Interior designer at Inara
Twenty-two homes, three low blocks.
Twenty years on, it can still feel made for you.
Thoughtfully designed around the way you live, and what you’d like to spend.
Why does a 3,400 sq ft Inara home need a plan for every room?
Space, and age. A standard Inara home is about 3,400 sq ft on one floor, with two living halls and a wet and a dry kitchen, and it was finished in 2006. So the work here is giving every room a job, and renewing what twenty years have worn.
Sundays in Bed is a residential interior design studio in Kuala Lumpur. We haven’t yet designed a home at Inara; we take on homes like these room by room, for a fee agreed in writing before we begin.
Inara stands on 1.13 acres at 15 Jalan Medang Serai, on Bukit Bandaraya. It was built by Bandar Raya Developments, who also built Serai along the same road.
Inara’s 22 freehold homes come in two built-up sizes:
- About 3,400 sq ft16 homes on one level, each with four en-suite bedrooms, a helper’s room and two living halls
- About 5,300–6,000 sq ft6 two-storey penthouses, each with five bedrooms and a helper’s room
At this size, a standard Inara home has more floor than many terrace houses, all on one level. Finding room is rarely the problem. Deciding what each room is for usually is.
As a recent sale listing describes one, the standard plan was drawn for a household with a live-in helper and guests to entertain: two living halls, a dry kitchen and a wet one, a helper’s room and an open-air courtyard for drying clothes.
Many families still live that way. Others would rather have a den, a study, a proper laundry or a room for visiting grandparents.
Then there’s the age. Bathrooms, waterproofing, wiring and the original “basic smart home system” have all had twenty years of use. They are cheaper to put right before the joinery goes in than after.
Which rooms in a twenty-year-old Inara home need deciding first?
Which rooms you actually live in, and what lies behind the walls. In a 2006 Inara plan, these five come up first.
The second living hall. Standard homes are listed with two separate living halls. One can stay formal for guests; the other might become a family den, a TV room or a study. Give it a job first, and the furniture follows.
The two kitchens. Inara was handed over with a dry kitchen and a wet kitchen. Keep the split if a wok goes on most nights: spend on the dry kitchen everyone sees, and give the wet one ventilation and surfaces that take heat.
Behind the tiles. Twenty-year-old bathrooms, balconies and indoor planters are where leaks start. Before choosing a single tile, we open up and check the waterproofing, the plumbing, and the whole-home water filter and pump the developer installed.
The developer’s flourishes. StarProperty lists antique-style pillars, feature walls and indoor garden features among the handover features; where your home has them, some are worth keeping and lighting well, others date it. Each gets a decision: keep, adapt or take out.
What still works. Built-in wardrobes and imported light fittings were listed among the original handover features. Where the carcasses are sound, new doors, handles and interiors cost far less than replacing them, and leave more for the rooms that need it.
What does it cost to design and furnish a standard Inara home or a duplex penthouse?
For a standard 3,400 sq ft Inara home, our design fee is estimated at RM41,135–48,265; for a duplex penthouse of about 5,500 sq ft, RM48,265–55,395. Your final fee depends on the rooms you choose, and is agreed in writing before we begin.
With our fee and Curated finishes (Commune, Cellini, Poet Living), a standard four-bedroom home here comes to about RM363k–635k in all.
Spend where you live, not where guests sit. At Inara that usually means bathrooms, the dry kitchen and the hall you use every evening, rarely the formal one. Pick your home, then switch on only the rooms you want designed. All figures are estimates until quotes arrive.
4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and the dry and wet kitchens: 10 rooms at RM3,565, plus the open-plan living and dining at RM5,485. The foyer and utility yard are designed free.
Within each level, the low end is the essentials; the high end adds extras such as a feature wall, LED strips and a kitchen island.
What the two levels mean
Curated. Melamine and laminate, sintered stone, a plaster ceiling. Furniture from Commune, Cellini, Fella Design, Dezign District, Poet Living, Big Brain, Gudang, Crown Livin and Dadswood.
Bespoke. Bespoke laminate, detailed joinery, a ceiling with cornice. 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.
| Home | Curated | Bespoke |
|---|---|---|
| Standard 4+1 About 3,400 sq ft · one floor Estimated fee RM41,135–48,265 | RM322k–594k | RM592k–1.21M |
| Duplex penthouse About 5,300–6,000 sq ft · two floors Estimated fee RM48,265–55,395 | RM370k–715k | RM674k–1.44M |
The lower figure is a typical layout: the main hall, both kitchens, each bedroom and the bathrooms counted below. The higher one allows two more rooms you might want drawn, such as the second living hall or the powder room.
At Curated, furniture comes from Commune, Cellini and Poet Living; at Bespoke, from Space Furniture, BoConcept and Molteni&C.
Inara was completed in 2006, so we’ve priced it as a lived-in resale home. We’ve assumed not every bathroom needs designing: of the four en-suites and the powder room in a standard home, we count four, and five in a penthouse.
The helper’s bathroom is left out. Count only the ones you’d change. These are October 2026 guides, not a quotation.
The ranges include new kitchen cabinets, wardrobes, air-conditioners and appliances. Inara’s homes came with built-in wardrobes and an equipped dry and wet kitchen; where yours are sound and you keep them, expect to spend less.
Furnishing to let? Some Inara owners let their homes rather than live in them. A lighter, hard-wearing fit-out at our Essential level, quicker to finish and easy to keep tenant-ready, is one possibility, with furniture from Ikea, SSF Home and Harvey Norman. The design fee is the same at every level.
Renovation and furniture at Essential, before our fee: Standard 4+1 RM183k–308k · Duplex penthouse RM212k–371k.
Your design fee is counted in rooms: RM3,565 for each bedroom, bathroom or study we design, and RM5,485 for the open-plan living and dining. A 3,400 sq ft home pays no more per room than a small one, and a room left untouched costs nothing.
The total is set down in writing before any drawing starts, and paid in stages as the work moves on. It isn’t a share of what the contractors charge, so swapping the dry kitchen’s laminate for stone leaves it where it was.
Your budget comes first. Tell us the figure you’d like to stay within, for one tired bathroom or the whole home, and the design is drawn to it.
How does a renovation run in a building of only 22 homes?
At Inara you may be renovating a home you live in, one you have just bought or one you let, so the order of work matters. We design the rooms and run the project; licensed contractors build it, chosen by you from quotes we gather and compare line by line.
- The discovery call FreeStandard home or penthouse, who lives there now or will soon, what was changed since 2006, and the amount you’d like to spend.
- The site visit RM200, waived if you go ahead with usWe measure both halls and every bedroom, look for damp in the bathrooms and planters, test what’s left of the smart home wiring, and note what to keep.
- The scope, then the designThe rooms, the budget and our fee are agreed in writing. Then come layouts, lighting, joinery and materials, with the second hall and the helper’s room given a purpose.
- Drawings and quotesContractors price the same set of drawings. We set their quotes side by side, explain where they differ, and you choose who builds.
- On site, then moving inWaterproofing and wiring go in before the finishes. We check each stage against the drawings, then place the furniture and dress the rooms.
A twenty-year-old home hides surprises behind its tiles, and twenty-one neighbours will notice the noise. Sequencing the work, the trades and the approvals is our job, so living through it is easier for you. The full process
Approvals for an Inara renovation. Two are usually needed: a DBKL permit, applied for by your licensed contractor, and written approval from the building’s management before work starts.
Inara’s renovation rules aren’t published, so we ask management for the deposit, the permitted working hours and how materials may be brought up, and build them into the programme before any contractor quotes.
Will my Inara home still feel like 2006?
Not unless you want it to. The bones are generous: big rooms, two halls, a proper kitchen pair. What dates a home here is usually its surfaces and fittings, and those are the easiest part to change.
A couple whose children have left home and a family of five with a helper can live in the same Inara plan very differently. We start with your days: who cooks, who works from home, who comes to stay.
What an older Inara home usually needs
- KeepThe layout, the kitchen pairTwo halls, four en-suites and a dry and wet kitchen are worth working with, not against
- AdaptWardrobes, pillars, feature wallsReface sound built-ins; keep or retire the developer’s decorative details one by one
- RenewBathrooms, wiring, waterproofingTwenty years of use, and a 2006 smart home system that is likely out of date
- CheckWater filter, pump, plantersThe whole-home system and indoor gardens from the handover, before anything is closed up
Drawn from the developer’s handover features as published by StarProperty and current sale listings. Your own home may have been changed since, so we confirm everything on the visit.
What similar Bangsar homes have cost to renovate
Bangsar’s published renovation records don’t yet include an Inara home. The nearest is along the same road: a four-bedroom Serai home of 3,300 sq ft, recorded at RM650,000, or RM197 per sq ft, over 15 weeks on site.
Our nearest own work is a home we designed at Bangsar Hill Park, a short drive away.
Across Bangsar’s 11 published renovation records, the middle figure was RM114 per sq ft. At that rate, a 3,400 sq ft standard Inara home would come to about RM388,000 of works.
Both figures, and every other building, are in the published renovation records we keep for Bangsar.
Nearby, with their own pages: Bangsar · Serai Bukit Bandaraya · One Menerung · One Eleven Menerung
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Inara questions, answered
Our Inara home dates from 2006. What usually needs redoing first?
The parts you can’t see. Bathroom waterproofing, older plumbing and wiring, and the original smart home system usually come first. We check them on the site visit, so the budget goes to what is worn, not to what merely looks dated.
What can we do with the second living hall?
Give it the job your household is missing. Many families make it a den with the television, leaving the formal hall for guests; others prefer a study or a play room. If we design it, it adds RM3,565 to our fee.
Should we keep both the wet and the dry kitchen?
Usually, yes. If you cook with a wok, the wet kitchen keeps smoke and smell out of the house, and the dry kitchen can become a calm breakfast and coffee space. If you rarely cook, the wet kitchen could become a larger laundry or pantry.
What should we budget to renovate and furnish a standard Inara home?
For a standard home of about 3,400 sq ft, renovation and furniture run roughly RM322k–594k at Curated (Commune, Cellini, Poet Living) and RM592k–1.21M at Bespoke (Space Furniture, BoConcept, Molteni&C), before our fee. Keeping sound built-ins brings it down.
We own a duplex penthouse. What is different?
Two floors to plan, and a staircase between them. Some penthouses also have a rooftop terrace and an upper family area; where yours does, the terrace waterproofing and the stair are the larger works, and the upper family area works well as a second, more private living room. We confirm your layout on the visit.
Do we need approval to renovate at Inara?
Yes. Your licensed contractor applies for a DBKL permit, and the building’s management must approve the works in writing. Its deposit, working hours and rules for bringing materials in aren’t published, so we confirm them before contractors quote.
Ready to give an Inara home its next twenty years?
A standard four-bedroom home or a penthouse, lived in for years or freshly bought: tell us your home, what’s changed since 2006 and roughly what you’d like to spend. The first call costs nothing, and your design fee is in writing before you commit.
Free · your fee is agreed in writing before we start