What Does Custom Home Design Cost in Texas?
Most design firms won't tell you. You'll find "contact us for a quote" where the price should be, and a form that wants your phone number before anyone will say a figure out loud. We think that's a bad way to start a relationship that's going to run for months, so here are our actual numbers.
Custom home design at Construction Design Solutions costs $1.75 per total covered square foot, with a $7,000 minimum. That's the whole formula. A 5,000 square foot home is $8,750. Nothing is hidden behind a consultation.
What follows is what that number includes, what it doesn't, and the handful of things that change it.
What "total covered square feet" means
This is where most confusion starts, because it isn't the same number your realtor would quote.
Covered square footage is everything under roof: living space, garages, covered porches, balconies, basements, and any future space you're framing now and finishing later. A house marketed as "3,800 square feet" of living area might be 5,200 covered square feet once you add a three-car garage, a front porch and a covered patio.
We use that basis deliberately. It's the same measurement a framer uses to price your house, which means your design estimate and your lumber estimate reconcile against the same figure instead of two numbers that never quite line up. It's also why our material takeoffs are priced on the same basis.
Ask any designer you're considering which basis they're quoting. A lower rate on living-area-only can easily be the more expensive option.
What that works out to
| Total covered area | Design fee |
|---|---|
| 3,000 sq ft | $7,000 — the minimum applies |
| 4,000 sq ft | $7,000 |
| 5,000 sq ft | $8,750 |
| 6,000 sq ft | $10,500 |
| 7,500 sq ft | $13,125 |
The $7,000 minimum binds on anything under 4,000 covered square feet. Below that, a smaller house doesn't get cheaper, because the work doesn't shrink proportionally — a 2,400 square foot home still needs every sheet in the set, every detail drawn, and the same number of conversations.
Your price is guaranteed for twelve months from the date you sign.
How you pay
In three parts, tied to the work rather than the calendar:
- 33% retainer when you sign
- 42% when the Preliminary Set is complete
- 25% when Final Plans begin
On an $8,750 design, that's $2,887.50, then $3,675, then $2,187.50. You're never paying for work that hasn't started, and you see a complete preliminary set before the largest payment comes due.
What's included
Three phases, each producing drawings you can actually use.
The Preliminary Pricing Set gives you floor plans with room sizes, four basic elevations, a square footage legend, and material takeoff estimates for flooring, countertops, exterior finishes and flatwork — enough for a builder to give you a real number before you've committed to anything.
The Bid Set adds general dimensions, door and window sizes, a roof plan, an electrical plan and a site plan. You get a PDF and two full-size hard copies, marked Not For Construction, for getting competitive bids.
Final Plans are the construction set: fully dimensioned floor plans, four elevations, electrical and roof plans, a building cross-section where one is needed, a standard detail sheet, a site plan and a forming plan. PDF plus five full-size sets.
The fee also covers three two-hour meetings — six hours with your designer, in person or on a call — and three rounds of changes during the preliminary phase. At our hourly rate those meetings alone are $750 of time.
One thing worth saying plainly: you work with one designer from the first sketch through to the final set. You will not meet a senior person in a sales meeting and then be handed to someone junior.
What's not included, and what you'll still need
This is the section most firms leave out, and it's the one that causes arguments later. The following are genuinely not in the fee:
- Engineering — foundation, structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing, windstorm and civil. You need a licensed engineer for these, and you should want one.
- Permitting — you pull your own permit. We cooperate fully with the process.
- Code and HOA compliance — you confirm the design meets your local code and your deed restrictions.
- Surveys — we need a current boundary survey from you, and a topographic survey if your lot has slope.
- Pool design, plumbing riser layouts, and architectural sealing.
We also sell several things separately rather than bundling them into a fee everyone pays whether they want them or not: 3D renderings, interior design packets, landscape design, and material takeoffs.
Why this costs less than an architect
Because it's a different service, charged a different way.
Architects most commonly bill residential work as a percentage of your construction cost, which means the fee scales with everything — your finishes, your appliances, the price of lumber that quarter. A designer charging per square foot is pricing the drawings, so the number doesn't move when your countertop budget does.
We are residential designers, not a registered architectural firm, and we're careful about saying so. For single-family homes in Texas, a residential designer is who draws the plans in the overwhelming majority of cases. Where you genuinely need a licensed architect — unusual structures, certain commercial work, anything requiring a seal — we'll tell you that rather than let you discover it at the permit desk.
There's more detail on that distinction in our FAQ.
What the add-ons cost
All published, all optional.
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Exterior rendering, front elevation | $250 |
| Exterior rendering, complete package | $350 |
| Interior rendering, per room | $150 |
| Whole home, six rooms | $550 |
| Interior design packet | $500 |
| Landscape planting schematic | $600 |
| Landscape concept site plan | from $1,000 |
| Construction-ready landscape plans | from $2,000 |
| Lumber and material takeoffs | 14¢ per covered sq ft |
| Anything out of scope | $125 per hour |
Design clients get the landscape planting schematic free.
What makes a design cost more
Four things, and none of them are surprises if you know about them going in.
Changing the layout after the preliminary phase. Three rounds of revisions on one general layout are included. Deciding on a fundamentally different plan isn't a revision, it's a new design — that's either a new contract or $125 an hour, whichever is less.
Structural changes after the Bid Set. Once you've gone out to bid, moving an exterior wall, adding or removing a brick ledge or changing the roof means redrawing sheets that other sheets depend on. Billed hourly.
More than six hours of meetings. Also hourly, and rarely needed.
Switching designers mid-project. Charged as a new design, because it genuinely is one.
The honest summary: the people who pay more than their original number are almost always the ones who changed the layout late. The best thing you can do for your budget is spend longer on the preliminary set, where changes are free, and less time second-guessing after bidding has started.
When you shouldn't pay for custom design at all
If you've found a plan you genuinely like and your lot doesn't impose anything unusual, buying a ready-drawn plan and modifying it will cost you a fraction of a custom design. We'd rather tell you that than take $7,000 for work you didn't need.
Custom design earns its fee when your lot is difficult, when you have requirements no catalogue plan anticipates, or when you want a house that is specifically yours. If none of those is true, say so in the first conversation and we'll point you at the cheaper path.
In short
$1.75 per total covered square foot. $7,000 minimum. $125 an hour for anything beyond scope. Three payments tied to real milestones, three phases of drawings, six hours of meetings and three revision rounds included. Engineering, permitting and code compliance are yours.
That's the whole of it, and it will be the same number when you call.