Many women approaching their 40s write to me wondering whether they should go to Interior Design School. It’s an issue I struggled with myself many times over a 20 year period.
I interviewed a number of interior design schools at various points in my past career but never followed through on actually applying. I already had a BA, an MBA and years of experience. The thought of being a full time student for 2 to 4 years, with a bunch of kids 20 years younger than myself was not that appealing. And the cost was huge considering the significant income I’d be giving up over that period.
Now that I’ve staged hundreds of homes I’m so happy I went with my instincts and stayed out of Interior Design School!
You wouldn’t believe the number of interior design graduates that have approached me during the past four years to hire them for Six Elements Inc., my home staging company! Most seem to be working as sales people in furniture stores and looking for a way out.
One woman called me this week who was working on 100% commission! Imagine working retail hours for a furniture store after studying interior design for 4 years and not even earning a salary! I was shocked. If you’re going to be on 100% commission, you should absolutely be in your own business. At least then all the sales come to you instead of a hefty percentage going to your employer.
Here’s what I’ve learned being a Professional Home Stager instead of being an “interior designer” over the past four years:
• Being a home stager you get lots more projects to work on because they are shorter term in nature. So, lots more variety.
• Being a home stager your clients give you creative control because they know they don’t really have to live with what you do to their homes. So, you get to be creative and make the decisions.
• Being a home stager you get interior redesign and color projects because your staging clients love what you do with the house they’re selling and ask you to work on the one they’re moving into.
• Being a home stager you get to work with the kinds of people who wouldn’t normally hire an interior designer or decorator, in other words a much larger target market.
The other important thing I learned, is that I would have hated being an interior designer!
It’s really frustrating doing a beautiful room only to see your client later clutter it up with additions that clash with everything you’ve done. Or, having to sit there for hours while they can’t decide which fabric they want to pick.
I love having the creative control I get from staging houses. I get to execute my vision because clients realize I’m decorating their house to sell, not for them to live in it. I know there is no way I could have done hundreds of homes in so short a period with an interior design degree fresh out of school.
Granted because I’ve never gone through an Interior Design program, (or ever taken an interior design or color course!), I can’t tell you if a chair is Louis the XVI, or draw plans to build an addition off the back of a house, but I don’t miss having those skills!
The kind of people that hire me (upper middle class, usually professionals) don’t really care!
They hire me because they know I’m an expert in decorating a house to sell because they’ve visited my websites, they’ve heard about me from their neighbors or real estate agents or they’ve read about Six Elements or Staging Diva in the media.
For the things I don’t know, I’d happily refer them to a trained interior designer! I know they have many skills that I don’t. But like I said, I learned I wouldn’t want to be an interior designer so that’s OK by me. And, it was a relief to finally let go of all the wondering about it!
In case you’re wondering about the photo at the top of this article, it’s from a kitchen I decorated that was featured in Woman’s Day Walls Windows and Floors. Not only did they do a 6 page spread on the house, I was the photo stylist. Never once did the magazine ask for my “design” or “stylist” credentials. They did the spread and hired me because of the strength of my portfolio of before and after photos.
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
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I wanted to tell you that I love this article and agree with it. I have had 4 recent graduates from Interior design schools contacting me recently – I will use them as needed. I might take a non credit course from a local college for my personal satisfaction.
Thanx!
I find that interior designers are jumping on the Home Staging bandwagon. I truly feel there is a conflict of interest. Designers design for their customer’s personal taste and Home Stagers design to sell. I do educational speaking for Real Estate groups and I tell them I usually go in and take out everything a designer does so a potential buyer can see the home.
LJ Pilant
Alamo Home Staging
Proud Graduate of Staging Diva
Of course interior designers are jumping on the staging bandwagon, there’s MORE MONEY IN STAGING!
One property I staged belonged to an interior designer. She hired me to stage it for her, it sold in days at $40,000 over her $1.4 million price.
Fast forward 18 months and she has her latest home on the market. I didn’t stage it and only realized it was hers during an open house when I realized I recognized much of the furniture and art. It was obvious to me why it isn’t selling… it’s been on the market for 5 months now… but funny thing is she hasn’t called me to help her out again!
I am interested in becoming a stager, not sure how to go about it though and how much to charge clients for consultations. I am considering the course hoping this will help.
thanks Janniece
Hi Janniece, You’ve come to the right place. I teach my students all about how to get started, what to charge and more. My focus is taking your decorating talent and turning it into a profitable business. I’ll help you avoid common pitfalls like falling into the free estimate trap and more, because I’ve personally built my own successful home staging business.
If you’d like to join me live on the phone tomorrow night, or get the recording of it after, sign up for Ask Staging Diva Live at this link:
http://www.stagingdiva.com/homestagingfreepreview.html
I’ll be taking audience questions for 90 minutes all about what it’s like being a home stager and more. This is FREE!
Debra
Debra, will this training help me if my business is to help people set up their new homes they just bought or if the just want to freshen up their house and are not moving how do i charge for that.
Barbara, most home stagers also offer interior redesign and color consulting services — which is really what you’re talking about when you think of helping people set up their new homes and freshening up their existing ones even if they aren’t moving.
Yes, these are all covered in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, you can read more about the courses at this link:
http://www.stagingdiva.com/homestagingtraining.html
I discuss pricing strategies at length in course 2, and they apply equally whether you’re going in to discuss “decorating to live” or “decorating to sell.”
What’s very cool about using “home staging” as your lead service (the one you talk about most), is that you’ll still attract lots of clients who aren’t moving. Many will contact a “home stager” before contacting a “decorator” because they understand that stagers mostly work with what you have. The perception out there is that a decorator will want to replace a lot of what you have meaning to get the look they recommend will be far more costly. For that reason, I get calls all the time from people who say, “I’m not moving now or in the foreseeable future, but I realize you can probably help me enjoy how I live in my home better right now.”
Dear Debra,
I’m a 56 yr. young woman working in furniture retail. In a word-yuk. I have staged a loft for a local property through our company (which sold right away-as is because the client loved it), and I used to help staging model homes -so I know I can do this, however, I have no business expertise, and do not desire to be a realtor. You are acutely aware of the slow housing market, so how would I start? Fear is a small factor, not knowing how to network, set up a website, find clients, etc. I want to work hard ,but earn a good living with job satisfaction. I literally have no start up money so what’s the next step? Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Martin
Hi Debra! I absolutely love the information you’ve provided on your website. It’s quite informative and VERY professional.Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge with us. I have the questions raised by Stephanie, how does one start without any ‘starting capital’? I’ve completed a home staging course & have a few interior design classes. I’m interested in the business side of to get started. Thank you & God Bless!
Hello Im a hair stylist for over 30 years with a gift in design wanted to take classed in staging not sure were to start at please give some input want or were i can take some classes. Thanks Casssadra
Hi Cassandra, You’ve come to the right place because I can teach you how to take your natural gift and turn it into a profitable home staging business.
You can read about the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, one of the most respected and well known names in the field today at:
http://www.stagingdiva.com/homestagingtraining.html
Since you mentioned being a hair stylist for 30 years, I know you’ll enjoy this article about Carol King. She owned her own salon for about 30 years. She took my training and now has her own staging business in Texas. You can read about her here:
http://www.stagingdiva.com/homestagingbusiness/home-staging-gets-divorcing-couple-more-than-asking-in-one-day/
I’d love to help you do the same!
I love the concept of home staging and can’t walk into a room in somebody’s house without thinking in my head what I would do differently design wise, where I would move or remove certain items etc. I am really thinking I want to start my staging career however I am only 22 years old and from most of the profiles I read the woman making this career choice are often middle aged or have young families. I’m wondering if I would be taken seriously with my competition being able to relate more to the average home seller.
Hi Whitney,
You said, ” I can’t walk into a room in somebody’s house without thinking in my head what I would do differently design wise, where I would move or remove certain items etc.” You have just described exactly the sort of person who was born to be a home stager! It’s an impulse, we just can’t help ourselves. Now you have a way to take that natural gift that you have and turn it into a real money making career. Not a year from now, or ten years from now, but RIGHT NOW!
As for your age, I have women writing to me all the time saying, “I’m 40 is it too late for me to start a career?” You’re 22 and you’re worrying that people won’t take you seriously, cause you’re too young. I’ve met plenty of middle aged people I would never take seriously.
My point is, it’s not about age, it’s about how you present yourself. I’m coming up on age 51 now, so everyone looks young to me. I see a doctor or a policeman and I think, “they look like they just finished high school!” But if they open their mouths and sound like they know what they’re talking about and carry themselves with confidence, then I can easily get past how young they look (to me).
There are many home sellers who are in their 20s and 30s. There are also tons of real estate agents in that age range. Don’t let a fear that you’ll be seen as too young stop you! That would be crazy. I got my first BIG job in a corporate office with a secretary and the full deal when I was in my early 20s and fresh out of business school. Looking back now, I think we all looked quite young, but there we were managing multi-million dollar budgets and we didn’t see ourselves as young.
Age is a state of mind. If you start now, think about how incredibly experienced and polished you’ll be by the time you’re 25! Think how much easier it is to start now, life only gets more complicated when you get older, especially throughout the late 20s and into your 40s. By late 40s you’ve let go of many of the “complications” or outgrown them and that’s why you see many people starting this business later in life (relative to where you are now, that is).
Hope that helps!
I have to say I do not appreciate the way it seems you are portraying the Interior Design profession. I have a BA in Interior Design and working on a MS in Environmental Design, and I have just started my own consulting company. The job of an Interior Designer entails much more than that of an Interior Decorator or Home Stager, and is most definitely more work. You do receive jobs less often, but the jobs you receive are on a much larger scale and you are paid accordingly large. Upon going through the proper education, experience, and examination qualifications, you are a “Licensed Interior Designer” and are qualified to actually make construction specifications. Home stagers can only specify furniture, fixtures, and finishes.
When you make the decision to begin higher education in Interior Design, you have to be clearly informed on what the entire profession entails. If attending an accredited college or university, you will be informed of this in an introduction course before beginning studio courses. Interior Designers are relevant because they design the entire interior built environment, vertical and horizontal planes: ceiling, floors, and walls. I love being an Interior Designer because I am not confined to decorate the construction some else designed, instead I can completely gut a building (or take an existing empty building) and make a consistent design throughout the entire interior construction and decoration.
This is not at all to discredit Home Stagers, because that is a necessary art as well. Everyone has a role in making our living breathing built environments as comfortable, sustainable, and beautiful as possible.
Brittney, Thanks for sharing that explanation on the training and potential responsibilities of a properly trained Interior Designer. I totally agree that a Licensed Interior Designer can do what a stager or decorator cannot. I would never presume to recommend structural changes to my clients, for example. Nor would I be able to do the structural drawings you are trained to do.
When I had a client who wanted a kitchen totally gutted, I was the first to admit that I’m not the person to design it or create the drawings for the contractor. When I renovated my own kitchen, I hired a kitchen designer to plan out all the cabinets, etc. That said, I’m more than capable of choosing the finishes and have done this for myself and other clients. For example:
I can do all of these things because I have good taste and I’ve taken the time to learn about different materials. I read books and magazines, visit show rooms and trade shows and learn about what’s out there. I didn’t need to study Interior Design or go back to school for 4 years.
That doesn’t mean I undervalue your choices!
Clearly you have training that I do not and it’s quite right that Interior Design is a regulated industry because if you’re going to start taking walls out of buildings or designing extensions, you need to know what you’re doing! I totally agree with you that we all have a “role in making our living breathing built environments as comfortable, sustainable, and beautiful as possible.”
While you’re here, though I can’t help but point out that if you would like to earn money while you’re working on your MS in Environmental Design, home staging is an awesome way to do it. This is a low cost business and a great way to use your design talents. I don’t teach people how to decorate but I do teach them how to turn their talents into a profitable business.
My point was NOT to belittle your training. My point was to share that if a person really wants to decorate and stage, they don’t need a 4 year Interior Design degree to do it.
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