What it’s like to be an interior designer and why my job is so much more than decorating

There are a handful of careers that everyone thinks they get because they saw it on tv. It’s probably most commonly the long-running tv dramas (lawyer, cop, doctor, nurse, firefighter, chef), but in my case it’s home renovation shows and the meteoric rise of home decor and residential design Instagram accounts.

As a result, the response when I tell someone that I’m an interior designer is most often some form of:

“How fun! Do you love watching HGTV?”

I admit that my response varies based on whether I feel like ignoring the comment (to strangers), giving the elevator explanation (to casual acquaintances) or a sharing full but brief explanation of why this is nonsense (to people I’d like to understand my life and plan to see regularly). For the first few years after design school, I sometimes avoided the conversation altogether by saying “I work in architecture,” which resulted in very different responses, because people tend to take architecture more seriously than interior design.

But I don’t do that anymore. I’d rather work a bit harder to be understood than accept that I won’t be taken seriously.

Most people don’t understand my job, but I think they want to. Design is everywhere, generally invisible unless done poorly. Architecture and interior design impact the real-world experience of every person in America. We worked on your office building, your doctor’s office, your grocery store, that chic new restaurant. And if we didn’t, well, that’s usually pretty noticeable, too.

So let’s talk about what I do.

Why am I an interior designer?

In hindsight, it seems improbable that I became an interior designer. As a teenager, I planned to go into either law or publishing. I was the eager student that treated every class like it was my one true passion. Think Hermione Granger: awake and peppy at 7 am, first hand in the air, never missed a homework assignment.

But when I started learning about interior design and architecture, something clicked into place. All those times I’d thought maybe I should open a restaurant were actually wouldn’t it be fun to choose everything in a space - from the bathroom tile to the chairs to the font on the menu? All those nights I’d rearranged my bedroom while my parents slept were hints that I was interested in how we move through space.

My studiousness didn’t give me much of an advantage in an environment as subjective as design school. I spent all four years trying to keep my head above water. I was perpetually discovering that interior design is more challenging than I’d ever expected and bumping into the reality that I wasn’t a “typical” design student. I didn’t have an arts background - which isn’t critical for practicing designers, but would have been nice as a student - and I’d never even met an interior designer before I decided it’s what I wanted to do for my whole adult life. It was a fully foreign world.

Though I was never the star student I’d thought I would be, I found a depth of passion that I hadn’t expected. Interior design bundled so many of my interests together: beauty, function, human psychology, sustainability, the built world. I could draw on all of those things as my job? It felt more right the further I pushed into it. Almost a decade later, it still does.

What’s it like to be an interior designer?

Design school wasn’t a perfect preparation for a career as a designer. There’s just no way to precisely model the field in the classroom. Design school teaches you how to think about design, but the first few years of work are Design School: Part 2.

Real life as an interior designer can vary wildly based on region, project type, and firm size. Different project types have specific requirements, and as a result of these technicalities, many designers specialize and develop an expertise.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here are some sectors a designer might work in - each with their own specific needs, furniture types, material requirements, codes, etc.

• Residential: houses, apartments, vacation homes

• Corporate: offices and all that goes in them - conference spaces, break areas, worker amenities

• Multi-Family: apartments, condos, and independent living facilities

• Healthcare: hospitals, rehab facilities, assisted living facilities, dementia care, surgery suites

• Retail: stores and boutiques. It’s pretty common for large retailers to manage their interior design and architecture in-house, but smaller scale projects are often designed by a firm.

• Hospitality: restaurants, hotels, motels, event spaces, food courts, resorts, music venues

• Institutional: dorms, schools, churches, universities, community centers

• Government/Transportation: airports, courthouses, transit hubs, community facilities, secure facilities

Most designers don’t do both residential and commercial spaces, but some do. Residential firms tend to be smaller or a single designer running their own business. Sometimes a whole design firm specializes, and all their architects and designers work on the same project types. But many times firms pursue multiple sectors and assign designers as the projects come in.

I’m not particularly specialized (and don’t plan to, as I love being a generalist), but I work mostly on corporate spaces with some restaurants, fitness centers, dorms, and community spaces to round things out. I’m interested in a little bit of everything, so I often request to get put on different project types.

Largely, interior design is like a lot of other office jobs: I work on project teams with architects and engineers. I spend a lot of time on the computer - answering client emails, creating construction documents, space planning, researching. When a project is under construction, I make site visits and spend time on calls with owners and contractors. The main difference between interior design and many other office jobs is that there’s a new physical thing in the world when I’m finished, something for people to walk through and touch. I love that; I am always thrilled to see something I put on paper become real.

What do interior designers actually do?

Ah, the grand mystery. The general assumption is that interior designers do the pretty things: the carpet, the paint, the tile, the furniture. And that’s true! But that’s also just a small portion of the job. There are more technical elements than most people expect.

A lot of what I do is probably in the realm of what many people think of as architecture. There is a lot of overlap! Precisely how much overlap depends on the type of project and the architect. But generally, I think it looks like this:

Here are a few things in my scope of work that you might not expect. Many of these are passed back and forth with architecture, but if it’s an interiors-only project, I do all of them:

• Space planning - I decide where the walls and doors go, how spaces will be arranged, and work with clients to think through room sizes and adjacencies (which spaces go next to each other).

• Engineering coordination - I work with the architects and engineers to plan where lights, electrical panels, air supply, power outlets, and fire suppression will be located. Those things need to be coordinated with ceiling heights, accent walls, and client furniture and equipment.

• Code review - each jurisdiction adopts building codes, which determines things like what signage is required or how many toilets we need to provide. In the United States, we also have the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which governs all commercial spaces and ensures that those with disabilities are able to work in an office or go to the movies. The standards are hundreds of pages long and affect everything from door swings to how high mirrors are mounted.

• Drawings - construction drawings are a big deal. On tv shows, designers do a lot of pointing and show 3D renderings, but in real life the drawings are part of a contract, and they have to be correct. Floor plans, ceiling plans, elevations, details, life safety plans, finish plans, and more. Some larger firms have a team that designs and a team that draws, but at my firm we draw our own projects. It’s very often a team effort. Engineering drawings get bundled in with architectural drawings, so it’s our job to make sure nothing conflicts.

• Contract Administration - after construction starts, the project has really just begun. We make sure the contractor is ordering the correct finishes, work out kinks on site, and generally make sure that what is being built matches what is in our drawings. Some firms have a specialist for just this phase, as it’s a lot of time and paperwork, but my firm does not. It’s a humbling phase of the job - forever reminding me that I will never be finished learning.

Basically, if it’s inside the building, it’s part of my job!

Should you be an interior designer?

People reach out to me semi-regularly to say they are thinking about a career change and ask to pick my brain about whether they should be an interior designer. To date, I’ve only thought one person should.

From now on, I’ll send them a link to this post, but I typically ask them what they think it means to be an interior designer and what they’re craving more of in their life. If their answer hinges on creativity, I say “mmm, probably not.”

Interior design is often assumed to be a pretty artsy field. And for people who want to focus solely on art and decor or styling, it can be. But for these folks, I think the idea they have is of residential design as portrayed by Instagram. Residential design is less regulated and technical, has smaller businesses, and often done by people without design degrees.

Emily Henderson and Amber Lewis have both created mini-empires without a design degree or commercial work. Shea McGee of Studio McGee has done something unique by building up a pretty large firm that does primarily very high-end residential work. But while these are fun people to follow, they don’t represent a typical residential design experience. Henderson appears to make her business profitable with a lot of lifestyle content (the blogger path); Lewis and Henderson obviously charge design fees for their work, but they also have online shops where their large followings can “shop the look” and also create a fair bit of lifestyle content; McGee also has a Netflix show; both have book deals.

There is, of course, a whole host of independent designers and tiny firms doing great work. It’s usually a bit more bootstrapped, and if a designer flies solo, that means they are also the one hustling for clients and managing the business side. I worked in residential for a few months and quickly decided that this path wasn’t for me.

I wanted a job with a salary, benefits, and a typical work week. That’s generally found at design firms, and these firms expect to hire people with a design degree. My program had a few people start the design program as their second career, and they all dropped out; the all-consuming nature of design school is hard to reconcile with an existing job and a balanced adult life. I’m sure it can be done, but I recommend really understanding what you’re getting into before taking out student loans.

There are a lot of ways to be an interior designer, but it’s hard to get a feel for it when you’re not already doing it.

That’s not a full answer, and I’m sorry! But I hope it helps.

In conclusion…

I’ve been meaning to write this post for over a year, but I knew it was going to be a long one and yet somehow utterly incomplete.

I’ve worked in three states at four firms. I’ve worked with a single designer and at a firm of 100+ architects and designers. I’ve done residential and commercial. But I’ve spent most of my career in the South, and never at one of the huge, iconic firms. Experiences vary wildly in this field as in any other. I’m just one designer - nothing in here is universal.

Luckily my goal was not an exhaustive, researched piece, but rather a peek behind the curtain. I’m hoping to share more about my career and projects, but I knew I couldn’t do it without writing this post first. I hope it’s helpful. I hope it’s interesting. But most of all, I hope it helps you understand me a little bit better!

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions. I’d love to chat!