Interior designers use acrylic for what glass cannot do. It can be curved, backlit, cut into a pattern, coloured to a Pantone and bonded into a shape with no visible joint. Fit-out contractors use it because it installs faster and does not shatter on site. This guide is for both. It covers where acrylic fits in a Dubai project, how to specify it, and how to work with a workshop so it arrives on the day the joinery does.
Buying guides · 2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Reception feature walls with backlit logos. Frosted or tinted partitions between desks and meeting rooms. Perforated or patterned screens as room dividers. Backlit panels behind bars and in retail. Inserts in joinery: drawer fronts, shelf edges, display niches. Signage and wayfinding throughout. Vanity splashbacks in colours that tile cannot match. Each of these is a different fabrication, but they can all come from one supplier, in one sheet lot, so the colour matches across the whole floor.
Write the sheet type (cast or extruded), thickness, colour reference, finish (gloss, matte, frosted, polished edge), and whether it is backlit. Say who installs. A spec that just says '10mm white acrylic' will get five different prices for five different materials. Cast 10mm opal with polished edges, supplied and installed, is a spec that gets comparable quotes. We can help write the acrylic section of a spec if you send the drawings.
For a lit panel or logo, the acrylic and the light are one system. Opal acrylic diffuses LEDs but needs a minimum depth behind it, or you see hot spots. Rule of thumb: the gap behind the sheet should be about the same as the LED spacing. Tell us the light fitting and we size the depth. Or let us supply the LED module with the panel so it arrives as one tested unit.
Acrylic partitions in Dubai offices need to sit inside the fire strategy. Acrylic is combustible, so it is normally used as infill panels within a rated frame, not as the structure. Below 2.4m and away from escape routes it is rarely an issue. On escape routes or in atriums, the consultant will want it limited or replaced. Ask early. We have supplied partitions for Dubai and Abu Dhabi projects and can tell you what has passed.
Acrylic is usually one of the last trades to install but one of the first that needs a decision, because coloured and thick cast sheet may be imported. Standard clear, opal, black and white are in stock. Special colours can be 3 to 6 weeks. Lock colours at design freeze, send fabrication drawings four weeks before install, and book site measurement two weeks out. With that, we deliver to site on the day the joinery is fitted.
Drawings are never the site. We measure before we cut anything that fits into a recess or between two fixed points. Acrylic can be trimmed on site with a router, but a polished edge cannot be re-polished in a lift lobby. Allow 2 to 3mm clearance on inset panels and we will scribe them tight. If the site is not ready to measure, say so, and we hold the job rather than cut it wrong.
Designers and contractors who do more than one project a year get a named contact, a standing price list for common items, and drawings issued in the format your team uses. We keep your CAD so the next site is faster. Visit the Al Quoz workshop with a client if it helps sell the idea. Bring a sample to a meeting. We would rather you saw the material than guessed from a render.
Specify cast sheet, thickness, colour, finish and install. Lock colours early, send drawings four weeks out, and let the workshop measure. Do that and acrylic is the trade that arrives on time.
Questions about your own project? Talk to our Dubai workshop, we answer the same working day.
Yes. Most of our project work comes through designers and contractors. We provide shop drawings, samples, site measurement and installation across Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Yes, usually as infill panels within a rated frame. Away from escape routes and below 2.4m it is common. Check with the fire consultant early for atriums and escape routes.
Lock colours at design freeze, because special colours can take 3 to 6 weeks to import. Send fabrication drawings four weeks before install. Standard colours are faster.
Yes. We supply the opal acrylic, the frame and the LED module as one tested unit so the site electrician only has to connect power.
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