Use Interior Decorating Courses to Launch a New Career

Do you have a flair for interior design? Are friends and visitors constantly remarking on how well put-together your interior spaces are? Do relatives frequently ask you for help with their interior decorating dilemmas, because you have an eye for style?

If you answered yes to these questions, you may have contemplated a career in interior decorating. There are courses you can take that can be applied toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design. Why not get paid for giving friends and relatives decorating advice? Having a few interior decorating courses under your belt will add formal education to your natural talent - a formula that leads to credibility for you as a professional interior decorator.

Finding a Place to Take Courses

If you are taking interior decorating courses for college credit toward a degree, you must take them from an accredited college or university that is empowered to grant degrees. However, if you already have an undergraduate degree, or you just don't have the money or time to get a degree right now, there are many more options available to you.

Free Online Courses

Many free online interior decorating courses are available where you can learn the basics of interior design without paying a thing. The web is a natural learning medium for a visual field like interior decorating.

Interior Decorating Gallery Courses

Interior decorating galleries often have courses on basic decorating skills that are taught by designers who work for the gallery. Galleries use these courses as a marketing tool. They are useful, but you will only learn so much; the galleries want you to hire a decorator for the rest of the work.

Retail Store Courses

Some of the big box home improvement stores, like Lowe's and Home Depot, offer interior decorating courses for customers. These are hour-long courses, usually taught by store employees who work in the departments that sell items used in interior décor. Thus, your course may be taught by an employee from the paint, flooring, or window covering department. The material to be covered in the course is usually specified by corporate headquarters, to maintain the quality of the course regardless of the instructor's background and experience.

Interior Decorating Courses

The degree requirements for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree contain a number of interior decorating courses, as interior designers must know the interior decorating basics. Students may take courses in Color Basics, Interior Lighting Fundamentals, and Textiles for Interiors, Freehand Drawing, and History of Furniture.