How to Become a Freelance Interior Designer

An Interior Designer assists in selecting and coordinating the final touches. The right doors, windows colours, textures, lighting, flooring, cabinets, mouldings, hardware, and furnishings are important to create the overall style and flow of your personal oasis. An Interior Designer may assist in the interior space planning and function of specific rooms as well as the selection of interior finishes.

To become an interior designer you need a good eye for design and spatial awareness, and relevant design qualifications. Typically a job as an interior designer involve:

Discussing with clients their requirements ideas and budget
Developing an design for the client with includes their ideas and meets their budget
Designing sketches for the client to approve
Deciding with the client on colour schemes, fabrics, fittings and furniture

Most interior designers hold a degree in interior design or similar disciplines such as art and design or 3D design. Some alternative course you could go on could be:

City and Guilds Level 1 (7722) and Level 2 (7822) in Design and Craft
City and Guilds Level 3 Certificate (7922) and Diploma (7923) in Design and Craft
BTEC National Certificate and Diploma courses in Art and Design
ABC (Awarding Body Consortium) Diploma in Interior Design.

Other shorter more specialist courses could be:

Upholstery
Decorating Techniques
Feng Shui
The ABC Level 3 award in CAD Skills for Interior Design

As well as strong academics most interior designers have similar personality traits – essentially you must be creative and have a sense of realism. These traits are essential when carrying out a project on time and in budget. You must also have an excellent knowledge of materials, products used in your design and excellent communication skills.

Going freelance

Most interior designers usually start off working for a design company. This will give you invaluable skills and experience which will be needed to become a successful freelancer.

As a freelancer you will undertake projects independently, build your own client base. You will have to maintain relationships with a strong work ethos, impressive and great communications otherwise you may find your stream of work slowing down.

Depending on the job, you may have to work long hours and weekends. This is especially relevant when working for businesses as deadlines for shop openings, premises launch parties and launch parties aren’t flexible on dates.

It is possible to work from home as freelance interior designer though you may prefer to rent some office space. In addition a driving license is a must as you will be required to travel regularly to site to check on progress and to meet clients.

How to secure a contract as a freelancer

There are around 6,000 to 8,000 people who work as interior designers in the UK. These consist of freelancers, design consultancies and architectural practises.

Majority of positions are in the South East of England, though opportunities do exist throughout the UK.

Positions are usually found in trade publications such as Design Week and Architects’ Journal and specialist websites such as:

To make yourself stand out from the crowd you could join an accredited trade body such as:

These organisations often provide resources, support for any issues you may come across and courses to keep you skills up-to-date. You skills will be need to be continually reviewed to keep up to date with any changes in the law.

For all jobs you will need a portfolio of work you have completed. You may secure a contract based on your portfolio and not you qualifications. It’s advisable to have your own website with examples of your work, contact details, testimonials and a section about you. You may find your website is a place you refer potential clients to and don’t gain much business through. However it is an invaluable tool as potential clients can view your work in there on time and constantly be reminded of you throughout the website.

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Easy Accountancy

Easy Accountancy is the UK’s only national specialist accountancy firm for freelancers, sole traders and small businesses

If you’ve just started out as a freelancer or run a small business, you’ll definitely need a small accountant and there are plenty of options out there! However, most accountants will charge you every time you get in touch with them; for every phone call, email or meeting.

We don’t want our clients to be scared to contact us and potentially lose out on valuable tax saving advice. It's even more important when you first start out as you really need to set your business up in the best way possible. As a start up you’ll probably have loads of questions and will really appreciate the fact you can call your accountant as many times as you like without the fear of racking up large bills.

Our low cost, all-inclusive fixed-fee accountancy service includes unlimited access to your own accountant throughout the year, so you never need to worry about picking up the phone and then receiving a bill afterwards for the privilege, and covers all your business and personal tax affairs needs. All clients additionally receive:

Help to run your business in the most tax efficient way possible
Help so you can understand the taxes you need to pay
Advice on the best ways to manage your business
Updates and reminders so you'll never miss a deadline
Help to ensure you maximise your tax allowances
Provide proactive tax advice throughout the year

We’ve saved our clients up to half on their accountancy bills – if you’d like a quote, click on the quote me button to the right of this page. Alternatively, call us on 0500 234111 / 01442 275767 or email jessica@easyaccountancy.co.uk

We also have a money-back service guarantee - all of your telephone calls and emails will be answered on the same day, or we will refund your monthly fee (another first within the accountancy world).

To appoint us as your accountants, please fill in our Client Agreement Form online.

If you are a contractor working through a limited company then visit SJD Accountancy (our sister company) who specialise in providing tax advice and accountancy services for Limited Company contractors. You can also keep up to date by following the SJD Accountancy Twitter

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