Compared: designers known for a look
Two ways to hire a designer.
Some designers are hired for their look: you’ve seen their houses and want one like them. We’re hired for yours: you see the options, hear our suggestion and decide. Both can give you a beautiful house. It’s worth knowing which you want before you sign.
Schedule free consultationWhen your taste leads
What changes when the house is yours.
| Item | A designer known for a look | Stanza |
|---|---|---|
| How you choose them | By a look you’ve seen and loved in their portfolio | By how we work: three options, our suggestion, your decision |
| Fit | Some pass on clients whose taste is far from theirs | We take our direction from yours |
| Your finished house | Often photographed for the portfolio; the right to photograph is commonly written into the contract, though many honour a client’s no | Yours. Photographed only with your permission |
Their column summarises how designers describe their own practice in trade interviews (Business of Home, 1stDibs).
If you love a designer’s look
Hire them. That’s what a signature is for.
Many of the best designers are known for a look: a palette, a proportion, the pieces they return to. Clients often find them through photographs of their work, and designers advise looking for one whose aesthetic fits your own. Some say openly that they pass on projects far from their look.
If their houses are the house you want, that conviction is exactly what you’re paying for. When the house you want is your own, the arrangement turns around.
One written proposal, beside ours
The same house, point by point.
In 2026 a traditional high-end Austin design firm gave us a written proposal for a 5,000 sq ft house. It’s one firm, not every firm, so here it is point by point.
| Item | Their written proposal | Stanza |
|---|---|---|
| Design fee | $52,860 flat for about 5,000 sq ft | About $12,500 for the same 5,000 sq ft, at $2.50 a square foot of the rooms we design, agreed in writing |
| Renderings | The kitchen, living rooms and primary bath | Every room in scope, the guest bath included |
| Revisions | Two revisions to the renderings, then $225 an hour | As many rounds as it takes, never billed hourly |
| Changing your mind | Up to three revisions to the proposal, each by written change order, with the time to agree it billed hourly | A settled room reopens whenever you ask during your project, never billed hourly |
| What you buy | A 10% procurement fee, plus 20% on furnishings for receiving, inspection and installation | Our cost plus 20%, with the published retail price shown beside it |
| Paying for what you buy | The total spend, paid in full before anything is purchased | As things are ordered: piece by piece, or from a working fund we draw down package by package |
| Also in their fee | Weekly site visits, construction project management, contractor communications and installation | Not in ours. Your contractor runs the site; we run the design and order the furniture, lighting and decor. |
Their column is taken from the proposal itself.
Which suits you
A short way to tell.
A designer known for a look, if
- you’ve fallen for a designer’s portfolio and want that look in your house
- you’d like the designer to lead, and to approve what they bring you
- you want your designer on site through the build
Stanza, if
- you know what you love and want help making it work in your house
- you’d like to see options, hear our suggestion and decide
- you want every fee agreed before anything starts
A first conversation
Tell us about your house.
A free 30-minute call with the people who will design it. Walk us through the rooms you want designed, with photos or plans if you have them, and we’ll work out your design fee with you on the call. Nothing to sign.
Schedule free consultationOr text (408) 355-4249
