A client intake form for interior designers
An interior design inquiry has to answer three things before a consultation is worth booking: which rooms and how deep the change goes, what the client has to spend, and who has to agree. Style comes after, and is easier to talk about once those are clear.
What should interior designers ask first?
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Which rooms is the project for? | One room and a whole house are different engagements and fee structures. |
| Is it furnishing and styling, or does it include construction such as moving walls or a new kitchen? | Construction brings contractors, permits and a much longer timeline. |
| Do you own the home, and is it the home you live in now? | A rental limits the work; a new purchase or a second home changes the schedule. |
| What budget have you set for the project, including furniture? | It decides whether this is a project you take and how you scope it. |
| When do you want it finished, and is there a reason for that date? | Furniture lead times often decide what is possible by a date. |
| Who else will be making decisions with you? | Everyone who has to agree should be at the first meeting. |
| Are there any pieces you are keeping? | A piece that stays shapes the room around it. |
If an answer would not change what you do next, leave the question out. Each extra question is one more reason for someone to stop before they finish.
Which answers come back too vague to use, and what do you ask next?
The answers that cause a phone call are rarely missing. They are present and too loose to act on. A narrower follow-up, asked straight away while the person is still there, usually settles them. Offering likely answers shows the person the level of detail you need.
| What comes back | The follow-up that settles it |
|---|---|
| “Modern but warm.” | Could you share two or three photos of rooms you like, or name a place whose interior you love? |
| “Not sure about budget yet.” | Which is closest for the whole project: under $25,000, $25,000 to $75,000, or more than $75,000? |
| “Pretty much the whole downstairs.” | Which rooms does that include: the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, an entry, anything else? |
Follow up once per gap, then move on. If an answer is still unclear after one follow-up, flag it for whoever picks the request up rather than pressing.
When is a call or a visit still the right move?
Design is a relationship, and almost every project starts with a consultation in the home. What the intake changes is which consultations you book and what you bring to them. You arrive knowing the rooms, the scope, the budget and who decides, with the client’s reference photos already in front of you.
How do you set this up from the Client intake template?
Acquainto has a Client intake template to start from. After you sign up, open Browse templates, pick Client intake, and it lands in the editor as a draft you can change before anything is published.
The template asks for a name and email, branches on the service the person is interested in, and asks one follow-up question per service. Its starting choices are consulting, design and development. Rename them to your own services, such as a consultation only, full-service design and styling, put the rooms, budget, date and decision-makers on every branch, and use each branch’s own question for what that service needs first.
To see it from the other side, answer a demo built from the questions on this page. It is a demo: your answers come to Acquainto, not to a business, so leave out real names and contact details.
Acquainto runs it as a short written conversation instead of a form. It:
- asks a follow-up when an answer is incomplete, and asks for clarification when one is vague;
- uses a structured choice where precision matters and open conversation where detail matters;
- shows the person every answer before it is sent, so they correct their own mistakes;
- hands back one clean value per question, delivered to your own systems by webhook.
The person answering needs no account, and nothing has to be scheduled. Start free trial, see how it works, or compare plans.