My wife is an Interior Designer, and has started working on a regular basis with a builder/remodeler. He uses her to consult with clients who want, say, to remodel a bathroom, and she does all the usual designer things like space planning, material and color selections, etc.
He’s already used her on 4 jobs, for about 35 hours of work last month, which is great for her.
He’s thinking he’d like to pay her based on a percent value of the job, vs. by the hour (9% vs 95.00/hr). We haven’t worked up the numbers on that yet, but it looks to be comparable.
I was wondering if any of y’all work with a designer on a regular basis, and if so, how you work the money — hourly? % of job? or some other way?
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I'm an architect not a designer, but the issues are similar. I have a couple of contractors I work with regularly. Sometimes they refer me to clients, sometimes I refer them. I do a lot of similar work - kitchen and bath design, but generally less handholding than an interior designer in terms of picking out materials. I find it's easier for us each to just have our separate contracts with the owner. I charge on an hourly basis with a maximum of 10 to 15% of the construction costs. (Varies by the job and the detail asked for in the drawings and how much construction observation I end up doing.) My average actual costs are around 7%, they would be more if I had to go do all the picking out of materials. I do have to make drawings that are detailed enough to make the various building departments in our county happy.
Edited 5/17/2008 11:46 am ET by tea
I just talked to a pair of designers this week; they want me to help them out. They said they take my proposal for the work, plus any other expenses, and add 20% for their fee.
They pay me, btw, not the client, which means I don't have the control, which I'm not crazy about, but can live with. For now.
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In my limited experience, varying primarily with the designers involvement in the job (advisory, or actually providing materials or furnishings, up to coordinating other trades and cad work) I'd put the range I've seen at 8-30% of the job.
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I work with one interior designer (actually he's more of an exterior designer) and I subcontract to him. We consult on the project - usually he knows what he wants it to look like and hires me to make it work - and then he sells it, I do it, he pays me and marks me up to the homeowner.
So, I agree the ID should be the homeowner's agent rather than the contractor's.
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But you all knew that. I detailed it extensively in my blog.