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Public Safety or Squashing the Competition? The Movement to Require Interior Design Licensing

By Pangaea Interior Design Kitchen & Bath Design, Remodeling

Home Stager with Portland Oregon

March 12, 2009 07:08 AM

This morning I read a post in Home and Garden Interior Design about the bill in Maryland to require Interior Designers to be licensed. Currently in Oregon, where I have my business, we are not required to be licensed, but similar plans are afoot here.

This is one subject that really gets me upset. I, too, value education. But I also highly value practical experience. Although the requirements for the couple dozen states which require licenses to call yourself an Interior Designer, or practice interior design, vary from state to state ... essentially they all require a certain amount of school and the NCIDQ exam. You cannot sit for the exam unless you have enough school credits. Practical experience counts for nothing.

I am very offended by people who assume that because I don't have a degree in interior design, that all I have going for me is a "good eye for color" and that somehow I will be oblivious to safety issues or human interaction with the interiors I design. While others have been taking classes in academia, I have been busy learning my trade through self-education and practical work experience. The classroom is not the only place where a person with initiative can learn what they need to know. I have experience and knowledge that a person fresh out of school would love to have. I know my own areas of knowledge and also any areas where I lack experience. I am perfectly capable of hiring a licensed contractor to do work that requires expertise that I don't have. I also believe that consumers are perfectly capable of looking carefully at the skill and expertise of the designer they are about to hire.

Especially in this economy, I see no advantage to consumers to put interior designers with years of experience out of work, or to force them to shut down their businesses to go back to school, nor to force them to work under a less experienced designer who happens to have a degree.

When you look for an interior designer you are fully capable of looking at their experience and education and making up your own mind what is most important to you. The licensing requirements would add costs to doing business and that cost will be passed on to consumers. I do hope that this will be voted down in Maryland. I know similar bills have been voted down twice in Oregon and hope they will continue to be voted down. It is unnecessary regulation designed to remove the competition.

Okay, I feel better having gotten that off my chest. What do YOU think?

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Kathy Passarette

Creative Home Expressions - Mount Sinai, NY

L.I. Staging/Decorating

Pangaea ~ Thankfully, last year this bill was not signed here in New York, but it will come up again at some point. What's sad is that ASID (who is apparently behind this legislation) has members that don't meet the requirements for the certification and it is those member's membership fees that are going toward pushing the legislation. Everything I've read on the subject leads me to believe that it is ridiculous reasoning in pushing for this legislation. If enough interior decorators, designers and others who would be affected by this would write to their governor it would certainly help.

Mar 12, 2009 08:01 AM

Pangaea Interior Design Kitchen & Bath Design, Remodeling

Portland Oregon - Portland, OR

Kathy - Thank you for your input. I agree about writing to our elected officials. We do need to make ourselves heard.

Mar 12, 2009 08:19 AM

Sheila Kennedy

J29 Project - Rochester, NY

Pangaea - Wow! Being relatively new to this topic, I agree with you about not needing formal education to qualify for licensing. I do think education helps in many ways, but you can't discount all of the valuable experience people get on the job. I have a friend that has a degree in interior design and she cannot get hired anywhere because she has no experience. How's that for a kicker?

I will say that I think that there needs to be some industry standards that one must adhere to. I don't know how that should be done and maybe it is more of a better business bureau type of issue. The Staging Accreditation Course I attended a couple of years ago was so valuable to me because I needed the support from a business perspective. For that I am grateful to have taken the course. The course did not teach me how to be creative- I have to come up with that all on my own. I don't know how one would qualify creativity in a design field for classroom credit.

I think it would be a travesty to lose talented people, such as yourself, who bring such beauty into our world. Experience and knowledge should work hand in hand and maybe there can be a compromise on this. Maybe licensing should be based on a portfolio or a test of some sort that could equate to classroom hours. That way those who do have great experience can be recognized and maintain the same level of quality for their clients without having to suspend business to attend school or raise prices to pay for it.

Kathy is right - getting your elected officials on board is a great way to combat this!

Thanks for the post!

Mar 12, 2009 08:58 AM

Pangaea Interior Design Kitchen & Bath Design, Remodeling

Portland Oregon - Portland, OR

It is a shame that you cannot sit for the NCIDQ exam unless you have a certain number of years of school. There are contractors who can do remodels or room additions and they do not have to have a degree. They just have to pass a test for their contractors license. If they are doing work as technical as that without a degree ... wonder what is so astonishingly difficult in our world of design that they think we need to have a degree to do it?

Mar 12, 2009 06:37 PM

Anonymous

Canvas Prints

Education is indeed an important aspect. But first-hand experience is how you really learn.

Mar 13, 2009 11:51 AM

Terri Lucas

Exclusive Home Staging - Redondo Beach, CA

Exclusive Home Staging Los Angeles

Pangaea, Amen. Education is priceless but hand on experience is invaluable. The RESA organization is fighting this legislation on behalf of the home staging industry. I would encourage everyone to write to their elected officials.

Mar 14, 2009 06:34 AM

Melissa Marro

Keller Williams First Coast Realty - The Marro Team - Orange Park, FL

Jacksonville Real Estate and Home Staging

I actually have a little bit of a different take on it. I am not for the current concept of needing an interior design degree, but would be 100% for a concept similar to the way a real estate agent becomes licensed and is required to maintain a license with continuing education and mandatory ethics classes. From my experiences in this industry, that would actually be a blessing to most of the professional stagers. It would get rid of many of the unethical and hobbiest stagers (and I don't mean part time stagers, I mean hobbiest... to me there is a significant difference).

Mar 14, 2009 02:03 PM

SHARON CHARBONEAU

UPSTAGING YOUR HOMES - Sechelt, BC

standing by iron railing Hmmmm - is there no provision for "grandfathering" or accepting equivalent experience?

If there isn't, they may be cutting their nose off to spite their face, as they saying goes.

Education is of value, however practical, hands-on experience is, more often than not, worth more when it comes to getting the job done.

It reminds me of my days being a recruiter at a university. I would get postings for clerks and secretaries requiring a bachelor's degree. Come on!! I would have to talk to them and reason with them to accept that there really was no valid reason for this level of education for these positions.

Mar 18, 2009 05:43 PM

SHARON CHARBONEAU

UPSTAGING YOUR HOMES - Sechelt, BC

Panagea,

Are you a member of the Real Estate Staging Association? If not, check out their site. It appears they are backing your position on this legislation.

Mar 21, 2009 08:25 AM

Pangaea Interior Design Kitchen & Bath Design, Remodeling

Portland Oregon - Portland, OR

Sharon - I am a member of ASHSR, but here in Portland RESA and our group meet together. I did know that they support this position. Thanks for pointing it out though for anyone else who reads this post. There appears to be no provision for grandfathering anyone in.

Mar 21, 2009 08:35 AM

Anonymous

Suzanne Lyons

I appreciate your sentiment on the NCIDQ, but in fact you are mistaken on what is necessary to even be able to sit for it. More information is given at http://www.ncidq.org/exam/examreq.htm, but it is roughly a combination of 6 years of education & qualified experience. I think the common misconception is that Interior Designers are decorators. We are not. I, in fact, don't really like to decorate. Interior Design is increasingly more technology and engineering based, and the depth and width of the field is very large. In my home state, we are currently trying to pass similar legistlation. Yes, there are often grandfather clauses. One main reason that I am a proponent of such legislation (in a certain form) is due to my main area, commercial design. If an Interior Designer doesn't have a very firm knowledge of building construction, ADA and building codes, and building material characteristics, they endanger the life of every person walking into the building, and they cost their firm money in the form of change orders, oversight, and possible lawsuits.

I am a very large supporter of Home Staging (I helped a friend set up such a business), but it is not the same as Interior Design. I know you say "consumers are perfectly capable of looking carefully at the skill and expertise of the designer they are about to hire", but I have many examples to say the opposite. Most of the time, it comes down to the almighty dollar, and too often, you get what ou pay for.

Jul 03, 2009 06:01 AM

#11

Pangaea Interior Design Kitchen & Bath Design, Remodeling

Portland Oregon - Portland, OR

Suzanne- sounds like you are doing architectural design. Again, anyone who would hire you for such work would check your background, resume and education. We don't need legislation to help people do that. It is also not necessary for a designer who likes to do work that does not involve the structural soundness of a building to have the education to do things they don't involve themselves in. The legislation proposed would put people out of business for not having education to do things they don't do.

You are also being a little patronizing here. I don't just do staging. I also do interior design work and have always done it safely and hired competent licensed contractors to advise on and perform any work that involves building codes.

Jul 03, 2009 06:33 AM

Anonymous

Suzanne

I in no way meant to be patronizing. I apologize for that. The majority of what I saw on your website was staging/model homes, so that is what I spoke to. All I was trying to explain is that staging is quite a small focus, while Interior Design is more broad and far-reaching, thus needing some kind of oversight (even if it is only for a segment of the industry, like commercial). Interior Design is about sculpting interiors, and, yes, sometimes that is dealing with yet-to-be-built interiors, and sometimes that is altering pre-existing structures. I am not in support of laws that would allow Interior Designers to have authority to change structures in that way without the oversight of an architect or structural engineer (although some ID's do support this), but in regards to interior applications, I know instances of people falling into a designer's role (without the proper education) and making enormous mistakes that truly jeopardize the health and well-being of the public. I do see a difference between the needs of the residential and the commercial fields. I guess what I really wanted to stress is that often this kind of legislation is to the benefit of the commercial, rather than the private, client. Please accept my apology for the tone. I do not mean to offend.

Jul 03, 2009 07:06 AM

#13

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