How Do Interior Designers Charge? Fixed Fee vs Hourly vs Percentage vs Procurement

Interior designers commonly charge hourly, by fixed project fee, as a percentage of project cost, through procurement/product margins, or with a hybrid of those models. No model is automatically better. The important thing is that you can calculate what triggers additional cost and what work the fee buys.

How does hourly interior design pricing work?

You pay for time spent. This can suit consultations and evolving scopes, but the final cost is less certain. Ask whether travel, emails, supplier calls, revisions and site meetings are billable.

Current Australian pricing guides vary, but both Hipages and Bark show experienced residential rates can run well into the hundreds of dollars per hour.

How does a fixed fee work?

A fixed fee prices a defined scope rather than every hour. It gives better cost certainty if the deliverables, revisions and exclusions are clear. The risk is scope creep: anything outside the proposal can become an extra.

How does percentage pricing work?

Some designers charge a percentage of construction or furnishing spend. Bark's 2026 guide says percentage models around 10–20% appear in higher-end residential work. If your designer uses this structure, ask what costs are included in the percentage base and whether the fee rises automatically when product cost rises.

What is a procurement fee or furniture markup?

This compensates the business for supplier sourcing, quotes, ordering, tracking, substitutions, freight, warehousing, installation and defects. It may be a percentage, a product margin, a fixed procurement fee or a disclosed combination.

A recent Brisbane Reddit discussion demonstrates the consumer confusion around trade discounts and fees: some commenters valued designers who passed on discounts, while others described different studio models. Treat the thread as anecdotal; use it to know which questions to ask.

Which fee model should you choose?

• One-off advice: hourly or consultation fee can be clean.
• Defined room/project: fixed fee can provide clarity.
• Large evolving project: percentage or hybrid models may align with project scale.
• Furniture-heavy execution: understand procurement pricing separately from design.

For the operational side, read DORSA's residential furniture procurement fee guide.

Bottom line

The best fee structure is the one you can audit. You should be able to explain how the designer earns money, what creates extra fees, whether furniture margins exist and what happens when scope changes.