Mashrabiya screens
Full-height pierced timber screens to windows, room dividers and the face of a storage run. The pattern repeat is set against the opening dimensions first, so the screen never ends on a broken motif.
Arabian Interior Design in Dubai
- Hospitality as the plan
- Geometry that resolves
- Light through a screen
A hospitality plan carrying a geometric language — perimeter seating, a coffered ceiling, and pattern that resolves because it was set out before anything was cut.
- Palette
- Sand, saffron, rust, deep teal
- Materials
- Carved timber, brass, silk, stone
- Line & form
- Arched, geometric, perimeter-led
- Light
- Warm, low, filtered through pattern
- Best for
- Villas with a majlis and guest reception
- Build difficulty
- High — pattern must resolve
the defining idea
A plan for hosting, wearing a geometric language
Arabian interiors get photographed for their surfaces — the pierced screens, the coffered ceilings, the lanterns throwing pattern across a wall. But the thing that actually makes a majlis work is underneath all of that, and it is a plan. Continuous perimeter seating so nobody sits with their back to an arriving guest. A clear centre. A serving route from the kitchen that does not cross the room. Often a separate guest entrance and a guest WC reachable without passing the family living space.
Resolve those and a plainly finished majlis will be the most-used room in the villa. Skip them and a beautifully carved one quietly becomes a room the family walks past. We have been called in to fix both, and the second is far more expensive.
The decorative language then has one rule that governs everything: the geometry has to close. Islamic pattern is built on repeats that resolve, and when a screen is trimmed to fit an opening or a ceiling grid is started from one wall, the eye registers it immediately — even in people who could not tell you what they are looking at. Every pattern on the project is set out to its actual dimension before fabrication starts.
A majlis is a hospitality plan before it is a decorative scheme. Get the seating and the serving route right and the room works even before it is beautiful.
Halo design and build team
The palette, as finishes rather than colours
Six tones, and every one of them shifts under warm lantern light at night. Select a swatch for where it lands and why it has to be approved on site rather than on screen.
Desert Sand
The ground tone, usually in a lime-based or Venetian plaster rather than emulsion so it holds a slight depth under lantern light. Everything else in the room is calibrated against it.
What an Arabian interior is actually made from
Ten elements and the Halo trade that fabricates or installs each one. Most of these are photographs of majlis work we have delivered rather than reference imagery.
Carved and fluted wall panelling
Behind the banquette and along the entry wall. CNC-cut then hand-finished, because a purely machined edge reads flat under raking lantern light and a hand-eased arris does not.
Coffered timber ceiling
The single biggest gesture in a majlis. Coffers are set out from the room centre so the grid resolves symmetrically into all four walls, with the cove for the concealed lighting built into the perimeter beam.
Pierced brass lanterns
Hung in a considered rhythm rather than a row, at a height that keeps them clear of standing sightlines. The pattern they throw on the ceiling and walls is the point — which means they need a bare warm lamp, not a diffused one.
Majlis banquette seating
Continuous perimeter seating built as joinery rather than bought as furniture, with storage in the base and the seat height set at 400–420mm so guests can sit for hours.
Hand-knotted rugs
Sized to run under the full seating footprint rather than floating in the middle of the floor. In a majlis the rug is the floor of the room — a small rug in a large majlis makes the whole arrangement look temporary.
Venetian and lime plaster
The sand-toned ground on walls above the panelling and inside arched niches. A mineral finish holds warm lamp light with a depth that flat emulsion simply cannot produce.
Geometric stone and tile inlay
Floor borders, entry thresholds and the base course under a banquette. The border is set out to the room so the pattern turns each corner correctly rather than being cut through mid-motif.
Concealed cove lighting
Warm 2700K tape in the perimeter beam, washing the coffered ceiling from below. This is what lets the lanterns be decorative — without it the majlis is either too dim to use or lit like a lobby.
Bronze and brass detailing
Screen frames, tray table tops, door pulls and the trim to a carved panel. One patina across the whole room — mixed brass tones are unusually visible against a symmetrical, pattern-led background.
the detail that decides it
A repeat that closes at both edges
Geometric pattern is built on a repeat that resolves. Set the repeat against the actual opening before cutting and the motif completes cleanly at both edges, the screen reads as architecture, and the whole wall settles. Order a standard panel and trim it to fit and one side ends mid-motif — which the eye catches instantly, even in someone who has never thought about Islamic geometry in their life. The set-out drawing costs nothing. The screen that has to be remade costs a great deal.
Repeat calculated to the opening · motif complete at both edges · CNC cut then hand-eased arris · solid timber frame
Anatomy of a majlis
The room a magazine would caption in four words, annotated with the set-out and specification behind it. Select a point on the image, or read the list.
Coffered ceiling set out from the centre
The coffer grid is drawn from the room centre outwards so it resolves symmetrically into all four walls. A ceiling grid started from one end leaves a part-coffer at the far wall, and in a symmetrical room that is the first thing anyone sees.
Pierced lanterns, hung to a rhythm
Placed to a considered rhythm rather than a straight row, and high enough to clear standing sightlines across the room. They carry a bare warm lamp rather than a diffused one, because the pattern thrown onto the ceiling is the reason they are there.
Mashrabiya, repeat set to the opening
The pattern repeat is calculated against the actual opening dimension before the screen is cut, so the motif completes at both edges. A screen ordered to a standard panel size and then trimmed to fit ends on a broken motif at one side — the clearest sign the geometry was never set out.
Cove washing the ceiling from behind
Warm tape hidden in the perimeter beam above the screen line. It is what makes the room usable, so the lanterns can be decorative rather than functional. Built at first fix, into the beam — it cannot be added once the ceiling is closed.
Continuous perimeter banquette
Built as joinery rather than bought as furniture, running the perimeter with storage under the seat. Seat height 400–420mm and a deep, firm cushion, because the majlis takes more hours of continuous use than any other seat in the house.
Rug sized to the whole seating footprint
It runs under the full run of seating and past the tray tables rather than floating in the centre. In a majlis the rug is the floor of the room; one that stops short of the banquette makes a permanent arrangement look temporary.
Arabian, room by room
The whole point of this style is that the intensity varies — full strength in the majlis, stepped right down everywhere else. Here is what changes.
The room the rest of the house serves
Continuous perimeter seating, a clear centre, and circulation that lets a host serve every guest without crossing the room. Coffered ceiling with a cove above the panel line, lanterns hung to a rhythm, and enough tray tables that nobody is reaching. It is a hospitality plan before it is a decorative scheme.
The transition between formal and family
Where a villa has both a majlis and a family living room, the reception is the hinge. It carries the same palette and metal at a lower intensity — plaster rather than carved panel, one screen rather than a wall of them — so moving between the two rooms reads as a sequence rather than as two different houses.
Sized for the guest count, not the room
Arabian dining is planned around the largest gathering the house realistically hosts, which is usually considerably larger than the everyday table. Extending or paired tables, a rug that takes the full pulled-out chair footprint, and a serving run designed in — not a sideboard bought later.
Quieter, and one gesture only
The bedrooms step the intensity right down: plaster walls, one carved or fluted element behind the bed, and warm sconce lighting. The full geometric treatment in a bedroom is exhausting to wake up in, and the contrast with the majlis is what makes the majlis feel like an occasion.
Stone, pattern underfoot, one pierced light
The pattern moves from the walls to the floor — a geometric border or inlay — with the walls given over to a single dramatic stone. One pierced brass pendant rather than a downlight grid. Guest powder rooms are where Arabian detailing pays off best, because the intensity is welcome in a room nobody spends an hour in.
The version that actually gets used from November
A shaded outdoor majlis with built-in seating, drapery for privacy and wind, and a fire feature as the centre. The specification changes completely — thermally modified timber or composite instead of carved oak, solution-dyed acrylic instead of velvet, powder-coated rather than lacquered metal — while the plan stays exactly the same.
Getting Arabian right, and how it usually goes wrong
Drawn from what we correct on site rather than from a mood board. The second column is the more useful one.
What makes it work
- Resolve the hospitality plan — seating, serving route, guest entrance — before any decoration.
- Set out every pattern to its actual opening so no motif is cut through.
- Build the coffered ceiling grid from the room centre outwards.
- Approve every material at night, under the actual lanterns, before ordering.
- Use one metal patina throughout, and choose antique over polished.
- Size the rug to the full seating footprint, not to the middle of the floor.
Where it fails in Dubai
- A screen bought to a standard panel size and trimmed to fit, ending on half a motif.
- Polished brass, which goes brassy in Dubai daylight and shows every fingerprint on surfaces guests touch.
- Lanterns as the only light source, leaving a majlis that is either too dim to use or floodlit by downlights added later.
- The full geometric treatment carried into every bedroom, which is exhausting rather than generous.
- Delicate upholstery on a banquette that will take more hours of use than any other seat in the house.
- Deep carved detail at hand height, which becomes a dust trap nobody can reasonably clean.
Arabian in Dubai conditions
This is the one style on the site that was formed in exactly this climate, which makes the four things below practical rather than corrective.
The majlis is a plan, not a look
A majlis has real functional requirements — perimeter seating so nobody sits with their back to an arriving guest, a clear centre, a serving route from the kitchen that does not cross the room, and often a separate entrance. Designing the decoration before resolving those is why some very expensive majlis rooms are quietly never used.
Carved surfaces and shamal dust
Pierced and carved timber holds fine dust in a way a flat panel does not, and shamal season makes that a fortnightly reality. We specify a closed-grain finish rather than an open oiled one, keep the deepest carving above the reach line, and detail screens so they can actually be taken down and cleaned.
Warm lamps, and what they do to colour
Lanterns at 2400–2700K push everything in the room warmer at night than it looked on a sample board — teal reads greener, sand reads amber, and a cool grey reads dead. Every material in a majlis should be approved on site under the actual lamps, at night, before it is ordered.
Geometry has to resolve, or it reads as wallpaper
Islamic geometric pattern is built on repeats that close. When a screen or a floor border is cut through mid-motif to fit an opening, the eye registers it immediately even when the viewer could not name what is wrong. Every pattern on the project is set out to its actual opening before fabrication.
Arabian, neoclassical or ultra luxury
These are the three formal styles Dubai villas most often choose between. The seating plan row is the one that changes how the house is actually used.
| Attribute | ArabianThis page | Neoclassical | Ultra luxury |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel | Warm, enveloping, hospitality-led | Formal, symmetrical, quietly grand | Deliberately impressive, material-led |
| Ornament | Geometric — mashrabiya, carved panel, pierced metal | Architectural — cornice, panels, mouldings | Stone and metal rather than pattern |
| Seating plan | Continuous perimeter, clear centre | Closed conversation groups, away from walls | Sculptural, zoned, view-facing |
| Where the money goes | Carved joinery, ceiling and metalwork | Gypsum, panelling and set-out | Stone, metalwork and specialist finishes |
| Upkeep | Moderate; carved surfaces hold dust | Moderate; caulk lines and gilding | High and specialist |
| Best suited to | Villas with a majlis and formal guest reception | Villas with formal reception and dining rooms | Penthouses and signature entertaining homes |
What an Arabian interior costs in Dubai
Indicative ranges to help you plan, not a quotation. The first band is a majlis as a standalone project within an existing villa, which is how most of this work is commissioned.
Majlis only, within an existing villaFrom AED 120,000 to AED 300,000 +
Two-bedroom apartmentFrom AED 200,000 to AED 260,000
Three-bedroom and largerFrom AED 250,000 to AED 330,000 +
Villas and townhousesFrom AED 280,000 to AED 1.5 million +
Majlis as a standalone project
- Normally included
- Coffered ceiling and cove, carved or fluted wall panelling, mashrabiya screens, perimeter banquette joinery, lighting circuits and the decorative plaster ground.
- Normally excluded
- Loose lanterns, rugs and tray tables, which most clients source themselves.
- What moves the cost
- Room size and how much of the wall area is carved rather than plastered. Carving is priced by area and is the single largest swing in this band.
Mashrabiya and carved joinery
- Normally included
- Pattern set-out drawings, CNC cutting and hand finishing, frames, and installation of screens to windows, dividers and joinery faces.
- Normally excluded
- The joinery carcassing behind a screened storage run.
- What moves the cost
- Pattern density and depth. A deep, multi-layer pierced screen is several times the rate of a single-layer laser-cut panel, and it reads differently under light.
Ceiling package
- Normally included
- Coffered timber or gypsum ceiling set out from the room centre, perimeter beam, cove construction and the structural fixings a hung lantern needs.
- Normally excluded
- Light fittings and drivers.
- What moves the cost
- Available void, coffer depth, and whether the existing slab can take the fixing loads without additional support.
Surfaces and decorative plaster
- Normally included
- Lime or Venetian plaster to walls and arched niches, geometric stone or tile borders to floors and thresholds, and the base course under the banquette.
- Normally excluded
- Field flooring, which prices with the flooring scope.
- What moves the cost
- Whether the border pattern needs to turn corners and negotiate openings, which is a set-out cost before it is a materials cost.
Full Arabian interior
- Normally included
- All of the above across the property, plus bathrooms, kitchen, joinery, drapery, MEP alterations and the design and authority coordination.
- Normally excluded
- Structural alteration, façade and window replacement.
- What moves the cost
- How many rooms carry the full treatment. Most successful projects run one or two rooms at full intensity and step everything else down.
Outdoor majlis
- Normally included
- Shade structure, built-in seating in marine-grade carcassing, weatherproof upholstery, drapery, a fire feature and the external lighting circuits.
- Normally excluded
- Landscaping, pool works and hard paving beyond the seating footprint.
- What moves the cost
- Whether the shade structure needs authority approval, and how much of the year the client wants it usable — misting and shading change the specification substantially.
- Every figure above is an indicative market range, not a quotation. Your number comes from a scope priced against your property.
- Ranges are stated exclusive of VAT, which is applied at the prevailing UAE rate.
- The majlis-only band is the enquiry we receive most often on this style, and it is a genuinely good way to do it — one room at full intensity rather than a whole house at half.
- A site assessment is required before we issue a price, because ceiling void, slab fixing capacity and the serving route from the kitchen are the three largest unknowns.
how halo executes it
Five stages, and the craft risk at each one
Arabian fails in two places — the hospitality plan and the pattern set-out — and both are decided before any material is ordered.
The hospitality plan first
Seating capacity, sightlines from the entrance, the serving route from the kitchen and whether a separate guest entrance is needed. These decide the room before a single decorative choice is made, and getting them wrong is why some very expensive majlis rooms go unused.
Pattern set-out drawings
Every screen, ceiling grid and floor border is drawn against its actual dimension so the repeat closes and no motif is cut through. You approve the geometry as a drawing, before anything is cut.
Fabrication and hand finishing
Screens and panels are CNC-cut in our workshop and then hand-finished, because a purely machined arris reads flat under raking lantern light. Timber is acclimatised on site before fixing.
Ceiling and cove first fix
The coffer grid, the perimeter beam, the cove and the structural fixings for hung lanterns all go in before anything is closed. Lantern positions are set at this stage, not chosen later.
Approve and commission at night
Materials are signed off on site under the actual lanterns after dark, and the scenes are set with you in the room. A majlis that was only ever seen under daylight or site lighting has not been checked.
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What Our Clients Say
Timur G
Google ReviewWe engaged Halo Interiors for a turnkey renovation project at our property in Dubai Creek Harbour. Halo handled the entire project including design, procurement, permits, and execution of the works. Halo worked to a tight deadline and delivered a stunning design, which they then implemented to a very high standard. The quality of execution was head and shoulders above anything else I have seen in Dubai, with attention to every detail and very thorough quality control. As a client, I also felt that Halo were very honest in our dealings and this really made a difference. The pricing was also competitive and fully transparent. I cannot recommend Halo highly enough.
See full Google reviewAJ Boelens
Google ReviewI am so thankful Jason and Zishan from Halo for their help to conduct a property inspection and support us in how to handle a renovation project that went terribly wrong. If I could do things over again, I would have consulted with Halo prior to our renovation project and would have asked for their guidance and project management support. There are a lot of shady contractors in Dubai apparently and these guys are the only honest people you can rely on. I would give them 6 stars if I could!
See full Google reviewlimelight interors
Google ReviewWe have had the pleasure of working with Halo Interiors on three different projects, and the experience has been nothing short of exceptional. Our clients have praised the quality and service provided, and we have not faced a complaint. Their premium quality joinery speaks for itself. A special mention to Huzefa, the project manager, who expertly handled our most recent renovation. I highly recommend Halo Interiors to anyone seeking top-notch craftsmanship and reliable service.
See full Google reviewMansi shah
Google ReviewWe contracted Halo for our first villa upgrade project in early 2022 and we have been using their services since then. I cannot but help appreciate the extra effort they take to ensure all our requirements are addressed. Extremely professional and reliable. I would recommend them without hesitation!
See full Google reviewArabian and majlis design questions
The questions owners actually ask before committing to this style in Dubai.
The plan. Continuous perimeter seating so nobody sits with their back to an arriving guest, a clear centre for serving, a route from the kitchen that does not cross the room, and frequently a separate guest entrance and guest WC. The decoration is what people photograph, but the plan is what decides whether the room gets used.
Very often, yes, and it is the most common way we build this style — one room taken to full intensity rather than a whole house at half. Indicatively from around AED 120,000 for a modest room and AED 300,000 upwards for a large one with deep carved work. The two things to check at survey are the ceiling void for the coffer and cove, and whether the serving route from the kitchen works.
It is a pierced screen, traditionally timber, used to filter light and give privacy without blocking air. Solid timber is the best of it and is what we make in our own workshop. Laser-cut MDF is a legitimate lower-cost alternative for a decorative panel that will not be touched, but it reads flatter, cannot be hand-eased at the arris, and should not be used where it will be handled or where it carries a load.
Restraint in the number of rooms rather than in the quality of the work. One or two rooms at full intensity — the majlis and perhaps a powder room — with everything else stepped right down to plaster and a single carved gesture. A house where every room carries pierced screens and coffered ceilings reads commercial, no matter how good the individual pieces are.
Moderately, and the cost is dust rather than damage. Carved and pierced surfaces hold fine dust, so we specify a closed-grain finish rather than an open oiled one, keep the deepest carving above the reach line, and detail screens so they can be removed and cleaned properly rather than only dusted in place.
For a standalone majlis within an existing villa, typically ten to sixteen weeks. The critical path is the carved joinery — set-out drawings, CNC cutting, hand finishing and acclimatisation run in series — followed by the ceiling, which has to be complete before the lanterns and cove can be commissioned.
Talk through a majlis or Arabian interior for your property
Send us the property type and whether this is a standalone majlis or a whole-house scheme. We will come back with what it will genuinely cost, and what your ceiling void and serving route will actually allow.
01
The hospitality plan checked first
Seating capacity, guest sightlines and the serving route are resolved before any decorative decision is priced.
02
Pattern set out before it is cut
Every screen and ceiling grid is drawn to your actual dimensions so the geometry closes at both edges.
03
Carved joinery from our own workshop
CNC cut and then hand-finished, because a purely machined edge reads flat under lantern light.
Start an Arabian enquiry
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Our Complete Range of Services
From concept to completion, we deliver every aspect of interior design, fitout, and property services under one roof.
Ready to build a majlis?
Book a consultation and we will survey the property, resolve the hospitality plan, and come back with a costed scope rather than a mood board.