I was watching one of those reality shows about an interior designer's life and business recently and part of the show was a scene where he was presenting a concept to his clients.
The designer had clearly put time and effort into the presentation but there was a massive problem, what he presented was $30,000-$40,000 over the client's stated budget!! This annoyed SO much.
Let me explain why...
The clients had given a clear number upfront. They were both doctors who had taken time off work to be at this meeting and what they got was a concept they couldn't afford to build.
The designer's response when called out on it was "well I really loved the design so I wanted to show it to you" and this hit a nerve with me because I've been on the receiving end of this exact situation as a client.
When my husband and I were building our Roseville house (which many of you will know from my SketchUp course because that's what you build in that course) we had a clear budget of $400,000. I know this seems like nothing for a 100sqm architectural extension these days, but this was about 10 years ago now and was realistic at the time for what we wanted.
Anyway, the brief included high ceilings, a glass wall next to the pool and an open plan living/kitchen space. We told the architect our budget upfront and were very clear the design had to be within the $400K budget as that's all we had.
What ended up happening was the first iteration of his design came back and we loved it. It had 4m high ceilings, reclaimed brick walls, a huge 2nd living space. It looked incredible and we wanted it!!
So the architect suggested we get it priced up by a quantity surveyor and guess what?? The quote came back at $1.5 million build cost!!! Some of the reasons for that were that once you go over a certain ceiling height everything becomes custom e.g. large custom sliding doors, huge glass panels for the windows. These were all things the architect should have known.
"No worries" he said, I can just adjust the design for your budget.
But the new design he presented was not the same and felt like a disappointment by comparison. It was still nice but it changed the way we felt about the project and felt like we were getting the dodgy seconds.
I wanted to share this story with you because this is what designing over budget does to your clients. It makes them feel let down.
We ended up building the cheaper version he presented and we still loved it in the end but the first option never should have been presented to us because he should have known that elements he was suggesting like oversized glass panels would be completely out of our budget.
In my experience this sort of thing happens for a few reasons:
- The designer/architect doesn't take the budget seriously to begin with.
- They are designing for their portfolio rather than for their client.
- They assume the client will find more money once they see how beautiful the concept is
- They aren't up to date with current construction costs (which is part of their job)
- They want to avoid the harder, more disciplined work of designing something genuinely brilliant within real constraints.
If you are professional being paid to do a job, none of these are acceptable.
There also seems to be a belief in the industry that presenting a dream version first and then scaling back is somehow aspirational and that it shows the client what's possible. But what it actually does is set an expectation you can't meet and makes clients feel every subsequent decision is settling for the second rate option.
The budget is part of the brief
There's an idea in design that budget is an annoying obstacle to creativity rather than a core part of the brief and that working within limits is somehow beneath the creative process. It isn't!!
The best designers treat the budget with the same seriousness as the design brief. They ask about it early and design within it from day one. The budget isn't an afterthought once a beautiful over budget version has already been presented and fallen in love with.
As a designer/architect your job is to lead the project. That means respecting constraints, managing expectations and delivering something that can actually be built. Not designing something that collects digital dust because it required a third mortgage for the clients to build.
It also means staying up to date on what things actually cost. If you're designing residential or commercial projects you need a reliable sense of whether what you're proposing is feasible. Costs shift constantly e.g. materials, labour, lead times and staying across this is part of doing your job properly.
When there are genuine trade offs to be made (which there almost always are!) your job is to help the client understand where their money is best spent and offer upgrades as considered options rather than building them into a base concept the client was never going to be able to afford.
Most clients aren't looking to be wowed with something they can't have, they want to feel confident that you understand their situation and are working within the reality of their lives. Every time you present a concept that blows the budget, you're communicating that your own vision was more important than their brief.
If you want to build a practice that generates referrals and repeat work you have to treat the budget as a core deliverable. Beautiful work that nobody can afford just makes clients feel like they hired the wrong person.
If you genuinely can't make something work within a client's budget, the professional move is to have that conversation early and honestly and tell them what's realistic. Help them understand what their budget can deliver and then help them adjust the scope if you need to.
That's leadership and that's what clients are paying you for.
