Open-Plan Kitchen Design in Dubai
10–100k
AED Project Range
What we do
First question: is it structural?
Opening a kitchen into the living room is the change that transforms a Dubai apartment, and it is also the one most likely to be refused. Some walls are partitions you can take out in a morning. Others are shear walls holding the tower up, and no amount of paperwork will get them removed. The difference is not something you can tell by tapping it. We check the building drawings and, where the wall is load-bearing or the building requires it, arrange a structural engineer’s assessment before anyone designs anything.
If the wall is structural, that is not the end of the plan — it usually means a beam and columns instead of a clean opening, or a wide pass-through rather than full removal. Either can look deliberate if it is designed in from the start. What does not work is discovering it after the kitchen has been drawn.
Once the opening is settled, the kitchen has to change too. An open kitchen is furniture in your living room, so the finishes get quieter, the cabinets run full height to hide clutter, and extraction has to be sized for a room three times the size — a recirculating hood that coped with a closed kitchen will not cope here. Most open-plan layouts end up with an island or peninsula doing the work the wall used to do, which is where the countertop becomes the most visible surface in the whole apartment.
Drag to see the wall go.
A closed galley kitchen and the living room next to it, thirty days apart. Same floor area, one room instead of two.
Send a photo on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly what is possible — before you commit to anything.
WHAT CHANGES WHEN THE WALL GOES
Complete Refit
Demolition through handover, under one team. One warranty covers the whole job — not just the cabinets — so nothing falls through the gap between trades.
The structure
Load-bearing or partition. Where it is structural we design around a beam or a wide pass-through instead of pretending the wall can go.
Extraction
An open kitchen needs real extraction ducted out, not a recirculating filter. Cooking smells that used to stay behind a door now reach the sofa and the curtains.
Noise and clutter
Soft-close everything, an integrated dishwasher, and full-height custom cabinets so the worktop stays clear. In an open room the kitchen is on display all evening.
Approvals
Developer NOC, building management approval and — for a structural wall — an engineer’s report. We prepare and submit all of it.
Four things that have to be solved together.
Open-plan kitchens / Wall removal / Structural checks / Ducted extraction / NOC handled / Full-height storage Open-plan kitchens / Wall removal / Structural checks / Ducted extraction / NOC handled / Full-height storage
Choose your finish
Three ways to open a kitchen.
01
size apartments
Fully Open
Wall removed, island or peninsula defines the kitchen
02
Best for small & mid-
size apartments
Wide Pass-Through
Large opening kept — the option when the wall is structural
03
size apartments
Broken-Plan
Open, with a glass partition or half-wall to hold smells back
Not sure which your wall allows?
Every open-plan kitchen we build.
Green means it is in every job, no exceptions. Amber means it depends on your building — tap any line for the honest reason why.
Always included
5 of 5 kitchens, every time
- A check of the building drawings before any design work
- 3D layout showing the kitchen from the living room side, not just from inside it
- Extraction sized and ducted for an open room
- NOC and building management submissions prepared by us
- Making good to floors and ceilings where the wall was
- A fixed price agreed before we start, and a 3-year warranty
Confirmed at your site visit
Depends on your specific kitchen
- Whether the wall is load-bearing, and whether an engineer's report is needed
- Whether services — water, drainage, electrics — run inside that wall
- Whether the flooring can be continued or has to be replaced across both rooms
- Whether the building permits ducting to an external wall
Want to know if your wall can come out?
HOW IT WORKS
Five steps, no surprises.
An open-plan job has one extra stage at the front — the structural check — and it happens before you pay anything.
01
Consultation
A free site visit. We measure, photograph, and check the drawings to see what the wall is doing. Fixed price within 5 days.
02
Approvals & design
Engineer's assessment where needed, NOC submitted, and a 3D layout of the opened room.
03
Opening & first fix
Wall out, beam in if required, services rerouted, floors made good.
04
Install
Kitchen fitted, extraction ducted, stone templated on site.
05
Handover
We clean up, walk you through it, and register your warranty.
Open-plan kitchens across Dubai.
FAQs
Can I remove the wall between my kitchen and living room in Dubai?
It depends on whether the wall is structural. Partition walls can usually be removed with a developer NOC. Load-bearing and shear walls cannot be removed at all, though a wide pass-through is sometimes possible with an engineer’s report. We check the building drawings at the free site visit and tell you which one you have.
What approvals do I need to open up a kitchen?
A developer or community NOC as a minimum, plus building management approval for the works and the service lift. Where the wall is structural you also need a certified structural engineer’s assessment. We prepare and submit all of it — you do not deal with the management office.
Will cooking smells be a problem in an open kitchen?
Only if the extraction is wrong. A recirculating hood filters grease but pushes the smell back into the room — fine behind a closed door, not fine when the sofa is six metres away. An open kitchen needs a ducted extractor rated for the volume of the combined room. It is the single most common regret we hear about open-plan kitchens.
Does opening up the kitchen make a small apartment feel bigger?
Usually yes — it is the most effective change you can make to a compact layout, because the two rooms share light and sightlines. It also means the kitchen has to stay tidy, which is why we put full-height storage in. See our small kitchen renovation page for the layouts that gain the most.
Do I need an island in an open-plan kitchen?
Not always, but something has to define where the kitchen ends — otherwise the room reads as one large space with cabinets along a wall. An island or a peninsula does that job while adding storage. Whether one fits depends on the clearances, which we check at the survey. A villa kitchen almost always has the room; an apartment often does not.
How long does an open-plan kitchen renovation take?
Thirty days once approvals are in, same as any other kitchen. The variable is the approvals themselves — a straightforward NOC takes days, a structural assessment can take two to three weeks. We start that clock at the site visit so it runs in parallel with the design.
If you are thinking about opening your kitchen into the living room, the first thing worth knowing is whether the wall allows it — and that costs you nothing to find out. Send a photo and the rough dimensions, or look through our completed projects first. We reply on WhatsApp within 24 hours, survey for free, and come back with a fixed price within five days.
let’s begin a conversation
Tell us about your space and we’ll come back with a fixed price. Fields: Name · Email · Contact number · Property type · Community · Room · Timeline · Budget band · Message. Button: Get a quote.
