I’m sitting here at the office, trying to calculate the cost of the Interior design visualization project. I realized how complicated it might be to value an interior design visualization project (image) and then to defend that cost with the client. I decided to find out the answer to the right formula here.

The short answer should be:

Interior design visualization projects are tricky to be on fixed pricing.

Cost of Interior design visualization project usually is calculated based on multiple factors. I did some research, and often, interior visualizations tend to start from £200 / $250 up to £4500 / $5500 per image depending on the quality and the experience of the studio you hired. Some of them might offer more add-on services for that price, while others might provide a faster turnaround.

There are interior design visualization projects that are calculated on per project or space.

• A space like kids room, bedroom or bathroom (5 to 15 sq.m) realistically can cost you between £400 / $500 – £650 / $800 for two to three perspectives.
  
• Kitchen or dining room (12 to 25 sq.m) can cost between £700 / $860 – £1,200 / $1500 per project for three to four perspectives.
• A larger living room or garden (25 to 60 sq.m) can cost between £900 / $1100 – £1700 / $2100 per project for four to five perspectives.
  

These costs can vary if the interior design visualization project has complicated features like classical details, forms and textures.

Let’s dive in step by step and see why such a broad difference and to find the best price for your project.

How much does an interior visualization project cost?

First, off finding the exact costs of your interior visualization project, it’s not that complicated, but you have to be aware and well informed about a couple of things. There are steps that you have to make sure you follow, starting with a finding the visualization studio or freelancer.

Step 1 – How to find Interior Visualizer or Studio

Interior Visualization doesn’t fall into the general category of Visualization studios. While you might thinking, it’s just a visualization, they are more niche-focused experts, with a capacity to help and understand your interior design project.

The most popular way is Google by typing interior visualizations or design visualizations. There are other more niche ways of finding a studio. I will post a list descending from most authoritative to least:

–          Behance

This is a professional portfolio platform where most of the visualization artists and studios have a profile. Just find the magnifier at the top of the page and write what you are looking for.

–          Ronen Beckerman’s blog

A very best place for discussions and making-of website. It’s not an ideal place as Behance, as it’s purpose is different, but by looking into the topics and showcase sections, you might choose your new business partner

–          Evermotion’s showcase page

One of the oldest websites for showcasing 3d projects. Started as a forum based platform, quickly grew into a site with portfolio sections called Galleries.

–          Cgarchitect

Very old and authoritative website. A massive online community where visualizers and other industry professionals write and post. There is a Gallery page where most of the members have an account showing their best work.

–          Facebook groups

While it’s the most well-known social network, it might not be the most reliable place, but it is one of the most authentic places. You should be looking at the Facebook profiles/pages after you have their website/portfolio.

While 80% of all visualization studios have facebook pages, they might not post that often as you expect.

Step 2 – What to look for in their Portfolio

Look at their portfolio and website in general. Look at the way they present their work and projects. Do they have a beautiful gallery for each project with text and explanations?

Do they show specific details of each project in a fantastic way, where only one image can tell a story?

Or everything is it at one place, mixed with many projects of a different variety? Every company’s portfolio is its primary marketing tool, and it should be immaculate, showing their best work.

It’s a reflection of how they work and at what level of expertise. If it’s not something that you like or it’s not your style, you might have to reconsider and start doing some more research on Google or Behance.

Step 3 – Researching for interior visualization add-ons

Now, as you already selected a few websites or visualizers, you might want to check their add-ons and price pages.

You might be thinking, what kind of add-ons might be out there as I am looking just for an image or images?

A 3D visualization project it’s not just images. A whole lot of work has to be done in front before even your project has started. Here is a list of services that you should be looking for:

–          Turnaround options and time

–          Test drive options

–          Number of changes per image

–          Image resolution

–          Concept development

–          Layout studies

–          Interior Design assistance

–          Management system

Look at the price page as well if there is some at all. It is not strange that 80% of all interior visualization studios don’t show prices on their website. This is caused by the fact that creating an image has multiple factors involved.

And boarder the work of that studio is, the more complicated to calculate the costs per image are.

At this point, you might start getting to understand why such a difference for the costs per image/project. The more experience and add-ons the more niche the Visualization studio is, therefore the higher the cost is, but less hassle and hard-times for you.

Step 4 – When to contact interior design visualization studio

You have done your detailed research, and this is the time to reach them. Send them an e-mail or phone them, either way, they will have questions. Here is a list with some of the issues that they should/might ask before you get an approximate figure for your project or image.

These are the questions that I ask when contacted by a new client. These questions might be very different or less for some other companies.

–          Size of the project (How many rooms or total area number)

–          Type of design style

–          The complexity of the style

–          Are there any outdoor areas

–          How many images you need

–          Do you need design assistance

–          Are any layout studies are required

–          Is the concept stage developed

–          When you need your first draft interior visualizations

–          When you have to submit/show your images

Later on, when some if not all of these questions are answered, you should get an approximate figure for your entire project or per image. By that time you should have already a total value or at least a range, so it shouldn’t be that scary.

Step 5 – Approximate price for interior design visualization image.

Let’s assume we have the following scenario.

You have a project that needs interior design assistance where you will be just overseeing and managing the project. As you are overloaded with work and don’t have the time to design every bit of the project alone. You have chosen to develop with them the concept and the layouts, and you need everything fast.

70% of all project has draft interior design images submitted within the second week of their start.

As you can understand, the visualization studio will be very involved in developing not only images but your design concept, layouts for the project and final images. Therefore the costs per image might be around the average or beyond.

Interior Design Visualization project – Case study 1

In this Case study, we have a scenario with a project enquiry that comes just with a brief where the designer has only rough information and ideas coming from the client.

Price for a single image it should be in an estimate between £1000 to £4500.

Obviously, the project has to be built from scratch so the price per image/project it will be average or beyond the average.

An example of included add-ons that should go with the 3d image:

–          Research and Development of the design style

–          Modelling the design objects (If your chosen design pieces are trendy they can be bought by one of the many websites for 3D models. This will come as additional costs to your project)

–          Setting up the objects at their positions and camera angles

–          Light and materials/textures options

–          Draft renderings

–          Amendments

These can be two types. If you have planned your design concept right, you should be changing only positions, colours or textures into the images. (You should have set amount per image or project)

As this is real life, sometimes more changes are required as adding new design pieces or even changing entire parts of the projects.  (You should have set amount per image or project)

–          Second draft renderings

–          Amendments (Last round of changes that you can introduce to the project)

If more changes as new design pieces or entire parts of the design project are required, you should expect a small increase in the image costs.

Interior Design Visualization project – Case study 2

In this second Case study, we have a scenario of a project that comes at a preliminary stage where the designer has only brief from its client without any concept drawings and only reference images in a board.

Here is approximate brake-down add-ons and cost per 3D rendering that is a part of a very complex design project.

Price for a single image it should be in an estimate between £650 to £850.

The price range depends on that how many changes you have requested and you should expect to have the following add-ons included.

An example of included add-ons that should go with the 3d image:

–          Research and Development of the design style

–          Modelling the design objects (Same rule apply as per Case 1)

–          Setting up the objects at their positions and camera angles

–          Light and materials/textures options

–          Draft renderings

–          Amendments

–          Second draft renderings (Same rule apply as per Case 1)

–          Amendments (Last round of changes that you can introduce to the project)

Interior Design Visualization project – Case study 3

In the third Case study, we have a scenario of a project that comes at an advanced stage where the designer developed a Sketchup concept of the design, has more defined mood board and passed the first round of discussions with the client.

Prices for a single image here it should fall between £200 to £550.

The price range again depends on that how many changes you have requested and you should expect to have the following add-ons included. Prices here are reduced as the Visualiser will have to work with far less unknown factors.

An example of included add-ons that should go with the 3d image:

–          Modelling design objects. As in this case, the Visualiser will receive a Sketchup file with all the models, they don’t have to model everything from scratch. Despite that, you should expect some modelling work to be done, as usually SketchUp files don’t translate that well and they come with glitches or missing parts. (If your chosen design pieces are trendy they can be bought by one of the many websites for 3D models. This will come as additional costs to your project)

–          Setting up camera angles

–          Light and materials/textures options

–          Draft renderings

–          Amendments (Same as per Case 1)

–          Second draft renderings

–          Amendments (Last round of changes that you can introduce to the project)

And again if more changes are necessary, you should expect a small increase in the image costs.

INTERIOR DESIGN VISUALISATION PROJECT – TIMELINE

Before I continue, it is essential to note that the TIMELINE is one of the most critical parts of each project.

This is a very complex system of all factors involved in the project, even your relationship and response time.

Each studio/visualiser should have a systematic approach that follows and triggers signals that you have to be aware of since the beginning. During each project, there will be a lot of back and forth moments, where it is easy to lose time while thinking that you are improving something.

It is crucial to listen to your visualizer as they know best what could slow down or speed up a project.

Cost of £5000 / $6200 for 6-7 interior design visualization images?

After all, exchanged e-mails and phone calls you have now the total costs for your visualization project. It might look scary for some of you when you see a £5000 / $6200 for 6-7 images, right?

Here is my price page for example /architectural-and-interior-design-visualization/

Let figure out what exactly the benefits you have for that amount and why it’s fair.

–          You will have more personal time

–          You will have a real-business partner that will not turn back

–          You will have more time, managing other important and profitable sides of your interior design business

–          You will have dedicated experienced design team assisting you, where you have the last word

–          It is easy to just oversee a project, instead of full-dive in

–          You can manage efficiently the other subcontractors and supervise your ongoing projects on-site

–          You can meet more clients and drive more business in a result

–          You will have photorealistic renderings where you can use them for your marketing even before you finish your project in real life

–          You don’t have to pay for in-house designers and 3d visualizers

At the end with your interior visualization project, you have done almost your entire interior design project, just overseeing it.

You have shown your client multiple concept drafts, numerous layouts, photo-realistic convincing images and saved many hours of explaining and boring meetings.

The most FAQ that others ask in regards to Interior Design Visualization.

Key points on How much does an interior design visualization project cost?

• Step 1: Find an Interior Design Visualization studio or Architectural Visualization studio. You can look at Google, Behance and some of the other popular industry websites where Visualization companies and freelancers post their works.
• Step 2: Look at their portfolio and website. Look at the way they present their work and projects.
• Step 3: Check what they have on offer as services.
• Step 4: Look if they have a price guide or price list, write it down.
• Step 5: Know what your project is and decide what your needs are.
• Step 6: Calculate your budget.
• Step 7: Contact the chosen Interior Visualization studio for a quotation. Send them your brief and project description, your timeline and how many images you need.
  • Step 7A: Ask for help. If you are not sure what exactly you need, ask them!
• Step 8: Mention what is most essential for you to in your project. What outcome you are aiming for.
• Step 9: Never give a price. A single CGI image can cost anything between £200 / $250 up to £4500 / $5500 per image depending on the quality, experience and complexity of your project.
• Step 10: You have an offer now. Negotiate on the service (not on the price), if you can get additional services or add-ons that will add value to your project.
  • Step 10A: Repeat Step 7 with a second interior design visualization studio for a second quotation if necessary.
• Step 11: Congratulations. You’ve negotiated on your interior visualization project and you have a good quote.

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Have questions about our service: Architectural visualization for property developments?

I have written other articles on a similar topic where you may find interesting facts (click on the links below):
1. Success factors for architectural visualization

2.Why is the interior design visualization chosen by many design agencies?

3.Cost-Effective Types of Architectural Visualizations