Interior designers - are their fees baked into prices?

Golfer09

Hi everyone,

One of our first post wedding projects has been to refresh our living space so it doesn't look like we are a bunch of college students.

We wanted to take advantage of a Macy's sale so working with their interior designer, he came to our place and worked with our budget picking out items both at Macy's and at other stores (for window treatments and organizational solutions), very much like a wedding planner would in planning a wedding.

We don't have a contract so wasn't sure how he makes money off of our purchases.  I am assuming that via Macy's (where we are getting a lot of our furniture) he will get a commission but with the other items will I get an invoice with his fee baked into the final amount?

I'm not paying him a flat fee for his services so wondering if other Nesties have worked with interior designers and how they have worked paying them for their services.  TIA!

JosFinnMom

I *believe* that he will be paid through Macy's, which means no cost to you. It's a service they offer. I wouldn't be embarrassed to confirm with him, though. IMO, it would be pretty unethical to spring a bill on someone after the fact.

JosFinnMom

Ok, I just re-read and noticed that he's not only selling you things from Macy's, but from other places as well. Again, it wouldn't hurt to confirm with him that you will not be billed for his services, but usually ID's get designer discounts from places, which does not get passed on to the buyer, and that's how they make their money (in very basic laymen's terms - this can vary pretty widely).