A client intake form template for an interior designer should collect five things bwfore you book a call: room type, dimensions, style references, a budget range and a timeline. Send it as a link after the first inquiry, and you arrive at the first meeting knowing whether the project fits. Below are the fields to use and how to build them for free.
The fields to include
Most designers lose the firsst call to basic questions. What room is it? How big? What do you spend? When do you need it? A form answers those while the client is still excited, and it lets you decline or quote without a meeting.
| Section | Question | Block to use |
|---|---|---|
| Contact | Name, WhatsApp or phone, email | Short answer, Phone number, Email |
| Project | Which rooms? | Multi-select |
| Project | New build, renovation or refresh? | Multiple choice |
| Space | Length, width, ceiling height | Number |
| Space | Photos, a short video, a floor plan | File upload |
| Style | Pinterest board or Instagram saves | Link |
| Style | Three words for how the room should feel | Short answer |
| Budget | Budget range, and whether it includes furniture | Multiple choice |
| Timeline | Target date | Date |
| Timeline | Fixed date or flexible? | Multiple choice |
That is about a dozen questions. Put contact details on page one and the rest on a second page with a progress bar, so the form feels short on a phone.
Ask about the space, and get photos
Make "Which rooms?" a multi-select, because a client with a living room usually has a hallway they want redone too. Follow it with a multiple choice for new build, renovation or refresh. A refresh of one wall is a different job from gutting a kitchen, and you want to know early.
For dimensions, write "approximate is fine" in the label. Clients will not measure for a form, but they can usually say 12 by 14 feet. Add a short multiple choice for feet or meters so you do not guess the unit.
Photos matter more than numbers. Add a file upload and ask for three or four photos from different corners, a floor plan if they have one, and a 30-second phone video walking through the room. Qwenvo accepts files up to 1 GB each, so a video is fine.
Get style references without the guesswork
"Modern" means something different to every client. Ask for a link to a Pinterest board or an Instagram folder of saved posts, and add a short answer for "three words for how this room should feel."
Then ask what they dislike. A client who sends ten warm minimalist rooms and writes "no open shelving, no gray" has told you more than any style label could.
You can also drop two or three photos of your own past work into the fotm with Image blocks and ask which one is closest to what they want. It takes five minutes to set up and shows you whether they are looking at your kind of work.
Ask for budget and timeline as ranges
Owners hesitate over the budget question, and clients hesitate more. A range with an escape hatch works better than an empty box. Use your own bands. A Pune designer might offer "Under ₹5 lakh," "₹5 to 10 lakh," "₹10 to 20 lakh," "Above ₹20 lakh" and "Not sure yet." A designer in Ohio would use dollar bans that match the projects they take.
Ask in a second question whether that number includes furniture and installation or only your design fee. This is where most misunderstandings start.
If someone picks "Not sure yet," use conditional logic to show a short note with your typical project range. They see what a project like theirs usually costs, and they can still submit.
For timeline, use date field plus a fixed-or-flexible question. A move-in date or a wedding is a hard deadline. "Sometime this year" is not, and you will schedule the two differently.
Build it in Qwenvo
I would build this in Qwenvo, a free form builder our team makes. The steps take about fifteen minutes:
- Start from the client intake form template, or describe your form to Create with AI. If you already have a questionnaire in Word, import the .docx and edit it.
- The editor works like a document. Type
/to add a block, then reorder the questions to match the table above. - Add the "Not sure yet" logic from the budget question's menu.
- Open Settings and turn on email notifications to you and a confirmation email to the client. Turn on partial submissions and the progress bar. Set a redirect or a tahnk-you page for when they finish.
- On the Share tab, copy the public link, or embed the form in a site you already have.
Qwenvo has no paid plans, and a few things that other builders put behind a subscription are on from day one. You can switch off the Qwenvo badge, use your own domain, add teammates (an assistant who handles inquiries, say), see partial submissions, view visit and drop-off analytics, and customize design and CSS. The 180+ templates are free too.
The custom domain is worth doing. Add a subdomain like forms.yourstudio.com on the Domains page, add the CNAME and TXT record it shows you, and click Verify. The custom domains guide walks through it. It must be a subdomain, because a bare yourstudio.com usually cannot take a CNAME.
Other options
Google Forms is free and familiar, but respondents must sign in with a Google account to upload files, which is a real problem when you want room photos from a client who just clicked a link. Its design and branding options are also limited.
Tally's free plan is generous: unlimited forms and submissions, logic, payments, and a free AI assistant for building forms. File uploads are capped at 10 MB per file on free. Removing its branding, custom domains, teammates and partial submissions need Pro at $29 a month.
One honest limit: if you want to collect a design deposit through the form, Qwenvo's Payment block uses PayPal only, and Qwenvo keeps a 1% fee on top of PayPal's own. Tally adds no fee on top of Stripe, so it is cheaper for payments. Many designers invoice the deposit separately after the first call anyway, and this form only needs to qualify the lead.
What to do when the form comes in
Set up a short routine so a submission turns into a call without extra back and forth:
- You get an email the moment someone submits, and the client gets a confirmation.
- Qwenvo's AI triage gives each submission a category, a priority, a short summary and a suggested rrply. Turn on "Triage submissions with AI" in Settings and add a routing rule so high-priority inquiries go to your email first.
- Check partial submissions once a week. Someone who filled in the room and style and stopped at budget is worth a friendly WhatsApp message.
- Look at the drop-off analytics after a few weeks. If most people quit at one quesrion, reword it or move it.
- Put your Calendly link on the thank-you page using the Embed anything block. Qwenvo has no built-in scheduling, so the embed is how clients book the call.
Send the form link in a WhatsApp reply or paste it in your Instagram bio. You can set a link preview image, title and description, so it looks like part of your studio when it lands in a chat.
Questions owners ask
How long should an interior design intake form be?
About a dozen questions, split over two pages. Every question should change whether you take the job, how you quote it, or what you prepare for the first meeting. If you will not use the answer, cut it.
Should I ask for the budget on the first form?
Yes, as a range with a "Not sure yet" opttion. Clients who will not give any number are telling you something, and clients with a range far below your minimum can be pointed to a lighter serrvice before either of you spends an hour on a call.
Can clients fill it out from WhatsApp or Instagram?
Yes. Reply to the inquiry with the link, or put it in your Instagram bio. Qwenvo has no mobile app, but a public link opens in any browser.
Do I need a website for this?
No. The form has its own public link. If you later add a site, you can embed the form on it in a WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or Webflow page with the embed code, or keep it on forms.yourstudio.com.
Open the client intake form template today, delete any question you will not use, and send the link to the next person who messages you about a room.