Questions, answered

Design IRL (Design in real life) is a free platform for anyone building or doing up a home, an office or a shop in India. You can set a budget, pick the products and finishes that fit it, and find the architects, interior designers, contractors and other professionals to build it, all in one place.

It has three main parts: a marketplace of products and materials from Indian brands, a directory of professionals with their projects, and Plan & budget calculators and guides.

Design IRL is made by two people who were fed up with how the design and building industry works: the same few names get seen while good work goes unnoticed. The About page tells the story.

Yes. Using the site is free: browsing, planning, saving things and making an account. For businesses, being listed, claiming your page and editing it are free too, and will stay free.

Optional paid tools for brands and for design firms are coming later (for brands, for design professionals). They're extras; nobody has to pay to be listed or found.

Right now, nothing. We don't take a commission on sales, there's no fee to be listed, and there's nothing to sign. We started Design IRL because someone furnishing their first home shouldn't have to search fifty websites to find a sofa that fits their room and their budget, and makers like you deserve to be found by them.

Later we plan to offer optional paid tools for businesses. Listing stays free, and nobody can pay to rank higher in the directory.

Design IRL is built for India. The marketplace lists Indian brands only, and the directory covers professionals across Indian cities. Some international studios and AEC startups are listed too. Businesses in the EU, the UK and Canada are not listed.

No. Ask Design IRL works by matching your words to the site's own search, and Plan & budget estimates are plain arithmetic on a published table of rates. Neither makes up answers.

No. Design IRL has no checkout. Every product links to the brand's own shop, and you buy there. We show the product's photos, specs and price, and send you to the brand when you're ready.

The brand you buy from. Your order, payment, delivery, returns and warranty are all with them, under their terms. Design IRL isn't part of the sale.

No. We don't take a commission on sales, and the price you pay is the brand's own price.

We read prices and stock from each brand's own online shop and check them regularly, but a brand can change a price at any time. The price on the brand's site when you buy is the one that counts.

Indian furniture, lighting, decor and building-material brands with their own online shop. We focus on design-led brands rather than mass-market ones such as wires, pipes and small appliances. Browse them under product brands and material brands.

Brands that sell only through dealers are listed too, marked "Via dealers".

The cart gathers what you'd like for your space, grouped by brand, and keeps a running total against your budget. When you're ready, each brand's group links to its own shop. Logged out, the cart lives in your browser; with an account it's saved to your account.

Tap the heart on any product or studio. Saving needs a free account, so your saves are there on any device. Find them under Saves.

Browse the directory by type and city, or start from architects & interior designers. Each studio's page shows its projects, people and a link to its own website. You can also search by city, such as "interior designers in Pune".

Verified pages come first, then alphabetical order. Nobody can pay to appear higher. If we ever show a sponsored place, it will always be labelled.

The verified tick means the business has claimed its page and manages it itself. It confirms who runs the page; it isn't a review or a recommendation of their work.

No. Design IRL lists businesses from public information on their own websites and doesn't vet, rank by quality or recommend anyone. Look at their projects, visit their website, and speak to them before you hire. Our guides explain what to ask.

Design IRL doesn't collect its own reviews. Where a business's Google listing is matched to its own website, we show its Google rating and number of reviews with a link to Google.

Through their own website, linked on their page, or the email and contact details they publish there. Design IRL doesn't sit between you.

You describe your project: the type (new home, interiors, renovation, refresh, office, shop or café), its size, rooms and city. We multiply that by a table of typical rates per square foot and per item, and split the total into where the money goes. There are also calculators for single questions, from construction cost to architect fees.

They're a starting point, not a quote. Rates vary by city, materials, finish and the people you hire. Use the estimate to set a sensible budget, then get quotes from professionals for your actual project.

Tell us your project, size, rooms, style and budget, and we list every piece it needs: beds for each bedroom, a sofa and TV unit for the living room, and more. Each comes with picks from the marketplace that fit what's left of your budget and your style.

Ask Design IRL is a chat box for finding things on the site. Type what you want, like "sofas under 50000" or "architects in Mumbai", and it shows matching products, studios and pages. It isn't an AI chatbot; it reads your words and runs the site's search.

Logged out, it keeps nothing. Logged in, it keeps your questions so you can ask them again from your history. You can delete them by deleting your account.

Yes. Guides cover planning and budgeting a build, hiring an architect or contractor, choosing materials, vastu, and more.

Guides are built from businesses' own websites and published sources, each cited and dated. Every price is checked against the brand's live shop before it's published. There are no top 10 lists: firms are grouped by the kind of work they do and their style. No firm or brand has paid to appear in a guide. How we make our guides.

No. You can browse, search, plan and use the cart without one. A free account saves your products, studios, cart and plan across devices. Join free.

There are no passwords. Enter your email and we send you a one-time code, or continue with Google. Log in.

With an account: your name, email, city, what you save, your cart and plan, and the questions you ask Ask Design IRL, only to run your account. We don't publish them or pass them on.

When you follow a link to a business's website, we count the visit so the business can see what we send them. We don't store your IP address; we keep a one-way daily fingerprint so the same visit isn't counted twice. We also count, without knowing who you are, how often pages and products are viewed, saved and added to carts, so businesses can see their insights.

From your account settings: Delete my account. Your name, email, city, saves and questions are deleted at once, and it can't be undone.

Design IRL lists studios, makers and brands across India so people can find them, for free. We start each page from public information on the business's own website, then write to the email address published there to offer the page to its owner. You can claim it, change it, or have it taken down.

From your own public website: your name, city, the people named as founders, your projects (each with one photo and a link back to your site), and for brands, the products in your online shop. We may add your Google rating where your Google listing matches your website. We write a short factual record and link back; we don't copy your text or photo galleries, and we don't write anything on your behalf.

Use the link in the email we sent to the address on your website, or find your page on Claim your page and we'll send a new link to that address. On the claim page, enter your name, email and contact number and confirm. Your page gets the verified tick straight away, and you're logged in to manage it.

Claim links work once and last 30 days. Claiming is free.

Write to us through the contact form from an address at your business's domain, and we'll help you claim it.

Under the Your business tab you can edit your page (name, city, tagline, website, public email, about, year founded, team size, the kinds of projects you do, and your logo), and see your insights. Changes show on your page straight away.

For 7, 30 or 90 days or all time: how often you appeared in lists and search (impressions), views of your page and of your products or projects, saves, products added to carts, and clicks through to your website, products and projects. Brands see which products were explored most and which went into carts; studios see their most explored projects. Bots aren't counted. Counting started on 9 November 2026.

From the Edit tab, send us a request with what you'd like and links to the pages on your website, and we'll update your page. Brands' products come from their online shop, so changes in your shop reach Design IRL when we next read it.

Claim your page and edit it yourself, or tell us through the contact form and we'll correct it.

Use the Request a takedown link in our email, or the Remove link on your page (Remove a listing). Your page is hidden from the site at once and deleted within 48 hours. We keep only your business name and web address, so we never list you again.

Yes, for free: list your business. We check each sign-up before it goes live.

Tell us through the contact form, ideally from an address at your business's domain. We'll check and put the page in the right hands.

No. Listing, claiming and editing your page are free and will stay free. Optional paid tools are coming for brands (Design IRL for brands: reaching architects and designers, sample requests, dealer listings) and for design firms (Design IRL for design professionals). You can join the waitlist on those pages.

No. We don't take a commission on sales, there's no fee to be listed, and there's nothing to sign. Buyers go straight to your own website or shop.

Architecture and design students can make a free profile with their college, course, skills and portfolio, and choose what they're looking for: to start a company, land a well-paid job or internship, or join real estate. We check each profile before it goes live. For students.

No. Your email is never shown. Your profile has a private link to manage or remove it.

Two open calls: an Architecture Thesis Competition for final-year students and recent graduates, and an Architecture Writing Competition open to everyone. Each has a ₹50,000 prize and an entry fee of ₹1,000 in India or US$50 outside India. Dates will be announced, and entries aren't open yet. Competitions.

Yes. Startups & funding lists startups in architecture, engineering and construction, with their founders and funding news.