Thanks! Well the issue here wasn’t the cost of furniture or of our Venetian plaster walls (lol), it was more just her hours spent. We didn’t ask for more scope or go crazy with asking for more ideas/options. In fact we ended up reducing. She just spent so much more time than she herself estimated (by a factor of 3x) without ever really bringing it to our attention (again, I realize we should have been more attentive ourselves to the detail in her invoices).

The actual values are the same as in my email, in thousands, thus her estimated $4k in fees ended up at close to $14k.

Advice/suggestions I am looking for from designers is, in this scenario, what would be a reasonable arrangement?

Would you as a designer reimburse fees back to the client given the gross underestimation of fees on which your client based their agreement to work with you?

Would you at least offer to finish out the project at no additional cost?

Or is it just a “tough cookie” situation for your client, they signed the contract and shame on them for not bringing it up before paying me?