Liability Coverage for Interior Designers: When Accidents Happen on the Job

As an interior designer, you’re often focused on floor plans, color schemes, furniture recommendations, and other aesthetic considerations. Thinking about accidents and liabilities may not be top of mind. However, there are a number of business risks that could affect your interior design business. 

We’ll cover some of those and show how the appropriate insurance can help financially protect your business. 

Understanding the Risks Interior Designers Face

Accidents and injuries


Interior designers work in spaces that are changing or under renovation. This means things can go wrong. 

For example, a client decides to visit the office space you’ve been redesigning and accidentally trips over some boxes on the floor. She not only ends up breaking her arm, she plans to sue you for the resulting medical bills.

Property damage


When you’re designing someone’s interior home, you may handle expensive furniture and artwork. If one of these items is damaged, you could be required to replace it. In addition, damage to floors, walls, windows, and doors can happen. If it’s your fault (or if you’re blamed for it), it’s critical to have business liability insurance.

Here’s an example: You’re hanging a large oil painting and it slips out of your hands, falls, and gets torn. Your client is furious and sues you for the cost of the painting. 


Professional negligence 


No matter how talented you are, no one is perfect. Here’s a situation an interior designer might run into: Many of the specially-manufactured chairs you recommend for a client’s office space are  faulty, and now your client must purchase all new chairs and insists you pay for them. 

Types of Liability Coverage for Interior Designers 

If you’re not an insurance expert, don’t worry. That’s why we’re here. We can explain and recommend the types of insurance you may need as an interior designer. Best of all, we can make it simple to find an affordable policy and get covered as soon as today.

Here are three types of liability insurance coverage you may need:

General liability insurance


General liability insurance coverage protects you and your business from costs associated with third-party accidents, third-party property damage, and bodily injury. A general liability policy can help cover the costs of a claim — including resulting legal fees — up to your policy limit.



Professional liability insurance


We also recommend professional liability insurance for interior designers, also known as Errors and Omissions (E&O) insurance. This type of coverage can protect you against claims of negligence on the job, design flaws, or even missed deadlines. 

If a customer sues your business for mistakes related to your services, your policy may cover any associated costs that you might be ordered to pay as a result of those damages, typically including legal fees.

Workers’ compensation insurance

If your interior design business has employees (part-time, full-time, or temporary), you may be required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This insurance can cover costs related to an employee’s injury or illness sustained while working for you.

Most states require business owners with employees to have some form of workers’ compensation insurance. 

We Can Help Design Coverage for Your Business


Small business insurance is what we do. We work with leading national insurers who offer policies specifically for small businesses. We’ve designed our online quote process to gather only the information we need to find coverage for your business. That’s how we can help find business insurance quotes for an interior design business in just 10 minutes.  

And if you have questions about your coverage options, our licensed insurance agents are available to help at 844-654-7272, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (ET).

Get Insured in Under 10 Minutes

Get an affordable and customized policy in just minutes. So you can get back to what matters: Your business.

Business Insurance and Business Resources

You can be a pro at walking into a room and imagining the design possibilities, but knowing what you might need for business liability coverage may be a different story. That’s one of the reasons we’ve created our free Resource Center. It’s well-stocked with insurance information, as well as other guides, tools, and tips for small business owners.

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Emily Thompson

I earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (go Bucky). After realizing my first job might involve carrying a police scanner at 2 am in pursuit of “newsworthy” crimes, I decided I was better suited for freelance blogging and marketing writing. Since 2010, I’ve owned my freelance writing business, EST Creative. When I’m not penning, doodling ideas, or chatting with clients, you’ll find me hiking with my husband, baby boy, and 2 mischievous mutts.

Emily writes on a number of topics such as entrepreneurship, small business networking, and budgeting.