Hiring an interior designer will cost money, as is the case with hiring any other professional. Home interior design fees range widely depending on the reputation of the interior designer, your location and the nature of your project. How interior design fees are calculated will also vary.

Interior Designer Costs and Quality

Interior design costs are important, especially if you’re working on a budget. However, beware of interior designers offering exceptionally cheap services. Clichéd though it is, you usually get what you pay for when interior design fees fall well below the average. When getting interior design quotes, it is common practice to ignore estimates that are extremely low or high, and to follow up on those that fall right in the middle.

Interior Designers and Reputation

Some interior designer costs are high for no apparent reason. Other interior design fees are expensive because of the designer’s experience and reputation. For example, if you want to pay for an interior designer whose work is published in high-end decorating publications, you can expect interior design fees to be higher than normal.

Types of Interior Design Fees

Interior designers calculate fees in a number of ways. Following are some of the more common interior design methods of payment you may run into.

Commission-Based Interior Design Costs

Commission-based interior designers may work for specific retailers. This may make your interior designer fees lower, as you pay for product but not the interior designer’s time. The designer, however, may be more concerned with persuading you into making expensive purchases (which up her commission) and less concerned with meeting your design needs.

Cost Plus, or Surcharge Interior Designer Fees

Cost plus interior design fees, or surcharge fees, bill a percentage of all services and purchases the interior designer brings to the project. A cost plus fee isn’t a great option for homeowners for two reasons:

• Homeowners don’t know what discounts the designer gets on retail purchases, so it’s hard to say what the interior designer makes on each purchase.
• If the surcharge is added to all services, homeowners could pay a percentage of the interior designer’s services, meaning they pay a surcharge for services they’re already paying for.

Flat Rate Interior Design Fees

A flat rate fee is predetermined based on the size of your home design project. Flat rate interior designer costs may be based on estimated hours or square footage. If you chose an interior designer who uses flat rate fees, be sure that your contract states that no additional services or fees will be added to what is listed in the contract.

Interior Designers’ Fees and Hourly Rates

Some interior designers charge an hourly rate for their services, which can save you money if you use the designer mostly for advice and plan on doing most of the design implementation yourself. Hourly rate will depend on the reputation of the interior designer, location and other factors. According to interior design professionals at FurnitureDecorating.com, these hourly rates can range from $60 to $300.