Almost every high-end interior design project ends the same way: the homeowner sits down on a brand-new custom sofa, looks around a beautifully finished room, and quietly admits the project cost more than they planned. It is not because the designer lied about pricing. It is not because the contractors were greedy. It is because the original budget covered the obvious line items — the sofa, the rug, the lighting, the design fee — and missed the dozen quieter line items that are equally real.
This is the post we wish every homeowner read before they hired their first interior designer. As an integrated design-build family that runs both a luxury custom home builder (Ashtin Group UT) and a home decor and interior design studio (Designly Done) in Utah County, Utah, we manage the full cost picture on luxury residential projects every day. We see what surprises clients. We know which line items are routinely missed. And we know exactly how to plan a high-end interior design budget that does not require an awkward “we need to revisit the numbers” meeting halfway through the project.
If you are budgeting for high-end interior design — whether on a new custom build, a full-home remodel, or a single high-stakes room — this is the guide we use to set realistic expectations with our own clients.
A Quick Frame: What “High-End” Actually Means
Before we talk about hidden costs, it is worth defining the category. “High-end interior design” is a phrase that gets used loosely. We mean it specifically: residential projects with a furnishings budget meaningful enough to involve custom workrooms, trade-only vendors, original art, designer lighting, and full-service install. In Utah County in 2026, that typically translates to a furnishings spend starting around $150,000 for a primary public-area project and climbing into the high six figures or low seven figures for whole-home builds.
At that level of investment, the math becomes less about the price of a single sofa and more about the entire ecosystem of cost surrounding each piece. That ecosystem is where almost all budget surprises live.
The Iceberg Below the Furniture: Where High-End Design Money Actually Goes
If you imagine a luxury interior design budget as an iceberg, the visible top is the furniture, lighting, and rugs you can name. The submerged bottom is where most projects exceed expectations. Here is what lives below the waterline.
Freight, White-Glove Delivery, and Receiving
A custom dining table from a North Carolina workroom does not ship UPS. A pair of imported Italian sconces does not arrive next-day in a padded envelope. High-end furniture, lighting, and accessories travel on freight trucks, often through receiving warehouses, often with white-glove delivery and inside-the-home placement. Each touchpoint costs money.
A realistic freight and receiving budget on a luxury residential project runs 8 to 15 percent of the furnishings total. On a $300,000 furnishings spend, that is $24,000 to $45,000 in freight alone — a number most homeowners never anticipate when they are pricing individual pieces.
White-glove delivery (bring in, unbox, place, remove debris) typically adds $300 to $1,500 per item depending on size and access. A large custom upholstery piece going up a flight of stairs through a tight doorway can easily incur a $1,000 white-glove charge before the sofa is even in the room.
Receiving and Warehousing
Most full-service design projects route furniture through a third-party receiving warehouse instead of straight to the home. The warehouse inspects each piece on arrival, photographs damage, files freight claims, holds pieces until install day, and delivers everything together. This service costs money — typically 3 to 6 percent of the furniture invoice — but it prevents the chaos of receiving twenty-six separate freight deliveries at your front door over six months. The cost is real and routinely missed in budget conversations.
When projects extend (a common occurrence on custom builds), warehousing fees stack. A piece that sits in the warehouse for six months costs more than a piece that ships in and out in two weeks. Build delays are interior design budget items, even when they are no one’s fault.
Sales Tax on Significant Totals
Sales tax sounds obvious, but on a furnishings invoice in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, it is a line item that can quietly add five figures. Utah’s combined state and local sales tax for furniture purchases typically lands around 7 to 8 percent depending on city. On $300,000 in furnishings, that is $21,000 to $24,000 in tax — a number that needs to appear in the budget from day one.
Custom Workroom Upcharges and COM Fees
When you choose custom upholstery — a sofa, a sectional, a custom-built headboard, dining chairs in a specific fabric — the published price is rarely what you actually pay. Custom workrooms apply COM (customer’s own material) fees when the designer supplies the fabric. Specialty fabrics often add yardage upcharges. Contrast welt, double piping, channel tufting, custom legs, custom stains, and oversized scale all carry pattern or labor upcharges.
A custom sofa that quotes at $7,500 in standard fabric can easily land at $10,500 to $13,000 once the actual fabric, COM fees, fabrication upcharges, and freight are added. Multiply that delta across a whole-home project and the gap matters.
Custom Drapery
Drapery is the single most underbudgeted line item on almost every high-end residential project. Window treatments on a luxury home involve workroom labor, premium fabric, interlining, motorized hardware, custom rods and brackets, professional measurement, and professional installation. A single set of high-quality, custom motorized drapery on a tall great-room window can run $5,000 to $15,000. A whole-home drapery package on a 6,000-square-foot custom build can run $50,000 to $150,000 or more.
Most homeowners budget for “drapes” as if it were a small accessory line item. It is not. It is one of the largest single categories in a luxury residential project. On every Ashtin Group UT new-build project we coordinate with Designly Done, drapery is included in the budget from the first conversation specifically to avoid the eleventh-hour surprise.
Lighting (Including the Hidden Cost of Going Designer)
Builder-grade lighting versus designer lighting is a 5x to 20x cost difference at the fixture level. A builder-spec chandelier might be $400. A comparable designer chandelier in a similar scale can be $4,000 to $15,000. Multiply across a home’s chandeliers, sconces, pendants, picture lights, vanity lights, and accent lamps, and lighting alone can become a $50,000 to $150,000+ line item on a luxury home.
On top of fixture cost, lighting carries installation labor, electrical coordination (when sconce or pendant locations were not roughed in during framing), bulb specification, dimming controls, and shade fabrication when applicable. None of those costs are in the fixture price tag.
Original Art
Original art is the most personally meaningful and most consistently underbudgeted category in luxury residential design. Most homeowners do not realize how much wall surface a custom home has until they walk through a finished build and feel how empty the walls look without significant pieces.
A meaningful original art package on a 6,000-square-foot luxury home commonly runs $50,000 to $250,000 or more depending on the artists, scale, and curation. Limited-edition prints and reproductions can scale the budget down significantly, but the temptation to “decide on art later” almost always ends in a home that never gets the art it deserves. The budget needs to be allocated up front, even if specific pieces get selected over time.
Stone, Slabs, and Fabrication Waste
When stone is part of a project — kitchen counters, primary bath vanities, fireplace surrounds, integrated stone tubs, dining tables — the slab cost is only the start. Edge profiles, fabrication labor, waste factor (typically 15 to 25 percent depending on slab pattern matching), template fees, delivery, install labor, and sealing all add to the line item. A premium quartzite kitchen island that quoted at $12,000 in slab cost can easily land at $20,000 to $28,000 by the time fabrication, edge work, install, and sealing are included.
Bookmatching, vein matching, and waterfall edges all add cost. Specialty stones with long lead times often require deposits months in advance and storage fees if the build is delayed.
Hardware
Cabinet hardware, door hardware, plumbing hardware, and decorative hardware add up fast on a custom home. A premium cabinet pull might be $25 to $75. A custom home with 200+ cabinet pulls and knobs is $5,000 to $15,000 in cabinet hardware alone. Door hardware on a luxury home — interior knobs, levers, hinges, and bath fixtures — easily runs $15,000 to $50,000+ at high-quality brands. Plumbing hardware at high-end faucet brands often runs $1,500 to $5,000 per kitchen faucet or vanity faucet, with showers and tub fillers higher.
These small line items add up to one of the largest hidden categories in a high-end residential budget.
Final Styling and Move-In Install
The final layer of any luxury interior design project — the install where furniture is placed, art is hung, rugs are laid, beds are dressed, shelves are styled, and pillows are arranged — is where the home stops looking like a furniture delivery and starts looking like a home. This phase requires a styling team, a few days on site, and supplemental decor budget for the dozens of small finishing pieces that complete a room.
A realistic install and final styling budget for a luxury whole-home project runs $10,000 to $40,000+, including any supplemental decor sourced specifically for the install. Most homeowners do not budget for this. The designer who saves them from a finished-but-unstyled home almost always builds it into the proposal.
Designer Change-Order Time
The original design fee covers the original scope. When scope expands — and on a long custom build, it almost always does — the designer’s time on additions, revisions, and new specifications becomes billable. A realistic luxury residential budget assumes 10 to 20 percent additional design hours beyond the original engagement, especially on multi-year projects.
Photography and Documentation
If you care about how your finished home photographs, professional architectural photography is its own line item. A full-home shoot from a quality residential photographer runs $3,500 to $10,000+ depending on scope, with additional licensing fees if images are used in publications or marketing. This is optional, but most clients of a project at this level want documentation of the finished result.
Post-Project Touch-Ups and Punch List
Even on the smoothest projects, the months after move-in inevitably surface a few issues — a piece that needs to be re-tightened, a fabric that needs steaming, a rug pad that needs replacing, a paint touch-up that needs to be coordinated. Budget a small line item for post-project care, typically 1 to 2 percent of the furnishings total. It is rarely larger than that, but it is rarely zero.
Warranty Repair and Long-Term Reupholstery
High-end furniture is built to last decades, but it is also built to be maintained. Reupholstery, refinishing, hardware replacement, and warranty repairs over the life of the home are not part of the original budget — but a thoughtful homeowner sets aside the awareness that maintenance is part of owning a quality home. A custom sofa professionally reupholstered after fifteen years can cost $2,500 to $6,000 — and is still a better investment than buying a disposable sofa every five years.
A Realistic Luxury Interior Design Budget — All In
For a 6,000-square-foot luxury custom home in Utah County in 2026, a realistic all-in interior design budget — including everything above — typically lands between $400,000 and $1,000,000+, with a strong common range of $500,000 to $750,000 for clients who want the home fully finished, styled, and photograph-ready on move-in day.
That range covers design fees, furnishings, custom upholstery, lighting, drapery, rugs, art, accessories, install, freight, receiving, tax, and the dozen hidden categories above. Clients who want certain categories left out (no original art budget, no custom drapery, no whole-home install) can come in lower. Clients who want bespoke everything (commissioned art, custom hand-loomed rugs, fully imported European cabinetry and fixtures) can land much higher.
The most important number is not the median — it is the realistic number for your home, your scope, and your standards. A good designer will help you scope honestly before you commit to a number you cannot live with.
Why Integrated Design-Build Mitigates Budget Surprises
The single biggest reason luxury interior design budgets explode is misalignment between the build and the design teams. The architect specifies a window opening that does not accommodate the drapery hardware. The builder roughs in plumbing in a location the designer would not have chosen. The trim package does not coordinate with the cabinetry order. Each misalignment is a change order, and change orders are where budgets quietly bleed.
When the build team and the design team operate as one — the way Ashtin Group UT and Designly Done operate on shared projects — these misalignments mostly disappear. Drapery hardware is coordinated with framing. Lighting locations are coordinated with electrical. Cabinet specifications match trim profiles. The hidden costs that come from rework get prevented before they happen.
The integrated model does not eliminate the genuine cost of high-end design. It does eliminate the avoidable cost — the cost of poor coordination. On a luxury home, the avoidable cost can easily be 10 to 20 percent of the project total. Cutting that delta is one of the biggest financial advantages of working with a coordinated team.
Cost-Saving Moves That Do Not Compromise Quality
The right way to manage a high-end interior design budget is not to skimp on the wrong things. It is to know where flexibility exists.
Invest heavily in the pieces you will live with the longest — primary sofa, primary bed, dining table, kitchen island stools, and any custom upholstery that will see daily use for the next twenty years. These pieces should be best-in-class.
Be flexible on accent pieces. Side tables, accent chairs, accessories, and decorative objects can be sourced from a wider price range. Many of the most beautiful rooms we have furnished combine a $9,000 custom sofa with a $700 vintage side table. The mix works.
Lean on vintage and antique for character. A vintage rug, a found coffee table, a 1950s European lighting fixture can deliver the patina and uniqueness a high-end room needs at a fraction of the new-custom cost. The Designly Done Provo storefront curates pieces specifically for this layered mix.
Phase the project intentionally. Not every room needs to be fully finished on move-in day. Some clients finish the public areas — kitchen, great room, primary suite, dining room — fully on move-in, and complete bedrooms, offices, and secondary spaces over the following year. Phasing protects cash flow and lets the designer focus deeply on the rooms that matter most first.
Choose your custom moments carefully. Custom upholstery in three places is wonderful. Custom upholstery in fifteen places is a budget multiplier. Pick the rooms where custom adds the most value and use refined off-the-shelf elsewhere.
The Conversation to Have With Your Designer Before You Start
If you are about to start a luxury interior design project, the most useful conversation you can have with your designer is the “all-in” conversation. Ask them to walk you through a full-project budget that includes every line item in this post — design fees, furnishings, lighting, drapery, rugs, art, accessories, freight, receiving, tax, install, and a contingency. If the designer cannot or will not give you a realistic all-in estimate, you have a forecasting problem before you start.
A great designer will protect you from surprise. A great budget will let you enjoy the project from start to finish. And a great project will deliver a home that justifies every line item — visible and hidden — for the decades you live in it.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most frequently missed line items in high-end interior design budgets are freight and white-glove delivery, receiving and warehousing fees, sales tax on large furnishings totals, custom drapery and window treatments, designer lighting upgrades, original art, stone fabrication and waste factor, premium hardware, final install and styling, and contingency for change-order designer hours. A realistic high-end budget includes all of these from day one — not just the visible furniture and design fee.
For a 6,000-square-foot luxury custom home in Utah County in 2026, a realistic all-in high-end interior design budget commonly lands between $500,000 and $750,000, with smaller projects coming in lower and bespoke estate projects exceeding $1,000,000. The range reflects choices about custom upholstery, original art, drapery scope, lighting tier, and install completeness. We help clients at Designly Done scope these numbers honestly before they commit.
Custom drapery on luxury homes involves workroom labor, premium fabric and interlining, motorized hardware, custom rods and brackets, professional measurement, and professional installation. Tall windows, oversized openings, and specialty fabrics multiply the cost. A single set of high-quality motorized drapery on a great-room window commonly runs $5,000 to $15,000, and a whole-home drapery package on a 6,000-square-foot home can run $50,000 to $150,000+. It is one of the largest categories in a luxury residential budget and routinely the most underbudgeted.
Both are valid. A meaningful original art package on a luxury home commonly runs $50,000 to $250,000+. Clients who want the prestige and longevity of original work allocate accordingly. Clients who want beautiful walls at a lower investment can use limited-edition prints, photography, vintage frames, and curated reproductions to dramatic effect. The mistake is “deciding later” — a home that never gets art always feels unfinished. Budget the category up front, even if you select pieces over time.
Freight, white-glove delivery, and receiving warehouse services typically add 8 to 15 percent on top of the furnishings invoice on luxury residential projects. On a $300,000 furnishings spend, that translates to $24,000 to $45,000 in freight and receiving alone. This is one of the most commonly missed budget items in conversations with new clients.
Hire an integrated design-build team that prevents the misalignments between architecture, construction, and interior design that drive most change orders — like Ashtin Group UT and Designly Done operating together. Insist on an all-in budget at the start of the project that includes every category above. Make decisive specifications. Phase the project if cash flow requires. Invest in the pieces you will live with longest and stay flexible on the rest. And work with a designer who is transparent about the hidden line items most studios quietly add at the end.
Ready to Elevate Your Home? Start Here.
A high-end interior design project is one of the most rewarding investments you will make in your home — and one of the most painful when the budget is built on incomplete information. Knowing the true cost up front protects the project, the relationship, and the joy of living in the finished space. The Kuhni family of brands is here to help you plan honestly, build beautifully, and live in a home that delivers on every dollar.
Designly Done — Utah County’s Luxury Home Decor Store & Design Center | designlydone.com Ashtin Group UT — Utah County’s Luxury Custom Home Builder | ashtingrouput.com
Building and designing extraordinary homes across Provo, Orem, Lehi, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Springville, Spanish Fork, Mapleton, Payson, and all of Utah County, Utah.
About the Founders Ashley and Justin Kuhni are the founders of Designly Done (luxury home decor store and full-service interior design center) and Ashtin Group UT (luxury custom home builder serving the Wasatch Front). Together they lead an integrated design-build team dedicated to creating and furnishing extraordinary homes throughout Utah County.
