Almost 90% of the turnkey design-and-build firm's new enquiries now ask for a single contract covering design and construction — while founder Blaine Robert argues the truest measure of luxury has nothing to do with the price tag.

KUALA LUMPUR, 22 July 2026 — Malaysia's luxury homeowners have changed how they commission their homes, but not what they are really buying. That is the assessment of Blaine Robert Design (BRD), the Kuala Lumpur-headquartered luxury interior design and turnkey design-and-build firm, drawing on its project enquiries and completed work across Malaysia, and more recently the United Arab Emirates and India, where it operates studios in Dubai and Indore.

The clearest shift is in how projects are commissioned. Almost 90% of BRD's new enquiries now ask for design and construction under a single contract, up from roughly 70% a few years ago, the firm reports. Where owners once appointed an interior designer and a building contractor separately and arbitrated between them, the overwhelming majority now ask one firm to carry the project from concept drawing to handover — a reaction, BRD says, to the cost overruns and coordination failures that split contracts invite.

“No matter their budget, every client works hard for their money and wants the best from the firm they appoint — and what they are really asking for is one team answerable from the first drawing to the final handover,” said Blaine Robert, Founder of Blaine Robert Design.

For landed bungalows, interior fit-out starts from around RM200 per square foot and can reach as much as RM1,000 per square foot at the highest specifications, according to the firm — a five-fold spread that reflects how far the materials, joinery and systems brief now stretches.

Who is commissioning these homes has sharpened too. BRD characterises today's luxury client as someone who has traveled extensively and arrives with a definite vision for their lifestyle — the way they want the home to look, the way they want it to feel, and the way they want people to feel about them. These owners no longer take their cues from show units or catalogues; they have seen the world's best hotels, residences and restaurants firsthand, and they brief accordingly.

One demand has become near-universal: smart-home systems. Once a matter of switching lights on and off, home automation now touches almost every aspect of a residence — and has to be taken into project costing from the very beginning, the firm notes, rather than retrofitted later. It is one more force pushing design and construction into a single brief: systems threaded through wiring, structure and joinery cannot be bolted on at the end. Not that the firm's founder has surrendered all judgement to the trend. “Do kids really need motorized curtains in their bedrooms?” Blaine Robert asks — before conceding that automation is now a standard feature of the modern brief.

The materials brief has shifted with it. Clients are increasingly willing to explore advanced man-made surfaces such as sintered stone and quartz, moving away from the marbles and granites that long defined the segment, the firm observes. Energy efficiency has moved from afterthought to expectation: solar is being used far more heavily, not only for hot water but for energy generation — to the point, BRD notes, that developers themselves are beginning to incorporate standard solar models within their sale and purchase agreements. Provision for electric-vehicle charging, the firm adds, is now vital rather than optional.

More striking is the rise of the panic room: the firm reports a marked increase in their incorporation — if not raised in the client's initial brief, then readily adopted once the firm brings it up. At the other end of the spectrum, owners are specifying whole-home sound systems tuned for comfortable, soothing listening — and, increasingly, integrated home fragrance systems. The modern luxury home, in other words, is being briefed as a complete sensory environment — which is precisely where the firm's founder locates the real meaning of the word.

That sharpening has come with a rejection of the industry's oldest shorthand. The most common definition of luxury the founder says he has heard in his years in the business — “if it is expensive, it must be luxury” — is, in his words, the one furthest from the truth.

“The true meaning of luxury is timeless, sophisticated and tasteful. But when a client finishes work, gets home, walks in the door and has this overwhelming feeling of comfort and peace — that is the luxury that really matters,” said Robert.

The two shifts meet in the firm's delivery model. Under a turnkey design-and-build arrangement, a single firm is contractually responsible for design, construction, project management and handover. For the owner, this closes the gap between what was drawn and what was built: one team carries the design intent — and the feeling the client is paying for — through costing, contractors and site delivery. BRD operates the model across its three disciplines — Residential, Commercial and Construction — from its studios in Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Indore.

About Blaine Robert Design

Blaine Robert Design (BR Design Sdn Bhd) is a luxury interior design and turnkey design-and-build firm headquartered at The Row, Jalan Doraisamy, Kuala Lumpur, with offices in Dubai and Indore. The firm works across residential, commercial and construction projects for private and corporate clients. Its work has been recognised with the Luxury Lifestyle Awards 2021 for Best Luxury Residential Interior Design (Landed), Malaysia, the ATAP Design Awards 2021 for Best Luxury Design (Landed), and the Qanvast Design Awards in 2021 and 2023.