“We work in English” tells you the language, not the mechanics. Roles, quotes, VAT, deposits, building rules and honest lead times — how the work actually runs.
If you've typed "English speaking interior designer Bangkok" into a search bar lately, you were after a promise about language. Fair enough — it's the first hurdle. But "we work in English" tells you the language, not how the work runs: who does what, what a quote should show, when money changes hands, who approves it, and how long imported goods take. Here's the mechanical version — the companion to our guide on making a bare condo feel like home.
Designer, decorator, contractor, supplier — and the building
Five roles, and Bangkok blurs them. Knowing which you need saves weeks.
- An interior designer takes the whole room: layout, lighting, joinery, furniture.
- A decorator works the surfaces — walls, windows, soft furnishings.
- A contractor, ผู้รับเหมา, builds: demolition, plasterboard, wiring, tiling.
- A supplier sells the goods, and may or may not fit them.
- The building — its juristic person, นิติบุคคล — decides whether any of it happens, and when.
Most condo jobs are decorating jobs wearing a designer's job title. If you want a wall that finally has something on it and curtains that fit, you want a supplier who fits what they sell.
How to read a quote before you sign it
A Thai quotation — ใบเสนอราคา — is an offer, not in itself a binding contract. A good one shows a valid-until date, every line itemised as unit price times quantity, and VAT separately. The commonest defect is ambiguity over whether VAT is already in the number, so ask in writing. Then watch for merged lines: if product, delivery and fitting arrive as one "supply and install" figure, you can't see what you're paying for.
Published rates help more than people expect: a rate you could read before you asked is a rate that doesn't move with who's asking. Ours are on the site — installation is ฿1,800 for the first 30 m², then ฿250 per further 5 m²; removing old wallpaper ฿60/m²; a double-height wall adds ฿1,800; repairs quoted from site conditions. The arithmetic is in our 2026 installation cost guide.
VAT, and the line you might not owe
VAT here is 7%, and a full tax invoice must show it separately from the goods — which is what makes an itemised quote checkable. If a quote carries a withholding-tax line, ask what it's for: the rules aren't the same for company and private clients, and that's one for your accountant rather than a wallpaper studio.
Deposits: there are three, and they're not the same thing
Most of the anxiety here comes from three unrelated payments sharing one word.
The contractor's deposit goes to whoever does the work, before they do it. Staged payments against delivered work are reasonable; a large sum before anything arrives is another matter. The schedule belongs in writing.
The building's fit-out deposit sits with the management office and is released after the job passes inspection. Published figures run from about ฿10,000 to ฿250,000 depending on building and unit size, and there's no statutory minimum — so treat whatever you're quoted as that building's number, not the market's. Ask for the written regulations first.
Our fee is neither. A design consultation is always complimentary. Visualisation work carries a small fee, creditable against your order. An on-site inspection and measuring visit carries a ฿1,000 fee, credited back in full when you go ahead — and if you don't, it covers the visit.
That visit is also why nobody can price curtains from a photograph: the same trip measures, reads the walls, and picks up the building's rules on the spot.
The building, not the law, is your real gatekeeper
There is a law, and it's narrower than people expect. Section 48(3) of the Condominium Act asks for a resolution of at least half of all co-owners' votes before a unit is decorated or altered in a way that affects common property or the building's external appearance. Not "is it structural" — whether it reaches past your own four walls. Wallpaper and curtains rarely do.
What the Act doesn't set is a deposit, a working day or a document list. Each building writes those, which is why no two answers match. Here's the trap: cosmetic work needs no municipal building permit, and it's a short step to assuming no paperwork at all. The juristic person's form is separate, and isn't waived for light work.
Nearly every building wants these: a form before work starts, a deposit released after inspection, hours excluding Sundays and public holidays, contractors leaving ID at the gate, the owner liable for damage to common areas. Every number varies — the deposit, seven days' notice or fifteen, even whether Saturday counts.
A public example: the Millennium Residence Bangkok residents' handbook (Rev 06, 2019) runs to 43 numbered fit-out rules — drawings 15 days ahead signed by a qualified engineer, a ฿5m liability policy, the goods lift only, work 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday. That's a top-of-market Sukhumvit building — a shape, not a standard. Its Thai and English versions even disagree on the fit-out service charge: the Thai says monthly, the English weekly. One building, one document, two answers.
So booking the fitter is not the same as booking the building. An installer arrives on the agreed morning and is turned away, because the form never went in.
One rule surprises everyone: at least one Bangkok condominium requires anything visible from outside — your curtains' outward-facing side included — to be a light shade, with a fine attached. Thai owners ask about this too, so check your building's rules before choosing a lining, not after.
Imported goods land in months, not days
There's no EU–Thailand free trade agreement in force — negotiations relaunched in 2023 and are still running — so European wallpaper and fabric pay standard duty on the way in, and import VAT is charged on the duty as well as the goods.
Not a reason to avoid imported goods; a reason to ask two questions in writing before ordering. What is the lead time, and is this stock in a European warehouse or being made for me? A roll on a shelf in Germany and a fabric woven to order don't arrive in the same month — worth asking on a Versace order as much as a premium range one.
What "we work in English" ought to mean
Language isn't one thing. It's a chain, and it breaks at whichever link nobody thought about.
- The quote is written in English, not translated over the phone.
- The person measuring speaks English, so you can change your mind at the window.
- The fitter can answer a question on the day without a three-way call.
- Somebody handles the building in Thai for you — the forms, the juristic person, the lift booking.
That last one is the real test: you shouldn't be the translator for your own job. Every conversation, quote, site visit and installation we do runs in fluent English — and in Thai, end to end. Our own fitters cover Bangkok and nearby provinces; further afield we send a self-install kit with video and remote support. To hand the whole thing over, there's our white glove service.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need a designer, or just someone to do the walls?
Changing layout, lighting or joinery: a designer. Changing surfaces — wallpaper, curtains, blinds: a supplier who fits their own work, and fewer people in the room.
Can I do any of this while renting?
More than you'd think — though the permission is statutory, not just good manners. Section 558 of the Civil and Commercial Code says a tenant may not alter or add to rented property without the lessor's prior permission, and must restore it on demand. In practice the line is permanence: non-woven wallpaper strips off dry in whole lengths and leaves nothing behind; a drilled curtain track doesn't. Get permission in writing, and settle who lodges the fit-out deposit before anyone books a lift.
Come and talk it through
Bring the floor plan, the photographs on your phone, or nothing at all. A consultation is always complimentary, in English or Thai, and you'll leave knowing which of those five roles you need — even if it isn't us. Tell us about your space, call the Thai line on 093-839-5666, or WhatsApp +66 81 172 7663. The showroom is on Lat Phrao 80, Wang Thonglang.
