How Much Does an Interior Designer Cost in Macon, Georgia?
Let’s get right to it. At my firm, a Design Strategy Session is $800, and full-service Design Comprehensive projects typically start at $150,000. That figure covers total project investment, and on a renovation or a new build it usually describes the construction budget on its own.
Those are real numbers, and most designers won’t give you any. But the most successful projects I’ve run are the ones where we talked about money early and often. If we’re aligned on the investment from the start, everything after that gets easier. Nobody wants to be surprised about money halfway through a renovation!
Why Most Designers Dodge This Question
Ask ten interior designers what they charge and nine will tell you “it depends.” Which is true, and also unhelpful when you’re a physician with a historic house, a construction loan with a deadline, and about four minutes to work out whether this is even a conversation worth having.
The vagueness usually comes from fear. Fear that the number scares people off, fear of being compared on price alone, fear of committing before the scope is clear.
I’d rather scare off the wrong client on a blog post than three weeks into a discovery process. Publishing real numbers means the people who reach out already know what this costs and have decided it’s worth it. That’s a better conversation for both of us.
What You’re Actually Paying For
You aren’t paying for furniture selection. You’re paying for the elimination of a zillion decisions and the prevention of expensive mistakes.
A whole-home renovation involves thousands of individual choices. Cabinet depth. Countertop edge profile. Grout color, specified per tile run. The height of the pendants over the island. Sofa upholstery and cushion fill. Rug size, which almost everyone gets wrong.
You can make those decisions yourself, at night, exhausted after clinic, with a Pinterest board and a builder waiting on an answer by Thursday. Or – you can hand those decisions to someone who has made them roughly ten thousand times across 21 years.
The cost of the second option? That’s our design fee.
The cost of the first option? Much higher – it just shows up later. It shows up in the tile you hate, the sofa that doesn’t fit, and the six weeks of delay while the builder waited on you.
The Two Ways to Work With Me
Design Strategy Session, $800
A single paid working session. You get a precise scope of work, realistic investment ranges for your specific project, and clear design direction.
Some clients take that plan and run with it. Some use it to brief their builder. Some use it as the entry point to a full project. Every project we take on starts here. We don’t offer free consultations, and what you walk away with is worth considerably more than $800.
Design Comprehensive, three-room minimum
Full-service, start to finish. My signature eight-phase process: concept design, detailed design, construction coordination, furniture and decor design, procurement, installation, and styling. These projects typically start at $150,000.
We take on about six of these a year. You walk in when it’s done. Like, done done.
What a Full Project Actually Includes
When you hire us for a Design Comprehensive project, you’re investing in five things, and they arrive in this order.
The Design Strategy Session. $800, paid at booking. Every project starts here.
The design fee. A flat fee, sized by the number of rooms and the depth of the work in each one, and split in half across the phase. Rooms with plumbing cost more to design than rooms without, because kitchens and baths are complex. On a full project this is invoiced twice, once for the pre-construction work and once for the furniture and decor, because those are two separate bodies of work.
A monthly fee during construction. This covers oversight through the build, plus the purchasing and tracking of anything I’m buying for the construction phase. It starts when the first order goes out and runs to substantial completion.
A procurement and installation fee. Flat, and locked at the proposal (assuming no change in the project scope). Not a percentage that grows as your furniture budget grows. A $3,000 sofa and a $10,000 sofa are the same purchase order, the same tracking, the same delivery, and the same install.
Pass-throughs (which aren’t our money). Freight, receiving, inspection, storage, white-glove delivery, and Georgia sales tax. These are itemized on your proposal as real dollar figures, not percentages.
One invoice a month. Two or three of those fees may be running at the same time, and that’s normal.
Why We Don’t Bill Hourly
Because an hourly rate makes my income depend on my own inefficiency, and it makes yours depend on a number you can’t predict.
There’s a second reason that matters more. When a fee appears as a percentage of what you spend, our compensation changes based on decisions you make. Every fee we quote is a flat dollar figure by the time it reaches your proposal. It doesn’t move when your furniture budget moves. You can trade down within an agreed scope without us earning less, and I have no reason to talk you into a more expensive sofa.
What Makes a Project Cost More
Plumbing. Kitchens, baths, powder rooms, laundry rooms, and wet bars carry more decisions and more coordination than a bedroom.
Who owns the drawings. A project where I’m producing the plans and elevations costs more than one where I’m specifying into an architect’s existing set.
Custom anything. Custom upholstery, custom millwork, and custom window treatments cost more and take longer. They’re also usually the pieces you’ll still love in fifteen years.
Scale. More rooms means more of everything, though the rate per room comes down as the project gets bigger.
Is Full-Service Design Worth It?
Sometimes no, and I’ll tell you when.
If you have one room, a clear vision, and the time to manage it yourself, that’s when you should hire a great contractor directly and make it happen. If you just want someone to validate decisions you’ve already made, we’re not a fit. If you want a “design bestie” to shop with, that’s a different service and someone else does it well.
It’s worth it when the project is big enough that the decisions have become the problem, when your time is genuinely worth more than what you’d save managing it yourself, and when you want the house to look like your family rather than like a showroom.
Where I Work
I’m based in Macon and most of my work is in Macon and Middle Georgia: historic homes in the Macon districts, new construction, and family homes that need a real plan.
I also work at Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair, and in Atlanta. Lake houses are their own category and we take them on regularly.
Frequently Asked Questions
A paid Design Strategy Session at Lesley Myrick Interior Design is $800. Full-service Design Comprehensive projects typically start at $150,000 in total project investment.
Do interior designers charge hourly or flat fee?
Both exist in the industry. I charge flat fees, sized at the proposal and locked. That means your cost doesn’t change based on how long something takes me, and my fee doesn’t grow when your furniture budget does. No hourly rate appears in my contracts.
No. Every project starts with a paid Design Strategy Session at $800, which delivers a real scope of work and an investment range rather than a sales pitch.
A multi-room furnishing project moves faster than a renovation or a new build, which can run a year or more once you account for design, construction, and lead times on quality furnishings. You’ll always know where things stand, because you get a project update every Friday for the life of the project.
No. You contract directly with your builder and construction trades and pay them directly. I coordinate the day-to-day work with them, which keeps your time protected and keeps the project moving.
Design Comprehensive is built for whole-home and multi-room work. If you have a smaller question, a Design Strategy Session is the better answer and often the only thing you need.
Ready to Talk Numbers for Your Own Project?
If those figures line up with what you had in mind, the next step is a short Connection Call. Tell me about your house, your timeline, and what you’re hoping to do. I’ll let you know whether we’re a fit. Here’s how to get started.
(And hey, if things don’t line up, that’s useful information too. I’d rather you have it now than three meetings from now!)
About Lesley Myrick
Lesley Myrick is an adventurous, intuitive, and exceptionally organized full-service interior designer specializing in designing distinct “forever homes”. She works with high-achieving professionals to create playful, personality-driven and family-friendly spaces that are as functional as they are unique.
At Lesley Myrick Interior Design, we make the typically confusing design process seamless. Our high-touch, deeply engaged design process means that we accept just 6 large-scale remodeling projects per year.
Learn more about our full-service interior design and inquire here to start your design project.