Every week somebody calls the studio and asks what it costs to do up a 3BHK in Bengaluru. The honest answer is that it depends — but that answer helps nobody, so here is the actual arithmetic we use, with 2026 rates.
Start with carpet area, not built-up
Builders quote super built-up area, which includes your share of the lobby, the lift shaft and the clubhouse. None of that gets interiors. A 1,650 sq ft super built-up flat is usually around 1,150 to 1,250 sq ft of carpet area, and that is the number every interior quote should be priced against. If a quote is silent on which area it uses, that is your first question.
Where the money actually goes
For a typical mid-range 3BHK, the split is remarkably consistent across projects:
- Modular kitchen — 22 to 26%. Carcass grade and hardware brand drive this more than the shutter finish does.
- Wardrobes and storage — 20%. Four wardrobes, a crockery unit, a shoe rack and a puja unit adds up quickly.
- Civil, plumbing and electrical — 15%. Higher if you are moving a bathroom or breaking a wall.
- False ceiling and lighting — 12%. Cove lighting is cheap; good fittings are not.
- Painting and finishes — 10%.
- Loose furniture and furnishing — 12%. Usually the first thing clients defer, and usually the wrong thing to defer.
- Design fee and PM — 8 to 10%.
If someone quotes you a full-home interior at under ₹1,100 per sq ft in 2026, something on that BOQ is not what you think it is. Meera Krishnan, Design Director
The three rate bands
Essential work lands around ₹1,450 per sq ft — laminate finishes, standard hardware, basic ceiling. Signature is ₹2,300 and buys veneer, better lighting and proper detailing. Bespoke starts at ₹3,600 and goes wherever the material choices take it. All three exclude GST at 18%, which people routinely forget to budget for and then feel ambushed by.
What we would cut first
Imported hardware in guest bedrooms. Acrylic shutters in rooms nobody photographs. A television unit for a wall-mounted television. Ceiling design in bedrooms where you are lying down looking at it in the dark. That is usually eight to twelve percent of a budget, and none of it is missed.
What we would never cut
BWP-grade ply anywhere near water, hardware in the kitchen, and waterproofing. These are the three things that fail in year three, and fixing them means dismantling work that was fine.
Comments (2)
Thanks Priya. We now show GST as its own row at the top of every BOQ for exactly this reason.
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This matches our experience almost exactly — the GST line was the one that caught us out. Wish we had read this six months earlier.
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