Interior designer at Contessa
Contessa has had a few lives. The next one is yours.
Whether your Bangsar home came empty, furnished by a landlord or still holding the last household’s sofa, we’ll help it feel like home. Furniture, lighting, rugs and art chosen around how you live, with pieces that can travel to your next address. No renovation needed. Just rooms that feel settled.
A living and dining room we designed at DC Residency, in Damansara Heights: a walnut table, lit dark-timber shelving, brass pendants and sheers.
See the project- Where
Jalan Kapas, Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar
- Developer
BRDB
- Completed
1992
- Homes
Two low-rise blocks of seven storeys, freehold
- Grounds
A pool, tennis and squash courts and a gym
On this page
Making a Contessa home feel like home: floor plans and styling
At Contessa, styling begins with a look round rooms drawn in the early 1990s, then adds the furniture, lighting, rugs and art that make them yours.
No works are needed, and the floor plans below show the space you have.
Contessa is one of the low-density condominiums on Jalan Kapas, in the Bukit Bandaraya corner of Bangsar: two seven-storey blocks built by BRDB and finished in 1992. A two-bedroom here is about 1,550 sq ft and most three-bedrooms are about 1,570 to 2,000, so there is room to furnish properly rather than squeeze.
- 1,550 sq ftTwo bedrooms and two bathrooms
- 1,571 sq ftThree bedrooms, with two or three bathrooms
- 2,013 sq ftThree bedrooms and three bathrooms
- 3,143 sq ftPenthouse, three bedrooms and three bathrooms
Built-up sizes from MyRumahBaru’s list of layouts; StarProperty gives 1,571 sq ft as the typical home. Your own plan may differ, so we measure.
What a 1990s home asks of styling
A home lived in for more than thirty years has passed through several sets of hands. The kitchen may be the first one or a later refit, the wardrobes built in or long gone, the floors original or retiled. We don’t assume any of it. On the visit we note what is there and how it has worn.
Older rooms ask more of light. Lamps at two or three heights, a rug that softens a hard floor, and curtains hung higher and wider than the window make a room feel looked after without touching a wall.
In the larger three-bedrooms and the penthouse, the dining table is the piece we settle first. It decides where the lights go and which way the sitting area faces.
Styling a rented Contessa home in Bangsar
Rent at Contessa and the furniture, rugs, lamps, curtains and pictures are yours to change as you like.
Anything that means a drill, a hammer or a builder waits for the landlord’s signature, and then for management.
When the landlord’s furniture is already in
A Contessa let often comes dressed for the listing photographs: a sofa set, a glass dining table, a bed in every room. We go through it with you piece by piece. The good, solid things are kept and given better company; the rest is noted for the landlord, if your agreement lets pieces go back into storage.
More often than not, the change comes from moving things rather than buying them: the sofa turned towards the window, the dining table pulled clear of the wall, two lamps where there was one ceiling light.
Reading your tenancy before we plan
The two clauses that matter are furnishing and alterations. Anything freestanding is fair game. Screws in a wall usually need a yes from the landlord; carpentry, hacking, electrical or plumbing work needs that yes in writing, and management signs off after.
If the landlord would rather nothing went into the walls, a long picture ledge on a sideboard, a standing rail, tall floor lamps and curtains clipped to the existing rods get you most of the way.
Settling in by a date
If you have a move-in date, we plan backwards from it. Beds and the dining table are ordered first, because they take longest and you need them on night one; rugs, cushions and art follow in the last fortnight.
Choosing pieces for the next move
Not everyone stays in Bangsar for good. If you might move on, we favour a sofa in modules, a round table that suits most rooms and rugs in standard sizes, and we avoid anything made to fit one Contessa wall.
Between one tenant and the next
Landlords use styling too: between tenancies, a tired Contessa home can be refreshed with new loose furniture and finishing pieces, built-ins left as they are. If the home needs works as well, see Furnishing to let below.
Styling at Contessa, from first call to install day
At Contessa, a single stylist carries your home from that first conversation to the evening the last lamp goes on.
We plan each room, you decide what to buy, and we put it all together once it is here.
Once the last delivery lands, the styling itself takes one to two weeks. Allow four to twelve weeks before that if new furniture is being made or shipped, which is why the long-wait pieces go on order first.
Contessa’s two blocks are low-rise, so a sofa has a shorter journey than in a tower, but a 1990s door frame can still be narrow. We measure the way in on the visit and check with management when deliveries are allowed.
- Tell us about the household FreeWho is moving in, how you use the evenings, what the landlord left and when you need to be settled.
- We measure every room RM200, deducted if you go ahead with usDoors and corridors included, with the furniture already there sorted into keep, move or return.
- Our fee, then your room-by-room planThe styling fee is agreed in writing, then each room gets a placement guide and a shopping list, longest deliveries first.
- You buy, or we order for youChoose from the shortlist at your own pace, or let our Procurement Concierge place the orders and chase deliveries.
- The rooms come togetherWhen it is all here, your stylist arranges, hangs, lights and makes up the beds in person.
Inventories, delivery slots and a date you can’t move: we hold the list so you don’t have to, and you can ask where things stand at any time.
What styling costs at Contessa
At Contessa, the Sundays in Bed styling fee is an estimated RM6,065–9,495 for a two-bedroom and RM7,780–11,210 for a three-bedroom.
It is RM1,715 for each room we style and RM2,635 for the open-plan living and dining, agreed in writing before we begin.
Each room is costed on its own. The bedrooms and the living and dining make the lower figure; two more rooms make the upper one. In a Contessa home those two are often the main bathroom, dressed with towels, a mirror and a small picture, and the entrance, where a bench and a lamp set the tone for the rest. No room comes free, and a large room costs no more than a small one.
| Home | Lower figure covers | Lower figure | With two more rooms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 bedrooms 1,550 sq ft | Two bedrooms, living and dining | RM6,065 | RM9,495 |
| 3 bedrooms 1,571–3,143 sq ft | Three bedrooms, living and dining | RM7,780 | RM11,210 |
The sums: 2 × RM1,715 + RM2,635 = RM6,065, or RM9,495 with two more rooms. For a three-bedroom, 3 × RM1,715 + RM2,635 = RM7,780, or RM11,210 with two more rooms. The penthouse has three bedrooms, so it sits in the second row.
Estimates as at October 2026, before any quotation. The furniture itself is a separate purchase, from a shortlist pitched at what you want to spend.
What styling at Contessa includes
We talk first, in person or on a video call, with your photos and floor plan to hand. Then we visit, measure, and look properly at what you already own, which is reworked before anything new is suggested. You receive a placement guide and a shopping list for every room we style: where each piece sits, how the art hangs, and which lamps, textiles and objects finish it. When the deliveries are in, your stylist returns and styles the rooms in person.
The ordering can stay with you, or our Procurement Concierge can place the orders, keep the paperwork and line up the deliveries.
Want more than styling at Contessa?
Often a Contessa home only needs the right furniture and light.
Sometimes, though, the problem is built in: a kitchen planned around somebody else, a bathroom from 1992, wardrobes that were never deep enough.
Furniture can’t fix those. Interior design can, by redrawing what is built into the walls.
We’ll sort out with you what deserves keeping, what should change, and what is worth doing well: one room, or the whole flat over time.
Styling settles the home as it is. Interior design reshapes the parts that styling can’t reach.
Interior design at Contessa, for a home with some years behind it
Contessa was finished in 1992, so few of its homes are as they were handed over.
If the kitchen, the bathrooms or the storage no longer suit how you live, interior design works out what to change, and in what order.
There is no need to do it all in one go. A kitchen that suits how you cook, wardrobes sized for what you own, a bathroom that feels like this decade: we can take them one at a time, in the order that matters to you.
What a Contessa renovation usually covers
- KeepRoom sizesFamily-sized rooms from 1992 that rarely need enlarging
- AdaptWardrobesSound carcasses can take new doors, handles and lighting
- RenewKitchen, bathsThe rooms thirty-odd years of use shows most
- CheckWiring, pipesTested before a single drawing, given the building’s age
Renovation rules at Contessa
Contessa’s renovation rules aren’t published anywhere we could find, so we request the current copy from management before quoting: deposit, permitted hours and the forms. We haven’t yet designed a home at Contessa, so on our first call we’ll show you homes we have designed elsewhere in Kuala Lumpur, Bangsar among them.
Before any works at Contessa
Works at Contessa need up to three yeses, one after another: your landlord’s in writing if you rent, management’s under its renovation rules, and a council permit for the kinds of work that require one, applied for by your contractor.
Plumbing that moves, a wall that comes down or anything structural usually needs all three, so we bring it up on day one. Styling, which touches no wall, needs none.
What interior design costs at Contessa
Interior design at Contessa carries an estimated Sundays in Bed fee of RM19,745–26,875 for a three-bedroom and RM16,180–23,310 for a two-bedroom, agreed in writing before work starts.
That fee covers our design service only; renovation and furniture are budgeted separately.
- Each room we design
- RM3,565
- Living and dining
- RM5,485
Our fee is for the design service. Renovation and furniture are separate budgets, shown below.
For Contessa we have priced a typical brief: every bedroom and the kitchen at RM3,565 each, and the open-plan living and dining at RM5,485. A three-bedroom therefore comes to 4 × RM3,565 + RM5,485 = RM19,745, and a two-bedroom to 3 × RM3,565 + RM5,485 = RM16,180. Add two more rooms, such as both bathrooms, and the upper figures are RM26,875 and RM23,310.
Interior design comes with our Procurement Concierge included, and a room that needs only styling is styled at half the styling fee.
3 bedrooms and the kitchen: 4 rooms at RM3,565, plus the open-plan living and dining at RM5,485. The foyer and any yard or service area are designed free.
Within each level, the lower figure covers the essentials; the upper figure adds extras such as a feature wall, LED strips and a kitchen island.
What the two levels mean
Curated. Melamine or laminate carpentry, quartz or sintered stone tops, the existing ceiling kept or a new plaster ceiling. Furniture from Commune, Cellini, Fella Design, Dezign District, Poet Living, Big Brain, Gudang, Crown Livin and Dadswood.
Bespoke. Detailed joinery, sintered stone tops, a plaster ceiling with detailing. Furniture from Space Furniture, Tekni, BoConcept, King Living, Ambient Living, Stanzo, Forest Furniture, Roche Bobois, XTRA, Urban Edge, Molteni&C, Nostaloft, Flexform, Janine and Chesters Collection.
How the fee works
The kitchen is counted as its own room, which suits a kitchen behind a door. Some kitchens of this age have since been opened up; if yours has, take RM3,565 off, and we’ll confirm it on the visit. Our fee is set in writing and paid in stages, so a dearer stone for the counter changes the contractor’s figure, not ours.
For a 1,571 sq ft three-bedroom, our fee plus renovation and furniture at Curated (Commune, Cellini, Poet Living) adds up to roughly RM214k–356k.
| Home | Our fee | Curated | Bespoke |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 bedrooms 1,571–3,143 sq ft | RM19,745–26,875 | RM194k–336k | RM383k–752k |
| 2 bedrooms 1,550 sq ft | RM16,180–23,310 | RM169k–293k | RM337k–664k |
Curated: furniture from Commune, Cellini and Poet Living. Bespoke: furniture from Space Furniture, BoConcept and Molteni&C. Both are renovation and furniture before our fee.
October 2026 estimates, not a quotation.
How these figures are worked out
The renovation figures assume an older home that gets new floors throughout. The lower figure redesigns no bathroom; the calculator lets you add the ones you’d change.
Wardrobes, kitchen cabinets, bedroom air-conditioners, a washer-dryer, hob and hood all sit inside each range, so anything already in your Contessa home that you’d keep comes off. Vanities are outside these figures.
Furnishing to let?
Getting a Contessa home ready for a new tenant? Where only the furniture needs attention, styling is often enough. Where there are works too, our Essential level, with furniture from Ikea, SSF Home or Harvey Norman, is quicker to install and stands up to a change of tenants. The design fee is the same at every level.
Renovation and furniture at Essential, before our fee
- 3 bedrooms
- RM108k–167k
- 2 bedrooms
- RM94k–145k
Begin with a conversation
Tell us what you’d keep and what you’d change, room by room. We’ll take the first call from there.
Or begin with a figure
Answer a few questions about your space, and you’ll have an estimate to consider in your own time.
FAQ
Styling and interior design questions at Contessa, Bangsar
How do you style a Contessa home that came furnished?
Start with the landlord’s inventory. At Contessa we go through each loose piece and mark it keep, move or return, rearrange what stays, and only then shortlist what is missing. The built-in wardrobes and kitchen stay, and their colours guide the rest.
Can I style a rented Contessa home without the landlord’s permission?
Yes, for anything that stands or hangs on what is already there: furniture, rugs, lamps, curtains on the existing rods, and pictures propped on a ledge. At Contessa, as in most tenancies, a nail, a bracket or a built-in needs the landlord’s written agreement, and any works then go to management for approval.
How much does interior styling cost at Contessa?
Estimated at RM6,065–9,495 for a two-bedroom Contessa home and RM7,780–11,210 for a three-bedroom. Each bedroom is RM1,715 and the open-plan living and dining RM2,635; the upper figure adds two more rooms, such as a bathroom and the entrance. Furniture is a separate purchase.
What does interior styling include at Contessa?
Four things: a first conversation, a measuring visit, a placement guide with a shopping list for every room you choose, and an install day when your stylist puts it all in place. At Contessa you can start with one bedroom and add rooms later, and our Procurement Concierge can take the ordering off your hands.
How long does it take to style a Contessa home?
Allow one to two weeks for the styling itself once everything is in. New furniture adds four to twelve weeks of deliveries, so at Contessa the sofa and the dining table are ordered first and the cushions last. The first call can happen before you have the keys.
What are the floor plans at Contessa?
From MyRumahBaru’s list: a 1,550 sq ft two-bedroom, three-bedrooms of 1,571 and 2,013 sq ft with two or three bathrooms, and a 3,143 sq ft three-bedroom penthouse.
When was Contessa in Bangsar built?
In 1992. BRDB built Contessa as two seven-storey blocks on Jalan Kapas in Bukit Bandaraya, on freehold land, with a pool, tennis and squash courts and a gym in the grounds.
Do I need interior design or styling for my Contessa home?
If the rooms work and simply don’t feel like yours yet, styling: furniture, light, rugs and art, no builders. If the kitchen, a bathroom or the wardrobes need changing, interior design. Plenty of Contessa households do the first now and the second later.
How much does interior design cost at Contessa?
An estimated RM19,745–26,875 for a three-bedroom and RM16,180–23,310 for a two-bedroom at Contessa, agreed in writing. The lower figure covers the bedrooms, kitchen, and living and dining; the upper adds two rooms. Renovation and furniture come on top, roughly RM194k–336k at Curated (Commune, Cellini, Poet Living) for 1,571 sq ft.
Does Contessa have renovation rules?
Yes. Contessa’s management sets the rules for any renovation, and we couldn’t find them published, so before quoting we ask for the current copy, including the deposit, working hours and forms. Tenants need the landlord’s written consent before any of that.
What interior design services do you offer at Contessa?
At Contessa we style rented and owned homes room by room, and design kitchens, bathrooms and storage for older homes that need more. We draw the plans, compare contractors’ quotes with you and manage the works on site, and contractors do the building. Interior styling and our Procurement Concierge are available without a full design, and Virtual Design looks after homes outside Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
Interior design Interior styling Condo interior design Virtual Design
Shall we start styling your Contessa home?
A handful of phone photos and your settling-in date is all we need to begin. The first conversation costs nothing, and nothing is agreed until the fee is in writing.
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