How interior designers charge

A note before the detail: this guide explains how the industry prices work generally. It does not quote Chateau Concepts' fees, because they depend entirely on scope. If you want a specific answer for a specific project, ask — you will get one.

The five models, and what each rewards

1. Flat fee (fixed fee)

A single agreed price for a defined scope of design work. Common for a defined room count or a clear deliverable.

• Good for you when: the scope is clear and you want budget certainty.
• Rewards: efficiency. The designer benefits from working quickly.
• Watch for: what counts as a revision, and what triggers an additional fee. Scope creep is the friction point in every flat-fee agreement, so the scope definition needs to be specific — how many rooms, how many concepts, how many rounds of revision.

2. Hourly

Time billed at an agreed rate, sometimes at different rates for principal and support staff.

• Good for you when: the scope is genuinely unknown, or you want a small, contained engagement — a consultation, a second opinion, help with selections only.
• Rewards: thoroughness, and in the wrong hands, slowness.
• Watch for: whether there is a cap or an estimate you will be warned about approaching, whether travel and shopping time are billed, and the minimum increment.

3. Cost-plus

The designer buys furnishings and materials at trade cost and bills you that cost plus an agreed percentage.

• Good for you when: you are purchasing a lot, and you want visibility of what things actually cost.
• Rewards: higher spending, since the fee rises with the invoice. Reputable firms manage this by agreeing the budget up front and sticking to it.
• Watch for: what the percentage is applied to — goods only, or also freight, receiving, storage and installation. Ask to see it broken out.

4. Percentage of project cost

The fee is a percentage of the total project spend, including construction. More common on larger renovations.

• Good for you when: the project is large and the scope will evolve.
• Rewards: a bigger project. Again, an agreed budget is the control.
• Watch for: exactly which costs are in the base. Does it include appliances you bought yourself? Contractor overhead? Get the definition in writing.

5. Retail

You pay list price; the designer's compensation is the difference between trade and retail. Sometimes presented as “free design with purchase.”

• Good for you when: the project is mostly furnishings from lines that firm carries.
• Rewards: steering you toward products with the best margin, and toward buying rather than keeping what you have.
• Watch for: whether the designer is genuinely independent. This model is most common at firms attached to a showroom.

Why most firms combine two

In practice, the most common arrangement in residential work is a flat design fee plus cost-plus on anything purchased. The reasoning is straightforward: design and purchasing are genuinely different activities. Design is intellectual work with a definable output; purchasing is procurement, logistics and risk-carrying — placing orders, tracking them, receiving and inspecting goods, and dealing with the piece that arrives damaged.

That last part is worth understanding, because it is invisible until something goes wrong. When a designer purchases on your behalf, they own the problem when a sofa arrives with a torn arm: filing the claim, arranging the return, reordering, managing the delay. When you buy retail yourself, that problem is yours. Part of what a purchasing markup buys is somebody else handling it.

Where a project also involves construction — as it does whenever a firm handles general contracting as well as design — the construction side is normally contracted and priced separately from the design fee, with its own scope, schedule of values and change-order process. Ask to see both, and ask how they interact.

What is usually included — and what is not

Typically included in a full-service design fee: site measurement, space planning, concept development, floor plans and elevations, finish and material selections, furniture and fixture specification, presentation of the scheme, revisions within an agreed number of rounds, and coordination with trades and workrooms.

Typically not included, and billed separately:

• Freight, delivery, receiving, inspection and storage of furnishings
• Installation and installer labor
• Custom drawings for millwork fabrication beyond the design elevations
• Third-party consultants — structural engineer, architect, lighting designer
• Permit fees and any required drawings for permitting
• Photography of the finished project
• Significant redesign after a scheme has been approved

None of these are unreasonable. They become a problem only when they arrive as a surprise, which is why the letter of agreement matters more than the headline rate.

Setting a realistic budget

The single most useful thing you can do before your first meeting is decide what you are willing to spend — and then say it out loud. People are often reluctant, on the theory that naming a number invites the designer to spend all of it. In practice the opposite is true: without a number, a designer is guessing, and the most likely outcome is a scheme you cannot afford and a redesign nobody enjoys.

Two useful ways to frame it:

• By room, in order. Rank the rooms by how much of your life happens in them. Fund them in that order rather than spreading the same money thinly across everything.
• By permanence. Spend the most on the things that are hardest to change — layout, cabinetry, plumbing locations, windows — and less on things you can swap in five years. A regrettable lamp costs a lamp. A regrettable island costs a kitchen.

Whatever the number, carry a contingency — 10 to 20 percent for a project involving construction, and higher for a house built before 1980, where opening a wall regularly reveals something that has to be dealt with. See the older-home guide for what tends to turn up.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Which fee model applies, and to which part of the work?
• What exactly does the fee include, and what is billed separately?
• How many rounds of revision are included, and what happens after that?
• How and when do you invoice, and what triggers each payment?
• If I buy something myself, do you charge for specifying or coordinating it?
• Do you receive any commission, rebate or incentive from suppliers you specify?
• What happens if I want to stop the project part-way?
• Who owns the drawings when the project is finished?
• Will I see itemized costs, or a single total?

The answers matter less than the reaction. A designer who answers these clearly and without discomfort is telling you how the whole project will go.

Jan Revels

ASID Allied Professional Interior Designer · Chateau Concepts, Dallas

Jan has practiced interior design in Dallas since 1997 and founded Chateau Concepts in 2001. She holds a BFA in Interior Design from the University of North Texas. She designs and general-contracts residential and commercial projects across the Park Cities, Preston Hollow and North Dallas. Read her full profile →

Written and reviewed by Jan Revels before publication