More than a month has passed since the Trump administration announced a new round of sweeping tariffs, setting off a wave of price increases across countless consumer goods. The chaos quickly carried over into the design world, with the initial frenzy fading into an atmosphere in which vendors’ approaches are subject to change at any time. Today’s news that the U.S. and China have lowered tariffs and begun hammering out a deal was cheered by Wall Street. But uncertainty over global trade isn’t over yet, and for many design firms, the constant flood of communication from vendors has produced its own logistical problems.

“In the first month, we got a couple [emails about tariffs from vendors], but it wasn’t as many as we’ve gotten in the last week—it keeps coming,” says designer Kristen Reyes, CEO of Dallas-based Sey Interiors. “I think it was a post–High Point situation where everybody is now like, ‘OK, Market is over, we didn’t raise our prices for that week, but now it’s starting.’”

The communications push is forcing designers to grapple with the best way to keep track of each vendor’s policies, along with determining how to adjust their own business practices.

At the moment, sorting all this out is a matter of prioritization for Reyes’s firm. She’s keeping a close eye on changes from the vendors her firm uses most frequently, and putting every other brand (namely the ones she’s not imminently ordering from) on the back burner. Other firms, like Nebraska-based Studio Eckström, are embedding the uncertainty into their workflow.

“Any time that we get information, we immediately check all of our active projects and schedules to see if they’re impacted. If so, we confirm with our vendors that we will be exempt or not based on when the order was placed,” says Mikal Eckstrom, a partner at Studio Eckström. “And if there are emails that come in from vendors that we use occasionally, we mark it in our CRM [customer relationship management].”

Other designers are using outside companies to track which vendors have already raised their prices. Procurement and logistics platform Daniel House Club has rolled out a suite of resources to that effect: a knowledge center that compiles notices from vendors regarding tariff policy changes and price increases; collection pages composed of American-made and tariff-free products; and an email opt-in for designers who want constant communication around tariffs.

For designer Margaret Carroll (who also serves on Daniel House Club’s client advisory board), the platform’s resources have proven particularly useful, especially as recent trade policies have prompted her to take a new approach to client involvement in her design process. When presenting products to clients, she’s now including information on existing tariffs.

“Normally I don’t go over those options with my clients,” says Carroll. “I [would] say, ‘Let’s do this console. It’s amazing. It’s from wherever.’ Now I have to do my research: What’s the tariff? Is this from China? Should I buy it now?”

In other cases, Carroll is shifting her sourcing strategy; for example, asking her local carpenter to craft a bench rather than purchasing an imported piece that’s now more costly due to tariffs. Reyes, for her part, is considering swapping out a prior source, local tile company Daltile (which just implemented across-the-board tariff price increases), in favor of another U.S.-based manufacturer, especially since kitchen and bathroom renovations make up a large portion of her firm’s work.

Meanwhile, Studio Eckström has taken on a front-loading tactic, buying up a considerable amount of lighting from Visual Comfort in anticipation of sizable price hikes. Ever since Trump’s win, the firm has been encouraging its clients to get the bulk of their ordering done before January 16, during the early rumblings of tariffs.

“We are very careful right now [about] where we are looking [for product] because we don’t want to have to overcome those hurdles, so it’s an extra step of precaution that we’re taking in order to protect our clients,” says Eckstrom.

Beyond direct price increases from vendors, some firms are also coming to terms with the ripple effects of tariffs. Eckstrom points out that workrooms present another level of complication—though they’re based in the U.S., their infrastructure is often supported by imports. Even many materials that originate domestically must undergo some aspect of manufacturing abroad: Hardwoods, for example, are often harvested in the U.S. and then processed in foreign facilities.

The ongoing changes around trade policy add another level of complexity. Though a universal 10 percent tariff went into effect on April 5, another looming deadline lies ahead this summer, when additional country-specific fees are set to be implemented on July 9. In the meantime, some of the new policies are already shifting: A recent U.K. trade deal—the specifics of which have not yet been fully outlined—has led Studio Eckström to pore over news coverage in hopes of understanding how the negotiations will affect design goods.

Another unfortunate byproduct of the tariff uncertainty: slowed project pipelines. Reyes’s new leads abruptly ground to a halt when the news of import fees first hit, which she attributes to a broader slump in consumer optimism. The same happened to Carroll, whose pipeline was doubly affected by widespread government layoffs in the surrounding area.

“I live in the [D.C., Maryland, Virginia area], and I met up with a lot of designers from our area [recently] and we are all in the same [situation]—we have no projects right now because it’s so uncertain,” says Carroll. “People are losing their jobs left and right, which means no big kitchens, no new office, no new wallpaper. We still went to High Point just to be sure that we’re talking to people: ‘What else can we do? How do we pivot?’”

One way Carroll’s business is adapting is by offering smaller services, including a VIP Design Day package. The service ranges from $3,000 to $4,000, and includes six hours of help with sourcing, design planning and product selection, which the client uses to execute the project themselves.

Understandably, the mood throughout the industry remains mixed—not all designers are feverishly staying on top of every price movement. Notably, Daniel House Club is allowing designers to not receive notifications of a new tidbit of tariff news. “It’s either fatigue or complete apathy: We can’t do anything about it, so it is what it is,” says Reyes. “I oscillate between the two of those emotions as well—I can get worked up about it, or I can just be like, ‘OK, this is just where we’re at, so how are we going to move forward?’”

Many in the design community are sharing tips and struggles on social media, or simply reflecting on past industry shake-ups as a reminder that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel if you can stay nimble amid the uncertainty.

“The design business is always going to have obstacles, and I feel like tariffs are the new Covid in terms of client expectations and management,” says Eckstrom. “Constant communication while working for your clients is how we demonstrate value, and we will always go to bat for our clients. If we keep abreast of [what’s happening] as an industry, we can better bargain together than trying to navigate this by ourselves.”