Kitchen
Read the guideHow much does a custom kitchen cost in Dubai? What really moves the price
How a custom kitchen in Dubai is priced, line by line: what moves the total most, what a cheap quote leaves out, and when your price is fixed for good.
Guides
Kitchen, wardrobe and renovation guides for UAE homes.
Prices, materials, stone, mechanisms and renovation, in plain words with the sources named. Every guide ends with your next step.
Topic
Prices
Wood
Read the guideHow much does a built in wardrobe cost in the UAE? What really sets the price
How a built in wardrobe is priced in Dubai and across the UAE: width, height, doors and the fittings inside, what a fair quote lists, and when built in beats freestanding.
Kitchen · Wood
Read the guideWhy made to fit has always cost more, and what is changing
Custom kitchens and fitted wardrobes cost more because of the work done before anything is cut. Where your money goes, from 1630s London to Dubai today.
Kitchen · Wood · Build
Read the guideHow a book from 1788 explains your kitchen quote
How to compare kitchen quotes in the UAE: the seven lines every quote should show, what to ask before you sign, and a 1788 price book that got it right.
Topic
Choosing well
Wood · Door
Read the guideSliding or hinged wardrobe doors? How to choose for your room
Sliding or hinged wardrobe doors? When each one wins on space, access, cleaning and alignment, and what drives the cost, in UAE apartments and villas.
Kitchen · Wood
Read the guideMDF, plywood or chipboard? The best material for kitchen cabinets in UAE humidity
Which board to choose for kitchen cabinets in the UAE: moisture resistant MDF, chipboard and marine plywood compared, plus fronts from melamine to super matt and why edge banding matters.
Wood
Read the guideTV wall unit ideas: layouts, finishes and stone for a UAE living room
TV wall unit ideas for UAE homes: a floating console, a full wall with a niche or a bookcase wall, board and stone finishes that suit it, and how to plan cables, LED and fixing.
Wood
Read the guideWardrobe internals by width: hanging, shelves and drawers that fit the recess
How many bays a recess gives you, what hangs how long, how deep a shelf for folded clothes and where the drawers go, with the figures behind each rule.
Wood
Read the guideA wardrobe to the ceiling around an AC bulkhead
What sits inside the boxed section under your ceiling, what the Dubai Building Code says must stay reachable, and how a wardrobe is drawn under it or beside it.
Wood
Read the guideWall unit depths and TV sizes: the niche, the shelf and the distance to the sofa
TV sizes in millimetres from makers' own sheets, the air a screen needs in a niche, why our wall units are 300 mm deep, and how high and how far to sit.
Door
Read the guideInterior doors for a UAE home: solid core, hollow core, flush or panelled
What is inside a door decides how it sounds, swings and copes with a bathroom. Four constructions, with makers' weight and sound figures, and which suits each room.
Door · Build · Wood
Read the guideDoor and frame sizes in UAE apartments, and how to measure an opening
Standard leaf sizes, the minimum widths the UAE fire code and accessibility rules ask for, what a frame adds, and the five measurements we need to quote.
Door · Build
Read the guideFire rated doors in UAE homes: what the Civil Defence code asks for
Which doors in a UAE home must be fire rated and for how long, what a rated assembly is, which tests Civil Defence accepts, and why seals and closers matter.
Kitchen
Read the guideA tiny kitchen from 1926 with big ideas for your apartment
Six small kitchen ideas from the 1926 Frankfurt Kitchen, which fit a whole way of cooking into 1.9 by 3.4 metres, adapted for a UAE apartment.
Wood · Kitchen
Read the guideFlat pack or made to fit? A 170 year old argument, settled for your home
Flat pack or built in? When IKEA style furniture is the smart buy, when a fitted wardrobe pays for itself, and how to decide room by room in a UAE home.
Topic
Stone and surfaces
Every marble, quartz and compact surface we work with, with its properties, is in the stone guide.
Kitchen · Build
Read the guideQuartz, marble, compact or sintered stone: which worktop suits a UAE kitchen?
Quartz, marble, quartzite, granite, compact laminate and sintered stone compared on heat, acids, scratches, sealing, joints and strong sun, for kitchens in the UAE.
Kitchen
Read the guideIs marble a good kitchen worktop? Etching, sealing and the stones that cope
Marble looks wonderful and marks easily. What etching is, why honed hides it better than polished, and which natural stones cope with a busy kitchen in the UAE.
Kitchen
Read the guideCalacatta, Carrara or Statuario: how to tell the white marbles apart
All three come from the Apuan Alps above Carrara in Italy. The difference is in the ground colour and the veins. A plain guide to the white marbles, with Arabescato and Calacatta Viola too.
Kitchen
Read the guideMarble names that are not what they say: limestone, dolomite and serpentine
Nero Marquina is a limestone, Verde Alpi is a serpentinite and Super White is often a dolomite. Why stone names mislead, and why it matters for your worktop.
Build · Kitchen
Read the guideOnyx and travertine at home: where they shine and where they struggle
Backlit onyx walls, travertine floors and vanities, and why neither belongs on a busy kitchen worktop. With vein cut and cross cut travertine explained.
Topic
Mechanisms and cabinets
Hinges, lift ups, corners, larders and bins, by what they do, are in the mechanisms guide.
Kitchen
Read the guideKitchen corner units: linked pull outs, swing out trays, carousels or corner drawers?
An L or U kitchen leaves a blind corner. The five ways to reach it, which cabinet each one needs, and how much weight the makers say it carries.
Kitchen
Read the guideLarder pull outs: what fits a 150, 300, 450 or 600 mm tall unit
A tall pull out turns a deep pantry into shelves you can see from both sides. The widths, heights and loads makers publish, and the difference between a pull out and a door linked larder.
Kitchen
Read the guideKitchen bins under the sink: sizes, litres and what really fits
Pull out bins, swing out bins and bins behind a door, with the cabinet widths and litres makers publish. And why the sink trap decides more than the cabinet does.
Wood
Read the guideThe 32 mm rule hiding inside your cabinets
What are the rows of little holes inside your cabinets? The 32 mm system, a grid makers share that decides how easily furniture can be adjusted and repaired.
Topic
Renovation and handover
Build
Read the guideHow to plan a villa renovation in Dubai, from the survey to the snag list
How to plan a villa renovation in Dubai: the survey, a written scope, approvals, pricing trade by trade, staged payments and the snag list, in the right order.
Build · Snag
Read the guideWhat is a snag list, and how do you track it?
What a snag list is, what goes on it, who writes it and when, and how to track its resolution separately from payment milestones.
Kitchen · Build
Read the guideHow long does a kitchen renovation take in Dubai? Every step, in order
The steps of a kitchen renovation in Dubai in the right order, from the first estimate to the snag list, and what slows it down: approvals, working hours, stone templating and appliances.
Build
Read the guideRenovating an apartment in Dubai: approvals, working hours and the order of trades
How to renovate an apartment in Dubai: the building approval, contractor hours, what tenants and owners can change, the order of trades, living there during the work and paying in stages.
Build
Read the guideRenovation NOC and fit out permits in Dubai: who issues what
Who issues which renovation approval in Dubai: the developer or community NOC, Dubai Municipality, the DDA fit out permit, Trakhees, and the landlord's consent if you rent.
Snag · Build
Read the guideSnagging a new apartment in Dubai: the checklist, room by room
What to check before you take the keys to a new apartment, in the order a professional walks it, and how to report what you find so it gets fixed.
Snag · Build
Read the guideWhat your developer must fix, and for how long: defect liability in Dubai and Abu Dhabi
The one year and ten year periods in Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019, the federal decennial liability, Abu Dhabi's rules, and what structural and installation mean.
Snag · Build
Read the guideHandover inspection or snag list: which one you need, and when
The handover inspection is the walk with the developer, the snag list is your record of defects, an independent inspection sits between. When to do each.
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