When you walk into a beautifully designed store and take a look at gold-hued mirrors, soft lighting, and the faint scent of new fabric in the air, it’s easy to assume that beauty comes effortlessly. But behind that surreal experience lies a battle few ever see. A battle fought between creativity and cost.

“Design is one such thing where everyone has an opinion,” says Bhavuk Jain, Founder & Principal Architect of Atelier Svana. “What might be amazing for me might be trash to you. But at the end of the day, every good design must survive one test – the budget.”

For Bhavuk, who has designed flagship stores for names like Sriram & Sons and Pall Mall, budgets aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. They are the invisible lines that define creativity. “A store that looks luxurious can only exist if the client understands what it costs to look that way,” he explains. “Most of our challenges come when clients underestimate what scale really means.”

He recalls a recent example of a store which had to expand from two small 700 sq. ft. spaces to a 5,000 sq. ft. flagship. “The owner couldn’t handle the jump in scale while budgeting. Payments got delayed, vendors suffered, and eventually, the client paid rent for a store that wasn’t even open yet,” he says. “When that happens, design always takes the hit. You start cutting corners. You start compromising on details, skipping finishes, and that’s how the story changes.”

When cost dictates creativity

In the world of retail interiors, time and budget are twin gods. “Everyone wants an experiential store, but no one wants to wait,” Bhavuk says. “There’s a myth that every store can be created in 45 days. But if you’re building something custom, with real design thinking, it needs time and investment both.”

And yet, constraints often bring out creativity. Atelier Svana is known for what Bhavuk calls ‘value engineering’ – finding aesthetic substitutes that don’t dilute experience.

“You want marble inlay? Let’s do it in tile. You want an expensive wallpaper? Let’s develop a paint finish that feels the same. You want stainless steel with PVD? We’ll use mild steel and powder coating. Good design isn’t about cost, it’s about clarity.”

He also adds, “Smaller brands often dream big but don’t always have the pockets. So we try to help them look premium without spending like one.”

Big budgets, bigger lessons

For Bhavuk, design at the top end of the pyramid is a different game altogether. “We’ve worked as Indian collaborators for global brands like Cartier and Brunello,” he says. “Their budgets go into crores. Everything is airlifted from Italy. Even hammering inside the walls is monitored by security sensors. The design language is global.”

What smaller brands can learn from that, Bhavuk says, isn’t about money; it’s about clarity. “Luxury brands are clear. They know what they want, how much they are willing to spend, and the standards they will not compromise on. Most small brands decide on budgets midway. That’s where chaos begins.”

The equation of budget and beauty

“Every brand wants to look like a million bucks,” Bhavuk says, “but only a few understand what it costs to look that way. Design isn’t about spending more, but rather about spending right.”

Retail design, then, is less about opulence and more about orchestration, knowing which notes to play, which to skip, and how to make even a modest tune sound grand.