Top 10 Most Popular Interior Design Business Blogs of 2025

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In 2025, my team and I wrote seventy blog posts for interior designers. In 2024, we wrote fifty. In 2023, ninety. In 2022, forty-four. Before that … we weren’t counting.

We write because we genuinely love sharing what we see working inside real design businesses and helping designers run more efficient, profitable firms with a better client experience.

Below, I’m sharing our top blog posts of the year, along with a few I personally loved writing.

Thank YOU for being here and for reading the blog, The Weekly Install®, and The Design Brief®. In an attention recession, it means everything to me.

Here are the top ten articles you guys kept coming back to in 2025. A few of them surprised me.

#01 Pricing Your Interior Design Services

Pricing your services should never be a “let's throw this number out and see if they say yes” decision. There is actual information you can gather that will tell you how to price your services.

But, before that, you have to choose the right pricing model for each of your services. Hourly, flat fee, combo, etc.

Because if you have no boundaries and no scope and set a flat fee, congratulations, you just made $1/hour. And if you bill hourly but don't account for value, are you really just a task rabbit with a trade account?

This post walks through the six common pricing models, the pros and cons of each, and the red flags that might mean it's time to change things up.

#02 Things I Said Goodbye to in 2025

I wrote this in January of 2025 and shared what I planned to say goodbye to that year. Then I followed up this January with an update on how it actually went.

Final grade: solid B-minus. 🤷‍♀️

If you haven't thought about how you want this year to look and feel, I highly recommend starting with what you DO NOT want. So much easier than being aspirational these days.

Read the 2025 article here.

#03 My Favorite Contract Terms

I despise when women call themselves “nerds” for being technical or into data. Huge pet peeve. Please stop. (I mean, have you ever heard a man say, “I'm such a nerd because I like Excel?” Exactly.)

Being technical is smart. Using numbers to make better decisions is smart. Having better boundaries and making more money because you used that data? Genius.

That brings me to contracts. I flipping LOVE contracts. Blame it on my wedding planner days where I would review and negotiate contracts for my couples. There's a lot of value you can extract from a good contract. And I have seen a LOT of craziness happen when the contract stinks.

Like, for example, if you're having a client issue and don't know how to handle it? Well, do whatever your contract says you will do.

It's.really.that.easy.

Read my fave terms here and do NOT let 2026 be the year you do business without a contract:

#04 Sales Tax Basics

You guys love you some sales tax articles.

We partnered up with CVW Accounting to write a very popular series on sales tax, and then this solo blog we wrote was HUGELY popular.

If you're selling products (and in some states services) you need to understand sales tax. And if you need a bookkeeper, please be sure it's someone who specializes in the interior design industry. There are so many nuances.

Nerd out 😡 on the article here.

#05 Structuring an Interior Design Consultation

I want you to win. I want you to do good work with clients who value what you do.

If you do a consultation as part of your inquiry process to prepare a SOW, please make it structured.

So many designers are like, “I don't want people to think I'm too buttoned up or strict.” or “I want things to feel like me.” Well, the consultation is your opportunity to set the standard for what it's like to work with you. And I really hope it's a professional, streamlined experience.

Show up nervous without a plan while the client leads the meeting (and leads you all over their entire house telling you their life story) OR show up with a plan that is structured, conducive to getting all the info you need, and mindful of your client's time. These approaches convert very differently.

Here's how to structure a consultation that is professional and high converting.

#06 Using Color to Alter The Perceived Size of Space

You guys really liked this article Dr. Gloria wrote about using color to make a space feel bigger/smaller/warmer/cooler. I'm not an interior designer but this was so interesting to me. You can literally make a cold room feel warmer through color alone. Which, when you think about it, is a lot cheaper than upgrading insulation or ripping open walls to fix it later.

Read it here.

#07 Organize Your Interior Design Biz w/ Asana & Google Drive

Well, would you look at that. My two favorite software programs that I use all day, err day. Like could.not.would.not.run.my.business.without.these.

We've worked with private clients who use all sorts of tools - Dropbox, desktop folders 😬, physical folders 😱, Monday, Trello, ClickUp, etc. Whatever floats your boat.

That said, once your processes are solid, Google Drive and Asana are the strongest combo I've seen for managing resources and projects.

Here's how I recommend using them together.

#08 Best Interior Design Education Books

If you didn't go to design school, Dr. Gloria from my team has you covered. She shared the best interior design education books every designer should read.

If you're going into people's homes and making suggestions and changes, it's your responsibility to know this stuff.

#09 Color Theory Basics

This was another hugely popular one written by Dr. Gloria on how to master color theory. I'm not a designer, so I don't even know what that means 💕 but you guys loved it. Read it here.

#10 How to Package A Design Day Service

If I were an interior designer, I would be rolling out this service yesterday.

If your clients would benefit from starting with a smaller engagement before committing to full service (or if you want to add a new revenue stream), try this.

And there you have it, our top ten articles for 2025.

Looking ahead to 2026, we plan to keep up our pace of two articles/month for The Design Brief® (Gloria already has her topics slotted through JUNE. Seriously. #goals). Then, for our regular articles, I'm planning to write 3-4/month and plan to answer more Dear Dakota submissions (if you're a DTS Files member, please submit your questions through the form - not via email - so they automatically plug into our workflow and land in the right place in our Asana).

I'm also planning to share more insights about what I'm learning in my business from everything we've personally tried and tested. While I'm in a different business than most of you (I'm not an interior designer), I think a lot of my mistakes and wins can be helpful for you to apply to your own business. Think different offer structures we've tried. Hiring insights. Marketing lessons. You know … the inner workings of a business.