Planning a consultation, full-service design, room refresh, space planning, furniture layout, styling, color, or lighting design? Post free on Project Genie and let interior design pros bid for your exclusive lead - one best-fit match, no spam.
What's Included Under Interior Design
This category covers space planning, material and furniture selection, color and lighting consultation, and overall room or whole-home design -- the planning and aesthetic side of a space, rather than the construction side of it. If your job involves knocking down walls, moving plumbing or electrical, or any other structural change, that work itself belongs under the relevant contractor category (remodeling, plumbing, electrical, and so on); a design job here can absolutely inform that work, but the two are typically separate jobs handled by different kinds of Service Professionals, even on the same project. Post here for anything from a single-room refresh and furniture selection to full space planning for a renovation you're also having built separately.
Interior Designer vs. General Contractor: What Each Actually Does
This is one of the most common points of confusion when posting a home project, and it's worth being clear about upfront. An interior designer or decorator plans how a space looks and functions -- layout, color, materials, furniture, lighting -- and produces a plan, mood board, or set of specifications for how the finished space should come together. A general contractor executes construction and structural work -- building, plumbing, electrical, framing -- based on a plan, whether that plan comes from a designer, an architect, or the contractor's own default approach. Neither role automatically includes the other: a designer generally doesn't do construction work, and a contractor generally doesn't provide detailed aesthetic planning beyond basic finish selection. If your project involves both a design vision and physical construction, you likely need both, and it's worth thinking about the order below before posting either job.
Sequencing: Design First, Then Construction (Usually)
For a project involving both design and construction, having a design plan finished before a contractor starts work generally leads to a smoother, more predictable project -- the contractor is executing a defined plan rather than making aesthetic decisions on the fly mid-build, which tends to cause delays and change orders. That said, this isn't a strict rule for every project. A simple furniture and decor refresh with no construction involved needs a designer alone. A straightforward renovation where you already know exactly what you want (a specific kitchen layout, chosen materials) may not need a separate design phase at all. If you're not sure which situation you're in, describing your project honestly in your job post -- including whether any construction is planned -- helps a Service Professional tell you whether you need design work, contractor work, or both, and in what order.
What a Design Consultation Actually Includes
A design consultation typically covers an initial assessment of the space, a discussion of your style preferences and budget range, and some combination of a mood board, floor plan, or material/furniture recommendations, depending on scope. A larger, full-project engagement typically adds ongoing selection and coordination through to completion, rather than a single set of recommendations handed off upfront. What a design consultation does not include: any construction, permitting, or structural work -- those stay with a contractor even when the same project involves both. If you're looking for design help specifically to prepare for a renovation you'll have built separately, saying so in your post helps a designer scope their deliverables to match what your contractor will actually need to work from.
What Helps a Service Professional Bid Accurately
The details that help most: which room(s) or space you're focused on, your general style preferences if you have any in mind, a general budget range, and whether construction work is planned alongside the design work. Bids can vary significantly depending on the scope of deliverables -- a single consultation with a mood board is a very different engagement than full project management through to installation, and neither is automatically the "right" scope without knowing what you actually need. Once you have a few bids in hand, here's how to compare them beyond just the price, since for design work the deliverables and level of involvement matter as much as the number itself. It's worth asking each Service Professional exactly what's included for their quoted price -- some structure pricing as a flat fee for defined deliverables, others bill hourly with no fixed cap, and knowing which model you're being quoted matters more here than in most other categories, since the same-sounding number can mean very different things depending on the structure behind it.
Working With a Designer Through to Completion
How involved a designer stays after the initial plan is handed over varies by engagement, and it's worth clarifying upfront rather than assuming. Some designers deliver a plan and step back, leaving you (or your contractor) to source materials and furniture and manage installation yourselves. Others stay involved through sourcing, ordering, and coordinating delivery and installation, which is a meaningfully bigger scope of work and should be priced and described as such. If your project also involves a contractor, it's worth asking early whether the designer expects to communicate directly with the contractor during the build, or whether that coordination is left to you -- a designer who's factored direct contractor coordination into their process tends to catch material or timeline conflicts earlier than one who hands off a plan and has no further involvement. Neither approach is inherently better; it depends on how much hands-on management you want to do yourself versus have handled for you, and it's a reasonable, specific thing to ask about before comparing bids on price alone.
Interior Design services we offer
Interior Design Consultation
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Full-Service Interior Design
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Room Redesign / Refresh
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Space Planning
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Furniture Layout Planning
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Home Styling
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Color Consultation
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Lighting Design
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Window Treatment Design
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Art & Decor Selection
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Kitchen Design
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Bathroom Design
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Office / Workspace Design
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Closet Design
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Nursery / Kids Room Design
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Virtual Interior Design
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Mood Boards & Concept Design
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3D Renderings
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