How To Work With A Designer:Pricing What to Expect & What to Know

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T hinking about working with a designer for your home?

Good move! Building, renovating, and decorating a home today is expensive, so you want to do it right the first time and avoid costly mistakes. Working with a good, experienced interior designer is a great idea, but it is also expensive. You’ll want to get the most out of your relationship to ensure you end up with a home you love and money well spent. This is why I’ve created this incredibly informative blog series on how to work with designers. My first post reveals how designers charge for their services. Let me know if you’ve found it helpful in my comments section below, I’d love to read your feedback!

The first thing you should know about pricing is that interior designers all charge differently. There are no specific guidelines or rules regarding fees. Therefore, a good designer should communicate very clearly to you up front how they charge, what their fees are for their different services, what is considered a reimbursable, what forms of payment they accept, and what the terms of payment are. All of this information should be spelled out in their contract, fully understood by you, and if agreed to by you, signed by both parties before any work begins. This step is essential to avoid any surprises, disputes, or loss of trust down the road. Like any good relationship, trust is such an essential ingredient to working with an interior designer successfully that I wrote a whole separate post about it!

Although designers all charge differently, you can typically expect one of these methods:

A set design fee for a very specific scope of work
An hourly design rate
A commission on purchases they make for your home
Or a combination of any of the above.

If there are construction costs involved in your project and the designer is using their contractor for your project, they may also charge a percentage of the construction costs. Some designers, especially those who work on a commission only basis will require they do all the purchasing for your home project. They may also have a minimum amount you need to spend in order for them to accept your project. It’s a good idea to have at least a ball-park estimate of what your overall budget will be for your project. That way, designers will be able to advise you if your budget is realistic for what you want to do and can also formulate a game plan specifying the best way to allocate the money.

Regardless of how they charge, a good, experienced designer will be able to give you an estimate of what their total design fees will be for your specific home project before you start work. I highly advise asking for this figure in advance to make sure it will fit into your budget. Again, we are aiming for a smooth design process, without mid-project delays from disputes over fees! Don’t feel awkward to ask for any of this important information. Experienced interior designers are used to calculating costs for prospective clients and know it’s vital for the success of the project. In fact, if my potential clients don’t ask me for an estimate of my total fees, I will offer to do it anyway!

In order to get a somewhat accurate estimate of the total design fees for your home project, an experienced interior designer knows they will need to visit the project site, review any completed plans to date, and review the details of what you wish to do in your home first. Some designers charge for this meeting/time and some do not. written a separate post about that too!

Lara Michelle Beautiful Interiors Invoice Image

Lara Michelle Beautiful Interiors Statistics Image

I treat this initial meeting also as an interview, not only meet clients and review the scope of work, but to also view my portfolio if they haven’t already seen it already on my website, and review all my fees and services. There is a lot of important info to know about the best way to interview an interior designer, so I’ve written a separate post about that too! You can also expect to be charged a retainer up front before work starts. The retainer can either be part of the designer’s set fee, or credited towards hourly rate invoices, or held until the end of the project to be credited back to the client on the final invoice. Either way, a retainer is customary and typically paid upon signing of the designer’s contract before any design work begins. The retainer amount is typically determined by the designer and again, there are no set rules on what this amount is. My retainers vary and I base them on the size of the project. I always let my prospective clients know upfront what the retainer will be after I’ve reviewed the scope of work with them. They will see it in the first paragraph of my contract along with all my other fee details we’ve discussed during our initial consultation.

You can also expect to be charged a retainer up front before work starts. The retainer can either be part of the designer’s set fee, or credited towards hourly rate invoices, or held until the end of the project to be credited back to the client on the final invoice. Either way, a retainer is customary and typically paid upon signing of the designer’s contract before any design work begins. The retainer amount is typically determined by the designer and again, there are no set rules on what this amount is. My retainers vary and I base them on the size of the project. I always let my prospective clients know upfront what the retainer will be after I’ve reviewed the scope of work with them. They will see it in the first paragraph of my contract along with all my other fee details we’ve discussed during our initial consultation.

Now, about that infamous “designer discount”…..yes, it’s true, interior designers can get a “trade” discount on most home products. The discount will vary greatly from source to source. Basically, we designers will get a large trade discount (between 40-60% off retail) for items like designer fabrics, trims, wallpapers, and high-end designer home products in the trade showrooms. When it comes to online home décor stores, we can often order directly from the manufacturer of the item and purchase at wholesale or almost wholesale prices. However, the big retail home stores are not so generous with their trade discounts. They typically will only give designers 5-20% off retail prices.

Some designers will pass along their trade discounts to clients and others will not. I feel it’s important for you to know up front what your designer will do with their trade discount and how they will let you know what the discount will be. Again, this gets back to me stressing that trust is super important! I’ve heard of too many client-designer relationships going bad because of mistrust and that is terrible for you as well as the reputation of the design business in general. If you know in advance everything about how your designer will charge you and find it agreeable, then you will be off to a great start to beat the odds that all will run smoothly!

There is much more to know about working with an interior designer, so make sure to sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss my next post in this series, or other great tips, trends and inspiration! I hope you found this post helpful. If so, leave some feedback in the comments section below or if you still have questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it shortly.