When Shirley and Ameet Soares showed their new place to their friends for the first time last year, everyone was in absolute awe. The couple from India had transformed their apartment into a stylish retreat, something their friends never thought they were capable of creating.
What sparked a lot of envy was the whimsical feel about the couple's 900-square-foot home in Bur Dubai. The new leather upholstery on the sofa; the fresh scheme of green and yellow on the living room walls; the mango yellow tones in the bedroom, complemented with red floral patterns on the sheets and pillows, and the eclectic decor definitely made a bold statement.
"We did this on our own, from conceptualising the overall theme to picking up the furnishings. The great thing about it is that we did not have to break the bank in the process," says Shirley, who is a human resources professional.
Shirley says their home is a product of days of hard work, researching and planning. The total decorating and furnishing costs set the couple back about Dh8,500, a decent amount considering the cost of home furnishings in Dubai.
"Before my husband and I moved to this place, we sat down and talked about how we want it to look like. We agreed that when we enter our home after a day's work, there should be some feeling of warmth. Our home is supposed to be a sanctuary that we can comfortably retire in at the end of the day," she says.
Everyone wants to make their home into a cosy refuge, a space where they can unwind after a stressful day at work, but the high cost of living in the UAE often leaves very little for sprucing up. Many households end up spending a huge portion of their budget on rent, utility bills, credit card payments and very little remains to beautify their apartment.
Furnishing a 1,200-square-foot space from scratch can easily rack up a tab of Dh30,000 to Dh150,000, or between 25 and 125 per cent of the rent for a two-bedroom apartment in a prime location. The overall costs can vary depending on the brand, quality and material of the furnishings and home decor; the lighting chosen, as well as the wall treatments, ceiling and bulkhead treatments. "The list can go on," says Ola Al Kaltakji, interior designer at Hyder Consulting Middle East Limited.
According to Euromonitor International's preliminary data, UAE consumers' expenditure on home furnishings has steadily risen each year for the past few years, reaching Dh3.8 billion in 2011, up 19 per cent from Dh3.2 billion in 2006. Home improvement spending also registered a 19 per cent growth, from Dh420 million in 2006 to Dh502 million last year, although figures contracted slightly between 2009 and 2010.
Growing interest
In Europe, consumers have shown a growing interest in interior design, thanks in part to the increasing range of interior decoration magazines and the popularity of television programmes featuring home makeovers and design talk shows.
"These developments have led to an increased interest in purchasing household accessories which follow the latest themes and complement the overall decor of the house and garden," a market report by the Centre for the Promotion of Imports (CBI) said.
Prior to designing their home in July last year, Shirley and Ameet had never decorated.
"My husband and I have been married for three years and we've never designed our houses back home and we'd never put in ideas, so our respective parents were wondering where these ideas were when we were small and how come they've come up all of a sudden," Shirley confides.
The couple took some aesthetic cues from photos showcasing cool interiors. They also downloaded free software that lets users choose a colour scheme, to ensure the furniture and walls complement each other. Taking random advice from other people, such as the shop attendant at Dragon Mart who advised them against using wallpaper proved useful as well.
The couple was able to save a lot of money on furnishing because they made use of their existing budget furniture, including the couch, kitchen cabinet, bed, wall unit and dining set, which originally cost them about Dh6,000.
"We built the design around the existing furniture and enhanced some of them," Shirley says.
The latest additions were merely small items such as a few decorative items from Dragon Mart and a bookshelf from Ikea, all of which cost about Dh1,500.
"Most of the furniture we had earlier were bought at affordable prices. We do want to live in a very decent place, but we don't want to end up spending more because it's not going to be our own house for good and if we have to move after a few years, we have to do it all over again," she says.
"But if you really search hard and keep your eyes peeled for good buys while keeping some design inspirations in mind, you can furnish your whole house without spending much."
