You know that inquiry. It starts with “we just need a little help” and somehow becomes 47 emails, three inspirational photos from 2014, and a budget that barely covers the sofa. By the time you get off the discovery call, you have spent an hour of unpaid labor, and the project is not one you would have taken if you had known the scope up front.
Project minimum is the simplest tool for preventing that scenario. And inside Interior Design Community, when a designer asked whether most designers have one, what amount makes sense, and whether it belongs on a website, the answer from the community was clear: yes, most do, and it is one of the more practical ways to protect both profitability and the client experience.
Project minimums is not about turning people away. It is about qualifying the right people in, so you can actually deliver results and run a business that does not depend on saying yes to everything.
Three Types of Project Minimums, and How to Choose
The first step is picking the format that fits how you actually work.
A minimum design fee sets a floor for your professional service regardless of scope. A minimum investment sets a threshold for the total project spend, including design fees, furnishings, construction, procurement, or project management. A minimum scope defines a container, like “one full room,” “three-room minimum,” or “600 square feet,” which can be easier for clients to understand than a dollar figure.
If you do full-service work with procurement, a minimum investment usually reflects reality most accurately. If you sell design time first, through retainers, hour blocks, or flat fees, a minimum design fee is the cleaner starting point. If clients consistently underestimate what a project involves, a scope minimum can be the clearest first filter because it sidesteps the budget conversation entirely.
@petradesignstudio described why she uses scope: “My brain treats small or large projects the same so those small little fill in projects take up too much room in my head for the amount of money they bring in. Most clients have no clue what a good budget is so I generally simplify it for them by saying 2 or 3 FULL rooms (depending on how busy we are).”
That observation about mental overhead is worth taking seriously. The cost of a small project is not just the hours billed. It is the attention, context-switching, and client management that a full-service project demands, regardless of size.
The Calculation Behind Your “Not Worth It” Floor
Once you know the type of minimum that matches your model, build the number from math instead of instinct.
Add up all the time you spend before you make a single purchase: discovery call, site measure, concept development, sourcing, revision rounds, ordering setup, and install coordination. Multiply that by your real hourly cost, meaning overhead, and profit included, not just what you hope you net. Then add a buffer for the projects that inevitably run longer than planned.
That total is your floor. Any project that cannot support that number is a project where you are working for less than cost.
Pressure-test the result against your ideal outcome: can you create the transformation you promise at that spend? Does it allow for quality trade partners and realistic lead times? Does it protect your calendar so you are not managing ten small projects at once?
If the answer to any of those is no, the number needs to move.
Should You Put It on Your Website?
This depends less on the number and more on where your unqualified leads are coming from.
For most firms, the minimum belongs in your inquiry form confirmation, a pricing guide, or an auto-reply email. That way, it reaches people who have already raised their hand, before you invest discovery call time, without leading with a dollar figure on your homepage.
If you receive a high volume of unqualified inquiries, adding a simple line to your Services page or FAQ section is worth it.
@ahrdesign noted: “My FAQs states we have a 25k min spend on furnishings separate of design fees. This helps vet/weed out clients.”
If your business runs primarily on referrals, you can keep the minimum softer and share it after an initial conversation, particularly when you want flexibility for a perfect-fit client who is slightly under the threshold.
@jillmyersinteriors offered a practical test: “One question to ask is, are you getting a ton of unfruitful discovery calls? If so, posting on the website could weed those out.”
That is the right frame. The goal is to reduce friction for the right leads, not to post every business policy on your homepage. For more on how to handle pricing transparency online without locking yourself into a number, Interior Design Rates on Your Website covers the full range of approaches.
4 Scripts You Can Use This Week
These four scripts can be adapted directly to your voice and inserted wherever the minimum conversation comes up.
For a website FAQ or services page: “Our projects typically start at $_____ (excluding design fees). This helps ensure we can deliver a complete, cohesive result.”
For an inquiry response: “Thank you for reaching out. To make sure we are the right fit, our studio has a project minimum of $_____. If that aligns with what you are planning, I would love to schedule a discovery call.”
For the “can I just pay for an hour” request: “We do not offer one-off hourly help for this type of request. The most effective way to support you is through our _____ package, which begins at $_____ and includes _____.”
For when you want flexibility but still hold the line: “Our standard minimum is $_____. If you can share the scope, timeline, and desired level of service, I can confirm whether it is a fit or recommend a better option.”
@candicekirbydesigns described what happened when she finally set one: “I established a $10,000 min in 2025 as I needed to weed out clients who had unrealistic expectations for design. It’s worked wonders.”
@transformedinteriors spoke to the longer arc: “We do have a total project minimum (design fees, product sales & project management) to help eliminate the ‘can I just pay for an hour to help me _____’ clients. In my early days I said yes to everyone & had no boundaries at all. Many many years later I am not afraid to say no.”
That progression, from saying yes to everything to holding a clear floor, is one of the most common patterns in how design businesses mature.
The Two Mistakes That Undermine Any Minimum
The first is setting a minimum that only accounts for time, not complexity. Small projects carry the same mental load as larger ones: the same onboarding, the same documentation, the same client relationship. A minimum built only on estimated hours misses that.
The second is stating the minimum like an apology. The language matters as much as the number. “I know this might seem like a lot, but our minimum is…” positions the standard as something that needs defending. “Our studio minimum is $_____, which helps ensure we can deliver a complete result” states it as a business practice, which it is.
@erica_kayser sets a $150,000 furnishing minimum for her own firm and recommends that every firm she coaches establish one: “Yes! Every single one of my clients I coach, we set one for their firm.”
That is not a luxury-market outlier position. It is an operational clarity position. The number is specific to market and service level, but the principle applies across firm types and sizes.
A Boundary You Write Down
Project minimums work because they move the qualifying conversation from instinct to policy. Instead of deciding on each call whether a project is worth taking, you have already made that decision. The caller either fits or they do not, and the conversation can be shorter and cleaner as a result.
If you want to see how other designers structure their intake and qualification process, the To-The-Trade episode with Rasheeda Gray covers her CRM funnel and automated qualifier process in detail, and the client red flags resource is useful for identifying the patterns that tend to appear before a minimum would catch them.
The minimum itself is just a business boundary written down. The more clearly you communicate it, the faster clients know whether they are in the right place.