Owners use the words interchangeably and then wonder why the price moved. Decoration changes surfaces and furniture; fit-out changes the fabric and the services behind it.
Decoration works on the surface of a finished space: paint, wallcoverings, soft furnishings, loose furniture and accessories, with no change to partitions, drainage, cooling or power. Fit-out rebuilds the inside of the shell: partitions, ceilings, floor build-ups, joinery, electrical and data layouts, air distribution and wet areas. They need different contracts, different approvals and different money, and confusing them is the reason so many interior budgets double between the first conversation and the first invoice.
A decoration package at a glance
A decoration package treats the space as fixed. It assumes the walls stay where they are, the sockets stay where they are and the wet areas keep their current layout. Work consists of surface preparation and redecoration, replacing or recovering furniture, new window treatments, lighting fittings swapped within existing circuits, art and accessories, and perhaps a floor covering laid over the existing floor. The trades involved are few, the dust and noise are manageable, and the work can often proceed around occupation if it is sequenced room by room. Because nothing structural or mechanical is touched, approval requirements are usually limited, though a building owner or a managing agent may still need to consent in a leased or shared property.
A full fit-out contract at a glance
A fit-out assumes the space is raw material. Partitions are added or removed, ceilings are rebuilt to carry lighting and air distribution, floors are levelled and built up, wet areas are reconfigured with new drainage and waterproofing, and electrical and data layouts are redrawn around the furniture plan rather than inherited from whoever was here last. The trade list is long, the sequence is unforgiving, and the space cannot be occupied while it happens. In return, you get an interior shaped to how you actually use it, with services sized for the equipment you will plug in. Fit-out touches the things that attract regulatory attention: escape routes, fire-rated separation, mechanical ventilation and the safety of electrical distribution.
What is physically changed
A decoration package: Surfaces, furniture, soft materials and fittings that connect to services already in place.
A full fit-out contract: Partitions, ceilings, floor build-ups, drainage, waterproofing, cooling distribution and the electrical layout itself.
Documents the work needs
A decoration package: A room-by-room finish list, a furniture schedule and a lighting fitting list, with samples approved.
A full fit-out contract: Construction drawings, reflected ceiling plans, wet-area sections, services layouts and a full finishing schedule.
Approvals and third parties
A decoration package: Usually limited to landlord or managing agent consent, where the property is leased or part of a shared building.
A full fit-out contract: Can involve municipal and civil defence requirements where escape routes, fire separation or occupancy change, so the position should be checked for the specific building before work is priced.
Programme behaviour
A decoration package: Short and fairly predictable, with risk concentrated in delivery lead times for furniture and fabrics.
A full fit-out contract: Long and sequence-dependent, where a delay in one wet trade pushes every following trade and the critical path is rarely the visible work.
Who carries the design risk
A decoration package: Light. Mistakes are mostly reversible and usually cost the price of the item plus labour to change it.
A full fit-out contract: Heavy. A wrong drainage position or an undersized distribution board is expensive to correct once the floor is laid and the ceiling is closed.
Effect on an existing lease
A decoration package: Rarely triggers reinstatement obligations, since little is permanently altered.
A full fit-out contract: Often creates an obligation to return the space to its original condition at the end of the lease, which is a real future cost that should be priced at the start.
Where the money concentrates
A decoration package: Furniture, fabrics, decorative lighting and labour, with materials bought in small quantities.
A full fit-out contract: Joinery, wet areas, services and ceilings, where hidden work consumes budget that produces nothing the eye can see.
When a decoration package wins
- The layout already works and the complaint is that the space looks tired rather than wrong.
- You need the space back in weeks and cannot vacate it for a long programme.
- You are preparing a unit for sale or letting and need a visible lift at a controlled cost.
- You are a tenant with a short remaining lease and no appetite for improvements you cannot remove.
- The building services are sound and recently maintained, so the problem is genuinely cosmetic.
When a full fit-out contract wins
- The layout is wrong for how the space will be used and no amount of surface work will fix it.
- Wet areas, kitchens or cooling have to move, which decoration cannot touch.
- The electrical and data provision cannot support the equipment you plan to install.
- You are taking a shell or a stripped unit where there is nothing to decorate yet.
- You intend to hold the asset long enough to recover the investment through use or rent.
How to decide
Walk the space with a plan and mark every change you want. If none of your marks crosses a wall line, a drainage point, a ceiling void or a distribution board, you have a decoration project and should contract it as one, with a furniture and finish schedule and a short programme. If even two or three marks cross those lines, price it as a fit-out from the start, because partial fit-outs carried out under a decoration contract are where owners discover that the painter cannot move a waste pipe and that the sequence has to begin again.
The evidence that settles the argument is a marked-up existing plan and a photograph of the ceiling void and the electrical board. Those three items tell a competent installer in minutes whether your intentions are cosmetic or structural, and they prevent the common pattern where a decoration quotation is accepted, demolition begins, and the real scope appears as a series of variations. Because requirements and approval routes in this area are periodically updated, confirm what applies to your specific building and use with the relevant municipal and civil defence authorities before you commit, and have a licensed adviser review any reinstatement wording in a lease before you sign a fit-out contract against it.
Domira designs and delivers interiors as part of the building, not after it: the finishing schedule, the joinery and the services coordination that decide whether a space looks built or assembled. Share the space and Domira will tell you what it would specify and what it would leave out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is fit-out the same as interior decoration?
No. Fit-out alters the fabric and services of a space: partitions, ceilings, floor build-ups, wet areas, power and cooling distribution. Decoration works within the existing fabric on surfaces, furniture and fittings. The distinction matters because fit-out needs construction drawings, a longer programme and sometimes regulatory approval, while decoration can often be run from a finish and furniture schedule.
Can a decorator move sockets and light points?
Changing a fitting on an existing point is usually within a decorating package. Moving the point itself means new cabling, chasing walls, making good and possibly a change at the distribution board, which is electrical work that must be carried out by a competent installer and tested. Once you are moving points in more than a couple of places, you have crossed into fit-out and should document it accordingly.
Does a fit-out in a leased space need the landlord to approve it?
Almost always, and the lease will usually set out how. Expect to submit drawings for consent, to use contractors the landlord accepts for work affecting base building services, and to accept an obligation to reinstate at the end of the term. Read those clauses before you design, because they can rule out changes you were assuming, and take legal advice on the reinstatement wording.
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