Interior Designers Insurance for design and furnishing studios
Cover for interior design studios that advise, specify, buy and install, from private houses to hotels and workplaces. Compare through specialist brokers who arrange professional, liability and property cover for design firms with staff and a studio.
- Professional indemnity for design and specification advice
- Furniture and finishes bought for clients insured until handover
- Liability for fitting teams and the trades you manage
Reviewed October 2026 by the MyBusinessComparison.com editorial team
What is interior designers insurance?
Interior designers insurance protects design studios that plan, specify, buy and often install interiors for homes, hotels, offices and developers. It usually combines professional indemnity for design advice with public and products liability, employers' liability, studio contents and cover for furniture and finishes bought for clients.
Claims follow the advice and the money. A client says a scheme came in far over the budget you gave, a fabric specified for a hotel corridor did not meet the fire performance it needed, or a bespoke sofa will not go through the door. Once the studio also buys furniture for clients or sends fitters to site, it carries a supplier's and a contractor's risks as well as a designer's.
This page covers studios combining design with procurement or fitting. Advice-only cover is explained on our professional indemnity insurance page, and contractors building commercial interiors to others' designs on our shop fitters insurance page.
Interior designers insurance at a glance
- Suits
- Design studios with staff, a studio or showroom, and procurement or fitting work
- Core covers
- Professional indemnity, public and products liability, employers' liability, contents
- Compulsory part
- Employers' liability, once you employ designers or studio staff
- Main claim risk
- Allegations that a design, specification or cost estimate was wrong
- Insurers ask about
- Fees against product sales, fitting work, managing trades and client deposits
- Worth adding
- Cyber and crime cover for payment fraud
What does interior designers insurance cover?
Studios pick the sections that match how they work. A design-only practice needs fewer of them than one that buys, stores and installs furniture for its clients.
Design and specification advice
Claims that your design, specification or advice caused a client a loss, such as a layout that blocks a fire escape route, a floor finish specified for the wrong traffic, or a scheme abandoned because your cost advice was badly out.
Read more about professional indemnity cover
Site visits, installs and the studio
Injury and damage on site visits, at installations and in your studio or showroom, such as a client's antique cabinet damaged while your team hangs artwork above it.
Read more about public liability insurance
Furniture and lighting you supply
Claims from furniture, lighting and fittings you supply. If you import pieces from makers outside the UK or sell them under your own name, your studio may be treated as the producer when something causes injury.
Read more about products liability insurance
Clients' orders before handover
Furniture, fabrics and lighting bought for a client and waiting in storage, at an upholsterer or on a delivery bay. Until it is handed over, damage or theft may be your loss, depending on your terms of business.
Pieces moving between makers and site
Pieces moved from suppliers, makers and storage to site, in your own vans or with couriers.
Read more about goods in transit cover
Fitting and managing trades
Studios that employ fitters, or appoint decorators, joiners and electricians, take on contractor risks: damage to the property, injury on site and work in progress before handover.
Read more about contract works insurance
Designers and studio staff
Injury or illness to designers, project managers, fitters and studio staff, whether in the studio, on site or travelling between projects.
Read more about employers' liability insurance
Studio, samples and showroom
Your premises, sample library, display pieces and computers against fire, theft and flood, often on one policy with the liability sections.
Read more about commercial combined insurance
Cyber and payment fraud
Studios move large client payments and supplier invoices by email, a common target for invoice fraud and hacked accounts. Cyber and crime policies respond to different parts of that loss.
Read more about cyber insurance
More cover design studios consider
- Crime and fidelity: theft of client funds by staff, and payments diverted by fraudsters posing as suppliers
- Commercial legal expenses: fee disputes, supplier contract disputes and employment claims
- Trade credit insurance: for contract furnishers extending credit to developers and hotel groups
- Management liability: claims against the directors of a growing studio
Which design businesses is this cover for?
Design studios vary from advice-only practices to firms that buy, deliver and install everything in a building. The studios below are the ones we work with most.
Building interiors to others' drawings? Contractors in that position are covered on our insurance for fit-out contractors page. Other trades have their own insurance guides.
- Residential interior design studios: whole-house schemes for private clients, from concept boards to installation day
- Interior designers including fitting: studios that employ or appoint their own fitters, decorators and joiners to deliver the scheme
- Contract furnishing companies: furniture, fixtures and equipment supplied and installed for hotels, bars and restaurants, student blocks and care homes
- Workplace designers: office interiors for professional firms, often working alongside a fit-out contractor
- Show home and marketing suite stylists: dressing show homes for property developers, often with furniture on loan or hire
- Hospitality and leisure designers: bars, spas and leisure venues, where finishes face heavy public use
- Kitchen and bathroom design studios: design-led firms whose layouts are installed by others; the installers have their own guide under kitchen fitters insurance
- Home staging companies: furniture placed in homes for sale or let, held away from your premises for weeks at a time
- Design showrooms: studios selling furniture, lighting and fabrics from a shop alongside design work, with the premises insured as a shop
- Studios with large installation teams: where the fitting side has grown big enough to be insured as a trade of its own under furniture fitters insurance
How much does interior designers insurance cost?
Price depends on how the studio earns its money and how far it goes beyond advice. These are the points insurers look at most.
Fees against sales
Professional indemnity is usually priced on fee income and the liability sections on total turnover, so the split between design fees and product sales matters.
Type of project
Hotel, healthcare and multi-unit residential schemes carry more fire safety, durability and specification exposure than private homes.
Fitting and trades
Studios that employ fitters or appoint and manage trades take on site risks that advice-only practices avoid.
Imported and bespoke products
Pieces from makers outside the UK, or made to your own design, raise the products liability exposure.
Professional indemnity terms
The limit, the excess and whether it applies to each claim or in total for the year all change the price.
Claims and complaints
Past fee disputes, specification claims and damage to client goods, with what changed since.
What interior designers insurance does not cover
Design studios are most often caught out by the gaps below. Policies differ, so raise each one with the broker.
- Design and specification errors under a liability-only policy, which need professional indemnity
- Claims made after a professional indemnity policy has lapsed, unless run-off cover has been arranged
- Recovering unpaid fees, which is a legal expenses matter rather than a professional indemnity one
- Clients' orders held in storage or at makers' workshops, unless declared and insured
- Money lost to invoice fraud, unless crime or cyber cover includes it
- Projects outside the UK, unless the territorial limits are extended
- Contract penalties for a scheme delivered late
Charging design fees or supplying the furniture too?
The biggest change to a studio's insurance comes when it moves from selling advice to buying and selling goods. This is how the two models compare.
| Feature | Fee-based design | Contract furnishing and supply |
|---|---|---|
| How you earn | Design fees, by stage or by the hour | Margin on furniture, fittings and finishes you buy and resell |
| Main claim risk | Advice and specification errors | Damaged, faulty or late goods, and injury caused by products |
| Products liability | Limited, as clients buy direct | Central, especially for imported and bespoke pieces |
| Goods to insure | Samples and studio contents | Client orders in storage, at makers and in transit |
| Client money | Fees invoiced as work is done | Deposits held before suppliers are paid, a target for payment fraud |
| Professional indemnity | The core cover | Still needed for the specification behind each order |
How to get interior designers insurance quotes
Insurers want to see where advice ends and supply or fitting begins. Setting that out clearly gets the right sections quoted.
Separate fees and sales
Show design fee income apart from furniture and product sales, and how each is changing.
Describe your projects
Residential, hotel, workplace, show home and healthcare work, with the value of your largest scheme.
Explain who fits
Employed fitters, trades you appoint and manage, and work handed to the client's own contractor.
Map goods and money
Where client orders are stored, the most held at once, and how deposits and supplier payments are handled.
Gather your cover history
Previous professional indemnity, its retroactive date, and any claims or complaints.
Running a design studio?
Tell us how your studio earns its income, the projects you take on and who does the fitting, and a broker will compare cover.
Compare quotesInterior designers insurance FAQs
How much does interior designers insurance cost?
It depends on your fee income, product sales, the projects you take on, whether you fit or manage trades, your professional indemnity limit and your claims history. A studio supplying hotel furniture will pay more than one advising on private houses.
Do interior designers need professional indemnity insurance?
It is not compulsory for designers in general, but it is the cover most claims fall under, and many commercial clients and developers ask for it in their appointments. Without it, a claim that your design or advice caused a loss would be paid from the studio's own funds.
Does professional indemnity cover a scheme that went over budget?
Only in limited cases. A policy may respond where a negligent cost estimate caused the client a provable loss. It does not cover a client who simply chose to spend more, or a dispute over your fees. How each insurer treats cost advice varies, so it is worth asking.
Are we covered for furniture we have bought on a client's behalf?
Not automatically. Until handover, damage or theft may fall on your studio, depending on your terms of business. Cover for goods in storage, at makers' workshops and in transit closes that gap, and the sums insured should reflect your busiest month.
What insurance does a contract furnishing company need?
Usually products liability for what you supply, goods in transit and storage cover, public and employers' liability for installation teams, and professional indemnity for the specification. Trade credit insurance is worth considering where hotel or developer clients pay on long terms.
Do interior designers who do fitting need contractors' cover?
Usually, yes, once your studio employs fitters or appoints trades. Public and employers' liability must reflect site work, and contract works cover protects the installation until handover. Insurers will ask how you vet the trades you appoint and check their insurance.
Are we liable if furniture we specified fails to meet fire requirements?
You may be. Where the fault lies in your specification, professional indemnity is the relevant cover. Where a product you supplied causes injury or damage, products liability responds. Neither usually pays simply to replace the items, so check documents from suppliers carefully.
What happens to our professional indemnity cover after a project ends?
Professional indemnity usually covers claims made while the policy is in force, not when the work was done, provided the work falls after the retroactive date. Keeping cover running, or buying run-off if the studio closes or is sold, protects you against claims about schemes finished years earlier.
How do I get an interior designers insurance quote?
Use the enquiry form here to reach a broker who looks after design studios. Have your fee and sales split, project types, fitting arrangements, client money process and previous cover details to hand.
Compare interior designers insurance
Professional, liability, property and goods cover for design studios that advise, supply and install, arranged by a broker who understands how studios work.