WASHINGTON – The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Interior Design Billings Index (IDBI) reports improved revenue gains for the first quarter of 2014.

“With this first quarter release, ASID Research relaunches its enhanced monthly benchmark for tracking residential and nonresidential improvement spending, with an emphasis on interior design,” said Randy Fiser, executive vice president and chief executive officer of ASID.

IDBI reflects a lead time of approximately three to four months between interior design billings and spending. During March, home improvement expenditures were estimated at $145 billion. The IDBI index also compares with nonresidential spending. For the period March 2013 through March 2014, the IDBI has been above 50 for 12 consecutive months, demonstrating gains across the interior design industry.

The nonresidential sector, including retail, office, hospitality, education, healthcare and government segments, all experienced a positive first quarter, reporting increased billings for all three months. ASID said the education segment broke free of a 13-month losing streak, reporting increased billings for each month of the first quarter this year.

In addition, IDBI reveals strong inquiry scores, signifying that firms are being contacted more frequently regarding potential projects. Larger interior design firms have seen the greatest increase in billings for the quarter. For March, IDBI recorded 52.7 and the New Projects Inquiries Index 63.5, establishing a new benchmark.