A common question: How do I estimate the price for this project?

Very often, I will get asked by designers in every range of experience, how do I estimate the price for this project?

Clients want some idea of what their project will cost, but without some intentional experience, designers find this estimation very difficult. And we want a quick and easy answer.

Since there is not a universal pricing method in interior design this question is difficult to answer.

And the answer you don’t want to hear is that the cost of the project depends on a lot of factors that are specific to you, your business, and your clients.

Why Estimates are Specific to Your Business

Here are some of the factors that go into estimating or bidding a project.

• Efficiency - how quickly you can design and execute the project

• Client Decisiveness - do clients make quick decisions or do they need a lot of time to mull things over and once a decision is made do they stick to it?

• Experience - the more you know the quicker you can work and the more efficient you are

• Third Parties - this is anything that is mostly out of your control - things like Mother Nature, other professionals, contractors, manufacturers and vendors. You can’t control a hurricane delaying shipping - or a pandemic halting the world. You can’t control if items are back-ordered or if a vendor pushes your order for another.

• Budget - The investment that the client wants to make in their project will affect the price.

• Quality - The quality of the home’s components will also be a major factor in estimating a project. This is why you can’t let a client know what’ll cost without diving deeper into their quality and budget expectations.

It’s good when estimating an interior design project that you look at the overall budget, but also be clear about what are design fees and what the investment in the home is going to be. In other words, what is your fee and what are the clients spending on the design components in their home.

Always discuss the overall budget with the client and if that includes your fees or not. Also, discuss the level of quality that they’re looking for.

Tracking Hours

But while the above factors come into play when estimating a design project cost, mostly it comes down to how many hours it typically takes you. Without knowing this - you won’t be able to accurately estimate price.

This is where designers get into a bit of a dilemma - many don’t want to track hours - or outright resist tracking hours, but they want to be able to accurately bid a project.

There are some occasions where tracking hours don’t matter - but for the majority of you running small interior design firms without multimillion-dollar budgets, you will need to know your time input. Even if you are charging a flat rate. Even if you hate tracking hours. This is how you know if you’re actually getting $2 an hour or $200.

So my advice is to always be tracking your hours. Even if you’re not charging hourly. Even if those hours are office tasks or unbillable. Track everything. This is the clearest picture you’ll get for future bids.

Because even if I came up with a great equation for my business to estimate project costs, it may not work with your efficiency, clients, and experience.

I know that this is not what you wanted to hear, but unless you are awesome at packaging, limiting scope and keeping your hours under a certain threshold so you can charge a flat rate that makes you money OR unless you are working with large budgets with large design fees that are certain to cover your time - tracking hours and knowing your time investment in your business is invaluable information to estimate price for interior design projects.

About The Author

Hi! I’m Capella and I’m an interior designer who helps fellow designers build their businesses. Forget secrecy and competition, I believe designers should support and uplift each other. By helping and boosting one another, we can elevate the business of interior design together! Hang around a bit and I’ll share all the business “secrets” no one else wants to talk about.