Interior Designer vs. Interior Decorator vs. Architect

I have been working in the field since 2005, and over the years I worked both in residential interior design firms and in commercial larger, architecture firms. I graduated WSU with energy and enthusiasm, ready to utilize my skills to their fullest.

The day of my graduation, standing in studio (where most of my senior year time was spent). My family is there with me, looking at my final design projects.

At first, I was easily upset when people misunderstood what I did and quick to correct anyone who referred to me as an "interior decorator". Over the years, I've gotten less defensive and frustrated by it, and began to look at it from another point of view.

Interior design started with decorator, Elsie deWolfe. She selected wall covering, window treatments, furnishings and decor. The career evolved into what we now perform more as interior architecture, but we are not architects, and cannot use that title, so we took "Interior Design". But, here is where the problem lies. We took Interior Design and assigned the title of Decorator to people who are non-degreed or do not do the space planning. I don't know that this title was ours to take and I'm not sure we had the right to tell a group of talented people that they could no longer use this title.

We stole bits of architecture and the name interior designer and waltzed in like we own it.

When I was in college, I tried to major in architecture with a minor in interior design (or vice versa) and it was not permitted. I had friends who wanted to do the same. I begged, saying I was willing to double-major so that I could do what I felt was a cohesive profession, but was told that the programs were too intensive to allow students to double-major. A few other friends went back to school to get their degrees in architecture. To this day, many interior designers I meet with who feel that they are more "interior architectural" in nature, wish they had gotten architecture degrees, but were also grateful for their specific training in interiors.

In thinking this through and battling with the frustrations of the "correct" title, I had an moment of clarity.

We need to return the title of 'Interior Design' to those who initially had it.

I am referring to those who work with furnishings and decor. This is what the general public understands interior design to be. They are just as professional and qualified to do their job as we are to do ours, and giving them a title that they feel diminishes their expertise was never our right.

Then, we need to stop teaching Interior Design in schools and instead teach Architecture with an emphasis in interiors.

Allow interior architecture professionals to be registered architects, with the ability and understanding needed in our profession to design a complete home independently.

In my work today, I need to understand ventilation, water access, moisture barriers, energy calculations, and how to work well with structural engineers because I do this work without an architect. I apply for permits and design home additions and understanding roof lines is important to me. This has been extremely challenging because I am not an architect, but I am more than your average interior designer.

I am working toward what I was taught to be, but the degree I have does not allow me to do what I was taught to be (an architectural specialist).

If I could do it all again, I would have stayed and gotten my Masters in Architecture so that I could be that architect with the interior specialty. If I could tell all the interior design students one thing, it would be to become an architect. If they don’t want to be an architect, they are in the wrong program, because interior design degrees are really a "lesser architecture" program and the frustration that will follow will be tremendous.

I do not need a degree or title in architecture to do what I am doing. It would have meant more time in school, and I was so ready to be done. However, we are not being taught in school to be residential interior designers- we are being trained to be professional interior architects, and without a degree in architecture, I've begun to see my training as incomplete.

This image came up along with pictures of furnished rooms and color palettes when searching images for “interior designer”. A search for “architect” brought up very different imagery.

I also have begun to wonder if this development of interior design as an interior architectural profession is unconsciously derived from underlying sexism. Most interior designers are women or gay men and I tend to wonder if the tension between interior design and architecture is due, both to a fear of women to participate in a "male profession", and a desire to maintain women as being "homemakers".

It is comfortable for us to put women in this profession, but if a man were to do this, he must be gay.

I find myself more frustrated when we fit into these stereotypes than when we are referred to as "decorators". And, I do fit this stereotype- but is it because I didn’t feel that I was qualified, as a woman, to be an architect? It is absolutely possible.

I don’t speak for interior designers everywhere. I can only speak for myself. But, I see a lot of conflict and confusion in this profession, and I think that removing interior design from schools and instead offering architecture with an emphasis in interiors would resolve a lot of this conflict and confusion. What do you think?