Interior Design

Luxury Interior Design in Abu Dhabi

LKYOOB designs villa, penthouse and apartment interiors in Abu Dhabi from its studio in Jumeirah 1, Dubai. The team travels to the plot, and the work arrives with it: one integrated studio, answerable from the first conversation to the final room.

LKYOOB is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Jumeirah 1, Dubai, providing luxury interior design in Abu Dhabi and across the United Arab Emirates. The studio was founded by Moosa Swaidan, with design led by Mahra Al Ramlawi, and works as one fully integrated team: architecture design, interior design, engineering, landscape design, project management and execution oversight under a single point of control. Interiors are conceived inside the architecture rather than applied to it, whether the commission is a bespoke new villa, the complete transformation of an existing villa, or a penthouse or apartment residence. Every project moves through five stages, from Vision and Lifestyle Study to Execution and Delivery, with the design stages typically taking six to eight months. In Abu Dhabi, LKYOOB takes interior commissions in communities including Saadiyat Island, Hidd Al Saadiyat, Jubail Island, Al Jurf, Yas Island, Al Raha Beach, Al Gurm and Nurai Island.

Interiors conceived inside the architecture

Most interiors are designed after the architecture is fixed. At LKYOOB the two are never separated. The studio's interior designers sit in the same room as its architects and engineers, so ceiling heights, window positions, sight lines and services are shaped around the rooms they will serve, not negotiated after the fact.

For an Abu Dhabi home this matters more, not less. A villa on Saadiyat Island or Jubail Island lives with strong coastal light, long summers and a culture of private, layered hospitality. When the rooms are shaped together with the building, the majlis, the family rooms and the quieter private quarters each receive the light, the proportion and the separation they need from the first drawing onwards.

The result reads as one continuous idea. Stone meets joinery where it was always meant to, lighting is built into the ceiling rather than added to it, and the furniture plan was present before the walls were.

What does a full interior design service include?

A full interior design service at LKYOOB includes space planning, joinery design, material and finish selection, lighting design, furniture and fabric specification, and oversight of the interior works through to handover. Nothing in the finished room is left to a supplier's default: each element is drawn, specified and approved before it is made.

Because the service sits inside an integrated studio, the interior package is developed alongside architecture, engineering and landscape rather than in isolation. Drawings are coordinated before they reach site, and the same studio then oversees execution, so what is approved on paper is what arrives in the room.

Process

Five stages, one point of control

Every LKYOOB interior in Abu Dhabi follows the same five stages, whether the commission is a new villa on Jubail Island or the transformation of an apartment at Al Raha Beach. The rhythm is the same on every commission.

Vision & Lifestyle Study

The studio begins with how you live, not with images: unhurried conversations across two to three weeks, walking the plot or the existing home in Abu Dhabi, recording the rituals, the hospitality and the privacies the interior must hold. Early meetings take place on site and at the studio in Jumeirah 1, whichever serves the work.

Concept & Design Direction

The findings then become a direction over four to six weeks: the character of the rooms, the palette, the relationship between the formal and the private areas of the home. Because interiors and architecture are shaped by one team, the concept already belongs to the building it will inhabit.

Integrated Design Development

The longest design stage, ten to sixteen weeks, in which every room is resolved: joinery, lighting, stone and timber, furniture layouts, and the engineering behind the finished surfaces. Coordination happens inside the studio in Dubai, so the drawings that travel to Abu Dhabi arrive as one set, not several.

Materials & Details

Six to eight weeks devoted to the near view: the junction of stone and joinery, the weight of a door, the fall of light on a plastered wall. Materials are reviewed in hand and approved before anything is ordered, so the site holds no surprises.

Execution & Delivery

Construction and fit-out are overseen by the same studio that drew every line, on the Abu Dhabi site as often as the work requires, holding the design intent through to the day the home is handed over.

Where we work in Abu Dhabi

From island villas to waterfront apartments, LKYOOB takes interior commissions across Abu Dhabi's residential communities, each with its own light, outlook and way of living.

Saadiyat Island
Hidd Al Saadiyat
Jubail Island
Al Jurf
Yas Island
Al Raha Beach
Al Gurm
Nurai Island

Abu Dhabi asks particular things of an interior. Light off the Gulf is generous but strong, summers are long, and the best homes turn inwards without feeling closed: shaded rooms, deep thresholds, and a clear separation between the spaces that receive guests and the spaces that belong to the family. These are design questions, answered room by room rather than borrowed from a catalogue. Commissions are taken across the United Arab Emirates, carried by the same team from beginning to end.

United States

The studio also works in the United States, in Texas and Florida. The team, the process and the standard of finish travel with the commission; what changes is the climate, the local codes and the way a house sits on its plot, and those are answered on their own terms.

Houston, Texas
Austin, Texas
Miami, Florida
Orlando, Florida

What does luxury interior design cost in Abu Dhabi?

There is no honest single answer, because the cost of an interior is set by decisions that belong to you. The scale of the home, the extent of bespoke joinery, the materials chosen for floors, walls and ceilings, and the degree to which furniture is designed rather than sourced all move the figure, as does the condition of an existing property when the commission is a transformation. For this reason every LKYOOB commission is scoped individually, once the studio understands the home you intend.

What can be said with confidence is that a fully resolved design protects a budget. Decisions made on paper cost a fraction of decisions made on site, and because the same studio designs the interior and then oversees its execution, the design is complete before construction begins rather than improvised during it. The clearest way to understand what your project would ask for is a conversation, on the plot in Abu Dhabi or at the studio in Dubai.

One studio, not a cast of separate firms

The conventional route to a luxury interior in Abu Dhabi involves several firms: an architect, an interior designer, an engineer, a contractor, and an owner left to referee between them. LKYOOB was built to remove that role. Architecture design, interior design, engineering, landscape design, project management and execution oversight sit within one team, founded by Moosa Swaidan with design led by Mahra Al Ramlawi, so responsibility never changes hands.

For the client this shows in quiet ways: one meeting instead of three, drawings that agree with one another, an interior that never has to compensate for a building it did not shape. It is a model clients notice, reflected in a Google rating of 4.4 from 42 client reviews, and it holds whether the home is minutes from the studio or across the border in Abu Dhabi.

Frequently asked questions

How much does luxury interior design cost in Abu Dhabi?

Every LKYOOB commission is scoped individually, so the studio does not publish standard fees. The cost of an interior is moved by the scale of the home, the extent of bespoke joinery, and the materials and furniture chosen. What holds in every case is that a design finished before building begins is the strongest protection a budget has.

How long does the design of a luxury interior take?

Six to eight months is the usual span of the design stages taken together, from the first study through concept, development and detailing. Execution then follows with the studio still at the table.

Does LKYOOB have an office in Abu Dhabi?

No. The studio is based in Jumeirah 1, Dubai, and works across the United Arab Emirates, including Abu Dhabi. Meetings are held on your plot in Abu Dhabi and at the studio in Dubai, and the drive between the two cities changes neither the team nor the attention.

Which Abu Dhabi communities does LKYOOB work in?

Interior commissions come from across the emirate, from Saadiyat and Jubail to Al Jurf, Yas, Al Raha, Al Gurm and Nurai. A home elsewhere in Abu Dhabi is no obstacle: the studio makes the journey.

Can LKYOOB design the architecture as well as the interior?

Yes. LKYOOB is a fully integrated studio with six disciplines in one team, and it takes commissions for bespoke new villas designed inside and out, as well as complete transformations of existing villas where architecture and interior are reworked together by the one team.

Do you design interiors for penthouses and apartments as well as villas?

Yes. Alongside villa work, LKYOOB designs penthouse and apartment residences, and the same five stages apply, adjusted to the scale of the home. In communities such as Al Raha Beach and Yas Island this often means working within an existing building, where the studio's engineering discipline earns its place.

If you are considering an interior in Abu Dhabi, we would be pleased to hear how you live and what you have in mind. The first conversation can happen on your plot or at the studio in Jumeirah 1, whichever suits you.

Begin a conversation with the studio in Jumeirah.