How to Write a Brief for an Interior Designer: What to Share So the Project Fits You

A project starts not with the floor plan but with a questionnaire. The quality of your answers decides whether the designer fits your life or some statistical average. You can end up with a beautiful picture that is awkward to live in, or with an apartment where every shelf is exactly where you reach for it.

The good news: you do not have to write a brief from scratch. Our online questionnaire (the "Project brief" on the site) asks the right questions, and we clarify the details at the first meeting. Still, knowing why each question matters helps: thoughtful answers save weeks of revisions. Below we cover what a good brief includes, the most common mistakes, and how to prepare for the first meeting in one evening.

Why you need a brief at all

A brief is an agreement on the result you expect. Without it the designer works on guesses and you judge the result on feelings. That is where endless "let us try one more option" and projects that drag on for months come from.

A good brief does three jobs. First, it sets the function: how many beds, where the workspace goes, how much storage. Second, it sets the limits: budget, timing, what cannot be touched (load-bearing walls, wet zones above the neighbours). Third, it sets the mood: how the home should feel. Style is only part of the third point, and not the most important part.

Lifestyle matters more than style

"I work from home and hate ironing" shapes a project more than "I like beige". The first changes the layout: a desk with proper light and room for a monitor, a tumble dryer, a wardrobe where clothes hang rather than lie folded. The second only affects the palette, and a palette can be changed later.

Describe a typical weekday: who gets up when, who takes the bathroom first, where you eat — at the table or on the sofa, who cooks and how often. Describe weekends separately: do guests come, do they stay overnight, does the extended family gather around one table. If overnight guests come once a month, you need a sleeping scenario — a sofa bed or a study with a fold-out solution. If once a year, an air mattress may be enough, and it is not worth sacrificing square metres for it.

The most valuable question in the questionnaire is what annoys you in your current home. Answers like "nowhere to put the keys", "a pile of shoes in the hallway" or "the light over the table is glaring" give the designer more than ten Pinterest pictures. These are concrete problems the project has to solve.

Who lives in the apartment

List every resident with their age and needs. Children grow: a room for a three-year-old and for a twelve-year-old are different rooms, and it is better if the project plans that change in advance instead of needing a new renovation in five years. Elderly parents mean grab bars in the bathroom, a shower without a high tray, and good night lighting in the hallway.

Do not forget pets. A cat needs a litter spot that is out of sight and upholstery that survives claws. A dog needs a paw-washing area near the entrance and a floor that does not mind water and scratches. If you are planning a baby or relatives moving in, say so right away: it is easier to build that into the layout than to redo it later.

Storage: count, do not hope

Lack of storage is the most common complaint after a renovation. To avoid it, be honest about what you own. How many coats the family has for winter and summer. How many pairs of shoes. Are there bikes, skis, a pram, suitcases, a Christmas tree, spare tyres. How much crockery and how many kitchen appliances you actually use.

A useful trick: walk through your current home and photograph every wardrobe and top shelf from the inside. The designer then sees the real volume of things and plans storage around them rather than by eye. Also say what you are ready to get rid of when you move: there is no point designing a wardrobe for things headed to the bin.

Appliances and building services

Make a list of the appliances you want: built-in or freestanding, a dishwasher (full-size or slim), a dryer, an oven at eye level, a wine fridge, a coffee machine, a TV and its size. Furniture dimensions, socket positions and sometimes separate electrical circuits depend on it.

Note your engineering wishes separately: underfloor heating and in which rooms, air conditioning, air purification or humidification, water filters, a smart-home system, lighting control. All of this has to be known before the drawings, because it goes into the electrical plan, the floor plan and the ceiling plan. Adding a socket at the rough stage costs very little; after finishing, it means cutting a chase into a finished wall.

Money: be honest about the budget from the start

The budget is not "let us see how far we can go" but the frame within which the designer chooses solutions. The same apartment can be done for very different money, and those are different projects: other materials, other furniture, different ceiling and lighting complexity. It is better to know the frame before the layout than to redraw a finished project for a smaller sum.

As a guide: a renovation with materials in Almaty and Astana in 2026 costs roughly from 150,000 ₸ per m² for economy, about 250,000 ₸ per m² for comfort and from 450,000 ₸ per m² for premium. Furniture and appliances are extra, plus a reserve of about 10% for the unexpected. You can estimate your own figure with the renovation budget calculator on our site.

Also share your priorities: where you want to save and where you do not. For example, "the kitchen has to be perfect, the bedroom can be simpler". This helps put the money where you spend the most time.

References and anti-references

Collect your own images — Pinterest, Instagram, our style guide and "What is your style" quiz will help. But do not ask for an exact copy. Someone else's photo shows someone else's apartment, different light, different room proportions and often professional wide-angle photography. The designer takes mood and techniques from references, not a clone.

It helps to caption each image with what exactly you like: the wall colour, the wood texture, the shape of the lamp, the sense of space. Without a caption the designer may decide you like the sofa when you actually liked the light from the window.

Anti-references work just as well as references. Three photos captioned "not like this" narrow the search faster than ten likes. If you dislike gloss, dark floors or open kitchen shelves, say it straight away — it saves rounds of revisions.

Common brief mistakes

Describing a style instead of a life: "I want Scandinavian" without explaining how you live gives you a magazine picture, not your home.

Hiding the budget "to see what they suggest": the designer will propose something average and the project will have to be redone.

Contradictory requirements without priorities: "lots of storage, minimal furniture and a huge living room" in 50 m² — you need to decide what matters more.

Forgetting the other resident: often one person fills in the questionnaire, and later it turns out the partner expects something completely different. Fill it in together.

Changing the brief after the layout is approved: every change pulls the electrical, plumbing and furniture drawings with it. Better to spend an extra evening discussing things before the start.

Checklist: what to prepare for the first meeting

Apartment documents: the technical passport or developer's plan, if you have one. It speeds up the measured survey, although an on-site measurement is still needed.

A list of residents, their ages, habits and pets; a description of weekdays and weekends.

What annoys you in your current home and what you would like to keep.

The volume of things to store, photos of current wardrobes; a list of appliances and engineering wishes.

The budget for renovation, furniture and appliances, the move-in date and your priorities.

Captioned references and anti-references; furniture or objects moving with you (paintings, a piano, a favourite armchair).

The bottom line

A good brief is not a twenty-page document but an honest account of how you live, what annoys you and how much you are ready to invest. The rest is the designer's job. If you want to start, fill in the project brief on our site: it takes a few minutes, and we will ask the right questions from there. Still unsure — message us on WhatsApp and we will talk about your apartment.