As an interior designer, when it comes to specifying kitchen, bath, and office cabinetry, there are several options available. In some respects, there are significant differences. But in other respects, specs for cheaper or less customized cabinetry options can be swapped out with few discernible differences. Variations with cabinetry selections exist within internal structure, joinery methods, wood species quality, hardware, and of course, cost.

Let’s begin with top-notch, premium cabinetry options.

When onboarding is done right, your client will feel validated, confident they’ve made the right choice, and taken care of.

And you, the business owner? You’ll feel organized, professional, and in control. You’ve just put yourself in a good spot until it’s time to officially begin the client’s project.

Not to mention, the whole project starts off on the right foot and the client is more likely to trust your process even before you’ve done an OUNCE of design work. 

WOOP WOOP.

But when onboarding is messy (which, based on my experience working with designers since 2017, it probably is!), everything feels harder than necessary, you haven’t built immediate confidence with the client, AND the entire process is impacted.

That’s why I love HoneyBook for creating a seamless, elevated onboarding process that keeps things moving and saves you hours of admin time while providing a luxe experience. HoneyBook is a CRM, Client Relationship Management software, that allows you to streamline all components of client communication in one place and leverage automations and workflows to save time and elevate your client experience. There are other programs that do this as well, but—after working with hundreds of interior design business owners—HoneyBook is my preferred CRM software (and the one we use for our company as well). 

Here’s how you we recommend interior designers use HoneyBook during the onboarding phase of their projects:

Let’s be honest: most client chaos isn’t intentional.

It’s not that your interior design clients WANT to make your life harder or slow their project down.

They just want to make sure their project turns out as great as it possibly can. And they, more often than not, simply don’t know how the process works or what is normal/not normal.

And what happens when they don’t know?

• They go rogue and start shopping on their own, sending you ideas to “help you”.

• Or they delay approvals because they’re waiting for their sister or best friend to weigh in.

• Or they suddenly want to be looped in on every single update and delivery schedule, micromanaging the very process they hired you to handle for them.

Sound familiar?

The truth is interior design clients unknowingly derail their own projects all the time. And unless you set expectations clearly from the start, the entire experience can turn from elevated to exhausting. 

Fast.

The good news?

It’s almost 100% avoidable. (When is it NOT avoidable? When you’re letting bad fit clients infiltrate your pipeline.)

Here’s how to keep your clients in check (for lack of better words) while making them feel totally supported throughout the entire process. Or, as I like to say, “How you can make Nos sound like YESes.”

It could be argued that no single person has influenced American architecture and design more than Frank Lloyd Wright. You likely have some familiarity with his life and work. But you may not realize the extent to which his life was filled with controversy, eccentricity, scandalous love affairs and marriages, tragedy, family desertion, perilous debt, and financial ruin. He was hugely charismatic, also pompous, a narcissist, a curmudgeon, a control freak, a self-promoter, a manipulator, an adulterer, a home wrecker, and a genius.

Read on. His story is just too interesting not to delve into. 

Dear Dakota,

I know I’m undercharging for my services. How do I figure out what other interior designers charge to see where I land?

Join The DTS Files for my advice and answer. It’s NOT what you think.

In my years of teaching college-level interior design students, I use the analogy that the elements of design are like the ingredients in a recipe: flour, sugar, salt. The elements are the building blocks used selectively by designers to create the desired effects in spaces. The principles of design equate to how those ingredients or building blocks are artfully combined to arrive at a flavorful and pleasing outcome. The principles are the strategies. 

The listing of design elements and principles varies by author or theorist, but I have always referred to these as the overriding quintessential elements and principles of interior design. 

We have covered the design elements COLOR and LIGHT in several posts:

    Color Theory 1

    Color Theory 2

    Using color to alter spatial perceptions

    LED lighting

    Lighting design

    Calculating lighting levels

Now let’s tackle how various types of LINE, or linear elements, can be artfully used in interior spaces to arrive at desired effects. 

This sales tax blog series was written by Dakota Design Company and evaluated by CVW Accounting, 2/24/25.

Where interior designers source products and furnishings from impacts profitability and has sales tax implications, and we see a variety of approaches. Traditionally, interior designers purchase from manufacturers, showrooms, and other sources who sell to-the-trade exclusively. Interior designers typically need to show that they have a legitimate interior design business and that they have a sales tax permit that allows them to make tax exempt purchases.

But many interior designers also make purchases—on behalf of their clients—from retail outlets or shops that sell to the general public. They may make this choice for a variety of reasons: there isn’t a design center or to-the-trade only showrooms in the designer’s area, their clients desire merchandise from sources such as Pottery Barn or West Elm, it’s convenient to purchase from high-volume retailers such as Home Goods, or the interior designer sources vintage and antique items for their clients.

These sourcing choices have a significant impact on the amount interior designers can earn in markup on goods sold.

This sales tax blog series was written by Dakota Design Company and evaluated by CVW Accounting, 2/24/25.

Doing the right thing regarding sales tax can be challenging for small business owners. But most business owners do want to do the right thing. And even more business owners want to avoid the risk for tax audits, tax penalties, and payment of back taxes. So in this article we’re going to make sure interior designers are aware of their responsibility. 

If you are purchasing to-the-trade-only tangible goods, and selling them to your clients, you already will have a sales tax permit (that allows you to make purchases without paying sales tax), and should understand how to invoice your clients for the appropriate amount of sales tax on sales, and how and when to remit those tax dollars to your state Department of Revenue for state and local sales tax. For any interior designer who needs a refresher on these sales tax basics, please read this post that covers all this need-to-know information. 

Calculating sales tax on a product or service  is fairly simple. First you need to determine whether the item or service is taxable, and if so, you need to know the applicable tax rate. Most states’ Department of Revenue websites include a sales tax calculator (look for something called Sales Tax Rate Calculator, or look for Calculate Sales Tax Rate). By entering the applicable zip code, you can find the correct tax rate for that area.