Design Proposals help you present multiple items to your clients at once so they can approve an entire room or vision in context.
Design Proposals allow you to share multiple selections with your client at once. Instead of approving items individually, your client can approve the full concept —seeing everything together in a beautifully designed board. This saves time, provides context, and helps clients say “yes” with confidence.
This guide walks you through building, customizing, presenting, and sending a Design Proposal.
Navigating to Design Proposals
Go to your Selections tab.
On the right side, you’ll see Design Proposals.
Click an existing proposal to open it — or create a new one.
Inside a Design Proposal
When you open your Design Proposal, you’ll see a canvas similar to the one you use when creating boards in your Scope of Work. Here you can fully customize your presentation before sharing it with your client.
Adding & Arranging Items on Your Board
When choosing which items you want to include you can either select by location or category. Then choose to add all or individual items.
Along the left side of your proposal, you’ll see:
All items included in the proposal
A breakdown of approved items vs. new items
Any optional backup selections
When you add items to a proposal, you can:
Resize and scale images
Group items together
Move and layer items
Remove backgrounds
Add text with multiple font options
Create multiple boards/pages
This gives you full creative control to build a presentation-ready board you’ll bring to your client meeting.
Choosing Itemized vs. Lump Sum Pricing
Before presenting, choose how pricing will appear to your client:
Itemized: shows individual item prices
Lump Sum: shows a single total for the proposal
To choose:
Locate the pricing toggle in the proposal.
Select Lump Sum or keep Itemized enabled.
Your presentation will reflect your choice.
Adding More Boards
You can add extra boards—for example, uploading a rendering or mood board:
Click Upload Image to add images from your computer.
Use a second board to display alternate angles, sketches, or renderings for added context.
Adding New Items While Building Your Proposal
Forgot an item that isn’t yet in scope? No problem.
Click From Library to add an item from your design library.
New items appear as Out of Scope.
Click Create Scope Item to add it to your scope of work.
Assign it to a location and save.
It will now exist in both your Scope of Work and your Design Proposal.
Collaborating With Your Team & Client
You can leave comments directly on the proposal. Use the internal comments panel to tag teammates, ask questions, and keep work organized. Switch to client comments to leave contextual notes your client will see when reviewing and approving the proposal.
Presenting a Design Proposal to Your Client
To enter presentation mode:
Click Present on the top right
ORClick the three dots and choose Present
A new tab will open with a clean, client-facing view, so you don’t need to navigate your Materio account during the meeting.
In Presentation Mode, You Can:
Flip through multiple boards
Show lump sum or itemized pricing if enabled
Hover over items to reveal more detail and additional images
Swap in backup options on the spot
Leave comments that both your team and client will see later
If your client approves the direction, you can mark the proposal as Ready to Send during or after your meeting.
Sending the Proposal to Your Client
Note that there currently is no way to print a design proposal or save it as a PDF.
Once marked Ready to Send:
Go back to your Selections tab.
You’ll see the proposal labeled Ready to Send.
Click Send (or use the three dots menu).
What Your Client Sees
When your client logs in, they’ll see an indicator directing them to their Design Proposals.
Your client can:
Review the boards
View approved vs. new items
Expand cost breakdowns if enabled
Read and reply to comments
Approve the entire proposal
Once approved, every item included in the proposal will automatically be marked as approved in your Selections.
You're All Set!
Design Proposals help streamline client approvals, keep communication organized, and make your presentations shine.
If you have any questions, we’re here to help.
Happy building!