One thing is for sure; you should never start work for a client without some type of formal agreement in place.

An interior design agreement letter or an interior design contract is one of the most important things to have in place before you begin any work for a client so everyone knows what has been agreed upon before a stitch of work is done. 

The last thing you want is to have a miscommunication or a problem crop up, and then you have to navigate forward during the project without this critical agreement in place.

And before we move forward, let me state this in case anyone doesn't already know this:

I Am Not A Lawyer. Do Not Take My Advice As Formal Legal Advice. Consult A Real Life Attorney. You Should Not Rely Upon This Post Or Information Within It For Any Purpose Without Seeking Legal Advice From An Appropriately Licensed Attorney. And Yes It Will Cost You Money, But It Is Money Well Spent.

Now that we have that Captain Obvious disclosure out of the way, I'm going to give my two cents on why your interior design agreement letter is critical for every eDesign project that you do.

Letter Of Agreement VS. Contract

While both a letter of agreement and a contract are binding legal documents, a contract usually has more details. Like everything is written down to the gnat's ass.

With both of these types of contracts, both parties must sign, signifying they freely agree to the terms explaining what is being exchanged between the two parties. And the two parties that sign the agreement have to be in their right minds... so there is to be no drunk signing of contracts at a cocktail party.

Keep It Simple + Easy To Understand

No matter if you go with a formal contract or a letter of agreement, make sure the verbiage is easy to understand. The last thing you need is for the contract to be confusing to you.

The best contracts make everything easy to understand.

Define The Scope Of Work + Deliverables

Spelling out the scope of work (all of the work you agree to do) should be clear and try to avoid industry jargon. What rooms are you working on? What is the tangible result of this work? Are you providing drawings, specifications, project management? Anything and everything that you will be doing need to be spelled out.

If this is an eDesign project, what will your client receive? A PDF with designs/specifications/elevations/instructions/etc?

Communication

Outline how you and the client will communicate, when communication will happen, and what are the limits on it.

You do not want the client to believe that you are on-call to them 24/7 7 days a week. Set the limits of when you will respond and how. If you don't expect to get weekend texts, voicemails, and calls by pushy clients who think you have nothing else to do but cater to their whims.

You'll also want to include a bit about how long AFTER the project is complete you will still be in communication with them should they have follow-up questions or concerns.

What About Revisions?

Will you be offering revisions? Probably, but you'll also want to be very clear about how many revisions are included for the fee of this contract and when should these revisions by the client be requested?

Do you have a difference between a minor and major revision? Do you allow for a complete project redo if something goes horribly wrong? Explain what you mean by a revision.

And then also detail what you will charge for any revisions beyond the ones included. You may also want to say that this will be documented in an additional amendment contract that you will require them to sign off on before you do the revision work.

What Are Timelines + Milestones For The Project?

Pinpointing exact dates for a local project is rather difficult. Lead times for product and contractor availability (and their funny games of pretending not to understand that you need them to show up on specific days) are practically impossible to get.

However, when we're doing an eDesign project, the client is doing most of the legwork. If they need the contractor, they'll take care of it. If they want furniture that you specified, they will order it.

What you need to document here for an eDesign project is that while conflicts and emergencies do occur and that you will communicate to them in writing when things pop up, that you intend to stick to a schedule.

You will also want to make sure that you let them know that a specific deadline can only be met if the client does their part, too. Should they fail to meet a deadline, you need to let them know what that will do to their project timeline.

How Much Will This Project Cost + How Do You Get The Money?

Tell them how much the project costs, how they are to submit payment to you. And if there are phases to the payments according to date, outline how much each portion of the project is to be paid and by when.

Is there a discount if they pay in full? Do you want 50% down and 50% due prior to delivery of the work?

You certainly do not want to become a mafioso trying to chase down your client due to not-so-clear terms.

Recommending Merchandise? Who's Doing The Purchasing?

Most likely, you'll be recommending merchandise to your client. You can let them know that these are only recommendations, and they can search for their own comparable items if they wish.

Avoid offering to purchase anything for your client unless you're working with a company that you trust and have a representative that can be your go-to person when shit goes wrong.

If you're recommending products, also let them know that they may be affiliate links where you make an additional commission at no additional cost to them.

But the biggest key to remember here is that while you are suggesting products, you are in no way making any guarantees or warranties about the product, nor are you guaranteeing the price or the client's experience with the vendors. This is super important because while you would never become the go-between for the client and a contractor, NOR should you represent that you will do this in the case of the merchandise. That's a sticky spot you want no part of.

Who Is Responsible For Those Contractors?

Clearly state that your client is the only one who will be responsible for contractors. They will sign contracts, work with them, and be accountable for that relationship separate from you.

If you happen to make any recommendations for changes to be made to your client's home, spell it out that these are suggestions and that they must contact and consult separately with licensed contractors. Your ideas are conceptual and not to be used for production in any case.

What Happens When There's A Problem? Can They Get Their Money Back?

What happens if your clients have to cancel this project? Do they get their money back? Will you invoice them for the work you've already completed? What are the milestones that define either how much you refund and/or what you will bill them?

Even worse, what happens if they seem to fall off the face of the earth? They won't respond to your emails or calls. Then maybe you'll want to have something written down where the project automatically ends, and there are no refunds to be had for that ghosting client.

If you totally screw everything up, then what? Do you want them to allow you a certain period of time so you can fix it - and in the case where you cannot correct it, will you then refund the project in its entirety? And in that case, who owns the rights to the work already done?

Can You Get Photographs For Your Portfolio + Marketing Purposes?

I'm sure you'll want photographs of the projects to put in your portfolio and share all over the interwebs, right? You need to spell out how you'll use this media, that you have their permission, and if you'll disclose the client's name (or not disclose their name at their request).

Is There Confidential Information?

Are you sharing confidential information? Trade resources that you don't want to get out into the world? Tell them how you want that handled.

Also, let them know how you will handle their information if it is necessary to do so to a government agency.

Who Owns This Work?

This is the time to tell them you will never create another project that is a duplicate of the work you've done for them.

You will also then make it clear that they are not to claim ownership of your work. This is something that has happened a few times to my clients.

My clients have designed something. Then the client decides that they're now going to be a decorator and because they made some input into the project, decide that they can claim this project as their very own.

You do not want that to happen, and if they fail to heed the words of the contract that they signed, you now have a way to remind them that this kind of fuckery is not allowed.

What Happens If The Terms Of This Interior Design Agreement Letter Change?

And this is why the contract is the most beautiful thing since gluten-free sliced bread! If they ask for something that wasn't agreed to formerly or the project completely changes, it's time for a new agreement.

Contracts Eliminate Scope Creep

You know those times when a client wants you to do this one little thing, it's not a big deal, right? You could just go ahead and take care of that. That's why it's good to have everything spelled out, so then you can easily just say that falls outside of the original terms of your contract. Then you can quickly tell Tom that you're happy to create a separate agreement for that additional work.

On the other hand, if you happened to outlined additional work for an hourly fee, then it's settled from the get-go!

Emails Are Contracts, Too

And don't forget that your emails are also legally binding. You may think you're just throwing ideas back and forth, but if you threw out some fantastic idea and your client responds with "sounds great!" later down the road, your client may have thought that you agreed to do it because they agreed it was a good idea. Right?

All of this is to say, spell out your intent in your emails that if you're brainstorming that this is all that you're doing in this email and nothing final has been agreed upon, so Joe doesn't think he's just scored something additional to your OG contract.

Update Your Interior Design Agreement Letter Frequently

Schedule some time once a year or every time your design process changes to go through your interior design agreement letter again. As your process gets refined and time flies like a bat out of hell, it's a good idea to check in and make sure that your bases are covered.

Whether you choose to go with an interior design agreement letter or contract, you need to make sure that you spell out everything. There is nothing worse than finding yourself screwed later on when that dream client turns into a dick or things go horribly wrong.

It will make everyone, you and your clients feel at ease knowing that you're both on the same page from the beginning.

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