Renovation With a Designer vs Without: the Real Math in Tenge

“A designer is for the rich” is the most persistent renovation myth. Let us count instead of opining. A typical task: an 80 m² apartment in a new Almaty building, renovation budget with furniture around 20M ₸ (comfort class, a 2026 benchmark). The design project costs 80 × 10,000 = 800,000 ₸ — about 4% of the budget. The question: what do these 4% buy?

A caveat first: we count on benchmarks. The loss figures below are our estimate, not market statistics, and every site is different. But the order of magnitude, in our design experience, is right, and it is worth keeping in mind before you sign a contract with a crew.

What the 4% includes and how the formats differ

For an 80 m² apartment the studio offers two options. The working project (14 drawing sheets: survey plan, demolition, construction, masonry, layout, door swings, floors and underfloor heating, ceilings, plumbing, lighting and control scheme, electrics, finishing schedule, wall elevations, 3D views) costs 80 × 3,300 = 264,000 ₸. The design project includes all of that plus 3D visualisation, custom furniture drawings and an online shopping list: 800,000 ₸.

There is also a third line: design supervision, 200,000 ₸ per month, usually one to six months. The designer visits the site at least once a week, records progress in photo and video, reports deviations within 24 hours and helps choose finishing materials. Three months of supervision adds 600,000 ₸. With the project that is about 1.4M ₸, roughly 7% of a 20M budget — an honest upper bound of the “price of a designer”.

What “as we go” mistakes cost

A renovation without a project almost always includes the same set of losses. Electrics are redone after the furniture is placed: sockets end up behind a wardrobe or away from the TV, and chasing walls through fresh finishes is double work. Materials are bought by eye: a typical allowance for cutting and breakage is 10–15%, higher for diagonal or herringbone layouts, and tile bought later from another batch may differ in shade. The crew stands idle while you choose, and idle time costs money. And finally, furniture that does not fit or hits a door swing.

On a 20M ₸ budget these items easily add up to 3–6M ₸. It is an estimate, not a guarantee: a careful client with an experienced foreman loses less, a person deciding everything on the run loses more. But even the lower bound of 3M ₸ covers the 800,000 ₸ project several times over.

Fatigue and time are a separate cost. Renovation without a project means hundreds of decisions made on the run, in a showroom, under the pressure of “we need to know by tomorrow”. Deadlines grow, handover slips, and you pay rent while waiting for the flat. These losses cannot be counted in tenge, but they are real.

Where a project saves money directly

First, exact quantity schedules. Materials are bought in the right amount, not “just in case”. We plan a reasonable allowance for cutting, not 30% out of fear. This is most noticeable with tile, flooring and wallpaper, where an extra batch costs tens of thousands of tenge.

Second, one tender instead of overpaying the first contractor. With drawings you can collect 2–3 offers from crews and furniture makers and compare them item by item: everyone prices the same scope. Without drawings each offer is about something different and there is nothing to compare.

Third, furniture made from drawings fits the first time. Kitchens, wardrobes and walk-ins are made from dimensioned schemes, not “we will trim it on site”. From our practice: in the Arena City Life project (67 m², Almaty) the kitchen was made from our drawings with no rework.

Fourth, all expensive decisions are made on paper, where changing them costs nothing. Moving a wall on a drawing takes minutes; on site it means demolition, materials and approvals. So layout, lighting and furniture should be final before rough work starts.

What you get besides savings

A result that matches the picture. Visualisation shows how the flat will look, and you decide before the renovation, not after. The layout is checked for ergonomics: passages, door swing radii, kitchen and bathroom zones. Lighting is planned by scenarios, not by the “chandelier in the centre” principle.

Support during the renovation: answers on details, checks against drawings, control of finishing materials. The studio does not build: we design, and we do not carry out construction or turnkey renovation. We work with your crew or the one you choose, and help read the estimate and schedule.

When you really do not need a designer

An honest block. If you are doing a cosmetic renovation without changing the layout — painting, new floor and doors — a full design project is excessive. If you have a standard flat and are happy with the developer’s solution, same. If your budget is small and you are ready to control everything yourself, a consultation may be enough.

In such cases a working project is enough (from 3,300 ₸/m², 100,000 ₸ for spaces up to 40 m²) or even a consultation: cheaper, and it still protects you from the main mistakes with electrics and light. A working project for a small space takes 3–7 days, and any crew works more confidently with drawings.

How to tell which format you need

Take the full design project if there is a layout change, new plumbing and electrics, custom furniture, the overall image matters and you do not want to handle details yourself. Choose the working project if you know what you want and need exact drawings for the crew. Choose supervision if you do not want to visit the site yourself and fear that execution will drift from the project.

A simple test helps: name three decisions you are not ready to make on the run (layout, lighting, furniture) and ask who is responsible for them. If nobody — that is your risk zone.

Bottom line: not an expense but insurance

The math works out like this: 800 thousand for the project against 3–6M of typical losses without it — plus months of stress and a result that matches the picture rather than “how it turned out”. It is not a savings guarantee, but a sensible insurance against the costliest mistakes.

Calculate your flat in the cost calculator on the Prices page and estimate the total in the renovation budget calculator. If you are unsure which format you need, fill in the brief or message us on WhatsApp: we will honestly tell you if you do not need a full project.