You did the walkthrough. You built the spec sheets, pulled the samples, ran the approval meetings, and tracked every revision. Then the builder placed the order, collected the markup, and you got a thank-you email.
If that sequence sounds familiar, you are not imagining the problem. A member recently asked the Interior Design Community audience how to handle exactly this setup: a builder wants the designer to run the full scope of specification work, from schedules to samples to client sign-off, but keeps pricing and purchasing in-house. The question below was simple. If someone else holds the purchase order, how do you make sure you still get paid for your labor?
The answer the community landed on has less to do with who holds the PO and more to do with whether you have priced your own time as a standalone service. That distinction separates a healthy collaboration with a builder from months of unpaid, procurement-adjacent work dressed up as “just part of the process.”
Why Builders Ask Designers to Specify Without Purchasing
This arrangement is more common than it might feel in the moment, and it is not automatically a red flag. Plenty of designers work this way by design, especially on new construction and renovation projects where a general contractor or builder already has established supply relationships, purchasing accounts, and a system for managing delivery, damage claims, and site logistics.
One designer laid out how the split typically works and why it exists.
“This is pretty standard. You get paid for the design work and you handle the procurement for all the furniture and decor items, but the builder handles all the procurement for anything involved in construction. Some designers will order millwork, tile, plumbing fixtures, etc, but in many cases they don’t. We let the builder handle it. We specify, they buy it. That way they are in control of the schedule, they handle it when a box of tiles arrives broken or in the wrong colour, they deal with getting everything to site and securing it safely. They get paid for managing all that and you get paid for designing, sourcing, documenting, and coordinating with the builder on it. And yes, I would advise you always charge by the hour for your time once the design is approved and out the door. There are too many unknowns that can come up during construction and you can lose your shirt if you don’t price that stage properly. If this is relatively new territory for you definitely charge by the hour for this phase.”
@lsi_workshop
The takeaway is not that letting the builder purchase is a mistake. It is that the split only works when both halves are priced. Specifying isn’t free just because it isn’t accompanied by a markup on goods.
This structure also carries a liability argument that many designers underweight. Whoever holds the purchase order also holds the risk when something arrives wrong, late, or damaged.
“This is standard practice in my market and, IMO, actually one of the safest ways to conduct business. We want the builder to purchase the building materials, especially with a cost-plus builder, because purchasing and their markup are typically part of how they’ve structured the project for the client. There’s also a liability component. The party purchasing the product takes on responsibilities and potential liability associated with that purchase. If the builder purchases it, those purchasing obligations sit with the builder. If we purchase it, we take on that additional exposure. For that reason, even though we select and specify every tile, slab, plumbing fixture and appliance, we rarely purchase those materials ourselves. We provide the builder with the specifications, schedules, samples and client approvals they need to purchase correctly. If they want us to take on additional work related to their procurement beyond that, I would make sure that work is clearly defined and compensated.”
@homesmithdesign
That last sentence is the operating principle worth pulling out on its own: any work beyond the agreed specification scope needs a defined boundary and a price attached before you do it, not after.
Educational content, not legal advice. If your agreement with a builder or client touches liability, purchasing authority, or who is contractually responsible for a defective or damaged item, that language should be reviewed by an attorney familiar with design and construction contracts in your state.
Getting this written down early matters more than arguing about it later. Working With a New GC: Who Buys What and Who Warrants What covers how to settle purchasing responsibility and warranty exposure in writing before the first order goes out.
What It Costs You When Spec Work Isn’t Priced
Here is where the arrangement goes wrong, and it is rarely because the builder is acting in bad faith. It goes wrong because the designer never separated “design fee” from “procurement fee” in their own head, let alone on paper. When there is no line item for specification labor, that labor quietly becomes part of the design fee, the client relationship, or worse, just something you absorb because “that’s how it’s done here.”
The scope described in the original question, specifying, building schedules, presenting samples, and running client approvals, is a full project management workload. It takes hours regardless of who eventually clicks purchase. If your fee structure assumes a markup on goods will cover that time and the builder is the one buying, the math breaks. You did the hours. Someone else got paid for the purchase.
This is where the conversation moves from a workflow question to a pricing one. It is not enough to know, in principle, that specification work has value. You have to convert that into a number, attach it to a phase of the project, and put it in writing before the work starts.
“Naming the cost of the legwork before the project starts, not negotiating it after, is the real fix here. Specifying, scheduling, getting approvals, that’s billable work regardless of who holds the PO. A flat design fee or hourly research rate protects your time either way. But the harder skill isn’t knowing what to charge for it. It’s holding that price in the room when a builder pushes back. That’s usually where designers lose the fee, not in the math, in the moment.”
@sandra.tornroth
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Most designers can do the math. Fewer can sit across from a builder who is pushing back on a line item and hold their number without apologizing for it. If you know you struggle with that moment, build the fee into your proposal language ahead of time so you are not improvising a defense of your rate mid-project.
Presenting the number confidently is a skill in itself. Negotiating Higher Interior Design Fees with Confidence works through how to build a fee you can explain and hold when someone pushes back on it.
How to Structure the Fee So Specification Work Gets Paid
No single pricing model is correct, and the community’s answers reflect that. What matters is picking a structure, pricing it honestly, and stating it before the builder relationship starts, not after you realize you have been specifying for free.
Hourly billing once the design phase ends
The simplest version is the one already described above: charge hourly for everything that happens after the design is approved, including specification, scheduling, sample coordination, and approvals, regardless of who ends up purchasing. This works well when the scope of construction-phase work is genuinely unpredictable, which it usually is.
A tiered or a la carte structure
Some designers separate their offering into service tiers so clients and builders understand exactly what they are paying for and when a task falls outside standard scope.
“I have an ‘a la carte’ option where my hourly rate is $100 more per hour where I will consult on items they have sourced and just need help putting together or I will shop retail that they can source and manage on their own. I don’t do this often as I only take these on if I have capacity. Everything else is full service hourly rate for all time through installation and a procurement fee on everything purchased through my trade accounts. I explain this up front in my first call with them.”
@laurenreynoldsdesign
Notice what is doing the real work in that quote. It is not the specific dollar figure, it is the fact that the pricing tiers exist at all and are explained on the first call, before any expectations have formed. A builder or client who hears your pricing structure in week one is far less likely to push back on an invoice in month four.
A percentage fee on specified items
A third model charges a percentage on everything the designer specifies, whether or not the designer is the one purchasing it. One member pointed to an example from the industry at large.
“Heidi Callier was on Business of Home and said they charge 30% on all items they specify whether they purchase them or not. So maybe you could do that?”
@bethany.adams.interiors
Treat this as a reported example rather than a rule. Percentage-on-spec models can work well in markets where designers have real leverage and clients expect to pay for expertise regardless of who transacts the purchase, but the number itself should be tested against your own overhead, market, and scope, not copied wholesale from a podcast.
If you are still deciding which structure fits your work, Renovation Fee Structures for Interior Designers: Hourly, Flat Fee, and Percentage Methods Explained lays out how each of the three models behaves on a construction timeline.
Setting the Boundary Before the Builder Pushes Back
None of these pricing models protect you if you never say them out loud. Introduce your fee for specification work during the first conversation about the arrangement, not after you have already produced three rounds of spec sheets for free.
That also means being willing to say no when a request falls outside what you actually offer. One member framed the decline in a way that keeps the door open without agreeing to unpaid scope.
“If this is not your standard service that you offer, then you simply say, ‘I’m sorry but that’s not a service that I offer. I certainly appreciate you considering me,’ and move on. A client or builder should never have control over changing the way that you conduct your business.”
@maryjosephinteriors
That script works because it is not a negotiation. It does not invite a counteroffer or an explanation. It states a fact about how your business operates and ends the conversation. If a builder or client genuinely wants your specification work, they will come back with a yes to your terms. If they do not, you have saved yourself months of unpriced labor.
The practical version of this boundary is a short, standing conversation you have with every builder before a project starts: who purchases what, what your fee covers, and what happens if the scope expands mid-project. Put it in the contract. Reference it when scope creeps. Do not renegotiate it out of politeness in the middle of a job.
The Real Question Isn’t Who Buys It
Whether the builder purchases the materials or you do is a legitimate business decision with real tradeoffs around liability, cash flow, and control. Plenty of designers structure their practice around letting the builder buy and it works fine for them.
But that decision is separate from whether your specification labor gets paid. Those are two different questions, and the community’s answers make clear that the designers who feel fairly compensated in these arrangements are the ones who priced the work before it started, not the ones who happened to end up with a generous builder.
If you are currently in the setup described in the original question, the next move is not to renegotiate the current project mid-stream, though that conversation may still be necessary. The next move is to write down, in plain language, what your specification and coordination work costs on the next one, and say it out loud before the builder relationship begins.
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