Interior Design proposal template

An interior design proposal template that you’ll love

You might be the best interior designer in the world but you’ll still need to send proposals to get new projects... the best way to start is with a template.

Your clients love you and you’re famous for your design expertise. The problem is that your prospective new client doesn’t know that. They requested a proposal from a bunch of interior designers and are planning to compare them. So what should you do? How do you convey the added value you can bring that others simply can’t?

With a compelling online proposal that shows you “get it”.

An Interior Design proposal is about interior design, obviously. But it’s more than that. It’s about the value you bring to the project. Bearing this in mind throughout the proposal writing process will give you the best chance to win projects. When a client reads your proposal they will not only understand your interior design expertise but they’ll consider you the agency that best understood their needs and the one that is most likely to go above and beyond.

The way to transmit this feeling to your prospective client is by carefully customizing every proposal you send. That’s how you increase your chances of getting the job. You could just send the same proposal to each client but we strongly recommend you to personalize it.

The good news is that it’s quick and easy to do if you are using proposal software such as Nusii you can drag and drop images, save sections for later and use variables to automagically update your client details. You won’t need to choose between customization and sending at scale, with Nusii both are possible!

Ready to start? Have a browse of our templates and tools.

How to create an Interior Design Proposal from a template

Whether you offer art nouveau, shabby chic or Scandinavian minimalism as an interior designer you are project based and need to have a steady pipeline of new clients. We get it.

There’s plenty of prospective clients in need of interior design assistance. The question is, how to make sure you get a good percentage of them to go with you? Well, the answer is not that complicated.

It all starts with a boss-level proposal. One that wows them. One that convinces them you’re the best (even if you’re not the cheapest!). You can start with a template and ours is already pretty good, even though we say so ourselves 😉

If you really want to stand out, though, you’ll need to customize the template. Here, we will go through how to structure an interior design proposal and how to edit our templates to your specific needs. Let’s explore how you can maximise the chance of landing a new interior design project.

1. Cover & title

The first thing you’ll need to customize is the title of the proposal and the cover image. Let’s start with the title. This just needs to be straight to the point and descriptive. You’ll have a chance later to be creative!

The cover image should be something that represents your business and your services well. It should also match the client’s needs so that it resonates with them. Finally it also needs to be legible and contrast well with the overlay text.

If you are using Nusii proposal software, you can play around with colors, fonts and shadow overlays right in the app. No need to go back and forth between Photoshop or Canva.

2. Problem & goals

The next step is to clearly identify the prospect’s needs and goals. It’s very unlikely that you will be making an interior design proposal without having made a consultation first. That first discovery session with your client is crucial to uncovering what they really want out of the project.

Here you will state as concisely as possible what those underlying needs are. That might involve, for example, stating the current state of the design and what it is lacking.

You will then state the project goals in direct response to the needs of the client. So, in the same example as above, you might need to state a goal related to dated décor which is impacting a store’s performance. In this case you might state your goal as modernising the design and making it fit their customer profile and brand positioning.

Now that you’ve stated the client needs and shown them that you understand their situation and defined the goals you are aiming to achieve, we’re ready to start the main proposal section.

3. Proposed solution

You’re an interior designer and you probably offer a range of services such as color consultations, finish selections, renderings, e-design, eco-design etc. Maybe you even do art curation. It’s tempting to list everything you can do and every way you could work, especially if you are flexible but this could easily confuse the client.

Instead, think back to your client interview call and focus on what really matters to this prospective client. In other words, don’t just throw a list of potential services together. Think how you can bring value to this particular project and highlight the parts of your experience, expertise and services that match back to that.

Adopting this approach will both increase your chances of landing the final project but also help you stand out from any competitors who list all the possible services they offer.

Another advantage is it gives you a second opportunity to show you really understand what the client is looking for which in turn will give them confidence to hire you. Most clients don’t consider just pricing. They also want absolute confidence in whoever is executing their design especially in something so visually impactful as interior design.

Finally, don’t ignore the copywriting. Yes, you’re visual people but the words you use to convey your ideas are very important too. Match your language to that of your prospective client and avoid using unusual or ambiguous terms.

4. Scope

The only way to avoid scope creep is to be clear on what is included and what isn’t. Are you delivering moodboards, drawings and elevations? Are there in-person meetings. If so how-many? Who is responsible for purchasing the furniture and fittings?

We have a section later where we will define timings so, in this case, the scope is strictly related to setting expectations around deliverables. If you prefer to include timings here too, that’s fine. It’s your proposal!

5. Benefits

We’re almost ready to define the dreaded pricing but before that we think it’s good to prime the client with a clear statement of the benefits of working with you. This way they will have this top of mind as they read the pricing.

Again, it’s tempting to list all of your awards and past clients. And, while a good testimonial can be powerful, this section is all about the value you specifically bring to this specific project. That’s the way you highlight value in a way that is hard for anyone else to copy.

Sound difficult? Don’t worry, if you wrote a good needs and goals section, the benefits should be reasonably straightforward to write. You will want them to line up with the client's needs and frame your proposal as their ideal solution.

If you detected some specific concerns or goals that the client had, this is the time how working with you is a great way to address these.

6. Pricing

And here we are, pricing. Here at Nusii, we’ve been in the world of proposals for quite a while now and yet we’re still to find a client that loves to do pricing. People are always worried that they will price themselves out of the project. On the other hand, there are few things worse than working on a long and complicated project feeling you are being paid less than you think you are worth.

The good news is we’ve studied a lot of proposals and we think we already know the best way to protect your margins and still offer some flexibility to clients with limited budgets. It’s called optional pricing.

What you do is you create bundles or packages of services each priced at a certain level. The differences in pricing allows you to give the client freedom to pick the right one for their budget. The fact the services are bundled means you can make sure that each package is still a high enough margin for you.

An added benefit is that it avoids the client wanting to pick and choose. Imagine you had an itemised list with a price for each service. The client might be tempted to go through and decide if each one is worth it. They might, for example, want to remove the moodboard because they can’t see the value. Then, when you want to execute the project you might find you really need one and end up doing one for free.

With optional pricing you can forget all of these kinds of problems and that’s why we recommend it!

7. Timeline and cta

If you didn’t include any timings in the scope this is the place to do it. We think it fits really nicely before the sign-off as it gives a little extra urgency to the acceptance process. Let’s say you can complete the entire job within 12 weeks of sign-off, that’s a pretty strong incentive for the prospect to sign asap!

Speaking of signing, if you use proposal software such as Nusii, you can benefit from e-signatures. Being able to sign electronically without printing and scanning makes it so much easier for your client to accept. And by the way, we don’t charge any more for it. It’s included as standard 😉