“How should I price my interior design services?” is a question I still get asked all the time by interior designers. What’s interesting to me is that it used to be really tricky to figure out how to price interior design services. When I started out (2011!) it was a bit of a dark art and how to price wasn’t really talked (or written) about.
Not so now, and that’s what’s strange about it. Most of the interior designers I work with know the mechanics. They’ve googled and asked AI for help. Read about hourly rates, flat fees, percentages. Maybe they even have a spreadsheet and formulas that calculate fees for them.
So if the information is everywhere, why does actually landing on a number still feel so hard?
Because figuring out your fees is rarely a pricing problem. It’s a clarity problem disguised as a pricing problem.
The pricing advice you’ve already read on how to price interior design services
Search “how to price interior design services” and you’ll find the same handful of answers. How to charge by the hour or a flat fee per room or project. You might find articles on the pros and cons of different pricing structures or how to blend different approaches depending on the job.
None of that is wrong. I’ve written a version of that myself, and I still stand by it. If you want the step-by-step on working out your base rate and building a structure you can reuse for every enquiry, you can read it here: Pricing your interior design services.
All of this advice (including mine to an extent) assumes you’ve done the work that comes BEFORE you set your prices. This is the bit that tends to get left out of the pricing advice. You need to know what your business is for, how much it needs to make, and what kind of designer you are trying to be.
The question you’re really asking
When an interior designer says “I don’t know what to charge,” what they usually mean is one of these:
- I don’t know if this project is worth my time.
- I don’t know how much I actually need to earn this year.
- I don’t know whether I’m building a business or just taking whatever comes through the door.
- I don’t know if they’ll say yes, and I can’t bear it if they say no.
You can’t fix any of those with a fee calculator. A formula can tell you the price of a project, but it can’t tell you whether you should have said yes to the project in the first place, or whether the shape of your whole business is set up to pay you properly.
This is why so many talented interior designers still get stuck when it comes to pricing. They have the formula, but they’re missing what sits one level up.
Clarity comes before pricing
Here is how I have come to think about it after years of working with designers, and fourteen years running my own interior design studio.
You don’t start with the price, you start with the life. You work out what you actually want your business to give you: the income, yes, but also the hours, the type of work, the amount of space in your week. That gives you a number grounded in reality, the money your business needs to make for you. Everything else filters down from there. That financial target shapes your pricing, it shapes your packages, and it tells you how much of the right work you actually need to take on.
If you price it the other way round, from the bottom up, it’s easy to lose your nerve, to discount, charge less than you should or slash a figure in half before you hit send – because there’s nothing solid to back up the number.
When you set the target first, based on the lifestyle you want and the money you need, the price stops being a moveable feast – something that you can flexible about. It becomes fixed and you guard it, because you have clarity on what it gives you (be it freedom, choices, things!).
The money stuff we’re all thinking about
Even with a solid number in front of you, there’s a second thing that makes pricing hard, and it’s got nothing to do with spreadsheets.
Selling still feels a bit icky for a lot of us. We’ve watched years of loud, pushy, “close the deal” sales and marketing, where buyers are cajoled and convinced to part with their money and we don’t want to be part of that.
Add to that the fact that a lot of women were never taught to be comfortable asking for money at all, let alone naming a high number and holding it while someone decides. So we soften it. We tend to over-explain and justify our fees, or drop the price before anyone has even pushed back.
Many designers feel it’s just easier to get the job at a lower price than to have an awkward conversation about money. If you do this you’ll now it only ends up leading to resentment, as you deliver excellent work knowing you’ve undervalued what you do. And you kick yourself for not being a bit more assertive.
Starting with understanding the lifestyle you want – and the fees and pricing structure that will lead to that outcome is the answer here too. This change in approach creates a clear shift going into conversations with clients about money. You know your value, you have clarity on what you deliver and why you do what you do, and so you stand behind your pricing with authority and confidence.
You can start to charge like the established professional you already are.
How to price your interior design services when you’re stuck
If deciding what to charge keeps you up at night, the fix is probably not another pricing model. It’s these three things, in this order:
- Get clear on the business you’re actually building and the number it needs to make for the life you want. The price flows from that, not the other way round.
- Build a structure you can reuse so you’re not reinventing the wheel and second-guessing yourself on every single enquiry. The practical steps for that are in my pricing your services post. The BiiD also has a useful overview on how designers charge.
- Deal with your money story, not just the money maths. Notice where you soften, discount and apologise, what stories are you telling yourself about what you’re worth and what you can charge? Make the decision to stop.
Do those three and the question “what should I charge?” should go away. Not because you found a magic formula, but because you finally know what the number is for. I’m not going to lie, this might take a little practice – not the setting the numbers, that’s the easy bit – but in the follow through.
But, practice does make perfect. Each time you hold your ground on your numbers you’ll build your confidence. Remember also that a “no” is fine too. Not every client is for you. If you’ve done the work to figure out what you need to earn, and priced your packages from there, stick to them and don’t waiver.
The CALM method
The CALM method is focused on building a calm, profitable business. Pricing isn’t the primary focus, but it’s a thread that runs throughout. We get clear on the business and the financial target first in CLARITY, we strip everything back to the work that actually moves you towards it in ALIGNED ACTION, we set boundaries that have you overdelivering and not valuing your time in LIMITS, and we sort the MINDSET that has had you undercharging for years.
We never sit down and “do pricing” as a separate module. We don’t need to. By the time you’ve done the rest, the pricing has taken care of itself.
If that’s the kind of support you have been looking for, come and find out more about the CALM programme.
