Interior Design Price per Square Foot in Malaysia
What designers and contractors charge per square foot, from published Malaysian guides, and why we charge per room instead.
How much do interior designers charge per square foot in Malaysia?
Published Malaysian guides put design-only fees at RM3–RM8 per square foot and renovation at roughly RM40 to RM250 or more per square foot, depending on the finish; Sundays in Bed doesn't charge by area, and full interior design is a flat RM3,565 per room, the same for a 100 sq ft bedroom as for a 300 sq ft one. The design and the renovation are often blended into one "per square foot" figure, which is why area-based quotes are so hard to compare. Ask any firm which of the two its rate covers, and whether furniture is in it.
| What's being priced | Per square foot, published | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Renovation: budget / mid-range / premium / luxury | RM40–70 / RM70–130 / RM130–250 / RM250+ | FindContractor.my, March 2026 |
| Renovation: basic cosmetic / mid-range full / premium / full luxury | RM100–130 / RM150–220 / RM180–280 / RM280–450+ | Houz, 2026 |
| Design only | RM3–RM8 | Blaine Robert Design, August 2026; Spaciz Design |
| Sundays in Bed design fee | Not charged by area: RM3,565 per room, RM5,485 for an open-plan living-dining, whatever the size | Sundays in Bed rate card |
Other firms' figures are theirs, read on 19 September 2026. Our rates as of September 2026. For what a whole design and build budget looks like, see what an interior designer costs in Malaysia.
Summary of This
Search "interior design price per square foot Malaysia" and the published numbers run from RM3 to over RM450 per square foot, often in the same guide. That's not because designers disagree on value. It's because square footage is a construction metric wearing an interior design costume, and it breaks the moment you actually apply it.
A 120 sq ft bedroom and a 120 sq ft store room take wildly different amounts of design work — one needs a bed, wardrobe, lighting plan and a dozen material decisions; the other needs shelving. Fitting out a kitchen costs roughly the same whether the living area around it is 800 sq ft or 1,600 — the cabinetry run and the appliances don't stretch with the floor plate. Per-sq-ft pricing quietly assumes design effort scales with area. It doesn't. It scales with decisions.
Room count and room type. A condo with a bedroom, a bathroom and an open-plan living-dining area has a fundamentally different scope than a landed house with five bedrooms and a yard — not because of total square footage, but because of how many rooms need their own layout, material palette and furniture plan.
One flat design fee per room, the same whether that room is 100 sq ft or 300 sq ft: RM1,715 for interior styling (RM2,635 for an open-plan living-dining space), or RM3,565 for the complete interior design service (RM5,485 open-plan). A Klang Valley site visit is RM200, waived if you go ahead with us. That's the whole design fee — agreed before anything begins, and it doesn't move if your renovation budget does.
The physical works — flooring, carpentry, electrical, plumbing — are a separate number, and that part genuinely does scale with your space and your chosen finish level. We estimate that honestly as a range based on your rooms, the condition of your home and your finish level, then gather and compare real contractor quotes on your behalf, rather than folding a vague per-sq-ft figure into one opaque total.
Frequently asked questions
How much do interior designers charge per square foot in Malaysia?
Published Malaysian guides put design-only fees at RM3–RM8 per square foot, and renovation at roughly RM40 to RM250 or more per square foot depending on the finish. Sundays in Bed doesn't charge by area: full interior design is RM3,565 per room, the same for a 100 sq ft or a 300 sq ft bedroom.
So is there any "normal" per-sq-ft rate I should expect?
Not a reliable one for design fees — quoted per-sq-ft rates for design work in Malaysia vary so widely precisely because it's the wrong unit. It's a genuinely useful number for the construction side of a renovation, just not for what a designer charges to plan the space.
Isn't per-sq-ft pricing simpler to compare across designers?
It looks simpler, but it usually isn't apples-to-apples — one firm's per-sq-ft figure might include furniture, another's might not, and neither tells you what happens to a small, decision-heavy room. A flat fee per room is easier to compare because every room, however small, is charged the same.
What if my rooms are unusually large or unusually small?
The flat per-room fee holds either way — it's what makes it a fixed number you can plan around, rather than one that shifts as your measurements come in.
Let's talk about your home.
A free discovery call — no obligation, and a fixed design fee if you go ahead.