How We Charge For Our Services

Craig Sawyer Designs has several ways to charge for its services. Most of our work is done on a bid basis. We can also charge for our time on an hourly basis. Each job is appraised on its own merits for the best way to handle billing. For new clients Craig Sawyer Designs has a minimum design fee of $1,500 for bid projects.  There is no minimum design fee for hourly billing.

Bidding.    Craig Sawyer Designs prefers bidding most design projects. This means that you will know up front how much the design fee will be.  In most cases, a bid price includes revisions to a design, in the concept phase, without any additional cost to the client.

Hourly.    Craig Sawyer Designs charges $110 an hour for design time.  Staff designers and additional drafting charges vary are less.  Design fees are charged on a door-to-door basis in quarter hour increments.

What Do Other Designers Charge?

You can hire design help at any price point. There are designers who will design your home from 1.5% of the construction cost up to 15%. The staff at the mega hardware store will design your kitchen for free, or very little, while many kitchen designers charge 15% for a full service. Furniture stores often offer free interior design help, and John Saladino, a famous New York city designer, has a $35,000 minimum.

You get what you pay for with design help. If the design is free then it is because the goal of the designer is to sell you something. Once that sale is secured, their interest in you may flag. If you are spending a ridiculously low amount for design services then the designer is going to put just enough effort into the job to get it done and to get paid. They aren’t going to argue a lot with your input because that would take too much of their time. You have to know what motivates the designer you hire. Also, on the low cost side, there is the "work out of my garage" designer who is cheap and "good". At Craig Sawyer Designs we knows they are out there because we have had to fix their work more times than we care to think about.

When you pay more for a designer you get someone who is paid to arm wrestle with you and not be a yes person. This takes more time for the designer, but it produces a better design. These designers are paid for their work with design fees so they are not under pressure to sell anything except a good design. Paying more for a designer admittedly doesn’t always insure the best results for the money, but most of the time you do end up getting what you pay for.