Why Every Interior Designer Needs to Set Minimums (and How to Figure Out Yours)
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Have you ever looked back at your year and realized every “small interior design project” you took on was the one that caused the most stress, dragged on the longest, and made you the least amount of money?
That’s not “bad clients” or “bad luck” or “well, I’m just starting so it is what is”.
Nope. It’s your minimums (or lack of them, really).
Most interior designers I’ve worked with over the years already have an unspoken minimum. They’re just not calling it that. When you look back at your numbers, you’ll notice a pattern: you aren’t actually taking on projects under a certain amount. You only do full rooms. You already have a baseline—you just haven’t made it official yet.
In this article, I’m going to share why it’s important to establish minimums, how to set them, and how to communicate them to clients.
Why Minimums Matter for Interior Designers
Successful interior designers are very clear about their minimums, and they stick to them.
These numbers don’t come from guessing or pricing based on what other designers are charging. They come from your own past project data.
When you know your numbers and your actual costs, you can set minimums for each service you offer and stop saying yes to bad fit projects that drain your time and energy.
Three Types of Minimums to Set for your Interior Design Business
You can structure your minimums in a few different ways depending on your service model:
By Design Fee. “Our design fees begin at $15,000.”
By Project Minimum. “We work with furnishing budgets beginning at $75,000.” or “We work with construction budgets starting at $3MM or more”
By Project Size. “We work on full-room projects” or “We work on homes 3,000 sq ft and up.”
Choose what makes sense for your team, your resources, and your time. This will make it much easier to determine which inquiries are worth pursuing and which ones aren’t.
How to Figure Out Your Minimums
I know numbers can be scary BUT this is one of the easiest things to figure out.
Start by reviewing your average project totals by service from the last year or two:
What was the lowest design fee you actually accepted?
What was the average furniture investment (not including design fees)?
What were your typical project sizes? Do you often do odds and ends projects, or do your projects generally include a certain number of rooms?
Which projects were truly profitable after factoring in your time, expenses, and team costs?
Look at reports in QuickBooks, Studio Designer, or Design Manager. That data shows you your real floor: the minimum amount you need to make money.
Once you see that pattern, round it up to the nearest clean number and make it official:
“Our full-service projects begin at $___.”
That’s your minimum. It’s not a guess. It’s a data-backed baseline for every future inquiry.
I recommend doing this for each service you offer since they should each have their own set of parameters.
Minimums Give You Confidence
A lot of interior designers say they hate numbers or they’re scared of tech. But your numbers are how you make confident, informed decisions for your business and for your clients. Knowing your numbers is how you run a profitable business.
They’re also how you deliver an excellent client experience. 👏
If you know that every kitchen you’ve designed in the last two years cost around $150,000, why would you take on a kitchen project with a $50,000 budget? That’s not serving your client, it’s not serving you, and it will likely take you WAY longer to design and deliver because you have to find lower priced materials and trades to hit that price point.
I know a lot of designers will say, “This red flag client thinks I can design a kitchen for 50k.” But that’s not a red flag client. That’s a project that has a different budget. They simply don’t know what your kitchens cost, and how could they if you haven’t told them? Once they know, they can then move along to the next designer who DOES specialize in kitchens at that price point.
Share the Numbers Early and Often
Once you’ve established your minimums, this next step is likely going to be the hardest one.
Share them with potential clients.
😱
Yes, you may be terrified and think if you share them, potential clients will run and hide and never reach out. And if that happens once you put minimums out there, then you likely need to reassess your marketing, branding, portfolio, and messaging.
But also, if someone knows you only work on single room designs, they’ll know not to reach out with their odds and ends project which will save you tons of time in the back and forth.
Another thing to remember:
If you aren't established, you likely do NOT want to share ALL three minimums on your website. Choose one to start. Then share the others in your investment guide or on the discovery call.
But don’t pick numbers out of thin air. Use actual project data so you can share the numbers with the utmost of confidence.
Here are some places you can share them:
Your website
Your contact form
During your discovery calls
That said, you have to be flexible.
There will be seasons when it makes sense to pull back on how you share or apply your minimums, especially if the market slows or inquiries drop.
This doesn’t mean lowering your fees.
It means reducing your minimums OR tightening your scope instead (for example, offering fewer rooms or removing project management so the fee goes down). This could also mean not publishing your minimums publicly for a while and instead waiting to share them with potential clients once you’re on a discovery call with them so you can address any objections in real time.
Your Minimum Should Cover Your Real Costs + Be Profitable
Even if you’re a solo designer who works from home, you have overhead. Childcare, rent, subscriptions, your computer, professional development, stock photos: they all count.
Your minimums should cover your overhead expenses, the costs of providing each service, and a healthy profit.
There’s always a cost to doing business, whether that’s a financial one or an opportunity cost. Every time you take on a project below your minimum, you’re paying that cost yourself and filling your pipeline with MORE small projects, which we all know cause the most stress.
Additional Resources
The Six Habits of the Most Successful Designers We’ve Worked With (Note: skip to 11:54 where I talk to LuAnn about setting minimums)
