Apartment interior design: the process, the timeline and the budget

An apartment interior is the project where the most decisions are made in the shortest time: floors, walls, lighting, kitchen, bathroom, furniture, colours. Without a plan, those decisions are made in a tile showroom under pressure. With a plan, they are made once, on paper, and do not come back.

Phase 1: Concept (2 to 3 weeks)

We start with a conversation about how you live: who cooks, who works from home, where films are watched, how much there is to store. Then we survey the apartment and produce:

• a new floor plan with the furniture layout, often in one or two variants,
• a moodboard of materials and colours,
• 3D views of the main rooms.

This is where you decide the big things: whether a wall comes down, where the kitchen goes, open or closed.

Phase 2: Development (3 to 4 weeks)

The concept becomes a technical design:

• demolition and new walls, floor and ceiling plans,
• a lighting and electrical plan with exact positions of switches and sockets,
• water and drainage for the kitchen and bathrooms,
• tile layouts, shop drawings for the kitchen, wardrobes and built-ins,
• a specification with codes and quantities of every material.

At the end of this phase a contractor can give an exact offer, not an estimate.

Phase 3: Fitting out and supervision (6 to 12 weeks of works)

We order and track deliveries, visit the site, answer the tradesmen's questions and choose the last details: curtains, light fittings, textiles. Moving in is the moment when the image from phase one and the apartment look the same.

Orientation budget

For an apartment of 60 to 100 m² in Sarajevo, a complete interior design (all three phases) ranges from 25 to 45 KM/m². Works and fit-out are a separate item and depend on the level: from 500 KM/m² for a solid refresh to 1,200 KM/m² and more for a completely new interior with made-to-measure furniture.

Three tips before you start

1. Make a list of what bothers you in your current apartment. It is the best brief.
2. Decide the budget before the concept, not after. The design is made for that budget.
3. Buy nothing before the plan. Not even the sofa.