Volume PlanArchitect-led design studio

Design guide · Whole-home decisions

Compare scope, fees, and design teams using the same questions.

Guides for owners deciding what whole-home design includes, what sits outside the fee, how proposals differ, and how to read a portfolio with context.

Remote-firstClear online reviews, records, and deliverables.
Local coordinationDefined handover to licensed local teams.
Private by defaultClient locations and identifying details stay unpublished.
Whole-home decisions become easier when scope, responsibilities, stages, fees, and exclusions are compared line by line.
Whole-home decisions become easier when scope, responsibilities, stages, fees, and exclusions are compared line by line.

Direct answer

A useful proposal separates design work, procurement, products, local fees, and implementation responsibility.

Design fees pay for professional time, design development, drawings, specifications, meetings, and agreed revisions. Procurement and third-party costs should be shown separately.

Whole-home priorities

Four guides support the client’s selection and comparison process.

01

Whole-home scope

Rooms, planning, interior architecture, materials, lighting, joinery, FF&E, drawings, and support.

02

Design vs procurement fees

What professional design covers and what sourcing, products, logistics, and local services cost separately.

03

Proposal comparison

Compare deliverables, stages, revisions, exclusions, timing, responsibilities, and total project costs.

04

Portfolio transparency

Identify role, project stage, delivered services, image type, design problem, and actual decisions.

Scope and responsibility

Good comparison requires equivalent scope, not only headline price.

A lower fee can represent fewer rooms, fewer drawings, fewer revisions, no FF&E, no coordination, or an entirely different level of professional involvement.

01

Define

List the rooms, stages, deliverables, revisions, meetings, support, and required start information.

02

Separate

Show design, procurement, products, samples, travel, local professionals, freight, tax, and installation separately.

03

Compare

Assess team experience, design role, communication, programme, exclusions, and implementation responsibility.

04

Select

Choose the proposal that gives the clearest fit, not the most ambiguous promise.

Questions

Clear before the project begins.

Continue

Related decisions and next steps.