Most homeowners arrive at Studio LaLa with one question they haven't quite worded yet: do we need a full interior design service, or will e-design get us there? The answer isn't a default. The same family, the same suburb, and the same budget can land in different services depending on what's actually being asked of the project. Here's how I think about it on the first call, and how to decide before the call.
What each service is, in one sentence
Full interior design is the complete project, from concept through final install, with a designer working directly on the home. Concept, palette, materials, drawings, sourcing, trade coordination, install. Studio LaLa's full design starts at $12,000, runs three to six months for a multi-room scope, and is delivered by me directly.
E-design is residential interior design delivered remotely. Mood direction, palette, layout, and a curated shopping list, delivered as a single downloadable pack without an on-site visit. Studio LaLa's e-design starts at $1,800 per room, takes three to four weeks from brief to final pack, and ships to anywhere in Australia.
Neither is a lesser version of the other. They solve different problems.
The plain cost comparison
Set price floors aside for a moment. The actual cost difference looks like this:
A single-room e-design pack: $1,800 to $3,500 depending on scope.
A full design of the same single room, including documentation, sourcing, and install oversight: $8,000 to $20,000.
A full multi-room renovation: $20,000 to $60,000+ for the design fee alone, plus the build, plus the furniture.
E-design saves you 80 to 90 percent on the design-fee line. It does not save you on the build cost or the furniture cost. The cost of the chairs is the cost of the chairs whoever specifies them.
That ratio is sustainable because e-design has no on-site visit, no trade coordination, no install day, and no procurement on your behalf. The work that happens is design work, distilled into a deliverable you implement.
Timeline
E-design: three to four weeks from the brief intake video call to a final pack in your inbox. One round of revisions included. Implementation timeline (paint, furniture arrival, install) depends on you.
Full design: typically four to six months from first call to final install for a multi-room project, longer for renovations with structural work. Concept stage runs two to three weeks. Documentation runs three to six weeks. Trades and procurement take whatever they take. Install day is usually a single intense day at the end of months of preparation.
If your timeline is "we want it done by Christmas and it's October", e-design is on the table and full design probably isn't. If your timeline is "we'd like to start in autumn and be in by next summer", both work.
What e-design includes (and what it doesn't)
What you get: a mood board and colour palette, a furniture layout drawing, a curated shopping list with sources and prices and direct links where available, written design notes, one round of revisions, and a final delivery pack that's yours to keep.
What you don't get: a site visit, detailed construction or joinery documentation, trade coordination, procurement (I don't buy on your behalf), install support, lighting plans or electrical drawings, or any permit-related drawings.
That second list is what makes e-design 80 to 90 percent cheaper. If a project needs any of it, the brief has graduated into full design territory and the price reflects that.
When e-design is the right service
E-design fits when the home is too far from the studio for an on-site visit, or when the cost of travel would dominate the design fee. It also fits a single room or a tightly-scoped pair of rooms with no construction involved (or where the construction is done and only the soft layer is left). It fits people who are confident managing tradespeople themselves and just need the design direction, and it fits anyone working to a tight three-to-four-week timeline.
It fits less well for first-time renovators who haven't worked with a designer before and want the hand-holding through implementation. The format expects you to read a layout drawing and act on it.
The format suits any Australian brief that doesn't need an on-site designer: an apartment in Sydney, a single room in regional New South Wales, a holiday home being renovated from elsewhere. The work and the outcome are both substantial when the brief fits.
When full design is the right service
Full design fits when the project involves construction (a kitchen rebuild, a bathroom rebuild, structural moves), or when the scope is multi-room or whole-home. It fits when you want one person making decisions and coordinating trades, rather than juggling decisions yourself. It fits a home with heritage, character, or planning constraints that need a designer in the room. And it fits when the home matters enough that the extra $10,000 to $40,000 on the design fee is worth the certainty of an on-site designer.
Studio LaLa's published full-design project, Havana House in Ashgrove, fits this profile: the brief involved structural work, on-site decisions, and a level of finish that needed a designer in the room.
A useful diagnostic
Three questions, asked plainly.
Is anyone moving a wall? If yes, full design. If no, e-design is on the table.
Is anyone touching plumbing or electrical? If yes, full design. If no, e-design is on the table.
How many rooms? One or two, isolated, with no structural change: e-design works. Three or more, or structural change anywhere: full design.
If the answers point to e-design, the question becomes whether the saving justifies losing the on-site presence. For some homeowners the answer is yes; for others the extra fee for full design is the right call. There isn't a wrong answer here, only the right one for your project.
The hybrid I sometimes recommend
A useful pattern for homeowners with a multi-room scope but a tight budget: full design on the hero space (the kitchen-living-dining sequence, or the master bedroom, or whatever the home's centre of gravity is), e-design on the secondary rooms.
The hero space gets the full Studio LaLa treatment. The secondary rooms get the same design eye in a remote-delivery format. Total fee lands somewhere between a pure full-design and a pure e-design pack.
This hybrid isn't published anywhere on the pricing page because it gets shaped on the first call, but it's available. I'll mention it on the call if it fits.
What to send if you're not sure
The same brief works for either service: a 200-word email with the home, the rooms, the budget bracket, and the timeline. If the brief points clearly at one service, I'll say so. If it could go either way, I'll walk through the trade-offs on a 15-minute call.
Already decided on full design? Send me a brief and I'll come back within one business day. Already decided on e-design? The E-Design service page has the full scope; the same brief form applies. Still not sure which it is? Start with a 15-minute call and we'll work it out together.