Shhh... Don't Tell Anyone I'm an Interior Designer

Katherine Mangu-Ward | September 26, 2008

There's lots of reasons why you'd want to keep your status as an interior designer hush hush:

A) The folks back home just wouldn't understand why a former football star wants to hang drapes for a living.

B) You don't want your friends coming to you for free advice about their paint color choices.

C) Jail.

In Connecticut, Nevada, Oklahoma, and several other states,  calling yourself an "interior designer" means the answer could be (C) if you lack the years of post-secondary education the state requires. I blogged about the Institute for Justice's anti-interior design cartel jihad earlier this month. For more info, check out the study they just released on the "dangers" of unlicensed interior designers.

Comments

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 1:58PM|#

I disagree with your curtains sir! But I'll defend to the death your right to air them!

|9.26.08 @ 2:04PM|#

Oh, come on now! Interior designers are very easy to spot in nature. The males generally have quite colorful plumage. Whereas the females never stop talking about options and textures.

|9.26.08 @ 2:09PM|#

Nga, I thought your curtains were bedsheets hung over the windows to keep the horrible light out.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:12PM|#

Epi,

I used to have black sheets over the windows at my old apartment pre-Katrina. I'm to old for that shit now. Sunlight no longer wakes me up.

|9.26.08 @ 2:15PM|#

I've been a self described Samurai Technician for decades. I sure would like to see requirements for that enacted into law. I'll get back to you on the qualification, but they surely include experience in operating, maintaining and repairing synchro/servo closed loop control systems.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:18PM|#

Just as long as you're not a ninja. Ninjas scare the shit outta me.

|9.26.08 @ 2:21PM|#

Naga, I am a cybernetic samurai ninja. Scared yet?

|9.26.08 @ 2:21PM|#

Not to rain on your parade, but interior design and interior decorating are not the same things

http://www.schools-of-interior-design.com/Interior-Design-vs.-Interior-Decorating.htm

Liberals still suck though

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:23PM|#

Not really Epi. Being cybernetic will leave you open to my five point palm-exploding heart technique?

ed|9.26.08 @ 2:24PM|#

A) The folks back home just wouldn't understand why a former football star wants to hang drapes for a living.

B) You don't want your friends coming to you for free advice about their paint color choices.

C) Jail.

D) Really gay.

E) Not that there's, you know...

|9.26.08 @ 2:28PM|#

Being cybernetic will leave you open to my five point palm-exploding heart technique?

I'm not actually cybernetic, but it still wouldn't work as I do not have a heart.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:33PM|#

There's a land. A land where you can find a heart. A land over the rainbow.
Don't make me pluck out your eyes and leave you to be finished by a black mamba!!!

Hogan|9.26.08 @ 2:39PM|#

That's an awesome picture to go with this post.

|9.26.08 @ 2:40PM|#

Just as long as you're not a ninja. Ninjas scare the shit outta me.

Was your mother frightened by sword wielding sewer dwelling testudines' while carrying you?

I mean, c'mon. Ninjas are wussies.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:40PM|#

It's a picture of Episiarch.

|9.26.08 @ 2:40PM|#

"Looky here, bitch, this is a can of Mace. Now, you're going underground tonight, and that's all there is to it. But, when I bury you, I was gonna bury you with this."

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:42PM|#

J sub D,

They are masters of their surroundings! That couch? Could be a ninja. That box on the floor? Ninja! What's that in a tree in the dead of night? What else but a ninja!!! How does that not freak you out?

|9.26.08 @ 2:44PM|#

It's a picture of Episiarch.

I can't be an interior designer, Naga. I'm color blind.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:45PM|#

Epi,

If you flash me, even for an instant, a defiant eye, i'll pluck it out. And if you throw any American sass my way, I will snap your back and your neck like they were twigs, and that will be the story of you.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:46PM|#

Ahhhh . . .

Kolohe|9.26.08 @ 2:48PM|#

Naga-

Hey there pal, doing unlicenced mashups of wizard of oz is dangerous.

Synching it up with dark side of the moon spawned a new generation of hippie losers in the 90's, with dire consquences.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:53PM|#

Just tryin' to help Epi out. The guy has no heart ya know. I remember seeing that whole Pink Floyd thing on MTV news(it wasn't quite an oxymoron at the time) and thinking "who cares about hippies and their love of Pink Floyd".

|9.26.08 @ 2:54PM|#

with dire consquences

Woodstock '99. "It's forever in there!"

|9.26.08 @ 2:57PM|#

Connecticut defines interior designing in a way that's different than other states. What they call interior design and require a licenses for might not be the same as in other states.

It shows that you're able to plan things like ergonomics, room safety, usability by workers, allergy properties of materials, durability, etc.

Anyone can be an interior decorator, it's the confusion between the two in common usage that's the trouble.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 2:58PM|#

Didn't that Elemenope say he went to Woodstock '99? He said it sucked.

|9.26.08 @ 3:04PM|#

My cousins went. I was smart enough to refuse to go with them. They hated it.

|9.26.08 @ 3:12PM|#

Naga Sadow,

You mean that may have been dog ninja I stepped in at the park this morning?

|9.26.08 @ 3:17PM|#

I can't be an interior designer, Naga. I'm color blind.

Geez, way to lob a softball, E.

|9.26.08 @ 3:18PM|#

It shows that you're able to plan things like ergonomics, room safety, usability by workers, allergy properties of materials, durability, etc.

If I want to hire someone to do that, why can't I just check their qualifications and references? Why do I also need the state to protect them from competition?

|9.26.08 @ 3:22PM|#

Geez, way to lob a softball, E.

Yeah, but no home run.

Naga Sadow|9.26.08 @ 3:26PM|#

J sub D,

ROFLMAO!!

thoreau|9.26.08 @ 3:51PM|#

I don't know what Connecticut's laws are on interior designer licensing, but in many states a person can lose a professional license for having a drug conviction. This is one reason why I'm skeptical of a lot of licensing: They make it far too easy to take away a person's livelihood.

|9.29.08 @ 4:53PM|#

Seriously everyone. You should look up what this debate is actually about before making fun of it.

Interior design is more than just paint and pillows. We design spaces, we ensure that the users of the space will be safe when using the interior. We change windows, we make things ADA compliant. This is far more risky than fabric choices.

Decor is indeed a part of what an interior designer does, but the difference is that these women who are claiming we are taking away her livelyhood is ridiculous.

I am a senior interior design student who has spent over $200,000 dollars to learn this field. These women are decorators, who have taken perhaps a few classes.

There is nothing wrong with being an Interior Decorator. But don't expect to call yourself an Interior Designer without the education, experience and credentials to back it.

I don't expect to be a lawyer or doctor without the education and credentials, why should interior design be any different?

|9.30.08 @ 9:00PM|#

Jen:

Everyone pays $200,000 to get a college degree these days. So what.

Your problem is you've been spoon fed ASID propaganda by your college "professors" that without government licensing you won't be able to get a job.

Get out there and compete in the real world and we'll see what your degree is worth.