of later surprises.
• The payment schedule — which payment falls due against the completion of which stage.
• Programme and milestones — start, interim deliveries and completion.
• The variation procedure — how price and time are adjusted when something outside the scope is requested.
• The definition of completion — the condition under which the work counts as finished, and how the snagging list is closed out.

The most common mistakes

• Choosing furniture before the layout — the dimensions of a piece you have fallen for lock the circulation of the space from the start.
• Leaving lighting until last — if fittings are chosen after the electrical first fix, half of the intended scheme has already become impossible to build.
• Choosing materials from photographs alone — natural stone and timber look entirely different in the light of the actual space; the sample has to be seen in place.
• Thinking about sockets and switches too late — this is the omission that is most expensive to reverse and noticed the latest.
• Planning storage by eye — a cupboard should be measured by what will go into it, not in metres.
• Starting before the scope is written down — a verbal understanding turns, halfway through, into a text everyone remembers differently.

What to look for when choosing an interior architect

When you go to a meeting, a few questions will tell you in advance how the process is going to run:

• Can you see the before and the after of the same project together, rather than photographs of finished work alone?
• Do they carry out the construction themselves, or hand it to an outside team? Find out where responsibility sits from the start.
• How many questions do they ask you in the first meeting? An approach that starts drawing before listening designs its own portfolio rather than your home.
• When budget comes up, do they clarify the scope, or reach straight for a figure?
• Who will you be dealing with if a problem appears after handover?

We have set out how we work and why we work this way in our philosophy, and we share the reasoning behind material and lighting decisions in notes from the studio.

By type of space

Although the process is the same, every type of space has technical requirements of its own — acoustics, durability, regulation and intensity of use all differ. For the detail:

Frequently Asked Questions

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