Before It Begins Vol.2 | Let's Talk Money

It’s usually one of the first questions people have. They just don’t always ask it out loud.

How much does a designer cost? How does it actually work? And what should I realistically be allowing for?

The hesitation around this topic is understandable. There isn’t a single answer, and there’s a lot of variation in how designers structure their fees. But there are some consistent patterns, and once you understand those, it becomes much easier to plan properly.

In New Zealand, most designers tend to sit within a fairly consistent range. Hourly rates are typically between $120 and $200 plus GST. Smaller scoped engagements or one-off design sessions generally fall between $400 and $800. As projects become more involved, those numbers begin to scale. Bathrooms often sit in the range of $1,500 to $3,500, kitchens typically range from $3,000 to $5,000, and larger multi-room or full home projects can extend well beyond that.

Those numbers aren’t arbitrary. They reflect the level of detail and thinking required to take a project from a loose idea through to something that can actually be built. But, it's important to note these figures are a guide rather than a fixed rule. Fees will always vary depending on the designer, their level of experience, and how their services are structured. But, believe me, a good designer is always going to be worth it.

To put design fees into perspective, a kitchen project starting at around $70,000 could carry a design fee in the vicinity of $4,000 plus GST. That could typically represents somewhere between 30 to 40 hours of work, spread across concept development, layout planning, detailed design, and documentation. It’s not just a few meetings and a moodboard. It’s a structured process that resolves the space before anything is ordered or installed.

And that’s an important distinction. What people often picture as “design” is the visible part. The finishes, the colours, the final look. But a large portion of the work sits behind the scenes. It’s the planning of layouts so that the space functions properly. It’s resolving cabinetry down to the internal configuration. It’s producing drawings that allow a cabinetmaker or builder to price and build accurately. It’s selecting products that work together, not just visually, but technically.

By the time a project reaches site, most of the thinking has already happened.

The way designers charge for this work can vary. Some operate on an hourly basis, particularly where the scope is still evolving. Others will provide a fixed fee based on a clearly defined scope of work. For larger or more detailed projects, it’s common to see a staged approach, where the design is broken into phases and invoiced progressively as it develops.

None of these models are inherently better than the others. What matters more is that the scope and expectations are clear, and that the fee reflects the level of detail required to do the job properly.

When you step back and look at the bigger picture, design tends to sit as a relatively small portion of the overall project cost. For most residential work, it generally falls somewhere in the range of five to ten percent. So on a kitchen in the $70,000 to $120,000 range, a design fee of around $4,000 or more is fairly typical. Bathrooms follow a similar pattern, and larger projects scale accordingly.

Where things tend to shift is not usually in the design fee itself, but in how decisions are made throughout the project. Changes to layout once construction has begun, moving plumbing or electrical, revisiting selections late in the process, or working from incomplete documentation. These are the moments where costs start to creep in. Individually they might seem minor, but collectively they can add anywhere from a few thousand dollars to well beyond that, depending on the scale of the project.

Understanding how design fees fit into the overall picture gives you a much clearer starting point. It allows you to plan more realistically, allocate your budget appropriately, and move into your project with a better sense of what to expect.

Because at the beginning, before anything is drawn or built, clarity is one of the most valuable things you can have.

Next in the series: Not all Designers are the Same.