Kuala Lumpur · Malaysia
Interior Design Company in Kuala Lumpur
We design shops, kiosks, bars, spas and homes across the Klang Valley, from Ceres at Starhill Gallery to a built kiosk in Sunway Pyramid, with 3D and drawings your contractor can build from.
4 stages
each closed with your written approval
Since 2016
designing in the Klang Valley
Starhill · Sunway
projects at Starhill Gallery and Sunway Pyramid
200+
projects completed
Table of Contents
What does an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur need to get right?
Kenania is an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur. Since 2016 we have designed retail, food and beverage, spa and residential interiors across the Klang Valley.
Many Kuala Lumpur brands trade inside malls, and a mall tenancy is designed twice: once for the brand and once for the landlord. Starhill Gallery, Sunway Pyramid and the other large centres publish fit-out guidelines for shopfronts, signage, materials and fire safety. A design that ignores them comes back with comments while the fit-out period is already running, so as an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur we design to those rules from the first sketch.
At Ceres, a jewellery boutique in Starhill Gallery, the faceted shopfront and the display joinery had to read from the mall floor. For Zaitoun, one food brand became six retail formats, and one of them was built as a kiosk in Sunway Pyramid.
The same team designs beyond the malls: a spa and wellness resort in Cyberjaya planned around arrival, water and quiet, the Royal Lounge bar in Kuala Lumpur, and a private villa in the city with neo-classical reception rooms and bespoke joinery. The rest of the studio works alongside the team in Kuala Lumpur, so 3D, drafting and detailing move in parallel.
We work in English and Arabic, which helps regional brands opening in Malaysia and Arab families setting up homes in Kuala Lumpur. Meetings happen at your site, in the mall or with our team in the city, and the same team handles projects in Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya and Johor Bahru.
As an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur, we prepare drawing sets your contractor or registered professional can submit to DBKL (Kuala Lumpur City Hall) without redrawing, and the fit-out itself is built by a CIDB-registered contractor.
Working with us in Kuala Lumpur
- Meetings at your site, in the mall or with our team in Kuala Lumpur
- Design to the mall’s fit-out guidelines from the first sketch
- 3D visuals and material boards reviewed every week
- Landlord submission drawings revised to their comments
- English and Arabic, on site or online
What we design in Kuala Lumpur
Retail, food and beverage, wellness and homes. As an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur with architecture and 3D in the same team, we take each project from concept to drawings.
Retail & jewellery boutiques
Shopfronts, display joinery and lighting planned around the product and the mall’s design criteria, as at Ceres in Starhill Gallery.
Mall kiosks
Families of kiosks that keep one brand recognisable across formats, sized to the lease line and the service access.
Bars, restaurants & cafés
The mood of the room, the joinery behind the bar and a seating plan that works for the brand and for the kitchen.
Spa & wellness
Arrival, changing, treatment and rest planned as a sequence, with water, light and quiet part of the design.
Homes & condominiums
Landed homes and condominium units, with space planning, lighting and joinery detailed for local workshops.
Offices & showrooms
Receptions, open-plan floors and meeting rooms for company offices in KLCC, Bangsar South and Mont Kiara.
Kuala Lumpur projects
Projects that show how we work as an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur: Starhill Gallery and Sunway Pyramid, a spa in Cyberjaya, and private homes.
Ceres jewellery boutique, Starhill Gallery
A faceted shopfront and display joinery that read from the mall floor. January 2017.
Zaitoun kiosk, Sunway Pyramid
One food brand, six retail formats, and a kiosk built in Sunway Pyramid in 2023.
Royal Lounge bar, Kuala Lumpur
A classic lounge bar with a striking back bar, a grand piano and warm layered lighting.
Spa and wellness resort, Cyberjaya
Garden pavilions, water and shade planned as one calm sequence. December 2016.
Private villa, Kuala Lumpur
Neo-classical reception rooms in teal marble and gold, with bespoke joinery. October 2017.
Mall kiosk family, Kuala Lumpur & Dubai
Four kiosks for food, perfume, gaming and chocolate brands, from concept to a built unit.
How a Kuala Lumpur project runs
Four stages. Each one closes with your written approval before the next begins.
01
Brief & site check
We review the tenancy or floor plan, the mall’s fit-out guidelines and the site, then confirm scope, fee and timeline in writing.
02
Concept & 3D
Layout options, material boards and photorealistic 3D of the main views, revised until you approve them.
03
Submission & drawings
The landlord submission set, then working drawings, a finishes schedule and a BOQ for your contractor.
04
Site support
Contractor briefing, shop-drawing review and site visits at agreed milestones through to handover.
How we quote in Malaysia
Many Malaysian quotes are given per square foot. As an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur, we quote a fixed fee for a written scope instead, within two working days of receiving the plan. Three things set it.
Area and project type
The floor area, and whether the project is a mall tenancy, a kiosk, a restaurant or a home, since each needs a different set of drawings.
Landlord requirements
Malls with detailed design criteria need a submission set and revision rounds, and the proposal lists them.
Stages and site support
Concept and 3D only, or the full package with working drawings and BOQ, plus the number of site visits through the fit-out, agreed in the contract.
Landlord submission fees, fit-out deposits and any professional endorsement a permit requires are paid by the tenant and listed separately.
What an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur delivers for a mall tenancy
The submission set the landlord approves and the drawings the contractor builds from.
Malls in Kuala Lumpur, from Sunway Pyramid to Starhill Gallery and Pavilion, work from a tenant design manual. It sets what may touch the mall floor, how signage is lit, where the shopfront line sits (the edge a shop may not cross into the mall corridor) and which materials pass the fire rules.
An interior design company in Kuala Lumpur therefore produces two sets: the submission set the landlord reviews, with plans, elevations, sections, materials and lighting to the manual, and the fabrication set the contractor builds from. We prepared both for the Zaitoun kiosk in Sunway Pyramid, which is now trading, and for the Ceres jewellery boutique in Starhill Gallery.
The two sets answer different questions. The submission set answers the mall: sizes, materials, fire and electrics. The fabrication set answers the workshop: how each piece is cut, assembled and fixed. Trying to send one set to both is one of the most common reasons a mall shop in Kuala Lumpur opens late.
- Concept and 3D visuals presented to the brand
- A landlord submission set to the mall’s tenant design manual
- Fabrication and joinery drawings for the fit-out contractor
- Signage, lighting and material specifications
- Support through the landlord’s comments and the mall’s fit-out inspection, when the landlord checks the finished shop against what was approved
Ceres and Zaitoun: what two mall projects asked of the design
Ceres is a jewellery boutique in Starhill Gallery, completed in January 2017. Jewellery sells on light and on trust, so the faceted shopfront had to catch the eye from the mall floor while the display joinery kept every piece lit, visible and secure.
Zaitoun asked a different question. One Mediterranean food brand needed six retail formats that still read as the same brand, and the kiosk built in Sunway Pyramid in 2023 had to work from four sides, inside the lease line and around the service access. An interior design company in Kuala Lumpur meets both kinds of brief in the same malls, which is why we design the submission set and the fabrication set together from the start.
Kiosks, boutiques, bars and spas: what changes and what stays
A kiosk has no walls and four fronts, so it is designed as an island seen from every side. A jewellery boutique is designed around light and security, a bar around the seating plan and the back bar, a spa around arrival, water and quiet. The programme changes from one type to the next, and the method stays the same: an approved plan, a 3D the brand can react to, and a drawing set that holds up with the landlord and the contractor.
The Royal Lounge bar in Kuala Lumpur and the Cyberjaya spa resort on this site were run the same way as the mall projects, with different manuals and authorities. That is how one interior design company in Kuala Lumpur can serve a food brand, a jeweller and a resort owner: the method is shared, and the knowledge of each type comes from projects already built.
Arab brands and families in Kuala Lumpur
We are an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur that works in English and Arabic, which is why regional brands opening in Malaysia and Arab families setting up homes in Kuala Lumpur come to us. Zaitoun, a Mediterranean food brand, opened its first Malaysian kiosk with us, and homes in Mont Kiara and Bangsar are designed by the same team that handles the Gulf villas on this site. Meetings happen at your site, in the mall or online, and approvals are given in writing at each stage.
A family from the Gulf or the Levant can explain what it wants in Arabic, and the brief reaches the Malaysian workshop in English, through drawings rather than through spoken translation.
A Gulf brand opening its first shop in Kuala Lumpur
A brand opening its first branch in Malaysia usually starts the design from its head office in Dubai or Riyadh, before its own team reaches Kuala Lumpur. The project runs the same way: the unit plan, the mall’s manual and the brand files arrive, the design is presented on a video call, and each stage is approved in writing. Our team in Kuala Lumpur then takes over the landlord submission, follows the contractor and attends the inspection before opening. That is how the Zaitoun kiosk in Sunway Pyramid opened.
Where possible, we advise a brand from the Gulf to start the design before signing the lease, because some conditions in the mall’s manual (the shopfront line, the height, the lighting) change whether the unit works at all, and knowing them early saves a month of rework.
Buying a home in Kuala Lumpur while still living in the Gulf
The same applies to a family buying an apartment in Mont Kiara or Bangsar while still living in Riyadh, Jeddah or Dubai. The layout starts from the developer’s plan, the design is presented in Arabic on a video call, and our team in Kuala Lumpur completes the measurements and follows the works through to handover. Approvals are given in writing at each stage, so the family arrives to a finished home rather than a list of decisions still waiting to be made.
What the contract should say before the first payment
Points worth seeing in writing before you sign with any interior design company in Kuala Lumpur.
- The scope: the unit or the home, the number of 3D views and the drawings delivered
- For a mall shop: the landlord submission set named in the scope
- For a mall shop: following the landlord’s comments until approval, as part of the service
- The order of stages, with an approved plan before any 3D
- The number of revision rounds at each stage
- Fabrication drawings in formats the mall’s approved fit-out contractors accept
- Signage, lighting and material specifications written to the mall’s manual
- The language of communication and approvals (Arabic or English), in writing
For the first meeting, bring the unit plan from the mall or the developer, the tenant design manual if you have it, the brand files (logo and colours), reference images of what you like, and the target opening date, because that date sets everything after it. With that, we can send a proposal with a defined scope instead of coming back with questions.
Questions Kuala Lumpur clients ask
Can we meet your team in Kuala Lumpur?
Yes. We meet at your site, in the mall or with our team in the city. We have worked as an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur since 2016, including Ceres at Starhill Gallery and Zaitoun in Sunway Pyramid.
Can you handle the mall’s design approval?
We prepare the tenancy design submission to the mall’s fit-out guidelines, revise it to the landlord’s comments until it is approved, and attend the landlord’s fit-out inspection before opening. Your contractor carries out the fit-out works and obtains their permits.
Do you design kiosks?
Yes. For Zaitoun we designed a family of six retail formats, and one was built as a kiosk in Sunway Pyramid. We also design perfume, gaming and chocolate kiosks.
Do you also carry out the fit-out?
We are a design studio. We brief your CIDB-registered contractor, review shop drawings and visit the site at agreed milestones through to handover.
Do you work with a particular fit-out contractor?
No. We issue fabrication drawings that any contractor approved by the mall can build from, and we help the brand compare quotes on the same basis.
Can you start the design before a Gulf brand’s team arrives in Malaysia?
Yes. The design starts remotely from the unit plan and the mall’s manual, and our team in Kuala Lumpur follows the site and the fit-out.
Do you work in Arabic?
Yes. The team works in English and Arabic, which helps regional brands opening in Malaysia and Arab families setting up homes in Kuala Lumpur.
Why choose Kenania as your interior design company in Kuala Lumpur?
Because an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur has to design for the landlord’s rules as well as for the brand. We have designed for Starhill Gallery and Sunway Pyramid, our team in Kuala Lumpur handles meetings and site checks, the wider studio adds 3D and drafting capacity, and the fee is fixed in writing before design starts.
Start your Kuala Lumpur project
Send the tenancy plan or floor plan with a short brief to an interior design company in Kuala Lumpur that replies within two working days with a written scope and a fixed fee.