What Needs to Be True to Book Interior Design Projects With Five & Six-Figure Design Fees
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Updated September 2026
If you want to book interior design projects with five and six-figure design fees, there are a lot of things that need to be in place before blaming your market or your clients.
The good news? These things are all in your control. Woop woop.
Without further ado, here’s what needs to be true to book interior design projects with five and six-figure design fees (that’s design fees in the five and six-figures, not project budgets).
01 | You want projects with larger design fees
Some designers feel like the only way to run a design business is by offering full-service design services only, or by taking on large scale projects. But for some, that feels so out of alignment with their lifestyle, capacity, and their design skills. Oftentimes the pressure alone is too much (more money = more responsibility = more pressure).
If you don’t want to book projects with five and six figure design fees, then obviously you won’t. (And you can still be successful making hundreds of thousands or multi-millions a year).
But if you DO want to book projects with five and six figure design fees, these next things are critical to have in place within your business first.
02 | You’ve done other high-quality projects and you’ve got the photos to prove it
Your fancy, schmancy clients aren’t going to hire the cheapest carpenter they can find to add trim, custom built-ins, moldings, and architectural details to their multi-million dollar homes. (And if they are, then you probably don’t want to work with them anyway!!).
A client who will pay five and six figures in design fees is looking for a designer who has done the same caliber of work as what they are looking for in their home.
Now notice, I didn’t say “you’ve done other HUGE projects or big budget projects”. You can absolutely have experience with smaller projects and smaller budgets and still showcase the superb quality of your design execution.
So be sure:
You’re comfortable with and capable of delivering a high-quality design that is worthy of a five or six-figure design fee, and
You’re getting high quality photographs of those spaces showing them in their best light
You’re showcasing those high-end photos showing that beautiful workmanship in your marketing and in your website portfolio.
If your design chops aren’t there yet, that’s okay. Keep investing in the best photography you can and continue to get better. As you get better, you’ll be able to increase your fees.
03 | You consistently market your business and ask for the sale
Speaking of marketing, if you’re not consistently doing it, you probably fall into the feast-or-famine trap that many designers do. When you’re busy, you’re slammed and have no time for marketing. Then when the projects wrap you have nothing in the pipeline leaving you terrified and worried your business is going under.
Designers who book five and six-figure design fees prioritize their marketing, EVEN when they’re slammed. They showcase their work, explain their services, and let prospects know what next step they should take (like book a call, fill out their inquiry form, dm them for more info, etc.).
And if you’re relying on Instagram as your only marketing platform (I have designers who book huge projects from Instagram so it can absolutely be done), you’d be wise to market on a platform you own: like your website and by building an email list (we love Flodesk, read all about that here). But ultimately, you know it and I know it: a majority of your new clients come from referrals - so the #1 thing I would to market my business if I were an interior designer would be to stay in regular contact with builders, architects, realtors, and past clients. EASY PEASY!
NOTE: I just saw something that said “The difference between sales and marketing is this: SALES: Buy these flowers. MARKETING: When was the last time you bought your mom flowers?” ←marketing is fun and makes sales much easier!
04 | You have relationships with and access to high-quality vendors and reputable contractors
Clients who have bigger budgets typically want high-quality custom items and features in their homes. They definitely don’t want their house to look cheap, fall apart shortly after they move back in, or look like every other house on the block.
This is why, as an interior designer, it’s important to spend time building accounts and relationships with high-quality vendors that will offer endless customizations, and reputable trades and artisans who are at the forefront of the market with interior design trends.
This goes back to the marketing: when your portfolio is full of high-quality projects with one-of-a-kind elements — custom-designed millwork, original art you’ve scouted — clients who value those things will seek you out.
05 | You invest time and money in your business
Sorry to say, but I’m not going to invest $10,000 or $100,000 in an interior designer’s services if they don’t have a portfolio, professional photos, a professional looking website, a process they’ve taken clients through before, or anything showing the result they can deliver.
If you want to charge high fees (and you want people to feel confident in paying you those fees without batting an eye), it’s critical to invest in things like:
Professional photography (for your work AND your headshots)
A professional website
Timeless branding
Well-written website copy (please do not AI this, luxe clients can tell and are repulsed)
Outsourcing your drawings, graphic design, marketing, etc. (anything you’re not good at!)
06 | You have well-packaged design services you can clearly communicate to clients in a way that builds their confidence
Your clients will see you as the expert you are and will have trust in your authority to take complex projects from A to Z. If you were an interior design client, would you rather work with a designer who’s just winging it and can do anything for anyone, or someone who has a proven process for getting results and specializes in your exact type of project?
Once you have the benefits of each of your services clearly mapped out, communicating those results to prospects and clients will be a breeze. Prospects will easily be able to see your value and know you are the right fit for them because they can see that you do exactly what they need.
07 | You have a client experience process that makes clients feel informed, taken care of, and confident in what happens next
Clients who are willing to invest more in professional design want to feel like they are in good hands.
That doesn’t mean you need to send more gifts, add more automations, or make every touchpoint feel fancy with a glass of champagne (though don’t get me wrong, I would loooove that as a client…).
It means your clients know what happens next, what you need from them, what things are going to cost, what’s included, and where they are in the process.
When your client experience is proactive, clients are less likely to feel confused, surprised, or like they have to pull teeth to get information (never a good feeling as the client).
And when your fees are higher, the experience you provide has to support the level of investment you’re asking clients to make.
When you know your process and can communicate it clearly, you’re also much more confident standing behind your fees because you know exactly what your clients are getting along the way.
And guess what? When your client experience is on-point, you’ll have clients referring you from day one all the way through to the end of their project (versus what is typical: your experience falls flat, but your end result is great, so opportunities for client referrals are missed for months/years before the client realizes how awesome you are).
When you know your process (and know how amazing it will be for your clients), you’ll stand behind your higher fees with total confidence.
08 | You have the capacity to take on a large project
Okay, this is an important one. If you keep saying YES to small one-off projects you don’t really enjoy or don’t allow you to deliver your best work because the client fit isn’t good, then you sure as heck won’t have time to take on larger projects with higher design fees.
So if you’re totally slammed and you aren’t putting clients on a waitlist, you definitely won’t have the bandwidth to take on bigger projects.
09 | You have systems in place to seamlessly manage the details of a large project without keeping everything in your head
Large projects have a LOT of moving parts.
Approvals, selections, drawings, proposals, requotes, procurement tracking, installation details, client communication, contractor questions, timelines, follow-up, and about 987 other things.
If the entire project depends on you remembering what happened yesterday, what happens next, who needs what, what still needs approval, and what you promised the client three weeks ago, adding bigger projects is only going to make the business feel more chaotic. And your clients can feel it.
And if working with you feels hard out of the gate, guess what, potential clients will assume this is how it will be through the whole experience.
No thanks!
Once you have a documented process you and your team can follow without anyone asking ‘was this done already’ or ‘what do we do next’, you can implement software to make the experience and workload even more efficient for you and your clients. Software can absolutely support that process, but it cannot create the process for you.
Software programs to make your life easier and your client’s experience better:
A project management software — we love Asana
A scheduler — we love Acuity
A CRM — we love HoneyBook
A product management software — our clients love Design Files, Studio Designer, Design Manager, and Houzz Pro
10 | You have clear boundaries that support you and protect your time, allowing you to operate in your zone of genius
If you’re always bogged down doing work that’s outside of your scope and outside of your process, you’ll never attract projects with bigger design fees.
Why?
Because you’ll be burned out.
You won’t have time to market. You won’t have time to focus on elevating your client experience. You won’t have time to bring on help. You’ll always be in ‘react’ mode (clients can tell!!) rather than proactive.
And if you do get an inquiry for a big dream project, you’ll be so buried, you won’t even want it — anything more on your plate would crush you.
On the flip side, if you have clear boundaries that support you and your time, you’ll attract clients who will respect those boundaries. You’ll have the time and space to market to those dreamy clients. You’ll WANT those big projects and feel capable of taking them on. You’ll have built efficiencies into your process so it’s easier to deliver. You’ll be proactive with your communication so clients never feel like a burden or like you’re too busy for them.
So, if booking interior design projects with five and six-figure design fees is your goal, run through the above list and see what’s missing. If you can check them all off and you’re still not booking those bigger projects, my guess is your portfolio and your marketing aren’t speaking to the clients who will pay those higher fees.
This is why we always start with the client experience process when we work with interior designers. Once you know your process, it’s easy to see where boundaries or expectations are blurry, where your process is creating more work, or where clients start to lose trust and confidence.
I created a free training that walks through five well-intentioned things interior designers do that can cause clients to question the process, push back on pricing, or lose trust along the way.
If you want to tighten up your process before you take on bigger projects, start here.
