If an interior designer gets asked for a quick quote on a project, the likelihood to heard an exact – or even a ballpark – figure in the next 5-7 minutes is as high as the likelihood of Elon Musk setting up his mission on Mars in the first quarter of 2019.

Every seasoned interior designer knows, that pricing depends on no less than a bazillion factors and no quotes should be provided without first finding out the answers to all of them, well, – most of them. Every seasoned designer learned it the hard way. Thusly the “seasoned” courtesy title.

Similarly, website design pricing is a complex set of aspects vital for ascertaining the final figure on a client’s bill. There is labor cost, there is complexity level, there is office rental fee, there is seasonality, there is country salary median, there is vanity factor, there is an urgency component, there is design saturation consideration, there are UX & UI ingredients to this riddle – to name just the very tip of this never-melting iceberg.

Once we have scared the interior designers amongst our readers into believing they will never be able to approach the field knowingly – just as pros from other industries will never be able to fully comprehend the intricacies of the interior design projects pricing, we are quick to reassure you: below we have compiled a step-by-step guide so anybody can understand the main principles of interior design website estimate.

In this piece we have undertaken to provide a thorough breakdown of the basic components, that constitute the final bill for a neat SEO-friendly website for an ambitious – if budding or established – interior design agency.

The methodology of website design cost estimation – for interior design, construction or architectural firm

We wondered: what is the real price for an award-worthy website for an interior design agency

We’ve decided to look up how much an award-winning website costs, so we checked out the awwwards.com – THE authority in the web design domain, the Oscar of the UX, UI and web technology overall. We studied all the sites made for interior design studios or construction firms and reached out to their creators. It turned out to be a pretty untapped niche.

We’ve found 12 websites, and contacted their creators to comment.

Additionally, we looked into some other masterpieces of web design created for the talented breed of interior design artists. Welcome to discover these gems with us.

 

Cost of awwward-winning interior design websites – how much and why?

 

1. WEBSITE: POMERLEAU

 

Website agency: Locomotive
Website agency country: Canada
Awwwarded: Site of the day 5th December 2016
Total Awwward score: 7.42
design – 7.77
usability – 7.07
creativity – 7.34
content – 7.22

Price for this website with custom CMS: $70K

If you are not as curious as to have already checked out the Locomotive website, go ahead, let that cat-killing feeling inside you on the loose. Did you see? Yep, he smiles. And Mathieu’s eyebrows!

Ok, now time to focus again, as we are going to quickly run through the website the Locomotive talented team developed for Canada’s leading construction company.

Storytelling is what is vital for a corporate website of Pomerleau caliber. 50 years of growth, success, and dominance in the competitive and fundamental industry like construction demands for some proper storytelling. Website design absolutely nailed the mission.

At the first screen the user is met with dark assertive corporate colors, open smiley faces of the CEOs and the impressive-yet-lullabying message: “50 years of history”. In the era where NASDAQ top 10 are mostly no older than 20 years old, 50 years sounds indeed like A LOT of history. The messaging is clear and upfront, yet subdued: you are now in safe professional hands of the leader who has proven its worth.

The storytelling continues to unfold as the user scrolls down the timeline of historical events, that propelled the company where it is now – among the leaders of construction in Canada. Parallax scrolling takes a reader on a long journey full of hallmark occasions and impressive achievements. Dark grey, that serves as a background to a timeline is permeated by the slim design elements in almost electric blue – giving it all: color, vividness and contemporary feel.

The menu burger is classic to the extent of conservative and the menu itself is bold and unavoidable. Navigation is enriched by micro-interactions and is rather intuitive.

Pricing Verdict: taking into account the extensive library of pages, that a website comprises, a custom-made CMS, and a myriad of awards garnered, the price tag is a deal, specifically for North America.

 

2. WEBSITE: EGINSTILL

 

Website agency: Build In Amsterdam
Website agency country: Netherlands
Awwwarded: Site of the day 17th September 2015
Total Awwward score: 7.32
design – 7.34
usability – 7.19
creativity – 7.45
content – 7.32
developer – 7.33

Price paid for this website: €60K /approximately $69K/

Eginstill is just a small interior design company based in Amsterdam. Naturally, they have commissioned the design of their website to an Amsterdam-based web design studio – Build in Amsterdam. Talk about a catchy Call to Action!

The website logic is based on a one-pager. So if you scroll long enough – you have seen it all. But this site does not come across as a landing page per se with the website featuring the menu and some fundamental sections, like Contacts and Team.

First impression: elegance, minimalism, laconic design. From the use of a very fine print to the choice of subdued classical palette, the design is definitely aiming to devote all the limelight to the imagery. Imagery of the interior design that is.

It is a well-weighted choice of a shrewd website designer when it comes to interior design websites: to allow the interior design works speak for themselves. So in a way, this is akin to a jeweler’s mission: to polish and to provide a befitting frame for the anyway precious stone.

We loved the parallax scrolling and how the images swell up to their final size, giving the lively interactive contemporary feel to it and slight 3D effect.

The UX is intuitive, with both a “+” and the basic one-word CTA “show” both signaling in unison where more content is hidden. A simple recognizable icon of 2 images and the “Slideshow” are used for those curious to see more images.

Pricing Verdict: this is undeniably a neat website executed with a great extent of aesthetics and style, but from the technical point of view it is still rather straightforward. Western Europe mentality is reflected in every pixel of the website, so the price tag also is pretty much Western European.

 

3. WEBSITE: TBILISI GARDENS

 

Website agency: Leavingstone
Website agency country: Georgia
Awwwarded: Site of the day 4 August 2017
Total Awwward score: 7.28
design – 7.36
usability – 7.08
creativity – 7.42
content – 7.24

Price range for a similar website by Leavingstone: $35K-$55K

New developments are not a rarity in Georgia, the birthplace of wineTM. The small country in the Caucasus has seen a boost of tourism and a drastic rise in investments after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But this development was meant to be different. Tbilisi Gardens had all the chances of becoming the hot piece of real estate everybody who is anybody has got to have a cozy apartment in. To fit that high profile of the potential residents of this NewYork style skyscraper the developers hired one of the leading agencies in Georgia to design their website – Leavingstone.

The Team did a fantastic job that was ultimately recognized by a panel of Awwward peers and colleagues.

From the preloader animation to the subdued hues of spring green in the design – the introduction to the website is definitely welcoming, sophisticated and in line with the Garden naming. The very much true-to-life render of the development takes a user on a journey through the building and its floor plans. Scrolling down the floors is addictive and just be warned you might end up scrolling all the way down for that reason.

A project by QuadrumGlobal development and investment group with most of its $1 billion folios in the USA, this is their second project in Georgia. MYS Architects from Israel worked on the exterior design and overall architecture of the Tbilisi Gardens. Vincente Wolf, a designer inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Interior Design Magazine, was commissioned to elaborate the interior design of the multi-storied New York style building in Tbilisi.

We found the website so harmonious in its entirety – but specifically, we loved the logo of the development, that penetrates the design and is present on almost every page. The logo – looking like a triangle with rounded corners and inside curves is nothing less but the silhouette of the building itself if looked at from the top. So an observant user can recognize it in every floor plan.

To sum it up, if you guys feel like calling the sales department upon scrolling through the website to check out if there is any vacant apartment is available, like we do – the project is an ultimate success and is undoubtedly a great sales tool rather than a mere marketing necessity.

Pricing Verdict: money well-spent. We would expect little discounting needed by sales team to push Tbilisi Gardens with that complexity and appeal of the website.

A couple more examples, that follow below, are sited to mold a more saturated case-based background before we provide a few theoretical tips what to look for when considering the agency to commission your interior website design to.

Another 2 websites are not affiliated with interior design per se but belong to adjacent industries: architecture & construction. This is a good best practice to check out some neighboring niches to learn from and get a more rounded understanding of the entire field. As mentioned before, no pricing is available for these sites but we highly recommend you quickly scroll through them with us to analyze them from the user’s perspective.

 

4. WEBSITE: AKSON.NL

 

Website agency: Stuur.men
Website agency country: Netherlands
Awwwarded: Site of the day 15th July 2018
Total Awwward score: 7.2
design – 7.37
usability – 7.15
creativity – 7.00
content – 7.03
developer – 7.23

Another website for an industry adjacent to the interior design – a company dealing with construction and engineering. The niche itself is associated with low levels of creativity, but solidity, precision, in-depth expertize and reliability are the major factors when it comes to high appeal factors for their clients.

The corporate feel, however, has been somewhere softened by web designers by the extensive use of loading animations and scrolling effects along the website. The user is never left stranded with mere flat fixed cards and sections but rather is encouraged to explore more by interactive features, that reward for every move of the cursor.

Yet, the choice of font, imagery, colors, logic of the website is strictly corporate and is there to ooze professionalism and instill high levels of credibility in the company from the client’s perspective at first visit.

UX, too, is deprived of much creative twist, but is easy to follow and predictable – however mundane it sounds, it is the best compliment for a UX designer. When a user feels like home and knows how to get to where he or she needs to end up – is the mission accomplished by the UX team. 01/04 is just one of the logistical arrows, scattered around the website for better navigation of the user. Even with Dutch language skills limited to “Dank Je”, we felt at ease and never lost – while navigation the site.

The agency itself seems to be family run, but undeniably the team has talent and creative twist to it – you can check out their own webpage to see this fun interpretation of the classic statue.

Being able to subdue the levels of creativity existent in the team is just the talent you want to see in the web production studio when hiring to develop a website for your interior design website. Not only creativity means more hours for developers and animation designers translating into swollen budgets, but in some cases, it may overpower the creativity of the interior design agency itself.

Overall verdict: the website is rather extensive content-wise with lots of imagery, texts, and sections to it. An exquisite example of content being above the design itself, which is crucial for interior design websites. Nicely done from every angle: UX, UI, content, development.

 

5. WEBSITE: ATELIER VILLES ET PAYSAGES

 

Website agency: Rezo Zero
Website agency country: France
Awwwarded: Site of the day 1st December 2016
Total Awwward score: 7.59
design – 7.96
usability – 7.19
creativity – 7.6
content – 7.32
developer – 7.33

The website for this architecture and planning bureau deservedly got the highest ranking from the Awwwards jury panel of website design pros out of the 5 examples we have provided for your better understanding of the pricing in interior design website design. The website is all: informative, easy to scroll around, integral in its concept and eloquent about the high standards of the company itself.

From the design perspective, a round shape was chosen as the leitmotif and it keeps popping up as you scroll along. The home page features like 5 or 6 of them and we physically felt comfort and safety once we landed onto that. The absence of any dangerous peaky corners in a smooth harmonious round shape is comforting if we are conscious of its effects or not. Being applied through the portal, it also gives a subliminal signal of consistency and high integrity.

Animations and micro-interactions are, too, professionally executed and also play a role of programming the user into associating the company with high levels of sophistication and advanced heights of technical acumen. This is exactly what you would want from a website representing an interior design firm. Above all, we loved how the projects are lined up along the route of the landscape map – that is a direct reference to what the company is doing and helps decipher that at first sight.

Overall verdict: with all things considered, a website of that caliber and that upper level of acknowledgment among colleagues, this Western European project renders a most enticing and sophisticated cyber image for the company.

 

STEP-BY-STEP ALGORITHM OF HOW TO FIND THE BEST WEBSITE DESIGN AGENCY TO COMMISSION YOUR PROJECT TO

 

Now that you have checked out what the final award-winning product may look like, it is time to provide you with some fundamental tips and clues, that will assist any interior design company to find just the right website agency to develop their website.

1. Decide on your budget – ideal one and the maximum one.

You need them both and they do depend on a myriad of factors. Your ideal budget will be the one, that will bring you ROI in the first year of operation. Your maximum one will be the one that after spending one more dollar your company will be out of business.

2. Do your homework: competition, SWOT, offers shopping

1. 1. See how your current website fares to your direct competition’s and try to estimate how much of market share you are losing due to the fact, that your web presence is inferior to that of your competition.
   2. Doing a SWOT analysis may sound old school, but in fact, you may end up with useful insights as well as there is a likelihood of going up on the previously decided upon budgets.
   3. Doing a Perceptual map exercise might be also a much-needed exercise to do – after all a website is a marketing and sales tool that is the only way to get business for too many niches now. So taking your time to break down your success factors and pinpoint your best positioning will help understand the role of the website for your company too.
   4. Read, check, shop around. You have landed here in the attempt to best understand the pricing for the interior design for a reason, right? Smart move. Read as much as you can, check out all the best industry examples, send minimum 10 requests for a quote. Only this way you can see the responsiveness, the prices, the quality of communication – to find your perfect match.

4. Draft what is important for you: the content, the backend, the custom CMS, the design, the UX etc.

For example, the less animation and interactive features the website has, the less hours developers need to spend on it, the less it will cost. Need to blow your clients off their feet at first sight with breath-taking animation? Prepare to open your wallet wide.

5. Write a technical task

Make it as complete as you can and provide the examples you loved.

6. Send your requests for quote to developed countries, developing countries and underdeveloped ones too.

We suggest a good shop around will consist of minimum 10 RFPs:

• 2-3 are OK to end up in your own country /specifically if language is non-English/
• 2-3 will go developed ones /like USA, Western Europe/
• 2-3 may be sent to developing countries /Eastern Europe & Latin America have some options/
• 2-3 should see what the offer is in the developing countries with a high concentration of technical brains, like India & Philippines.

 

Bonus tip: As a rule of a thumb, developing countries might have the sweetest pricing spot for small-to-medium businesses. If your website mostly needs to serve as a cyber business card for your business and only features portfolio, contacts, story, and the team – this requires a major focus on design as opposed to programming. Checking out the top agencies in Baltic countries, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania might yield positive results – with top talent being moderately priced yet competitively trained. For a European client, the convenience of being in the same time zone is also an advantage in this case.

 

7. Only choose where you send the RFP after investigating the portfolio of the website production you got interested in.

Highly Awwwarded agency? Guess what? They are likely to know their worth and be on the higher end of pricing. New to the Awwwards’ winners’ board? Could be hungry and ambitious, why not try your luck.

8. You don’t get a bargain without bargaining.

This is obvious, isn’t it? If your deadlines are flex, if the season is low, if the agency just got an influx of interns, if the sales team just had a coffee and a cake and feels like discounting – there are virtually hundreds of reasons for a lower price, you might not be aware of.

Just ask. Just specify your budgets and see what happens.

What is the worst thing that could happen? Somebody else will get to develop your interior design website.

Now, that you have been armed with quite a bit of theory and have been immersed into the real-life cases, you might want to further widen your horizons before sending all those requests for proposal.

Once you have looked around enough and are ready to send your RFPs out, we will be most delighted to check out your needs and come up with our best quite for you – feel free to drop us a message.