Do I need an interior designer or an interior decorator?
Serving Austin & the Dallas Metroplex
Doris Younger, ASID, RID | TX Certified Interior Designer #2977

Do I need an interior designer or an interior decorator?

Many people use the terms “interior designer’ and “interior decorator” interchangeably, but these professions differ in critical ways.



Interior Designers use the art and science of understanding people’s behavior to create functional spaces within a building.  Interior Decorators furnish or adorn a space with fashionable or beautiful things.  In short, interior designers may decorate, but interior decorators do not design.

Interior designers apply creative technical solutions within a structure that are functional, attractive and beneficial to the occupants’ quality of life and culture.  Designs respond to and coordinate with the building shell and acknowledge the physical location and social context of the project.  Designs must adhere to code and regulatory requirements and encourage the principles of environmental sustainability.

The interior design process follows systematic and coordinated methodology – including research, analysis and integration of knowledge into the creative process – to satisfy the needs and resources of the client.

Many U.S. states and Canadian provinces have passed laws requiring interior designers to be licensed or registered – documenting their formal education and training – and many of them specifically require that all practicing interior designers earn the NCIDQ Certificate to demonstrate their experience and qualifications.  By contrast, interior decorators require no formal training or licensure.

As developed by the National Council of Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ)

Just for Fun with Doris Younger Designs

The evolution of furniture from utilitarian to artful is often a key to the manners, mores and means of other times and places.  In that spirit and just for fun, here are “romance” stories about some of those pieces picked up over thirty five years of studying and practicing interior design.  Are they true? I don’t know for sure but if not, I’m sure at the very least they contain seeds of truth in the development of traditional furniture styles and, as I said, just for fun……. Read More fun stories here.