House design project in Batumi: interiors for private homes and villas

At what stage the designer joins a house project

A house design project in Batumi depends a great deal on the stage the house itself has reached. While the architect is still working on the sketch, the interior can shape the building: where the staircase goes, how high the ceilings are, whether there is enough room for a boiler room and service shafts.

How the work is divided between the two professions is covered in our comparison of an interior designer and an architect. In a house project it works like this: the designer's changes to the architectural sheets are collected in one numbered list, the architect replies to each item in writing, and anything that affects columns, floor slabs or load-bearing walls is checked by the structural engineer first.

In a house that is already built, we take the architect's plans as the starting point and measure every floor. What matters most in a house are the levels: the finished floor on each storey, the underside of the beams, the windowsill heights. An error of a couple of centimetres in a level changes the height of the stair steps and the built-in wardrobes.

Floors and zones: what we decide on the plans

In a house we also plan vertically. We put the upper-floor bathrooms above the ground-floor bathrooms or laundry room, so that the risers run in one shaft rather than through the living room ceiling. We don't put the main bedroom above the boiler room or right next to the stair hall: at night the pump and footsteps on the stairs are louder than the drawing suggests.

On a slope it often pays to turn the usual arrangement upside down. The entrance goes on the upper side of the plot, together with the living room and the kitchen with a sea view, while the bedrooms move to the lower floor, where it is quieter and cooler in summer. We show a house like this in section, so you can see which rooms are partly below ground and how much light they get.

A double-height living room looks good in 3D, but living with one has its drawbacks. Warm air collects under the ceiling and on the upper-floor gallery, one wall-mounted unit is usually not enough for that volume, and a bulb in a chandelier six metres up has to be changed from a scaffold tower. So here we plan ducted cooling or units on two levels from the start, along with motorised curtains and light fittings that can be reached from the gallery.

The staircase: a drawing of its own

We choose where the staircase goes before we place the furniture. A staircase by the entrance keeps guests and family apart; one deeper in the house frees up the living room but lengthens the way from the bedroom to the kitchen. The space under the flight on the ground floor goes to a storeroom, a guest WC or a cupboard, so we draw these rooms on the layout together with the staircase.

Comfort comes down to dimensions, and we fix them on a separate sheet. A house usually has more room than a duplex apartment, so the flight can be made less steep. Our guide from practice: a step height of 15–17 cm, a tread depth of 28–30 cm, a flight at least 90 cm wide so that a wardrobe and a mattress can be carried upstairs, and at least two metres of headroom at the lowest point. Winder steps at a turn save space, but it is easy to slip on their narrow side, so in a house with children or elderly parents we put in a landing instead.

We choose the structure together with the structural engineer. A cast concrete flight is clad in timber or porcelain tiles, a steel stringer with timber treads looks lighter, and cantilevered steps coming out of the wall are possible only if the wall was designed for them when the house itself was designed. We give the step heights from the finished floors of both storeys and mark the embedded fixings for the balustrade and the cable for the stair lighting. The staircase is built and clad from this sheet at the house interior finishing stage.

House services in the design project

In an apartment the main services are shared by the whole building, but in a private house everything is your own: a boiler or heat pump, a water heater, water filters, the consumer unit, sometimes a borehole pump and pool equipment. All of this needs a plant room, and we size it from the equipment list, not from whatever floor area is left over.

We decide how the house will be heated before laying out the boiler room. Whether there is a gas main by the plot we find out for the specific address, and the requirements for the boiler room, its air supply and the flue are set by the gas company and the boiler manufacturer. The gas connection is made by the gas company, and we don't touch the gas pipe. If there is no gas, or you want one system for winter and summer, compare a heat pump and a gas boiler: the choice decides whether there will be a flue and where the outdoor unit goes.

Ventilation with heat recovery and ducted air conditioners are hidden in the ceilings, and that changes the heights. In corridors and above walk-in wardrobes we drop the ceiling for the ducts, while the living room and bedrooms keep their full height. We draw the grilles straight away: not above the bedhead, not behind the curtain track and not where a cold stream of air will hit the sofa. We don't lay underfloor heating under built-in wardrobes or the kitchen units.

The villa: pool, terrace and the owner's private area

In a villa the line between the house and the plot is blurred. The living room opens onto the terrace through sliding glazing, and we try to keep the floor inside and outside at one level and in one tone, with a drainage channel in front of the threshold. The pool needs its own shower and toilet with an entrance from outside, so that wet guests don't walk through the whole house, and we put the pool plant room well away from the bedrooms: the filtration pump runs on a schedule, including at night.

If the villa is going to be let, the design gains a private area for the owner. It can be a lockable cupboard, a storeroom or a whole wing with a separate entrance where you live between seasons. We decide its size and doors at the layout stage; later they can't be added without losing a room. What changes in the work itself, from the pool shell to the glazing, is described on the page about villa renovation.

Timelines, revisions and supervision

For a two-storey house of about 200 m², the project usually takes 3–4 months: floor layouts, coordination with the architect, the concept with 3D, and the working drawings. A villa with a pool and guest areas takes longer.

The number of revision rounds at each stage goes into the contract. If, after the layouts are approved, you decide to change the number of floors or move the staircase, that is new work, and we give you its timeline and price before it starts. The project can be run remotely, by video and through a shared folder, and on a house build designer supervision is worth having: a house has more details than an apartment that a crew without a designer will resolve its own way.

How much a house design project costs in Batumi

An interior design project for a house or villa costs from 120 to 160 ₾ per m² of floor area. The price includes layouts of all floors, 3D renders of the main rooms, working drawings, the staircase and the lighting. This is the designer's work: the architectural design of the house is priced separately, from 57 ₾ per m², and materials, furniture and the renovation go into their own estimate.

Lighting at this price means a plan of light fittings, switches and circuits for each floor. Illuminance calculations, lighting scenes and the choice of models are a separate lighting design service, from 20 ₾ per m². The project price goes up with double-height spaces, a complex staircase, made-to-measure furniture on every floor and 3D renders of every room. It is lower where bedrooms and bathrooms repeat and the architect has already supplied accurate plans. Designer supervision is priced by the month, from 1,290 ₾ a month. We give a preliminary price from the floor plans, and the final cost is set after a measured survey or a check of the drawings, once it has been agreed with you.