Here’s a fun fact:

A lot of interior designers would NOT have wanted my clients’ projects. 👀

Their homes were usually under 3,000 square feet. Budgets ranged from about $60,000 for a hall bath remodel to $500,000 for a home addition. They didn’t want to pay us to manage construction, they didn’t want to pay furniture markups, and nearly all of them lived within about nine miles of my Seattle office.

The question is: Would you have wanted them? 👀

Because I freaking loved that work.

I loved helping families whose homes were making mornings harder than they needed to be, couples who couldn’t agree, and people with rooms nobody wanted to spend time in. My clients wanted homes designed around their actual lives, not around impressing an imaginary future buyer.

Were they perfect clients? HA! No. Some of the things that made those projects challenging eventually pushed me to develop the DECIDE Method for helping clients make better design decisions.

But they were perfect for me.

My Design-Only Interior Design Firm Reached $425K in Revenue

Here’s the part I especially want other interior designers to know: my little design-only firm eventually grew to about $425,000 a year in revenue, all from design fees.

No furniture markups. No procurement profit. No construction management fees.

I don’t share that number because $425,000 is some magical revenue target every interior designer should chase. I share it because for years I heard smart, successful, well-meaning people tell me some version of, “That’s not really how a profitable interior design business works.”

Mentors questioned the model. Industry leaders taught different models. Even my very well-meaning husband had opinions. 😂

And I understand why. There are excellent reasons for interior designers to offer procurement. Product can be an important profit center, and project management can add substantial revenue. For designers who enjoy that work and want to build businesses around it, fantastic.

But does every interior designer have to make money that way?

Nope.

“Design Only” Wasn’t a Limitation. It Was the Business.

It would have been easy to look at my business and describe it by what it didn’t do.

We didn’t work on enormous houses. We didn’t sell furniture. We didn’t manage construction. We didn’t travel all over the region chasing bigger projects.

But those weren’t limitations I needed to market around. That was the business.

I wanted to work on smaller homes. I wanted to earn a good living from my design expertise rather than relying on selling products. I wanted to stay geographically close to home. Most importantly, I wanted to help regular people use interior design to make everyday life better.

Once I stopped comparing that model to somebody else’s version of a successful design firm, the pattern became pretty obvious.

Your Interior Design Niche May Already Be Hiding in Your Business

Interior designers often approach niche marketing as though they need to invent something clever.

Should I specialize in kitchens? Luxury homes? Historic properties? Busy executives? Wellness? Sustainable design?

Sometimes one of those answers is exactly right. But before you manufacture a niche because someone told you that you need one, look at the evidence you already have.

Your niche may be sitting inside your favorite projects, strongest skills, best-fit clients, previous experience, recurring frustrations, and the problems you never get tired of solving.

That is exactly what happened to me.

I didn’t sit in a branding workshop and decide that my niche would be smaller homes, design-only services, practical clients, and design psychology. I knew those were the projects I wanted to do again and again, and I built the business around them.

You probably don’t need to invent your niche. You need to notice the pattern in the work you’d happily do day after day after Seriously Happy day.

A Profitable Interior Design Business Does Not Have to Look Like Everyone Else’s

This is the bigger point.

Your goal is not to prove that design-only is better than procurement, small homes are better than large homes, or my version of an interior design business is better than somebody else’s.

It isn’t.

Your goal is to identify the version that fits your strengths, values, financial goals, preferred clients, and beliefs about what good design and good service look like.

Maybe your dream business includes gorgeous whole-home projects, full-service procurement, and a warehouse full of receiving.

Build that.

Maybe you want to manage construction from beginning to end.

Build that.

Maybe, like me, the thought of selling a sofa makes you want to hide under the sofa. 😆

You are allowed to build something else.

A niche is valuable because it helps you stop trying to make every possible client want you. It helps the right people recognize that the way you work is exactly the way they want to work.

And it gives the wrong people permission to keep looking.

That is successful marketing, too.

So, Would You Have Wanted My Clients?

Smaller homes. Practical budgets. Design-only services. No product markup. A tiny geographic radius. People who cared more about getting happier at home than creating a showpiece.

Would you have wanted those projects?

Maybe your answer is an enthusiastic OMG, THAT’S ME.

Or maybe your answer is, Absolutely not, Rebecca. Please keep them. 😂

Both answers are useful.

The important thing is knowing your answer well enough to build and market a financially sustainable business around it. Your best-fit business does not have to look like mine, your mentor’s, your favorite designer’s, or the firm currently getting all the attention on Instagram.

It needs to work for you.

That’s why the first session of my Nail Your Niche marketing intensive is called WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? 👀

We start by examining the evidence already sitting inside your business: the projects you would happily repeat, the clients you understand especially well, the skills and experience you bring to the table, the problems you care about solving, and your beliefs about what good design and good service should look like.

Then we use that evidence to make your business easier for the right people to recognize, understand, remember, and hire.

If you’ve been trying to invent a niche when what you really need is time, guidance, and smart colleagues to help you recognize the one that may already be there, Nail Your Niche starts September 14.

Not Sure That’s What Your Business Needs Next?

Maybe you read this whole article thinking, YES, I need to get clearer about my marketing.

Or maybe your marketing is actually doing its job, and the bigger problems show up after someone inquires. Maybe clients are signing before they understand what to expect, or projects are getting harder when it’s time to make decisions.

That’s exactly why I created my free What To Fix Next? diagnostic quiz!

It will help you figure out whether the biggest opportunity in your business right now is attracting the right clients, preparing them better before the project begins, or guiding them more confidently once the work is underway.

Because you do not need to fix everything at once.

You need to know what to fix next.