How Much Does an Interior Designer Cost in the UK?
The honest answer is: it depends on how much of the project you want me to hold. A two-hour visit with a mood board is a few hundred pounds. A single room, fully designed, starts in the low thousands. A whole house, from first conversation through installation, is a different order of work. None of that should be mysterious, which is why I publish prices.
At The Levant House, a discovery call is free. Fifteen to thirty minutes on the phone or on a video call, so we can work out whether we are a good fit. If we are, an in-home consultation starts from £250. That visit is about two hours. I walk the rooms with you, take measurements and photographs, and you leave with a mood board and a set of recommendations you can act on even if you never hire me again.
Single-room design starts from £1,500. Multi-room work, three rooms or more, starts from £5,000. Full property design starts from £10,000, and a full-service whole house, including project management and the final styling layer, starts from £15,000. Ad-hoc consultancy, if you already know what you need and just want a trained eye in the room, is £125 an hour. All of those figures are subject to VAT, and I always send a fixed proposal before anything begins.
Furniture, paint, fabrics, lighting and joinery sit on top of the design fee. That is the bit people forget to budget. A room scheme is not finished when the drawings are finished. I source through trade accounts, pass the discounts on to you, and charge a procurement fee of 10 to 15 percent of the trade prices. Clients are often surprised that the saving on the pieces covers more than the fee.
What you are paying for is not a shopping list. You are paying for someone to see the house as a whole: the awkward chimney breast, the light at four in the afternoon, the way you actually live on a Tuesday. You are paying to avoid the expensive mistakes, the sofa that does not fit the bay, the paint that looks muddy by November, the kitchen layout that photographs well and cooks badly.
If you are comparing designers, ask what the fee includes. Some quotes are for a concept only. Some include sourcing. Some include site visits with builders. My services page sets that out in plain language, because the work should feel exciting, not opaque.
A useful way to think about it: the consultation is for people who want a clear next step. Room design is for a space that has been bothering you for years. Whole-home work is for a house that needs one story from the hall to the last lamp. Start with the conversation. It costs nothing, and it will tell you quickly whether this is the right studio for the house you have.