Interior Design Standard

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Interior Design Standard Sandra Funk | Business Education for Interior Designers | 25 years in the industry | As seen in H&G, AD, ELLE, LUXE, HB, BOH

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You know that little feeling you’re trying to ignore because the project looks fantastic, but something just isn’t right...
10/11/2026

You know that little feeling you’re trying to ignore because the project looks fantastic, but something just isn’t right? Listen to it. That’s your intuition, and it’s gold when you’re deciding which projects to take on and which ones will make you crazy. It takes in far more than your brain can consciously process, so it’s worth the listen.

I built my call script over eighteen years in my firm, and it’s designed to pull those red flags out early, if they’re there. Trust. https://interiordesignstandard.com/dream-clients/

10/10/2026

For years, clients told me their deadline, their budget, when they'd like to meet next and when they'd like to pay. Then all of a sudden, those conversations stopped.

Nothing changed but me. I decided how I work best, laid it out in my potential client presentation, and said it with no negotiability.

What's the one thing your clients keep trying to decide for you?

Everything is energy. And, every space carries an energy, that you feel even before you can name it.Walk into an ill-con...
10/08/2026

Everything is energy. And, every space carries an energy, that you feel even before you can name it.

Walk into an ill-considered grocery store, with scuffed floors, fluorescent lights and metal racks, and something in you contracts. Step into a room with candles flickering, books and antiques, a fire roaring and a dog to snuggle, and something in you exhales.

That exhale is your nervous system finding peace. It's what a well considered home gives back to everyone who enters.

How does your environment make you feel?

On every project in my firm, I tracked four numbers: total square footage, total fees collected, total time spent, and t...
10/07/2026

On every project in my firm, I tracked four numbers: total square footage, total fees collected, total time spent, and total spent on furnishings.

Together they told me what a project was really worth, and they help set the fee for the next one.

Save this for your next project close-out. Which of the four do you track now?

10/06/2026

Most of us secretly hope the next project will fix it: a better client, a bigger budget, an easier process. When the system underneath is off, the same problems show up again at a higher price.

What changes the outcome is structure: a clear process, clean boundaries, and pricing that holds. Once those are in place, profit stops leaking out of every project.

Where is your profit leaking now?

With Danielle Felicione of Felicione Interiors.

Four boundaries I held in my firm. Each one is decided before the project starts, so there is nothing to negotiate when ...
10/03/2026

Four boundaries I held in my firm. Each one is decided before the project starts, so there is nothing to negotiate when a client pushes.

One: my fee. I've never discounted it.
Two: one round of revisions per phase, one for conceptual design and one for detailed design.
Three: no sit-testing furniture, that's not how our industry works, trust that I go to vendors to test comfort and quality on your behalf.
Four: say it up front, then keep reiterating it as the project unfolds.

Which one would change your next project?

10/01/2026

Would you ask Bloomingdale's to send you a receipt of what THEY paid for a sweater you purchased there? It's inconceivable. And it's just as absurd for a client to ask that of you.

A designer asked me what to tell a client who wants itemized receipts for everything she purchased on their behalf.

You are the seller of the goods. You purchase at to-the-trade pricing and you sell to your client at whatever price you set (I suggest retail, but you do you). It doesn't need to go any further than that.

In my firm, the proposal is the receipt.

Showing all of your receipts and vendors and markups and margins is like walking around with your skeleton on the outside of your body.

It's not b!tchy or ballsy; it's business. Keep your insides on the inside.

The full breakdown on how I price: https://interiordesignstandard.com/interior-design-pricing/

Every room I designed was a puzzle before it was ever a picture. This laundry room started as an underutilized extra roo...
09/30/2026

Every room I designed was a puzzle before it was ever a picture. This laundry room started as an underutilized extra room with an original 1920s window and radiator that I wanted to leave exactly as they were. So the plan worked around them: how it functions, what it fits, where people walk, where everything lands. The floor plan came first and the pretty came after. My love of puzzles, math and measurements showing through, I guess.

Pricing works the same way. Solve the overall project investment before you pitch, and the number either works or it doesn't. The last slide is how I approach that puzzle.

What original detail have you designed around that you're glad you kept?

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The antiques in my living room were paid for once. When I light the candles at night, I don't think about what any of it...
09/29/2026

The antiques in my living room were paid for once. When I light the candles at night, I don't think about what any of it cost. I think about how the room feels.

A flat fee gives your client that same feeling. Hourly billing asks them to re-evaluate you every time an invoice lands, which is exactly why hourly clients question everything.

The full breakdown on flat fee pricing: https://interiordesignstandard.com/interior-design-pricing/

AI modified image (added faux art to a blank TV)

Twenty years into her career, Caroline Kopp told me her systems were "definitely not organized in a way that is repeatab...
09/28/2026

Twenty years into her career, Caroline Kopp told me her systems were "definitely not organized in a way that is repeatable, trainable, etc."

Most designers with a long career carry the whole process in their heads. That works until you try to hand a project to someone else. The Standard puts the process on paper: the contract, the fee structure, and the client process, written once and used on every project.

Thank you, Caroline, for saying it so plainly.

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Montclair, NJ

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