Quote:
Originally Posted by stradt03
What was the scope of work that you had them do? Can you give an idea of how much they charged?
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The main project was a whole-house renovation of an historic house in Durham, which involved concepts for the rooms and consulting on our design choices. We saw several different business models in working with designers, including designers beyond those we worked with here:
1) Per square foot: Some designers wanted a per-square foot number, ranging from $4 psf for "basic" services in non-wet rooms (furniture layout and limited selection, electrical planning with lighting schemes, etc.) to $8 psf/$20 psf for bathroom and kitchen design, respectively. In this case we could have done some purchasing ourselves, though we also could have bought through the designer at a markup.
2) Percentage of purchase: other designers wanted, varyingly, percentage of spend or that we purchase furnishings through them, at a markup. On the one hand, you get access to a wider range of furnishings than are available through stores; on the other hand, you lose your ability to bargain shop, something we did a lot of by shopping Crate & Barrel, Furnitureland South clearance center, etc.
3) Hourly rate: we got quotes for anywhere between $85 and $140 an hour for design services. Suspect we could have found a little cheaper and a lot more expensive. We worked with designer in the low and mid ends of those ranges and thought both did a great job.
We were on a tight budget on the project because -- well, as you can see at the URL, we had to fix part of a 90 year old slate roof, etc.! In the end we really wanted the freedom to select our own materials. The designers we worked with were happy to, say, let us SMS them photos of furniture we saw at a store and get a yes/no answer (and billed us hourly for their time), or to ride with us for an hour to The Tile Shop and help pick out cheap tile rather than going through a store they partnered with. One of them in helping us find drapes picked a bunch at JCPenney which saved us a ton. The key is, let them know your budget and goals up front and make sure you are clear about what you do and don't want to do yourself.
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