Pricing Your Interior Design Services

When it comes to pricing your interior design services, it's difficult to know whether you are getting it right.

But if you're struggling with this, you're not alone. Knowing how much to charge for interior design services is a question I get asked ALLLLLL the time!

Charge too much and you risk putting off potential customers. Charge too little and you risk working all the hours for very little income. 

So how much is too much? Here are our top tips for pricing your interior design services.

What area do you serve?

It goes without saying that, in some areas you can charge more for interior design areas than in other. Interior design is a premium, luxury service.

If you are trying to make a living as an interior designer in a less affluent area, then you are going to be hard-pressed to get enough clients, and to be able to charge high enough prices. 

Make sure that the area you are serving can support the business you want to run. 

What do your Competitors do?

Some interior designers advertise their rates on their website, whereas others don't. Do a google search to check out the other interior designers in your area, and go check out their website. 

Also look at their Houzz profile too: there is a section for ball park prices that they charge, so this will give you some idea. 

Even if they don't advertise their prices, look at the way they set their stall out: are they appealing to high-end clients, or perhaps middle of the road? This can give you an insight about what the competition are doing. 

What services do you offer?

Once you have an idea of the ball park figures in your area, you need to get clear on the levels of service you offer. 

Do you just offer an initial design consultation? Or do you offer a consultation followed by a written report? And a mood board? 

Do you also offer a full design package? And a project management service too? What if someone just wants some advice and a chat about what to do?

Think about all of the different scenarios and get clear about the services you offer, and how much you will charge for them. 

Some interior designers have a three tier pricing structure (for example bronzer, silver and gold) where each tier has more added in. 

How much do you NEED to earn?

Next work out how much you need to earn to cover your basic living expenses. 

Whilst you might want to earn millions, businesses are built brick by brick, and you need to make sure that you are covering your essentials first. 

So work out how much you need to earn each month, and then break that down into each week and each day. This will give you a starting point for how much you need, to keep your head above water. 

Different Pricing Models

There are different pricing models for different projects, and you will need to decide which model you want to use, project by project. The most commonly used pricing models are:

• Charge by complete project. This is where you are given a project scope, and you work out how much you will charge for the complete project. The advantages are that you know how much you will be paid upfront, and it is a simple way to price. The disadvantages are that clients can keep adding tasks to your to-do list, without adjusting how much they pay. Make sure that you have a clear contract, specifying what they get for the money, and a per-hour price for doing any additional work. 
• Charge a percentage of the completed project: An advantage of this method is that if the project costs increase (due to a client adding in additional requirements) the amount you pay gets increased too. The disadvantage is that you don't have clear visibility of how much you will be paid until the end of the project. 
• Charge by square metre. This is self explanatory, although on larger projects, it can get very expensive for the client!
• Charge by the hour. This is a good model for smaller projects, where you have a good idea of the project scope and how long it will take you to do a task. However, interior designers often underestimate how long tasks will take, and they often undercharge clients for their design work when charging by the hour. 

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