We use cookies to keep you signed in and to see what's working and what breaks. No advertising cookies, nothing sold. Details in our Cookie Policy.
Profession Playbook
Interior design fights a two-front war: the public confuses it with decorating, and the design world underpays its juniors. The real questions: designer vs decorator (legally different in Ontario), residential vs commercial/workplace (very different careers), whether the NCIDQ is worth it, and how the HGTV image collides with a job that's mostly drawings, specs, and code.
Where it starts
$45k–55k
Junior designer
Where it tops out
Variable
Principal / own studio
Ontario figures for interior designer, from the first role after school to the top of the practice. Approximate, and worth checking against current postings and association salary surveys.
| Stage | Pay | What is going on at this stage |
|---|---|---|
| Junior designer | $45k–55k | The underpaid-junior problem is real in design fields. |
| Intermediate designer | $55k–75k | |
| Registered Interior Designer (ARIDO/NCIDQ) | $70k–95k | |
| Senior / design lead | $90k–120k | Commercial/workplace studios pay above residential. |
| Principal / own studio | Variable | Residential studios scale on brand; commercial on firm equity. |
Same credential, different money, depending on where you take it.
Offices, retail, hospitality, healthcare — code-heavy, team-based, technical. Where the title protection, the NCIDQ, and the better salaries live.
Best for: People who want the professional, technical career.
Every figure above is what interior designers get paid. It is not what you charge once you run your own interior design practice. Your rate has to carry the hours you are not on the tools, the truck, the tools themselves, WSIB, insurance, the quote you wrote and lost, and the holdback sitting in someone else's account for 60 days. Contractors who set their rate off their old hourly wage are the ones who work every weekend and still cannot say whether the year was profitable.
The step from paid by the hour to paid by the jobSenior/lead, your own studio (the residential dream — achievable with a brand and referral engine), or laterally: design management at developers, furniture/product reps, workplace strategy, set design, or the design-build side of renovation firms. The space-planning and client-translation skills travel well; many designers eventually pair with contractors or become the design half of a design-build business.
AEC Stack handles incorporation, insurance, proposals, invoicing, and chasing the money, so a interior design practice runs with an office behind it from the first client.
Start your practice