Interior Design Service Pricing: How I Made Over $26K On One Project In 2 Months
A major challenge as a new interior designer, or as a seasoned designer in a rut, can be pricing your services. You need to charge what you’re worth and make a good living as a designer, but how do you accomplish that? As a new designer, you might not even know where to start or realize what’s possible to work toward. That’s why I’m sharing my experience - so I can help you understand how to price your interior design services and earn a good living doing what you love.
I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at some of my own projects to show you what’s possible. You’ll get a peek at my designs and 3D renderings + see exactly what I’m charging. No secrets here.
Read until the end to learn how I can support you with pricing your services so you can work toward earning 6-figures while working part-time doing what you love!
Interior Design Service Pricing
As your business grows, it is so important for you to increase your prices so you can actually charge what you’re worth. For example, when I started my business back in 2020, I started to feel overworked and burnt out when I was doing a bunch of small projects with lower budgets. It wasn’t until I implemented a project minimum when I finally started to make a good living as a designer all while working less hours. My first project minimum was $5,000 per room, then increased to $20,000 per project, then $60,000 per project, and it continued to grow from there. Read more about how my own interior design service prices have evolved here.
No matter what phase of your business you are in, I recommend breaking down your interior design service prices with the following elements: a consultation fee, a flat rate package fee, and markups on trade items.
This is the real invoice from this interior design project showing my consultation fee, package fees, and trade markup revenue.
Interior Design Consultation Fee
As you can see in the client invoice above, I charged $300 for my interior design consultation fee. A consultation is an in-person meeting between the client and myself where we discuss the proposed project details. We typically do a walk-through of the space(s) to be designed, and we both have the chance to share our thoughts on the project. This happens after an initial chat to get to know each other (phone call, email, or video call) but before the contract is signed.
As a new business owner, you might not know where to start with how to price your consultation fee - should you do it for free? Should you charge by the hour? Or should you determine a flat rate fee like mine? If you feel like you need some guidance on this, come check out my group for interior designers where you can get priority feedback on these interior design service pricing decisions directly from me.
Interior Design Package Fee
The bulk of my income from each project comes from my interior design package fee. It’s the flat fee due up front before I even start working on the project. For this project, I was charging a flat project fee of $15,000. The package fee is essentially covering your salary, taxes, business expenses, etc.
I highly recommend setting a flat rate for your package fee instead of charging hourly (even as a beginner). Read more about the challenges of hourly pricing here.
Side Note: I wanted to share the 3D rendering that I completed for this project.
As soon as I showed this to my clients, they were SOLD. They were so impressed and really excited for the rest of the project. This is one reason I highly recommend incorporating 3D renderings into your interior design process. Not only can it speed up your projects and ease communication with your clients, but it can also set you apart as more of a luxury designer, which can help you book more of your dream clients. Check out the full post about 3D renderings here.
Markup On Trade Items
One area that some new designers don’t take advantage of is markup revenue on trade items. You can see from the invoice that I earned almost $9,000 just from markups on my trade items alone in this phase of the project.
This is absolutely a section of your interior design service pricing that you should utilize - trade items are intended to be marked up in price so you can earn a profit. Read more about how trade vendors and resale certificates work here.
Interior Design Service Pricing Calculator
I hope this inside look at one of my real-life projects has opened your eyes to what you can be charging for your services (and keep in mind, I’m charging even more than this now). Because I’ve implemented this pricing model in my business, I don’t need to take on every small project that comes my way to earn a good living.
If you feel like you need some guidance on restructuring your interior design service pricing, check out my group for interior designers, Design Business Secrets+. Inside this exclusive group, I help you determine how much to charge for your projects no matter what phase of your business you are in. Not only will you receive my expert advice, but you’ll also get access to my Perfect Pricing Formula Course + Interior Design Service Pricing Calculator. This course will teach you everything about knowing your client, choosing your pricing model, how to handle price objections, and more.
Head over to Design Business Secrets+ to get access to this expert course today!