How to Become an Interior Designer

Being an interior designer has a lot to do with not just the theoretical knowledge you’ve obtained throughout your years of education but also with your own personal creativity. Having a “good eye” for detail is equally as important as knowing how to make room plans and take accurate measures.

However, in order to become an interior designer and make your way towards your dream job, you will first need to take care of a few things. Here are some things you’ll need to do in order to become an interior designer and turn your job into the career of your dreams.

Try to make your name known.

As with any other business, you need to do whatever it takes to make a name for yourself. What this means is that you simply can’t hope to score an excellent deal right off the bat. Instead, you will have to do some volunteering, take on projects that are not quite well-paid, and freelance whenever you get the opportunity. All of this will be in hopes of building your portfolio. If you have friends or family that could use your skills offer to help them out in return for referrals. This will help you put your name “out there” which will make it easier for potential clients to find you.

Be passionate.

Even though it might seem obvious, keep in mind that in order to become a truly successful interior designer, you need to be motivated by your passion to give interiors a breath of fresh air. Not only will this allow you to truly turn any space around and create something truly wonderful, but if you like what you do and feel really passionate about it, you will never feel like you’re working but rather enjoying doing something you love.

Pay attention to details.

When designing any space, it’s of the utmost importance that you pay extra attention to detail. There will be times where you will get strict instructions on what to do with a space and there just won’t be any room for your personal creativity to shine. However, there will also be times when clients don’t exactly know what they want, they just know that they are not happy with the current state of things. Let’s say you are asked to design a beautiful bathroom and your client is giving you the green light to do with the space as you see fit. Here, aside from making sure that the layout of things is perfectly safe and functional, you can even go a step further and add an interesting and unexpected feature, such as a designer freestanding bath, to bring the entire design of the room to a completely new level of luxury.

You need to be learning constantly.

A good interior designer should be familiar with all the past trends in interior design, but they also need to stay on top of any new trends that appear on the market. You simply need to realize that as an interior designer, your education will never be over. The world of interior design is like a living thing—it’s constantly changing and evolving, so you need to change and evolve alongside it in order to stay up to date and relevant on the market. This does not mean that you can’t have your preferred trends and styles, but you always need to run them by your clients to avoid any inconveniences.

Listen.

Another extremely important thing to mention is that you need to really listen to your clients whenever you get hired to take care of a certain project. Sure, you might have to offer them some alternative solution from time to time if their wishes are simply impossible to pull off, but if there’s nothing structurally wrong with their idea, you need to do your best and make it a reality even though you personally might hate it entirely. Remember, you should target your efforts at keeping your clients satisfied and your personal preferences should not matter at all in that scenario.

Don’t expect to get super rich over night.

Finally, it’s crucial that you understand that a career in interior design is not the perfect choice for anyone who wants to get rich, fast. Yes, the amount of money you make will depend on numerous factors, such as your education, your talent, work experience, location, and numerous others. Furthermore, the amount of money you make will also vary depending on your employee status—so decide whether you want to work for a high-end architectural firm, or you want to try your luck being your own boss. All of these factors will significantly influence your bottom line.

So, if you’re considering becoming an interior designer, keep these things in mind in order to make sure you’ve done everything you can to make your dream career as successful and as profitable as possible.