Leo Wood • Interior Designer

At Kinder, we believe in being upfront about fees and project costs from the very first conversation.

Money is one of the hardest things to talk about openly in this industry, but clarity on both sides is what allows us to give the best advice and the best service.

So what does it cost to work with us? If we are providing full interior design services, project and procurement, our fees usually come to around 15 to 20% of the build cost.

To put that in context, a £300,000 project (which might involve building works such as a side return, new kitchen and low level refurb throughout a house, likely running over 8 to 12 months) would typically involve designer fees of around £50,000 on top.

Most people think of the budget their contractor gives them as the whole picture but design fees (whether those of an architect or interior designer) are calculated against the build cost before VAT, and therefore are “on top”. This is such a common error of communication as once VAT, fixtures, fittings and design fees are allowed for, that £300,000 builder quote could easily cost closer to £450,000.

Recognising the full project budget from end to end is the single most useful thing for a client to understand well before the ground gets broken, so we always like to have frank conversations to help our clients map out their likely full project budget at the very beginning of our design process.

Given the insanely high cost of renovating, we completely recognise many projects can’t afford full interior services. But an interior designer can be such a useful specialist to have on board when you’re navigating endless questions and costs, and there ways to make it work.

For projects with tighter budgets, we offer daily and hourly design consultancy services and have also just launched a new ‘Design Concept only’ package, where we can develop a visual and technical “road map” for a project, giving our clients what they need to comfortably then go it alone.

It goes without saying that every project is different, so think of these figures as the start of a conversation rather than a quote. I’ve written more about this in our monthly journal - sign up via the link in bio.