Design trends are constantly changing, and new styles of décor (and ways of designing homes) are appearing regularly. For certified interior decorators, this is excellent news! Not only can you offer your current range of professional skills to clients, there is also a huge opportunity to expand your services as a home decorator to include other branches of the industry, and grow your interior decorator salary while you’re at it!
There are a variety of add-ons that can seriously boost your salary as an interior decorator. Stick with us as we run through each, and think about which ones make sense to add to your interior decorating services.
1. Home staging
As a branch of the design industry, home staging is one of the most creative (and can prove extremely profitable!). Essentially, you’ll be using your expertise to help home builders, real estate agents, and homeowners sell their homes quickly and for the best possible price.
If you’re already certified as an interior decorator and have been working in the industry for some time, home staging will be a complementary add-on to what you’re already providing to clients. Decluttering, depersonalizing, and accessorizing are just a few of the skills you’ll be taught during your home stager training – you’ll also become well-versed in how to attract buyers with curb appeal, which is a seriously valuable skill to help homeowners sell quickly. These skills are highly complementary to the knack for furniture placement, understanding of color, and attention to detail that you already bring to each of your interior decorating jobs.
If you’re keen on adding staging services to your interior decorating repertoire, enrolling in a home staging class is an excellent first step. You’ll gain the skills to make important decisions in clients’ homes and prepare them to sell their properties for the best market prices. By offering both interior decorating and home staging services, you’ll also increase your salary quickly. Word-of-mouth travels fast from a happy (and impressed) client.
2. Professional organizing
Adding professional organizing services onto your list will boost that rewarding feeling even higher – this is an extremely important role, as you have the power to eliminate stress and chaos from each client’s daily life! If you’re adding professional organizing services, you’ll certainly want to get the proper training and organizing certification. Clients will want to see that you’ve taken the time to learn the right techniques of the role.
Don’t be afraid to start small when you first start offering organizing services – helping your interior decorating clients organize their closets in addition to the decorating services you’re offering is a great little add-on that will really help them. Over the years, you can build your list of clients who need both home decorating and professional organizing services, and watch as your salary begins to reflect your hard work.
Clients with disorganized spaces need a professional organizer desperately, and as a home decorator, you’ll be able to spot these clients quite quickly during your initial consultations. Let them know that you’re a certified organizer, and they’ll be thankful that they hired you.
3. Green design elements
Gone are the days when sustainable, green living was a niche market. These days, every interior decorator knows that wellness and green living are seriously trendy, which is great news if you want to expand your services. Many clients are tuned into making their homes (and lives) more eco-friendly, and this can be accomplished by using recycled materials, plants, natural lighting and proper furniture arrangement.
This is where your services come in! As a home decorator looking to expand your services and boost your salary, it’s important to understand green design elements. Knowing this aspect of modern home design will allow you to offer a service to clients that is unique yet booming, and they will be impressed and happy that you know enough about green design elements to incorporate them into their home.
Educating yourself on green design in general is a great idea as an interior decorator – you’ll always be able to make the best possible suggestions to your clients and encourage them to create healthy living environments. They’ll be more likely to use your services again and again, as well as refer you to friends who are environmentally-conscious.
And speaking of healthy living environments….
4. Feng shui
The ancient Chinese practice of feng shui, which literally means “wind-water” in English, is all about healthy living and balance. There is a huge interest nowadays in feng shui (similar to green design), and as such, it’s the perfect time to add it to your design repertoire.
As with home staging and professional organizing, the first step in adding feng shui to your decorating services is to get properly trained. A feng shui certification is the way to go, and for busy design professionals, online feng shui courses let you to gain new design skills, all while fitting around your current schedule. How convenient is that?
Compared to the other add-ons in this list, feng shui is the easiest to implement in your clients’ homes. It’s all about creating harmony through the positioning of furniture and elimination of clutter, and you’ll already be making decisions around these elements as an interior decorator – it’s such a natural addition! Clients who seek out your interior decorating expertise will be over the moon to find out that you’re also skilled in the practice of feng shui, and can ensure their home is full of positive, healthy energy. A happy client will share your name with others, and you’ll soon find more and more appointments on your calendar – simply by adding feng shui design to your services!
Pro Tip: Be sure to adjust your rates accordingly to make sure your prices are both similar to the average rate while remaining competitive. You want to keep bringing clients in, and now that you’re offering more services, your prices can rise. Just be mindful of your competition and don’t set your prices too high at first!
5. Color consulting
As an interior decorator, you know that many clients call you because they’re totally overwhelmed with color choices. And for a good reason – choosing the wrong colors can leave your clients stuck in a room they hate! One fabulous add-on to consider as an interior decorator is color consulting. You’ll understand which colors speak to your client on a personal level and work with them to develop a personalized color palette. They’ll love the fact that you truly understand their needs and can tailor a specific color scheme to them.
The great news about color consulting is that there are a variety of services you can offer. Depending on how focused you want to be in this area, you can offer home interior color selection, where you help clients choose colors that speak to them for certain rooms, or you can choose small-scale projects that are quick and inexpensive, allowing you to book a number of clients every day.
Along with feng shui services, adding color consulting to your interior decorating repertoire is very fluid and easily accomplished. You’ll see a boost in your clientele and salary almost immediately, as so many color-related projects can be completed in a matter of hours.