Interior Design Career Options

Interior design is an exciting and varied field that has a number of applications. Do you want to help make gorgeous homes even better? Do you like to use natural elements and work with plants & nature? Or are you more passionate about making things with your hands that enhance the entire room?

Lucky for you, interior design career options span all of this and more. Here are three diverse career options for you to consider if you have a mind for creativity and design.

Office Design

Office design is a huge part of business. Not only can better office design boost productivity and efficiency, but it can also be used as a powerful recruitment and employee retention tool. 

In fact, about half of people surveyed said that the room that they’re interviewed in has a direct influence on whether they want the job with that company. Biophilic design, in particular, uses live plants and natural materials in a way that boosts productivity and employee happiness.

So, use your design skills to capitalize on that! This can also earn you a pretty decent salary, office design Boston, for example, can make about $50,000 per year with the true amount depending on the clients you serve. Larger companies often have more money to allocate to office design, so they’ll be the ones that can pay you more. 

Furniture Designer

Do you prefer working with your hands? What about staying active and building things on the job?

Furniture designing could be for you! Many furniture designers work for larger furniture stores or services to collaborate and create marketable furniture options. You could also go the more custom route working with clients to create furniture that fits their specific wants and needs.

One of the interesting things about furniture design is that it needs to fit alongside interior design and it needs to be functional. Your desk design could look amazing, but if it doesn’t function as a desk, it won’t sell. You’ll need to combine practicality with your creativity in this type of career, which can be both fun and challenging.

The average salary for a furniture designer is about $51,000 annually. As with most careers, this will vary depending on how you’re working. 

Running your own business could be more lucrative, but you’ll also be responsible for the business side of things and have to deal with self-employment. Working for a company or furniture seller makes it a bit easier on you and allows you to focus more solely on design, but could have a lower salary.

Kitchen Designer

Many interior designers prefer to focus on specific room types instead of on “interiors” as a whole (which is a large and broad design-type). 

Kitchen designers are often in high demand seeing as kitchen remodels are one of the most popular (right next to bathrooms). You would be responsible for deciding on overall design, materials, walls, floors, shelving, appliances, and more.

As with the other design careers on this list, where and how you do this work can vary. You could have your own design business and work for yourself. You could work for a construction company working to design and manage construction of brand new homes’ kitchens. Or, you could work for a remodeling business renovating and working on already existing kitchens.

You’ll need to be able to follow current trends, understand structural limitations, be able to follow budgets, and be able to interact with clients to give them what they’re looking for while staying true to your design aesthetic and style. 

Kitchen designers earn an average salary of $53,000, but can earn over $100,000 annually in certain positions.