Maybe you’re great with textiles. Perhaps your friends compliment you on how good you make a room look with just lighting, a few flowers, and some artfully placed knickknacks. Or possibly you’re the kind of person who leaves a restaurant, and the first thing you comment on isn’t the food but the silk wallpaper. If so, you might make a great interior decorator. It’s a challenging field, but one with lots of opportunities for growth. You might think “interior decorator†and figure you’ll spend most of your time working with wealthy clients to make their homes suitable for Art & Architecture, but the truth is that home decorating is just one in a number career paths for the skilled interior designer.
- Residential designers work chiefly with home decorating, often choosing not just the elements of the room – from appliances to wallpaper to art – but sometimes also making suggestions on major renovations. But residential design isn’t limited to just houses. Home decorators work on model homes, private planes and boats, apartments, and even RVs.
- Home staging experts offer design work for a specific purpose, frequently getting a home ready to go on the market. Unlike traditional interior decorating, this kind of work is done on a onetime basis and rarely involves major changes. Rather, the home stager’s job is to create the kind of mood or atmosphere that will bring out the room’s natural attributes, whether by draping a piece of furniture with silk or other fabric, adding mirrors or art, or simply arranging furniture to create a more inviting space.
- Commercial design is perhaps the broadest possible field for an interior decorating career, as every non-residential space from hospitals to hotels to casinos and shopping malls incorporate design. A commercial designer’s job is a significantly more complex one that goes far beyond deciding whether a bar will be more appealing with silk wallpaper or wood paneling. They must work with architects, engineers, business executives, and property owners to ensure that the look of the establishment meets the needs of staff and customers alike.
- Event planners often do double-duty as decorators. Weddings, large parties, conferences, and public and private galas usually need some level of decorating. Event planners work with florists, artists, and photographers to ensure the room or outdoor space is perfectly dressed to the occasion.
If you get excited by the prospect of making a home more beautiful with the addition of hand-crafted furniture or silk wallpaper, then you may want to pursue a career as a decorator. But don’t lose sight of the fact that interior design is a field with possibilities far beyond houses.
Wolf-Gordon can supply all your silk wallpaper and other home designing needs. Visit in person at one of the following showroom locations: Los Angeles Showroom Pacific Design Center at 8687 Melrose Ave., Suite BM5 Los Angeles, CA 90069; Chicago Showroom Merchandise Mart at #10-161 200 World Trade Center Chicago, IL 60654; o
