A home interior decorator is an excellent judge of colours and helps to improve the appearance and functionality of living spaces in the home.
With the help of their creative vision, they decorate rooms, making them a highly functional, and beautiful space.
If you analyse job openings on the Jooble aggregator, you will find that these specialists are in high demand in home repair and construction.
In the presented article, we teamed up with Jooble career advisers to learn more about the primary job duties and how to build a career as a home interior decorator.
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Home interior decorator – what is it?
A home interior decorator is a home decorator whose main job is to improve the aesthetics of living spaces and enhance their functionality. Compared to simple interior designers, who must have an excellent understanding of architecture, home interior decorators deal specifically with living rooms.
What are the primary job duties of an interior decorator?
Presented specialists watch to ensure that living spaces remain attractive, as functional and practical as possible.
They are the ones who deal with the choice of style and make decisions regarding interior decoration and furnishings. The interior home decorator considers clients’ needs and creates a room project.
The primary duties of a home interior decorator include the following:
- working with clients to know exactly what kind of result they want;
- preparing an estimate for decorating the room;
- creating a clear plan of work;
- developing a visual project of the future interior design of the house;
- selection of colours, furniture, and building materials;
- monitor the purchases;
- control of the arrangement of furniture and decorative details.
Top 7 steps on how to build a career as an interior decorator
The path to becoming a professional home interior decorator involves several steps. Together with the experts of an international job aggregator Jooble, we have identified the abovementioned steps.
No. 1: Learn all the features of the profession
Before you build a career as a home interior designer, you should first understand all the features of the profession. For example, it is necessary to clearly understand the difference between the process of interior decoration and room décor.
The first concept often has to do with improving the aesthetic quality of a room. At the same time, the decorator uses a variety of objects – furniture and other things to decorate the space. A professional is concerned with designing the appearance of room 0 and pays attention specifically to the structural and architectural characteristics of the room.
No. 2: Get the proper education
A home interior decorator may well get a job without an education. At the same time, increasing their value as a specialist in the eyes of employers does not prevent them from getting a degree or professional certification as a decorator.
Going through home interior decorating educational programs that provide accreditation from professional organisations is best. These include the Interior Design Society (IDS) and others.
No. 3: Build experience
You can only become a home interior decorator after some time. The skills you learn need to be honed in practice. A beginner can start practising in their own home. You can decorate the homes of relatives or friends. Practical assignments will help gain valuable experience.
Getting a profile education from an experienced home interior decorator is also possible – this is a great way to gain practical experience. All actions will take place under the supervision of a qualified specialist, who, if anything, will point out a mistake and help correct it.
No. 4: Make your portfolio
A collection of your work is a significant factor in deciding whether or not to hire a professional to decorate your home space.
It can be a physical portfolio with projects printed on paper. Still, it’s much easier to make an online catalogue of work that is very easy to share with the client. Suppose you need to learn how to create a virtual portfolio. In that case, you can turn to a professional or make a working page on social networks where you will share your projects. The best social networking site for this task is Instagram, where you can share photos. You can add examples of your friends or family’s home decorations to your portfolio. The primary prerequisite is excellent photo quality.
No. 5: Work on your networking
To get your career going, it pays to network with three categories of people: homeowners, fellow decorators and local building materials suppliers.
You can learn many helpful tips and practical tricks from other colleagues. Building fruitful relationships with suppliers will allow you to take advantage of the best possible offers to buy decorative items: furnishings, textiles, and more. When you develop a reasonable budget for purchasing materials, customers will appreciate such offers well.
It is also essential to establish contact with homeowners since they are your target customer audience. Talking to these people can be at trade shows or home decorating fairs. At these events, you can offer your services. The more your professional network expands, the more opportunities open to you. That’s why networking is essential for home interior decorators.
No. 6: Work on your professional skills
To become a professional home interior decorator, it’s not enough to have a certificate. True professionals must constantly improve their skills: in web design and others. It would help if you kept up with decor trends.
Professional skills should help to achieve the goal set by the client. In addition, the designer should know what to offer and what trends are now at the peak of popularity. To keep up to date, you need to read design magazines and study the blogs of other professional designers.
No. 7: Become part of the professional community
Professional design organizations are a great way to learn something new continually. There are now many communities to join – the Certified Decorators International (CDI) and many others. Those new to home interior decorating should join one of them.
