Apartment renovation in JLT (Jumeirah Lake Towers)

Two kinds of towers

Jumeirah Lake Towers is a district of roughly eighty towers standing in lettered clusters around four lakes, on the far side of Sheikh Zayed Road from Dubai Marina. Some of them date from the first years of the district, others were completed much more recently, and the difference decides what a renovation actually is.

In an older tower the work usually starts behind the finishes: new plumbing runs and shut-off valves, re-done wiring and consumer unit, new air-conditioning grilles and thermostats, new waterproofing and falls in the bathrooms. Skipping that and laying a beautiful floor over a tired service riser is how a flat gets renovated twice. In a newer tower the services are sound, and the work is layout, storage and finishes only.

Making a compact apartment work

Most JLT homes are studios and one- to three-bedroom flats, often with a long entrance corridor, a closed kitchen and a balcony that the floor plan treats as an afterthought. The usual brief is more space without more square feet:

• A kitchen island or peninsula instead of a separate dining table
• Wardrobes and storage built wall to wall and floor to ceiling, including above the doors
• Sliding and concealed doors in place of hinged ones, and the corridor given back to the rooms
• A light envelope with one strong material carrying the whole scheme
• Mirrors and lighting planned together, so the room reads larger than it measures
• The balcony finished as a room, with shading and outdoor-grade materials

Our apartment in Me Do Re shows the approach at its plainest: a white envelope of walls, ceilings, fluted panels and a pale herringbone floor, deep green marble as the only loud material, and custom joinery hiding everything else. The same logic drives the interior design of most flats we take on here.

Clusters, DMCC and the building's rules

JLT sits inside the DMCC free zone, so a fit-out here has two layers of permission rather than one. The building management issues its NOC against your drawings, the contractor's trade licence and insurance; where the scope calls for it, DMCC approval follows. Offices and homes frequently share a cluster and sometimes a tower, which tightens everything else:

• Service-lift slots are booked in advance and shared with commercial tenants moving in and out
• Working hours are set by the building, with noisy work usually confined to weekdays
• Materials and waste travel one agreed route, with lift cars, corridors and lobby floors protected first
• A refundable deposit against damage to common areas is standard practice

We handle the paperwork, keep to the hours and the bookings, and leave the common areas as we found them, which is what decides whether a building lets a contractor back.

Before the first visit

The site visit is free and ends with measurements and an itemised estimate. Bring, or send in advance, the floor plan or handover drawings, the name of the building management company, and any restrictions the tower has already told you about. If you are renovating to rent the apartment out, say so: it changes the specification more than any style decision. Tenanted flats in nearby Dubai Marina get much the same treatment.