How to make a spec sheet for interior design, step by step
What an interior design spec sheet is, what goes on the page, the seven steps to make one from the plan to the client's approval, the three formats and when to use each, and the five mistakes that cost a site visit.
A spec sheet is a page that describes one product, or one category of products, in enough detail for a client to approve it, a purchaser to order it and a site team to install it. In interior design it is the client-facing print of the FF&E schedule: the same rows, laid out to be read rather than filled in.
The manufacturer's spec sheet is a different document, a technical page for one product with every variant on it. This guide is about the one you make: the project's own page, with the project's codes, the chosen variant, and the values someone else will act on.
Who reads a spec sheet
Three people, and they want three different things from the same page.
The client reads it to approve. They look at the picture first, the price second, and the dimensions when they wonder whether it fits. They read it on a phone, in a meeting, and they want to say yes or no per item.
The purchaser, in-house or the contractor's, reads it to order. They want the supplier, the product code, the variant, the quantity, and what the price does and does not include. They will not read the notes. They will order exactly what the code says.
The site team reads it to install. They want the location, the mounting, the dimensions, and the instruction that stops the question ("centred on the basin, 1,700 to the underside").
Studios often keep two versions, a branded book for the client and a working file for the contractor. That is where the drift starts: an item is swapped in one and not the other, and six weeks later the site has the old sofa. One record, printed differently per reader, is the fix; the formats below are how.
What goes on a spec sheet
The product fields are the FF&E schedule's, and that guide goes through them: code, name, supplier, brand, product code, dimensions, material, finish and colour, price, source link, image. A spec sheet adds the fields that turn a row into something someone can act on.
| On the page | Why it is there |
|---|---|
| Project and revision | Project name, the revision letter and its date, in the header of every page. A sheet without a date gets built from after it is superseded. |
| Location | Room and position, matching the plan. The code ties them together. |
| Quantity | Per item, so the total on the page is the total on the order. |
| The variant | Not "oak", but the finish name and code the supplier uses. A product page shows six; the sheet names one, and the photo shows that one. |
| Price, qualified | With the currency, whether tax is in, and whether delivery and installation are. Delivery on a sofa can be the price of a chair; it belongs on the page. |
| Lead time | In stock, or the weeks quoted, with the date the quote was taken. This is the field that decides the install date, and the one most often left off. |
| Note | The one instruction the site team needs: mounting height, handing, centre line, what it plugs into. One line. If it needs three, it needs a drawing. |
| Status | Pending or approved, per item, so the client's yes is on the page and not in an email thread. |
Everything else, warranty, maintenance, certificates, belongs behind the source link or in the handover file, not on the page the client is asked to approve.
How to make a spec sheet in seven steps
1. Number the items on the plan first. The code column is the spine of the sheet, the schedule and the drawings. L-01 on the plan is L-01 on the page. A sheet made before the plan is numbered gets renumbered, and every renumbering is a chance for the site to hang the wrong lamp.
2. Collect one link per item. The supplier's product page for the exact variant, not the category page and not the brand's homepage. This is the source: everything the purchaser needs is on it, and anyone can check the page against the sheet later.
3. Fill the product fields from the pages. Name, brand, product code, dimensions in one unit and one order, material, the finish name as the supplier writes it, the price for that variant. This is the copying, and it is where the afternoon goes when it is done by hand. It is also the only part a machine can do for you; the rest of the steps are decisions.
4. Add the project fields. Location, quantity, the note for the installer, the lead time as quoted today. These are yours and no supplier page has them.
5. Choose the format for the reader. A table for the purchaser, cards for the client, a list when the notes matter more than the pictures. The formats are below. One set of rows, printed three ways, is the point; three separate documents is the mistake.
6. Put a revision and a date on every page. Rev A, the date, in the header. When something changes, Rev B, new date, and the old print is dead. The contractor should be able to tell from any single page whether it is current.
7. Get the approval on the sheet. Item by item, not "looks great" on the whole PDF. A status column that reads approved, with the date, is what you point at when the client asks in October why the chair is grey. The email thread is not.
Spec sheet formats: table, list and cards
The same rows have three prints, and each reader gets one.
| Format | Best for |
|---|---|
| Table | The purchaser and the quantity surveyor. One row per item, every field a column, totals at the foot. A3 landscape, one page per category. The print that gets priced. |
| List | The site team and the specification file. One item per block with the image beside the fields and room for the note. A4 portrait, several items per page. |
| Cards | The client. Image first, name, the values they care about, price. A4, six to a page or one per page for the expensive ones. The print that gets approved. |
One page per item is the traditional spec sheet and it still has a place for the hero pieces. For a forty-item lighting schedule it is forty pages nobody turns; the cards do the same job on seven.
Five spec sheet mistakes that cost a site visit
The photo shows the wrong variant. The supplier's hero image is the walnut one; the ordered one is oak. The client approved the picture. Use the image of the chosen variant, or say under the picture which finish was chosen.
The price is not the price. A unit price with no currency, no tax note and no delivery is a number the client will remember and the invoice will contradict. Qualify it on the page.
Two documents, one project. The client book and the contractor file were the same in March. Every change since then went into one of them. Print both from the same rows or accept that they will disagree.
No revision on the page. A PDF with no date is current forever, to whoever has it. Header, revision, date, every page.
A vague sheet invites a substitution. "Brass wall light, approx. 300 mm" gets whatever the wholesaler has. The product code, the finish code and the source link get the one you chose. The more exact the page, the fewer decisions get made on site without you.
Keep the rows, print the sheets
A spec sheet that stays true is not a document, it is a print of the rows. The rows live in one place, every value says where it came from, and the table, the list and the cards are generated from them. When the finish changes, one value changes and every print follows.
That is how Intspec is arranged: paste the supplier links, the product fields fill from the pages with a mark on each value the machine wrote, add your project fields, and print the table, the list or the cards by category or for the whole project. On a real project, 216 links took four minutes and twenty-two seconds to fill. The deciding is still yours. The copying is not.