Interior Designer

Creative & DesignBachelor's DegreeModerate Growth

Transform spaces into functional, beautiful environments for homes, offices, and commercial settings.

Salary Range

Entry Level
$40K
Starting salary
Top Level
$300K
Top salary
Principal / Firm Owner

The highest-paid specialization or seniority level for interior designers.

About 1 in 33 reaches this level

About 87K interior designers per BLS; many start firms but clearing $300K+ profit requires high-end clients.

Salary data based on 2025 BLS, Glassdoor, and industry reports. Actual compensation varies by location, experience, and employer.

How to Become One

This career typically requires a bachelor's degree. Here are the top colleges for it:

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AI Risk Assessment

Increasing Risk (Level 3/5)How we score ›

Interior design has a significant physical-world component that protects it, but 65% of interior designers have already integrated AI tools, reporting a 20% reduction in project timelines. AI can now generate room layouts, render photorealistic visualizations, suggest furniture arrangements, and create mood boards from text prompts. The work still requires site visits, building code knowledge, material sourcing, and client relationships — but the volume of work per designer is increasing as AI handles more of the visual and planning tasks.

Sources

Ratings reflect a 10-year outlook based on 2025-2026 research, weighted toward entry-level impact. Individual outcomes will vary.

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