Interior Design vs. Interior Decorating

Many people assume what interior design is; paint, pillows, and picture perfect spaces. In reality, it’s vastly different. It’s an art and science focused on the health, safety, and welfare of the space’s inhabitants. The assumption comes from the easiest to access form of design content: HGTV. I had a rude awakening when I got to college and on the first day of Intro to I.D. my professor said “If you joined this class because you like HGTV, you might as well walk out now”. It was like an ice bath with immediate racing thoughts of “oooh shit what did I get into?”.

Grab a beverage and let’s talk about what interior design is and why there is such a misconception of the industry.

First, let’s define the difference between a designer and a decorator.

I like to think about it like an egg; interior design is the whole egg but decorating is just the yolk. Design encompasses everything while decorating is a smaller piece inside of design.

Interior Designer

Works to make an interior space functional, safe, and beautiful. We design interiors from research, planning, drawing up initial floor plans, and code compliance. The focus is on the user of the space, elevating their life through the experience of the environment. We make the space aesthetically pleasing but we also make it functional and safe.

✏️ 📐🧠🛠️🦺🏗️

We work closely with architects, contractors, engineers, and developers to achieve the client’s desires in a physical space.

Interior Decorator

Beautifying a space using style, color, texture, and furnishings. They design using trends, emotions, feelings, and focus on the aesthetics with the finishing touches like paint, wallpaper, fabrics, and furniture to build a visual story.

🖼️ 🛋️🎨🪑🏡✨

They work closely with furniture makers, upholsterers, and artists to accomplish their vision.

Interior design looks a bit more like this than a day out shopping for the perfect rug.

There’s plenty of discourse online about what makes someone a “designer” and not just a decorator. Some say it’s education, some it’s experience, and for some it’s licensure. The industry is not regulated in a way that is consistent across the board and it likely won’t be for a long time.

In Ohio for example, anyone can decide they’re an interior designer and start advertising. No state issued license or registration, not even a title restriction. Yet in New York, it’s a protected title, only certified interior designers with a license can use it and unlicensed use of the title can result in thousands in penalties and even legal action.

Attend any discussion about the subject with designers and you’ll see some rendition of this:

So what protects the people from “designers” without the proper education and expertise?

Five little letters behind their name: NCIDQ.

Those letters can only be earned from the Council for Interior Design Qualification, a nationally recognized premier certifying organization for interior design. It administers the NCIDQ exam every April and October. (I’ll be sitting for the first part in April🤞🏻). It sets the industry standard like a credibility stamp for professionalism, expertise, and public protection. Even though it isn’t required, it is recognized in over half the US states and Canadian provinces and has been the qualifying standard for the industry since 1974. The same year the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed, ensuring women the right to not be discriminated against based on sex or martial status, allowing women to finally apply for credit cards without a husband’s signature.

In our next blog, we’ll dig into the NCIDQ exam, the pros and cons, and why anyone goes through the madness of being certified even when it isn’t required.

For more insight into the industry, one of my favorite instagrams to follow is Interior Design Community, they’re a great resource for how designers think. Other resources to further the discussion of this blog are this great post by the Interior Designers Institute, Foyr’s humorous depiction here with the Salvatore brothers, this visual depiction here by Studio Mint, and even this Reddit thread where designers all over the world chime in!

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned a bit about what makes this industry so unique! We’ll be sharing more opinion pieces soon but if you have a specific topic you’d like to hear our input on, let us know by emailing emmy@damewooddesigns.com.

Cheers!

xx - Emmy

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