Understanding Your Design Investment

​

How We'll Work Together

​

Welcome. This guide exists for one reason: so that you never have to guess what's happening

with your time or your money. Let's walk through it together.

​

MY PHILOSOPHY ON VALUE AND BUDGET

Interior design is a luxury service, and I treat it that way — with intention, care, and respect for the investment you're making.

My role is not to find the cheapest option available. It's to bring you the best value within your budget — to be honest about what that budget can achieve, and realistic about what it can't. Sometimes the most valuable thing I do is tell you that something isn't possible before you've spent money finding out.

If we ever need to bring a project's cost down — and sometimes we will — the right way to do it is to thoughtfully reduce the scope: fewer rooms, a later phase, a simplified treatment. What we won't do is diminish the quality of the design itself. You're investing in experience, judgment, and access, and those don't come in a smaller size.

​

PART ONE: WHERE THE HOURS GO

I've been a designer for over 25 years, and the most common thing clients tell me a few months in is: “I had no idea how much was happening behind the scenes.”

That's by design — making this feel effortless is my job. But you should never be surprised by an invoice. Here's what a design hour actually contains:

​

• Research and sourcing — finding the right item means reviewing dozens of options, checking specs, dimensions, and availability. The fixture you saw in a presentation may have been chosen from a field of thirty (or more).

• Price comparison — across retailers, trade sources, and vendors, including shipping costs, lead times, and return policies.

• Vendor and contractor coordination — confirming specs, chasing answers, and making sure everyone has what they need before they need it.

• Planning and documentation — every selection tracked, every measurement verified, in your live project document.

• Renderings and mood boards — so you can see decisions before you spend money on them.

• The creative eye — this is the heart of what you're hiring. Anyone can source a sofa or draw a layout; the skill is composing them — reading a home's architecture, sensing the direction you're drawn to, and shaping selections so each room flows into the next and everything works together as one vision. It's the essence of a designer's experience, and it's present in every decision I make on your behalf.

• Experience — 25 years of knowing what works, what lasts, and what will still look right next year. This is the part you can't see, and it's where the value compounds: I help you be strategic about where to invest and where to hold back, so your budget goes toward what matters most to you.

​

The early months of a project are the most research-intensive. If things feel quiet at first, that's the foundation being built — visible momentum follows.

​

“I just need a few pieces of furniture” — what that still involves

​

Clients are often surprised that furniture-only projects still carry real design time. Here's why: before a single item is selected, I need measurements of your home or a full plan to work from — then I recreate that plan myself so I can confirm every piece fits and determine the best arrangement. From there, I go to my trade sources to find the best fit — the right scale, the right fabric, at a price that respects your budget. Those unseen early hours are what ensure the sofa you fall in love with is also the sofa that actually fits the room.

​

PART TWO: REALISTIC TIME BY ROOM

A note before these numbers: the hours below are rough averages only — planning guides, not hard numbers.

Every project is unique. Yours may take more time or less depending on its nuances — the scope, the decisions already made, how many trades are involved, and how quickly selections come together. I will always tell you honestly where your project stands relative to these ranges.

​

Most of my clients engage me for the full process: the design work, the oversight, procurement, and execution. So each line below shows both, plus the total.

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So a realistic example: a medium-sized bathroom, designed fully and executed with my managing the process, is roughly a 40-hour engagement. Multiplied by my hourly rate, you can plan for design time the same way you plan for tile.

​

PART THREE: YOUR FURNITURE BUDGET

The numbers that follow show typical investment ranges for the furniture and decor items clients ask about most often. They're meant to help you orient — to locate yourself before we ever talk numbers. Wherever you find yourself in these ranges, my job is the same: to bring you the best possible value and a home you love.

These amounts are not exact — they're meant to give you a ballpark of what to expect. Amounts can go lower (or higher) depending on where we source furniture and related items.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

​​​​​

​​*A good rule of thumb is to note that overall, fully finished decor generally runs about 20% of the home value. Finished decor includes furniture, rugs, wallpaper, soft furnishings (window coverings, bedding, pillows) and accessories. This percentage does not include design hours, construction, or associated construction costs.

​

PART FOUR: HOW WE STAY ON THE SAME PAGE

• Itemized invoices — my invoices arrive monthly, itemized by date and task — you'll always see exactly where your hours went.

• Clear fees — all fees — hourly rate, finder's fees, purchasing — are spelled out in my service agreement before we begin.

• A live project document — your selections, plans, and notes grow with your project; you can see the work as it accumulates.

• Flexible pacing — at any point, we can talk about pacing — smaller scopes, room by room, or specific tasks only. My job is to bring you the most value from every hour and every dollar we invest together.

​

Beauty doesn't happen by accident. It's planned, budgeted, and built — with purpose.