Guide to Becoming a Successful Interior Decorator

If you spend your spare time decorating your home and watching marathons of "Design on a Dime" on HGTV, your ideal career may be in interior decorating. A career as an interior decorator is flexible because you can hold a job through an employer or start your own interior-decorating business from the ground up. According to PayScale.com, the average annual salary of a U.S-based interior decorator with one to four years experience is $39,568. However, the salary of interior decorators who own their own business or are located within a major metropolitan area will likely be substantially higher.

Focus on a Niche

There are many successful interior decorators who take on all types of clients. However, success is much easier to achieve if you carve out a niche in the market. Would you rather be considered a general interior decorator or the go-to specialist for a specific home-decor style? Once you establish yourself in the market as the country-western decorating specialist or the contemporary decorating guru, clients will start flocking to you because of your expertise.

Become Educated

According to INeed2Know.org, an interior decorator is not required to have an interior design degree. While there are no formal education requirements to become an interior decorator, receiving an education will certainly give you an edge over the competition. Generally, interior-decorating courses are available through universities and community colleges and through accredited online schools. Popular schools that offer interior-decorating programs are the Penn Foster Online Career School, the Art Institutes and the Ashworth Online School.

Create a Portfolio

All professional interior decorators have well-stocked portfolios. Granted, you are just getting your foot into the business. But if you plan on being successful, compiling a portfolio of your previous work is a necessity. You can use before-and-after pictures of rooms that you have decorated in your own home. If you have no previous work to showcase, contact local home builders and offer to decorate their model homes free of charge. Not only will this allow you to build up your portfolio, it will likely result in referrals.

Are you going to go into business for yourself or hold a job through an employer? Both options have their benefits and detriments. Holding a job through an employer provides consistent paychecks; however, your income potential is limited to what they are willing to pay. If you go into business for yourself, your income potential is limitless; however, you will have to pay for the costs of running a business, such as overhead and marketing expenses.

Locate Work

As mentioned above, you have two choices on your mode of employment: you can be your own boss or you can find work through an employer. Considering that you have no formal experience as a professional interior decorator, your best bet is to shadow a seasoned interior decorator or designer for a week or so to try to get your foot in the door. Interior decorating is a highly competitive industry; you shouldn't expect to land a steady job at the drop of a hat. While you are shadowing an interior decorator you will essentially be their assistant. You will get them coffee, tag along on shopping trips, carry carpets up flights of stairs, but most importantly, you'll get hands-on experience with the design process. If the decorator feels that you have talent, you may be referred to an open position they are aware of. If no job offers come from this experience, at least you'll get a solid reference from an established industry contact.

If you are hoping to open your own interior-decorating business, you must conduct heavy preparation before opening shop. You will likely experience far more expenditure in the beginning stages of your business than profit. However, strategic marketing can drive necessary traffic to your business. You need to figure out your target demographic and find a way to catch their attention with an advertisement. You do this by strategically marketing in the places where your demographic frequents. You need to figure out what magazines they read, what channels they watch and where they go on their free time. Once you have all of this information, you can strategically place your ads in locations that are more likely to grab their attention.

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Interior Decorators/Designers
Payscale.com: Interior Decorator Salaries
INeed2Know.org: Becoming an Interior Decorator