How to Brief Your Interior Designer: A Practical Guide
7 May 2026
The quality of your brief determines the quality of your outcome. Here's exactly what to tell your designer before the project starts — and what not to say.
The Brief Is the Most Important Document in Any Project
We've worked on projects where clients handed us a Pinterest board and a budget. We've worked on projects where clients provided a 10-page written brief with reference images, annotated floor plans, and a prioritised list of must-haves versus nice-to-haves.
The second type of project runs more smoothly, finishes on time, and produces a result closer to what the client imagined.
Here's how to write a brief that gives your designer everything they need.
What to Include in a Design Brief
1. How You Use the Space
Describe your typical day in the space. When do you wake up? Where do you have your first coffee? Do you work from home? Do you host regularly, and if so, how many people and what type of gatherings?
This information shapes everything from the kitchen layout to the number of power points to the acoustic treatment of walls.
2. What You Don't Want
This is often more useful than a list of what you do want. "No cold greys," "nothing that looks like a hotel," "no open shelving in the kitchen" — these constraints immediately narrow the design space and prevent the designer from going down paths you'd never approve.
3. Your Non-Negotiables
Every client has two or three things that are absolutely fixed — a specific piece of furniture they're keeping, a room that must function in a particular way, a budget ceiling that cannot move. State these clearly at the outset.
4. A Realistic Budget Range
"As cheap as possible" is not a budget. A budget range — even a wide one — allows your designer to make appropriate material and specification choices from the beginning, rather than designing something that then has to be value-engineered down.
5. Your Timeline
Do you have a fixed move-in date? Is the space currently occupied? Are there events (a wedding, a family visit) that create a hard deadline? Timeline constraints affect how we resource a project and whether certain finishes or custom items are achievable.
What Not to Include
Too Many Reference Images Without Context
A collection of 200 Pinterest images with no annotation creates confusion, not clarity. If you share reference images, explain what you like about each one. Is it the colour? The proportions? The material? The light?
Vague Aspirational Language
"I want it to feel luxurious but also relaxed and a bit Scandinavian but also warm." We understand what you mean, but this doesn't give us enough to work with. Ground your aspirations in specifics: materials, colours, references you can point to.
The Brief Is a Conversation Starter
A written brief isn't a contract — it's the beginning of a dialogue. The best briefs we receive are clear about priorities but open about everything else. That openness is where good design happens.