The name of this Dubai company is known to all who need to get a high-quality interior of an expensive hotel or villa. Osama Shaar Interior Design & Furnishing has been operating in the UAE market for over 30 years. Her portfolio contains the most expensive, prestigious and beautiful hotel real estate projects. About what the company is doing today and how it sees its own future, we talked with its owner and CEO, architect Osama Shaar.
Osama, please tell us how your company began and what it represents today?
In principle, our company consists of several divisions - an interior design office, a management office and our own furniture factory. Today, 12 professional architects work with me. The interior design division is engaged in the development, design and implementation of works on the design of the interior of five-star hotels and other similar rooms. The most important thing in this is that we can not only decorate the room, but also furnish it with our own furniture. The Osama Shaar Decor division carries out project management and field supervision, as well as working with all our contractors involved in the project.
Furniture for all of our interiors, as well as by orders of other designers, is made by us at our own furniture factory with an area of more than 30 thousand square meters, located in Dubai, which today employs more than 350 highly skilled workers. All the projects that we deal with are five-star in the literal sense of the word, and include hotels, palaces, private villas, banks and offices of large companies.
Which countries are the main customers of your services?
Our activities are evenly distributed between the Middle East and Europe. We have been working on the interiors of many Dubai hotels, including the first city InterContinental “five-star” on the coast of Dubai Bay, which is now called Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek. In this hotel, we have designed and decorated all rooms - from guest rooms, to restaurants, boutiques and foyers. In addition, we worked on the interiors of the Kempinski Hotel, Crowne Plaza, Shagri-La, carried out large orders of Dubai Properties, and so on.
Coming to us, the client always has a choice. For example, they say to me: "Osama, we want you to design a project for us." We make a design and take certain money for working on it. Next, we consider the budget that the customer has, and in accordance with it we furnish the hotel or villa. Say, the client has a budget of $ 10 million for the decor of the interior of a certain hotel, we take this amount as a basis, and without going beyond it, we carry out design and furnishing work for the given rooms. Since we have been working in the market for a long time, our company has a good reputation. Everyone knows that if this interior was made at Osama Shaar, then this is the highest quality. And many customers come to us only because they know about our reputation.
What are you working on now?
Today we are working on several large projects - one resort complex in Fujairah, two hotels in Lagos in Algeria, one hotel on the island of Bali (Indonesia), plus, of course, projects in the Emirates, such as private villas and offices. I don’t think it’s worth listing all our projects and their customers in detail, I’ll just mention that we worked on the interiors of the palaces of the ruler of Fujairah, located in Morocco and London. In general, Osama Shaar is one of the leading interior design and furniture companies in the region, as well as the largest importer of materials for furniture production, the bulk of which we import from Europe, as well as decor items, thereby becoming the largest the representative of a huge number of brands for the production of lamps, fittings, wall and floor coverings and all that is necessary for the decoration of premises.
In other words, do you undertake a project to turn it over?
That's right. One of our main tasks is to provide a full range of interior decoration services - from "A" to "Z". Unless, of course, the customer tells us that he needs the supervision of our specialists over the work of other contractors already employed by him. In this case, we can also provide the services of our project managers who will monitor the proper quality of work by other organizations and will report to the client on a weekly basis. Do you support the hotel interiors you have created? Yes, under contracts with hotels, we have a warranty period for work, which can be either three or five years, depending on the conditions. During this period, we replace furniture upholstery and entire interior items. Usually, after 5 years, all hotels need to carry out redecorations and renovations. What, in fact, we are doing. Once again, I’ll make a reservation, we are interested in serious five-star projects, 2 and 3 stars are not our sphere.
How is the project technically carried out?
I like your question. Suppose we are talking about a hotel. We have our own standards and rules of work. First, we provide the customer with preliminary designs. After that, we make the so-called profiles, on which all the walls and the perspective of the room are visible, and then carefully indicate each element of the interior that we place on a special panel - the “mood board”. All this is approved by the customer. Thus, there can be no question of any disagreement or misunderstanding in the process. After signing all the documents and reaching an agreement on the form of payment, we get to work.
How many projects can you do in a year?
Usually, these are 4-5 hotels per year, depending on the number of rooms in them and the complexity of the order. Moreover, we cooperate with one of the largest furniture manufacturing companies in Italy, and I would even say in Europe, since it can supply furniture for 200-400 rooms per week. Fortunately, the areas of her furniture factory, exceeding 85 thousand square meters, allow this to be done. That is, if our own capacities are not enough, and we need to make interiors from 5 to 10 hotels a year, then we can ask the Italians for help, but our experts will carry out quality control. I have a strong team, and I am proud of every member of it. People who value and respect their company work with me. Many of them have been working hand in hand with me for over 20 years. They are satisfied with the style of our work, and my attitude towards them, and the level of salary. And I have someone to lean on.
Do not remember your most difficult project?
The most difficult thing is to decorate the interiors of private houses, especially where a woman leads. Believe me, this is a hundred times more complicated than decorating the interior of a large hotel. Here you need to be a diplomat, and in time to praise the taste of the hostess or her handbag, at the same time, creating a harmonious and beautiful interior of the room. Thank God I have my own approach to women. That is why I am always very selective when it comes to private orders. I must personally know the client in order to understand what can be expected from him. And by the way, quite often I have to refuse orders, even if they are close friends or acquaintances.
How do you see the further development of Osama Shaar Interiors?
I would very much like to take part in the work on some major hotel project in Russia or the CIS countries. Your region is very interesting to me, and since we are already well-known in the Middle East and Europe, in particular, in London. Our company has implemented many projects in the UAE, Qatar, Morocco, Algeria, Kuwait, Bali and Indonesia. Today it seems to me that Russia could become one of the promising areas of our activity, since your country and its neighboring states are actively developing, new hotels, resort complexes, Olympic facilities are being built in them. And not only that, I well know that Russian people have a good taste, they are educated and appreciate the beautiful. For us, this could be a new area for applying our knowledge, experience and skills.
Allow me to wish you good luck and new projects.
Osama shaar decor
Tel: +971 4 228 4580
Email: [email protected]
www.osamashaardecor.com
