Tag Archive for: how we work

How we charge for design

We know what works best for certain clients may not work well for others, therefore we offer two options as to how we charge for our design fees.

Depending on the project, we will either charge a flat design fee or an hourly fee. There are many factors involved in making this decision – here’s a brief summary of each.

The flat design fee: Most of our existing clients prefer this method. The way we arrive at the flat fee depends on three criteria:

1. The scope of the project – What is the size of the project and what services are needed? We create a check list and compare your project against similar recent projects.

2. The intended budget for design services as well as product and project management. For example, is the client requesting custom drawings? Or do they need to see all furnishings in person? If so, we’ll need to account for additional time in our fee. Again, based on past projects, we are able to estimate a budget so that there are no surprises from the start!

3. The expected duration of the project. Do we have six months to complete the project from start to finish or Is there a deadline looming that we have to meet? This is important as we need to know if we will need to increase our support staff.


Hourly fee: If we feel that an hourly will work best for the project, we will present an estimate for the number of hours we believe the overall project will take. We’re able to arrive at this number by looking at similar past projects that we’ve tracked (as we do with all of our projects) (just as aside…from the start of every full project, each week our clients are given an update outlining what we’ve accomplished as well as what we anticipate we will work on the following week) Should we find that we are exceeding our estimate, the project is reviewed and evaluated with the client and a plan is implemented.

So there you have it. A basic explanation to very involved question! Have additional questions? Please call us…we’d love to talk design!

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How we work: Our Initial Consultation

I’m always asked how we work so, of course, I thought this could be the perfect opportunity for a blog post.

It’s always starts with a phone call.   After a 10 – 20 conversation and we like what each other has to say, we’ll schedule an in-home 1.5 hour to 2 hour consultation.

This is a paid consult is where you’ll be left with a lot of creative and exciting ideas.   

Before our meeting, we ask (so when I say “we” I mean Leslie, my Project Manager, aka “work-wife”) that you fill out our online questionnaire.  In order to get the most out of our time, you’ll share your Pinterest inspiration boards or magazine clippings.

If you’re looking for help with your current home, we’ll start with a tour of your entire home and a run through of what you love and what you hate about it.  What are your challenges?  If it’s a new build, we’ll review the blueprints.

We’ll discuss if you’d like to work in stages (most do) or do you want the entire house designed at once (we can more than handle that too).   We’ll discuss the overall scope of work for your project and review a timeline or any deadlines you might have.

We’ll determine if the work will be turnkey (we design and implement) or if you are looking only for creative input (we hand our spec sheets over to you to handle all purchasing and project management)

We’ll then talk about which would benefit you more:  hourly or a flat fee? (need more details on that?  Read about that here.

We won’t leave before reviewing your intended budget.  We’ll help you figure out what this might be by showing you similar size design projects that we’ve worked on in the past.  

I hope this helps to understand the first step of our Design Process.  

Have more questions?  I’d love to answer them. Please reach me at info@fioriinteriordesign.com or call 201-848-9797.

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