Interior Design Markups, Day Rates, and Flat Fees

TL;DR

✔ Every purchase goes through your firm. When a client insists on purchasing, your contract hands them full responsibility for receiving, inspecting, damage, and returns.

Internet sources get treated like any other source. Purchase order, receiver, procurement management fee.

✔ There is no industry standard markup. 15 to 20 percent is too low. Get to 30 to 35 percent minimum. 45 to 60 percent is available to you. No upper limit.

✔ Charge on designer net, never wholesale. The gap between them is yours.

✔ Your time always has value. Not on install day. Not out of town. Not in transit.

✔ A day rate is 12 hours at your hourly rate, packaged as one number.

✔ Flat fees work on every project type. Guesstimating your hours is not a formula.

Episode Highlights

(02:00) Handling internet purchases, whether you buy or your client does

(09:30) The conversation that ends the client purchasing debate for good

(14:00) The real markup ranges, and the thousand dollar gap you give away on every rug

(24:00) Is your time ever free? Hard no.

(28:30) Day rate math, live on the calculator

(31:30) Flat fees on full construction, and the four money conversations that come first

“How do I handle internet purchases, whether it’s me buying or my client?”

Here is the reframe. An internet purchase should not be much different from buying at a quality retail source. Notice I said retail. I did not say trade. RH, Zara Home, 1stDibs, fine antiques dealers are not trade names.

Which means your homework is their policies. Do they accept returns? In what timeframe? In what condition? Who pays return freight? I have bought from 1stDibs for clients and it was simple, because I checked first. Do not presume. We all know what that does.

Sourcing online is simply sourcing. Same process you use for trade, and that work sits inside your design talent investment.

That phrase is a sticky note. Design talent investment. Not design fee. Not design service fee. Your client is investing in your talent. Let the language say so.

Every purchase goes through your firm

All purchases go through the design firm. Not a chaotic mishmash where the firm buys a few things and the client buys a few others.

When you allow it, you need a very distinctive clause in your contract. Anything the client purchases, the client owns completely. They receive it. They inspect it. They handle damage claims, returns, replacements, repairs. On install day it needs to be on site and ready, and you are not touching it beyond moving it around a room.

That may sound harsh. You cannot succeed in design when you are not leading the client and the project to a successful conclusion, and leading means taking responsibility. In my business, the buck always stopped with me.

My clients never bought outside. Not because I forbade it, but because once they understood what it meant, they opted out themselves. “I have to receive it? Inspect it? “And when there’s a problem, you’re not handling it?” “No, I am not.” “Okay, Melissa, you win.”

Why I call it a procurement management fee

I do not call it a markup. Call it procurement management, purchasing management, or product management. It applies to every element your firm purchases: finishes, fixtures, lighting, furnishings, draperies, soft goods, accessories, artwork, rugs, flooring. You are the expert in managing the goods, and whether it came from the internet, a trade showroom, or a local retailer, you are still earning it. And there are 10 specific steps required with each and every element ordered. 

“What are the industry standard markup percentages?”

There is no standard. When somebody tells you there is, they are lying to you. There are probably 15 ways to slice this, which is exactly why it feels chaotic.

Here is what I actually see:

➜ 15 to 20 percent. I work with firms here and bring them up! 

➜ 30 to 35 percent. This is where I want you at a minimum.

➜ 45 to 60 percent. Entirely available. 45% is the highest I have seen done transparently, by designers serving baby boomer and older clients who are completely comfortable with it.

Transparency is your call, not mine. Many designers I work with will not do anything that is not fully transparent, and I respect that deeply. It’s how I operated for 30 years. Others stretch further. Whatever you choose, you have to feel in integrity with it. 

Charge on designer net, never wholesale

When you have wholesale pricing, do not use it as your baseline. It is too low. Charge your percentage on designer net and keep the gap.

A Loloi rug at designer net runs $2,500. The same rug at wholesale is $1,500. That is a thousand dollar gap on one rug, and I am comfortable with you keeping it. When you have wholesale access, you earned it through volume or a buying group.

The word I never use

Discount. Ever. A discount impairs value. A savings does not. When your clients respond to retail less 10% or retail less 20%, call it VIP savings. Same math, completely different message.

Retail itself lost its spine around 2008 when the internet came up hard and fast. Between IMAP and MSRP, what should be retail is on super sale any given day. Which is why I want you sourcing trade resources that are not all over the internet. Their pricing is what my friend at Modern History beautifully calls approachable. Not affordable. Approachable is friendly. Original for less.

“Does my client ever receive my time at no charge? Drapery install day? Out-of-town installs?

Hard no. Absolutely not. Completely unnecessary.

I routinely showed up at my installs, and my clients invested in my talent to have me there. You are leading the install. That has value.

Out of town, you bill travel time and you bill the transportation. Plane time, drive time, boat time. All of it. This is not greed. Your time and your talent are a small percent of priceless, because your client enjoys that transformation 24/7/365 for 15 to 20 years.

Here is why showing up pays for itself. On a job years ago I walked in as the painters cracked the can, brush in hand, about to tap the ceiling in fuchsia. Wrong hue entirely. I was there to catch it. Worth my fee? You bet.

How to calculate your day rate

A day rate is 12 hours at your hourly rate. Even when you think you will only work six or eight, you belong to that client for a solid 12. Let’s run it live. $225 an hour times 12 is $2,700. I would turn that into $2,750, because $2,750 sounds like less than $2,700 coming out of your mouth. That is a mnemonic device and it works. I put a 50 or a 25 on the end of everything.

Your gut check: The number sticking in your throat is usually the right number. When it rolls out easily, it is too low. And never say, “That’s 12 hours,” to a client. Package the rate and deliver one number.

Downtime on faraway projects? There is none. The only downtime is sleeping. You are on, taking meals with the client, the entire time. Bill accordingly.

“How do I figure flat fees for full construction?”

Flat fees work everywhere. New build, reno remodel, furnishings only, and even the scrambled egg project. That includes project management, which I call design implementation.

I have five foolproof formulas, and the full trainings with the math are on Universal Furniture’s YouTube channel under their event sessions. What I will give you here are the guardrails.

➜ You destroy your flat fee integrity the moment you introduce an hourly rate into the same project. You cannot do both.

➜ Square footage works only on a whole home or an entire floor. Not per room. Not on a kitchen. Not on a bath. Kitchen and bath have their own calculation. Apply square footage to a single room and you lose every time.

➜ Percent of project investment requires the total project investment, which means the contractor or builder has to give it to you.

➜ Per room fees need genuinely individual rooms. No hallways, landings, or stairs folded in at no charge. Those are not complimentary.

➜ Guesstimating your hours is not a flat fee formula. I use it as a backup check, then add a 1.5 multiplier, because I know how far off designers are on billable hours and I want you protected from that generous spirit of yours.

The four money conversations that come first

Before you present a single number, you need four money conversations inside design discovery. I need to know their number before you share yours.

When they say “I don’t know,” that is baloney. They have a number. Draw it out with your experience:

“In my experience, a project of this type, for product and design talent investment, realistically runs $150K to $250K. Where are you in that range?”

Make it a $100K range. Include design fees. See where they land. When they answer, “We were thinking 75K,” that is a red flag. You revise the scope. You do not revise your rate, and you do not gift them the difference.

Flat fees also require a different design discovery than hourly did. Mine is paid. Complimentary Zoom, then the moment you leave your office you are paid and delivering high value. When your discovery is still built for hourly, your flat rates will stall out.

FAQs

Should I let my client buy their own furniture? No. All purchases should go through your firm so responsibility is completely clear. When a client insists, your contract needs a clause making them fully responsible for receiving, inspecting, damage claims, returns, and having the piece on site and ready for install.

What markup should an interior designer charge? There is no industry standard. 15 to 20 percent is very low. 30 to 35 percent is a healthy target. 45 to 60 percent is achievable, with 45 percent the highest I have seen charged transparently.

Should I calculate markup on wholesale or designer net? Designer net. Wholesale is too low a basis. Charge your percentage on designer net and keep the gap between the two. On one rug that gap can be a thousand dollars.

Do I charge for install day and travel time? Yes. Your time always has value. Bill install days, travel time, and travel expenses including transportation. Use a day rate for full days.

How do I calculate a designer day rate? Multiply your hourly rate by 12. At $225 an hour that is $2,700, packaged as $2,750. Present it as a single number, never as an hourly breakdown.

Can I use flat fees on new construction? Yes. Flat fees work on new builds, renovations, furnishings only, and mixed scope projects. Square footage applies only to a full home or full floor, never per room, and kitchens and baths require their own calculation.

Come Find the Sources Nobody Knows About

I am bringing back my High Point Designer VIP Tour. Friday, October 16th, 2026 8:30 to 4:30, stretch limo, pickup at IHFC, breakfast and gourmet lunch included, and 15 to 24 talented designers who are about to become your new besties. We skip the big box sources and go find the outliers who will customize for you. Every designer is only as good as their sources.

Then join me Saturday, October 17th at 10:00 AM in the Universal Furniture training room for Double Your Revenue in Half the Time with Flat Fees. And for the process behind all of this, grab your copy of Design Discovery: The Proven Process to Land Ideal Clients and Grow Profit.

Unscripted is an episode we include a month and nothing is off the table. Episodes drop every Monday on all others. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and DM me your questions. Yours could be the one I answer next. 

About Melissa Galt

Melissa Galt is a business coach for interior designers and the founder of Design Business Freedom. Over three decades she built a multiple seven figure design practice, and today she helps designers worldwide raise their fees, land ideal clients, and build profitable practices without the burnout or the sacrifice.

She is the author of Design Discovery: The Proven Process to Land Ideal Clients and Grow Profit,  a speaker at High Point Market, Design Edge, and Universal Furniture, and host of the Design Business Freedom podcast. Design is a complicated business. Her mission is to simplify it so you can win big.

Listen to this episode on Design Business Freedom™ Podcast – Episode 203

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