Quoting a full home is the single most nerve-wracking number you'll ever put in front of a client, and it's also where most studios in India quietly give away their margin before the project has even started. You want the job, so you keep the figure soft, and then three months in you realise the false ceiling and the imported veneer ate the profit you thought was safely baked in. This one is for the studio owner who's staring at a 2BHK or a 3BHK enquiry wondering where to even begin, and the honest answer is that a good full-home quote is less about a magic number and more about the way you structure it, so let me walk you through how I actually build one, room by room, with rough rupee ranges you can sanity-check against.
Start with the scope, never with a number
The mistake I see again and again is a studio owner blurting out "around 15 lakh" on the first call because the client pushed for a figure, and now that number is an anchor you can never take back. Before you quote anything, you need to know what you're actually quoting, so pin down the carpet area, the number of rooms, whether it's a fresh handover flat or a renovation with demolition, and how much the client wants to supply versus how much you'll supply and make.
A renovation is a different animal from a bare-shell handover, because you're now paying to remove before you build, and old wiring or plumbing surprises love to show up right after you've committed a price. So the first thing I'll say is that a full-home quote without a site visit is a guess, and a guess you'll usually eat. If you're not sure how to price that first visit itself, I wrote a separate piece on charging for site visits and consultations that pairs neatly with this one.
The three layers every full-home quote is made of
Once you separate a home quote into its layers, the whole thing stops feeling like one scary lump and starts feeling like a spreadsheet you control. There are basically three:
- Design fee. Your intelligence, the drawings, the 3D views, the material selection, the coordination. This is your professional charge and it should never be buried inside the material cost, because when you hide it there you're effectively working for free.
- Supply and make (FF&E). The modular units, the loose furniture, the finishes, the lighting, everything that physically goes into the home. This is where the big rupees sit and where your margin lives or dies.
- Execution and civil. False ceiling, painting, electrical, plumbing changes, flooring, the labour that turns drawings into a built home.
Keeping these three visible, even to the client, is what separates a design-only mandate from a turnkey one, and if you haven't decided which model you're running I'd genuinely read pricing turnkey versus design-only projects before you send a single quote, because the two are priced in completely different ways.
Rough rupee ranges to anchor against
Now the part you actually came for. These are broad, honest ranges for metros and larger tier-2 cities as of 2026, and they move a lot with finish level, so treat them as a starting sanity check and not gospel.
| Layer | How it's usually charged | Rough range |
|---|---|---|
| Design-only fee | Per sq ft, or a percentage of project value | ₹75 to ₹250 per sq ft, or 8 to 12% |
| Turnkey (all-in) | Per sq ft of carpet area | ₹1,200 to ₹3,500+ per sq ft |
| Modular kitchen | Per running foot or per unit | ₹1.5 to ₹5 lakh |
| Full 2BHK (~1,000 sq ft) | Turnkey, mid finish | ₹10 to ₹22 lakh |
| Full 3BHK (~1,500 sq ft) | Turnkey, mid to premium | ₹18 to ₹40 lakh |
The kitchen is the piece clients underestimate the most and the piece that most often blows the budget, so if that's a big part of your project, my breakdown of how to price a modular kitchen properly will keep you from quoting it too thin. The catch here is that a "premium finish" 3BHK and a "basic finish" 3BHK can differ by twenty lakh on the same floor plan, so the number is meaningless until the finish level is agreed.
Build the quote room by room
Here's the structure I hand every designer on my team, because a room-by-room quote is easier for the client to say yes to and far harder for them to knock down line by line. You present the home as a set of rooms, each with its scope and its own sub-total, and suddenly the client is choosing between rooms and finishes rather than fighting your grand total.
| Room | Typical scope | Rough supply-and-make range |
|---|---|---|
| Living and dining | TV unit, seating, false ceiling, lighting, decor | ₹2.5 to ₹6 lakh |
| Modular kitchen | Base and wall units, counter, backsplash, accessories | ₹1.5 to ₹5 lakh |
| Master bedroom | Wardrobe, bed, side units, dresser, ceiling | ₹1.5 to ₹4 lakh |
| Second bedroom | Wardrobe, bed, study, ceiling | ₹1 to ₹3 lakh |
| Each bathroom | Vanity, fittings upgrade, mirror, storage | ₹0.6 to ₹1.5 lakh |
| Foyer, utility, extras | Shoe unit, pooja unit, balcony, misc | ₹0.5 to ₹2 lakh |
When the money is laid out this way, the client can see exactly where the budget goes, and that transparency is worth more than any discount you could offer. Here's roughly how a typical full-home budget splits once it's all totalled up, and it's worth showing the client so they understand that the furniture and joinery, not your fee, is where their money is really going.
Protect your margin while you win the work
Winning the project and keeping the margin are two separate skills, and plenty of studios are good at the first and quietly terrible at the second. A few things that have saved my margin over the years, and none of them are complicated.
Build in a contingency line of about 5%, visible on the quote, because something always shifts and you want that cushion to be the client's expectation and not your loss. Quote finishes by name and grade, so "8mm laminate, brand X, shade to be selected from range" rather than just "laminate", because a vague spec is a spec the client will later assume means the most expensive option. And never, ever let a supplier's rate revision silently pass through without re-checking it against the approved quote, since that gap between the rate you quoted and the rate you paid is exactly where a project's profit leaks out.
Before you send a full-home quote
- Confirm carpet area and whether it's a fresh flat or a renovation
- Agree the finish level in writing, basic, mid, or premium
- Separate design fee, supply-and-make, and civil into visible layers
- Quote each finish by name, brand, and grade, not vaguely
- Add a visible 5% contingency line
- Note what the client supplies versus what you supply
- Attach payment stages tied to milestones, not dates
Once you're running more than a couple of these at a time, the tracking itself becomes the job, and that's usually the point where a studio owner realises they can't keep this in their head. As you grow from a solo designer into a real studio team, the room-by-room quote has to live somewhere everyone can see it, or the version in your head and the version on site drift apart.
Turn the approved quote into money without re-typing it
This is the part that most quoting guides skip, and it's the part that actually decides whether you get paid on time. A full-home quote isn't the finish line, it's the start of six months of billing against milestones, and if your quote lives in Excel and your invoices live somewhere else, you're doing that reconciliation by hand every single month.
In Designa the room-by-room quote you built is the same record the client approves in a branded portal, and when a milestone is due, that approved quote becomes a compliant GST invoice in a couple of clicks, with the CGST/SGST or IGST split handled for you and a Razorpay link attached so the client can pay online. No double entry, no re-typing numbers from a spreadsheet into a bill at 11pm, and your accountant sees it all in Tally or Zoho Books without you exporting anything. Keeping the whole chain in one connected system rather than five disconnected tools is the difference between a quote that earns and a quote that just sits in a folder, and it's also what keeps your studio bookkeeping clean from day one instead of a scramble at year-end. It's the same logic behind the way Designa itself is priced in rupees, one flat founding price for the whole studio rather than a per-seat bill that grows every time you hire.
Key takeaways
- A full-home quote is won on structure, not on a magic number
- Split it into design fee, supply-and-make, and civil so the client sees where money really goes
- Quote finishes by name and grade, and add a visible contingency line
- The approved quote should flow straight into milestone GST invoices, with no re-typing
A quick note on the boring-but-important side of running a studio that quotes lakhs at a time: it's worth formalising the business properly, because a registered studio quotes with more confidence and gets taken more seriously by builders and channel partners. Getting your Udyam (MSME) registration sorted is a same-day, free job, and if you're thinking about incorporating you can do it through the MCA portal, while the resources on Startup India are genuinely useful for a young design practice trying to look and operate like a real company.
The bottom line
Quoting a full home well isn't about being the cheapest, it's about being the clearest, so structure the quote in layers, present it room by room, anchor against real ranges, protect your margin with named specs and a contingency line, and make sure the number you win with is the number that flows into your invoices.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge to design a full home in India?
For design-only work, most studios charge roughly ₹75 to ₹250 per sq ft or 8 to 12% of project value, while a turnkey full home runs around ₹1,200 to ₹3,500+ per sq ft depending heavily on the finish level. Always confirm carpet area and finish grade before you commit to any figure.
Should I give one lump-sum quote or a room-by-room quote?
Room by room, almost always. It's easier for the client to approve, it shows exactly where the money goes, and it lets them adjust individual rooms or finishes without renegotiating the whole project.
How do I stop a full-home project from eating my margin?
Quote every finish by name and grade, add a visible contingency line of about 5%, and cross-check every supplier rate revision against your approved quote so the gap between quoted and paid rates never silently widens.
Can I turn my approved quote into a GST invoice automatically?
Yes. In Designa the approved quote becomes a compliant GST invoice in a couple of clicks with the tax split handled and a Razorpay link attached, so you bill against milestones without any re-typing.
If you'd like to see a room-by-room quote turn into an approved board and then a GST invoice without you touching a spreadsheet, take a look at the live demo at demo.designa.work, and when you're ready to run your whole studio on one flat founding price billed in rupees, with unlimited free client logins, the full offer is at go.designa.work.