Interior design is a good career if you enjoy solving problems for people and can handle the early years being modest. It is a poor one if you are mainly drawn to the finished photographs, because the photographs are perhaps five per cent of the job.
Here is an honest look at both sides, so you can decide which of those two descriptions sounds more like you.
What makes it a good career
The work is genuinely varied. Different rooms, different budgets, different people, every few weeks. Very few jobs offer that.
You can see what you have done. There is a real satisfaction in walking into a finished room, and it does not fade with experience.
It is flexible in a way most professions are not. Most UK designers work for themselves or in small studios, which means you can shape the hours around a family or another commitment.
You can start later in life. Career changers are the norm rather than the exception, and life experience is an advantage when you are advising people about their homes.
The ceiling is high if you want it to be. Senior and independent designers earn well, and our guide to interior designer salaries in the UK sets out the ranges at each stage.
And the skills travel. Colour, space, materials and client management apply to staging, styling, retail display and teaching, so a slow year in one area does not leave you stuck.
What makes it hard
The first two years are lean. Graduate and junior salaries are modest, and building a client base from nothing takes longer than most people expect.
Much of the job is not designing. Sourcing, chasing suppliers, quoting, site visits and answering emails take up more of the week than choosing anything.
Clients change their minds, usually at the least convenient point, and staying calm about it is a skill you have to develop rather than a temperament you either have or do not.
Work can be seasonal and it is sensitive to the wider economy, because interiors are discretionary spending.
And your taste is not the point. You are solving someone else's problem in their home, and learning to design beautifully within someone else's preferences is the actual craft.
Weighing it up? Get the free course guide and see what the work really involves before you commit to anything.
Who tends to do well at it
People who are organised as well as creative. The eye gets you the first client, the follow-through gets you the next ten.
People who like other people. This is a service profession, and most of the job is conversation.
People who can hear criticism of their work without taking it personally, which is the single strongest predictor of who improves quickly.
People who are practical about money, both the client's and their own.
Is there demand for interior designers?
Steady rather than spectacular, and the shape of the demand has shifted. More people are improving homes rather than moving, home offices became a permanent category, and short-let and holiday property owners now hire designers where they would once have furnished a place themselves.
You can check current job numbers and typical entry routes on the National Careers Service interior designer profile.
Commercial work, offices, hospitality and healthcare, is the more resilient half of the market and generally the better paid. Our guide to becoming an interior architect covers the route closest to the building itself.
Common questions
Can you make good money as an interior designer?
Yes, at senior level and working independently. Early on it is modest, and that is worth planning for rather than being surprised by.
Is it a stressful job?
It has stressful moments, nearly all of them about deadlines, budgets and client expectations rather than the design itself. Designers who set expectations clearly at the start have a much easier time of it.
Can I do it alongside another job?
Yes, and many people start that way, taking small projects at weekends while they build a portfolio. Our guide to starting an interior design business covers making that transition.
Where to go next
If it still sounds like you, read how to become an interior designer in the UK for the route in, or compare ways of training in our guide to interior design courses.
Love styling a room? You could turn it into a career.
If decorating is the part of your day you enjoy most, you can learn to do it properly. The Professional Interior Design Course teaches the craft, from reading a space to colour, lighting and styling, through 12 tutorials with course assignments and design briefs, and personal feedback from a professional interior designer on every one. Study at your own pace with no fixed schedules and take up to one year to complete. You will finish with your Diploma and Interior Designer ID Pass and a portfolio ready to show clients. Flexible payment plans are available, plus a no-risk 7-day money-back guarantee.
