Interior Design Proposal Template: Scope, Fees and Phases With ChatGPT

A proposal should state the rooms covered, the scope and deliverables of each phase (concept, design development, procurement, install), the fee and how it is calculated, what is excluded, what the client must provide and decide, the timeline and the payment stages. ChatGPT can draft the wording from your discovery notes; you set every figure and approve every line.

ChatGPT writes fluent proposals that look finished and quietly contain choices you never made: unlimited revisions, a site-supervision promise, a payment split you did not intend. The method here keeps it to wording and structure, with every number and every commitment supplied by you.

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Weak proposals tend to fail in the same three places. The scope is a service name ("full interior design") rather than a list of deliverables, the fee has no stated basis, and nothing says what is left out. Each of those gets its own section below, with text you can adapt.

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The proposal is also not the contract. It sells the work and defines it plainly; the contract binds both sides, and legal wording belongs with a solicitor rather than a chatbot. The tutorial on AI-drafted interior design contracts covers what to have checked.

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Nine parts a client can say yes to

A client reading a proposal is asking one question: do I know what I am buying, what it costs and what happens next? These nine parts answer it in order, and a one-room job uses the same nine at shorter length.

1. Summary with the headline fee. Two or three sentences and the total estimate, so nobody has to hunt for the number.
2. Your understanding of the brief. Three or four sentences in the client's own priorities. This is where they decide you listened.
3. Scope by phase. Deliverables, meetings and revision rounds for each phase.
4. Fees and the basis for them. What is fixed, what is estimated, what is a percentage.
5. How products and trades are bought. Who places orders, who pays suppliers and when.
6. Exclusions. The specific things this proposal does not cover.
7. Client responsibilities and decision dates. Access, approvals, payments, and by when.
8. Timeline. Phases with target dates, tied to the decisions above.
9. Changes, validity and next steps. How extra work is priced, how long the proposal stands, how to accept.

The skeleton below is the blank version. Paste it into your ChatGPT Project as the structure every draft must follow.

PROPOSAL: [project name]
Prepared for: [client first name]   Date: [date]   Valid until: [date]

1. Summary and headline fee
2. Our understanding of your brief
3. Scope by phase
   Phase 1 Concept: deliverables / meetings / revision rounds / ends when
   Phase 2 Design development: deliverables / meetings / revision rounds / ends when
   Phase 3 Procurement: what we order, what we coordinate, what we do not
   Phase 4 Install and handover: days on site, styling, snag list
4. Fees and basis (table)
5. How products and trades are bought and paid for
6. Not included
7. What we need from you, and by when
8. Timeline
9. Changes, validity, how to accept

Four phases, each with deliverables, decisions and a stopping point

A phase is useful in a proposal only if it has an end the client can recognise. "Design development" means nothing to most clients; "you receive the specification and a schedule of every item with prices" means something. The table is the template I'd give ChatGPT to expand, one row per phase.

Two details prevent most disputes. First, state the number of meetings and revision rounds in each phase, as a number, not as "as needed". Second, make the end condition something the client does ("approves one concept in writing") rather than something you feel. If a phase ends only when you are satisfied, it never ends.

Choose the fee basis before ChatGPT writes a word of it

The fee basis is your decision and the most common thing a draft gets wrong, because the AI will default to whichever model its example proposals used. Decide first, then tell it. The fee models tutorial compares the options in more depth; this table is the version you need for writing.

The worked proposal below uses the hybrid, so here is what it does when the project moves. Phases 1, 2 and 4 are fixed at $2,000, $3,300 and $1,300, a total of $6,600. Phase 3 is 12% of the net value of products ordered through the studio. At $36,000 of product spend that is $4,320, for a total of $10,920. If the spend rises by 20% to $43,200, phase 3 becomes $5,184 and the total $11,784. If it falls by 20% to $28,800, phase 3 becomes $3,456 and the total $10,056.

That behaviour is the argument for the hybrid: the fee for thinking is steady, and the fee for handling orders rises and falls with the number of orders. Whatever you choose, check the logic yourself before the AI formats it. All these rates and percentages are placeholders; use your own.

Set up a ChatGPT Project once, with your own clause library

Do not start each proposal from a blank chat. Create one ChatGPT Project (Claude Projects work in a similar way) and put in it three things: instructions that say how you write, a document of your standard wording, and two or three anonymised old proposals as examples. Custom GPTs can no longer be created (creation ended in late September 2026), and existing ones stop running on 11 December 2026, so a Project is the durable home.

The instructions are short. Something like: write in plain, warm language with the spelling my clients use, no marketing language; use the nine-part skeleton; never state a fee, date or percentage that is not in the notes; mark anything missing as TO CONFIRM; never include a legal clause I have not pasted. The last two rules do most of the work, because they turn invention into visible gaps.

Two housekeeping points. Strip client names, addresses and phone numbers from anything you paste or upload, and check the data setting on your plan: business plans are not used to train the models by default, while personal plans have a control you should read. And keep only two or three examples in the Project, otherwise the AI averages them into something generic.

Prompt one: scope by phase from discovery notes

Start with the scope, since everything else hangs on it. Paste your notes, as messy as they are, and ask for the table in the skeleton.

Using the nine-part skeleton in the Project, draft part 3 (scope by phase) only.
Notes from the discovery meeting follow. Rules: use only deliverables and meeting counts that appear in the notes or in my standard wording document. Where a number is missing, write TO CONFIRM. Do not mention site supervision, renders or project management unless the notes say so.

Notes: two rooms, living-dining and main bedroom. Existing floors stay. No structural work. Replace sofa, dining table, bedroom storage. Client wants warmer, calmer, no high-gloss, dimmable lighting, blackout curtains in the bedroom. Budget for products about $36,000, trades separate. Client lives there during the works. Styling day mid-June.

A typical first draft (illustrative) comes back looking professional. Here is a trimmed version of the Phase 3 and Phase 1 rows, and what I would change.

A before and after on one line shows the standard to aim for. Before: "Full interior design service for living room and bedroom." After: "Concept phase: two layout options and one concept board with materials and colour direction, presented in one 90-minute meeting, with one round of revisions." The second version is what makes a later conversation about "one more option" short and friendly.

Prompt two: exclusions and client duties that are specific

Ask for exclusions as a separate pass, because the AI tends to write one vague catch-all sentence if you let it fold exclusions into the scope. Give it your standard list and the project's particulars, and ask it to list what a client might reasonably assume is included but is not.

Draft part 6 (Not included) and part 7 (What we need from you, and by when).
Start from the standard exclusions in my wording document. Then add anything specific to these notes that a client might assume is covered. Each exclusion must be one short sentence naming the thing. Each client duty must have a deadline expressed relative to a phase (for example, "within five working days of receiving the specification"). Output two plain lists. Flag any item you are unsure about with TO CONFIRM.

The difference between a generic list and a specific one is what the client will remember when something is missing.

Read each exclusion against your last three jobs. If a client has ever asked for it, it belongs on the list in words, not as part of a general sentence. This is also the place to say how a changed brief is handled: new rooms, new schemes or a switch of style are new work, quoted before starting.

Prompt three: the fee section from your own numbers

The fee section is where you give the AI the figures, never the other way round. Supply the basis, the amounts and the payment triggers, and ask it to present them as a table and a short paragraph of payment wording.

Draft part 4 (Fees and basis) and the payment stages in part 9. Use only these figures:
Phase 1 fixed fee $2,000, invoiced on signing.
Phase 2 fixed fee $3,300, half at start, half when the specification is issued.
Phase 3 fee 12% of the net value of products ordered through us, invoiced with each order. Estimate at $36,000 of spend: $4,320.
Phase 4 day rate $650, two days estimated: $1,300, invoiced after install.
Total estimate $10,920. Work outside scope: $110 an hour, quoted before it starts.
Present a table with columns: phase, basis, amount, when invoiced. Then one paragraph of payment wording in plain language. Do not round, add or remove any figure.

Then tie the output back to your numbers. In one illustrative draft, the table was right but the paragraph below it said "a total estimate of $10,290", with two digits swapped. It is the sort of slip that is easy to miss on a screen and hard to explain to a client afterwards. Add the column of amounts in a spreadsheet and compare each stated total.

A complete worked proposal for two rooms (illustrative)

This is the finished text for the project in the notes, edited after the checks above. The names and figures are invented; your own terms come from your records and your solicitor.

1. Summary

We will design and deliver a new scheme for your living-dining room and main bedroom: layout, furniture, lighting, colour, window dressings and decorative finishes. The estimated design fee is $10,920, broken down in part 4. Products are paid by you on the suppliers' invoices, and trades through your contractor. The target styling day is Friday 18 June 2027, subject to the decision dates in part 7.

2. Your brief

You want rooms that feel warmer and calmer, with no high-gloss finishes, dimmable lighting throughout, storage in the bedroom and blackout curtains. You will be living in the home during the works, so deliveries and install days need to be planned around that. Existing floors stay and there is no structural work.

3. Scope by phase

4. Fees and payment

Work outside this scope is quoted before it starts, at $110 an hour or as a fixed fee agreed in writing.

5 to 9. Products, exclusions, your part, timeline, next steps

Products are ordered by us once you approve each order in writing, and invoiced by the supplier to you; you pay supplier deposits on the supplier's terms. Trades are managed and paid by your contractor. Not included: structural drawings or applications for building approval, electrical design beyond the lighting layout, replacement of items damaged in transit (the supplier handles these), storage of deliveries beyond two weeks, photography. We need you to approve or comment on each deliverable within five working days, arrange access for the survey, install days and deliveries, and decide the sofa fabric by 2 February 2027, the pendant finish by 15 February and the joinery drawings by 1 March. Target dates: concept presented by Friday 4 December 2026, specification issued by Friday 22 January 2027, orders placed from February as each decision arrives, and installation and styling on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 June 2027. This proposal is valid for 30 days. To accept, reply with "approved" and pay the first invoice.

Notice what is absent: no promise of site supervision, no unlimited rounds, no percentage that moves unannounced. Every item in it was either in the notes or supplied by you, which is the standard you are checking the draft against.

Where the draft goes wrong, and how it showed up

These are the faults I'd expect when reading a ChatGPT proposal, in the order they tend to appear.

• Quiet generosity. "Unlimited", "ongoing", "full" and "as required" slip in because proposals in its training data use them. Search the draft for those four words.
• Number drift. The fee is right in the table and different in the summary. Totals, phase names and dates must match in every place they appear.
• Borrowed clauses. If your Project holds an old proposal, the draft may carry over a deposit percentage or a cancellation term you no longer use. Keep example proposals to the minimum and cleaned of terms.
• Another client's detail. A name, a room or a supplier from an uploaded example appears in the new draft. Anonymise examples and scan for proper nouns before you send.
• Soft verbs on the fee. "Approximately", "from" and "around" next to a fee make it a range the client will read at its lowest. Replace each with a figure or an explicit estimate with a trigger.

An example of the second fault, illustrative: the summary promised "a fee of $10,920 including install", while part 4 listed install separately at $1,300 within the same total. The client could fairly read the summary as install being free on top of the quoted fee. One sentence of clean wording fixed it, but only because someone read both parts side by side.

A tie-out checklist before you send it

Read the finished proposal once as the client and once with this list beside it.

1. Each fee in the table is the same number wherever it appears, and the total adds up in a spreadsheet.
2. Every phase has a number of meetings, a number of revision rounds and an end condition.
3. Nothing in the scope contradicts the exclusions (search for the words "supervision", "management" and "unlimited").
4. Every client duty has a deadline or trigger, not "promptly".
5. Dates agree between the summary, the timeline and the decision list.
6. The proposal says how extra work is priced and how long the offer stays open.
7. No names, addresses or details from another client or example remain.
8. The payment stages match how you actually invoice.
9. Any wording that creates a legal obligation is either from your contract or marked for your solicitor.
10. You would be comfortable defending each sentence in a disagreement a year from now.

Last, send the proposal with a short covering message in your own voice. ChatGPT can draft that too, but the personal line about the client's brief is the one worth writing yourself.

Terms and legal wording stay with a solicitor

A proposal states what you will do and what it costs. Cancellation, ownership of designs, liability, payment-default and dispute terms are legal wording, and they differ by place and by how you trade. Use ChatGPT to organise your own existing terms into plain English or to compare two versions for differences, but do not paste in a clause it wrote and send it. Have your solicitor review the terms once, then keep that reviewed wording in the Project as the only source of legal text.

If you also want help structuring the front end of the job, the client questionnaire tutorial produces the discovery notes this proposal starts from, and the project timeline tutorial turns the phases into dated milestones with lead times.

Proposal questions designers ask before sending

Should the proposal and the contract be one document?

They do different jobs. The proposal explains and prices the work so the client can say yes; the contract binds both sides. Many studios send a proposal first, then a contract that refers to it. If you combine them into one document, have a solicitor review the combined version, because the wording of a proposal was not written to be enforced.

Can ChatGPT decide my fee?

It can calculate scenarios from numbers you give it, such as hours, rates and a percentage, and it can format the result. It cannot know your costs, your capacity or what a client will pay. Set the fee yourself, then ask ChatGPT only to present it, and recheck every figure in a spreadsheet because language models make arithmetic slips.

How long should a proposal for a single room be?

One to two pages is usually enough if it still carries the same parts: a summary with the fee, deliverables by phase, exclusions, client responsibilities, timeline and payment stages. Shorter jobs need shorter wording, not fewer headings, because the gaps that cause disputes are the same size on a small job as on a large one.

Where should I keep my standard wording now that custom GPTs are gone?

Use a ChatGPT Project (or a Claude Project) holding your instructions, phase descriptions, exclusions list and two anonymised past proposals. A plain document template works too. Custom GPT creation ended in late September 2026, and existing custom GPTs stop running on 11 December 2026, so do not build your process on one.

Further reads

• Interior Designers AI Tool: Check Trade Quotes Against Your Schedule — Check trade quotes against the specification you priced
• Remodelling Proposal Template: Scope, Allowances and Terms With AI — How allowances are written in a renovation proposal
• How Interior Designers Use AI for Mood Boards and Presentations — Presenting the concept phase to a client
• AI for Architects and Interior Designers: Who Does What on a Joint Job — Who covers what when an architect is also on the job
• AI for Interior Design Studio Admin: Sourcing, Quotes, Updates — Studio admin beyond proposals: sourcing, quotes, updates
• Best AI for Interior Design Mockups: Client-Ready Images for a Studio — A six-step studio workflow from a client's room photo to an approved concept image: permissions, prompts, a scale check, labelling and a one-page sign-off.
• ChatGPT for Interior Designers: Ten Prompts for Briefs and Schedules — Ten placeholder-based ChatGPT prompts for an interior designer's briefs, product schedules and client updates, plus the checks that keep prices right.
• FF&E Schedule for Interior Designers: Build and Check It With AI — Build and check an interior design FF&E schedule with AI: the columns that matter, a totals audit, price checks against suppliers and a change log.
• Landscape Design Proposal: Write Concept, Scope and Fees With AI — A worked residential garden proposal: AI-drafted concept and scope, fees built from hours, a design-only and a design-build version, and a human fee check.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: OpenAI's help pages on ChatGPT Projects (read November 2026), data controls and the end of custom GPT creation, and Anthropic's help pages on Claude Projects and business-plan data use (October 2026). All fees, hours and dates in the examples are illustrative.