Do You Have To Be Rich To Be An Interior Designer?

If two people graduate from the same interior design course, do they have the same chance of success? Let’s imagine two aspiring designers. The first graduates from university and moves back home with their parents.

They don’t need to worry too much about paying rent or covering bills while they build their business. Their friends and family own homes, undertake renovations and know people who might need design help. They have access to projects, introductions and opportunities.

The second graduates from university with significant debt. They need to work full-time to cover rent and living expenses. Their friends are renting, not renovating. Their family doesn’t own investment properties or know potential clients.

Every hour spent building their design business has to fit around earning a living. Both are equally talented. Both are equally passionate. Both are willing to work hard. Yet it would be difficult to argue that they are starting from the same place.

When they look around the industry, it’s easy to understand why. They see designers showcasing beautiful homes they’ve renovated themselves. They see luxury projects, wealthy clients and extensive portfolios. They hear stories of people who started by helping family members, redesigning their own homes or working on projects through existing networks.

When you’re standing on the outside looking in, it can feel as though everyone else received a head start. The question is: does that mean you need money, property and connections to become a successful interior designer? No, but I do believe we need to have a more honest conversation about the advantages some people start with and what that means for those who don’t have them.

When we talk about wealth, most people imagine luxury homes, expensive cars and large bank accounts. But in the context of becoming an interior designer, wealth can look much more ordinary than that.

Owning a home can be a form of wealth. Having friends who own homes can be a form of wealth. Having access to renovation projects, tradespeople, contractors and homeowners can be a form of wealth. These things create opportunities.

If you’ve renovated your own home, you’ve likely selected finishes, coordinated trades, made design decisions and solved practical problems. You may have photographs that can be used in a portfolio. You may have gained confidence through the process without even realising it.

Someone who has never had access to those opportunities starts from a very different position – no portfolio and much smaller project opportunities. That doesn’t make one person more talented than the other, but it does mean one person has had access to experiences that can help accelerate their career.

Many interior designers discover the profession later in life. By that point they may have completed one or two renovations, redesigned rooms, worked with builders or managed a project of their own. Those experiences often become the foundation of their confidence as a designer.

Yet much of the advice given to aspiring designers still assumes access to these experiences! Universities and successful designers are often heard guiding designers with advice like: build a portfolio from your own home, document your renovation, photograph your project or use your house as a case study. It’s good advice if you own a property. It’s much harder advice to follow if you don’t!

Many successful designers built their experience through opportunities that were available to them at the time. Some renovated their own homes. Some worked on family properties. Some had partners who financially supported them while they built a business. Some had access to networks that naturally generated opportunities.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The problem arises when those experiences are presented as though they are available to everyone.

If you’re changing careers, supporting a family, renting a flat or trying to build a business alongside a full-time job, your reality may look very different. The profession needs to recognise that there are many talented future designers who haven’t lacked ability. They’ve simply lacked opportunity.

Another common piece of advice is to work for free to gain experience. Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with that advice. The problem is that it assumes you can afford to do it. Personally, I couldn’t.

For some people, taking on unpaid projects is possible because they have financial support, savings or other income streams. For others, every hour spent working on a project needs to contribute towards paying bills, supporting children or maintaining a household.

Many of the people I mentor are career changers. They aren’t twenty-two years old living at home with minimal responsibilities. They’re adults with mortgages, rent payments, families and financial commitments. They need a pathway into the profession that allows them to build experience and earn money at the same time and I believe that’s a perfectly reasonable expectation.

They need a pathway into the profession that allows them to build experience and earn money at the same time and I believe that’s a perfectly reasonable expectation.

No, but being wealthy can certainly make some aspects of becoming an interior designer easier, especially when you’re first starting out. It can provide access to properties, projects, introductions and opportunities that others may not have.

But those advantages are not the same thing as talent. They are not the same thing as determination. They are not the same thing as skill. And they are certainly not the same thing as long-term success.

In fact, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned after working as an interior designer and mentoring hundreds of aspiring designers is that success rarely comes from one big opportunity.

It comes from projects. One project leads to another. A consultation leads to a room design. A room design leads to a larger refurbishment. A refurbishment leads to a recommendation. Over time those projects compound into experience, confidence, skills and a portfolio.

The people who succeed are rarely the people waiting for the perfect project. They’re the people building momentum with the projects they can access today.

This is one of the reasons I created the Small, Medium and Large Project framework that sits at the heart of IntoDesign. Rather than assuming everyone starts with a luxury home, wealthy network or endless free time, the framework focuses on helping designers build experience progressively through real projects.

Small projects build confidence. Medium projects build capability. Large projects become the natural outcome. The goal isn’t to start with a £500,000 renovation. The goal is to start with the opportunities available to you right now and use them to build towards larger and more complex projects over time.

I believe this is a more realistic pathway for most aspiring designers today. Not everyone has access to a family renovation project. Not everyone can afford to work for free. Not everyone owns a home they can photograph for a portfolio.

But almost everyone can start with a project. A consultation. An e-design project. A colour scheme. A furniture layout. A room makeover. What matters is not where you start. What matters is that you start and that you find a way to keep going profitably so that you can make an actual living from it.

Jo Chrobak