Home Study Interior Design - Learning At Your Own Pace

Due to the availability of resources on the Internet and the proliferation of lifestyle-themed shows on TV, more and more people find that studying interior design can be both practical and rewarding. Many people have innate talents in interior design, and all they need to do is engage in a course to hone these talents.

In the past, one had to move to a large city just to be able to enroll in a prestigious interior design school. This made it impractical for people who, even if they had the talent, did not have the means to move to the school's area.

However, the Internet age has undoubtedly opened many doors not just for colleges and trade schools that offered on-line courses and extended their reach to the masses, but also for individuals interested in home study interior design courses.

With a home study interior design course, even people who could not afford to leave their jobs may study. In addition, those who need to stay home or are unable to commute now have the opportunity to finish an easy home study interior design course.

Which Home Study Interior Design Course Should You Choose?

You will be surprised at the wide variety of offerings a home study interior design course can have. Although it can be a bit overwhelming at first, a simple evaluation of the topics you are really interested in and of important factors involved in the home study interior design concept will help you arrive at the right decision.

The first thing you have to do is to make a simple list of home study interior design criteria. Examples of these are: How long will it take me to finish the course? What is the price of the course? What kind of degree or certificate will I be able to get when I finish it? How will I be able to use it?

Apart from these important considerations, you should also look into the school's reputation, the faculty's credentials, and the quality of education that it offers. Keep in mind that while there are high-quality schools offering home study interior design courses, there are also a few run-of-the-mill schools whose only interest is taking advantage of unsuspecting individuals.

If a school has a poor reputation or does not offer the particular course you are looking for, it's not worth spending time and money on it. You also need to check whether the school has an efficient and reliable support system which you can depend on just in case you run into some problems while you are pursuing your home study interior design course.

A number of schools offer job placement after graduation, and this is something you may want to take into account as well. Studying is one thing, but engaging in something lucrative after taking the course is another. Hundreds of new graduates undoubtedly have a difficult time entering the workforce because of lack of experience.

Look into the specialties offered under the school's home study interior design curriculum. There are quite a few differences between office, corporate, and home interior design, and it would be wise for you to decide on a particular area before you start on a program.

Being able to develop your skills in the comforts of your own home and at your own pace is just one of the many benefits we can derive from the Internet. A home study interior design course allows you that freedom and flexibility, and deciding to pursue such a course may be your ticket to an exciting and fulfilling career in interior design.

You can also find more info on Interior Design and Home Interior Design is a comprehensive resource to know about Interior Design.

Interior Design For The Home

Any home can be pleasing with the proper application of basic interior design methods. Some people study interior design to be very good at it but there are people who are gifted with an eye for beauty and for interior designing.

A person who is creative can do some interior designing on his own even without formal training. Those who have an eye for what is aesthetic can just as easily decorate and design his own house depending on his tastes. Of course, it helps to read books and articles about designing to be updated on the basic and latest design methods.

Any interior designer can create a specific atmosphere just by putting together several pieces and unifying them in a single theme. There are interior designers who have a bias for certain motifs like eclectic, modern or even country style. Some go for simple designs without the clutter.

Interior design is not only aesthetic but also functional depending on the requirements of the client. An interior designer can make a small room spacious and an otherwise cluttered room into an orderly one. Interior design is used just about anywhere from homes, offices to commercial buildings.

The interiors of a room should always match the personality of the person who will occupy that room. This is the reason why designers always work closely with their clients so they can make sure that they get a feel of what their clients want in terms of design style.

People have this notion that interior design is expensive. However, designers are not only creative people but they are also very good in budgeting. Most designers will work on a design that will match or fit the budget of their clients. A person can allot a minimal amount for the interior design of his home or office and still come up with an aesthetic and functional room.

Professional interior designers who are formally trained usually have basic knowledge on architecture, engineering and even accounting. They need these courses to make their design aesthetic, structurally correct and cost effective.

The terms Interior design and interior decorating have often been used interchangeably. However, the two terms actually deal with different phases of making a room or a space aesthetic. Interior design is basically the process of studying the personality of the occupant of the room being designed in order to maximize and tailor-made the room's design for that person's behavior and personality.

Interior decorating on the other hand is the process of actually mixing and matching the different design techniques like window treatments, the right wallpaper, wall finish and even the furnishing of a room.

There are a lot of opportunities for those in the interior design and decorating industry. An interior designer can go into designing household, corporate or commercial establishments. Others specialize in the design of health facilities or even tourism establishments.

The latest trend now for those in the interior design industry is to be able to incorporate the right engineering and aesthetic design with sustainable development. Even designers are now more conscious about the state of the environment so they tend to use environmentally friendly materials for their designs.

There are designers who specialize and use Feng Shui in their designs. This requires further study because Feng Shui deals with the Chinese's ancient methods of designing a space to make the design work for the owner's health, business and other life factors.

The Chinese believes that a structure should be properly designed so as to allow positive energy to enter the structure. When the structure has already been built without the aid of a Feng Shui expert, the mistakes can be corrected through proper interior design using the Feng Shui methods.

By incorporating Feng Shui in interior design, it is believed that a person can bring out all the positive energies in a room to make him rich, happy and healthy. An interior design using Feng Shui can also get rid of bad spirits that bring in negative atmosphere in an abode.

Getting the services of an interior designer can make a room both aesthetic and functional. Any person who wants to make his home livable and functional should try getting the services of an interior designer to maximize his space.

Lee Dobbins writes for  where you can read more articles and get tips on decorating and interior design.

Why You Should Be An Interior Designer

The world has been through 50-years of DIY culture, with the majority of people re-modelling, upgrading, and decorating their own homes in their spare time. However, that cycle is ending for a number of key reasons and this demise has given birth to some amazing and exciting opportunities for those people interested in Interior Design.

In the DIY period, people were happy to spend their spare time on home-improvements and they enjoyed showing off their efforts to all their visitors. Today, there are too many distractions and alternatives that have much more appeal to the modern generation of homeowners--who are happier spending their time in more entertaining activities with their friends.

Furthermore, in most families, adults are bringing home larger disposable incomes than ever before and today they prefer to employ an Interior Designer, rather than spend hours in trying to do it alone. The plethora of glossy magazines that are now available each month have thousands of pages with colourful photographs of beautiful homes, all with rooms designed by an expert in Interior Design. These magazines create the desire in people to have such a room in their own home.

That burgeoning desire for a beautiful home can only be fulfilled by an Interior Designer.

For years, tradesmen like painters, decorators, and carpenters would have nothing to do with people who worked in the Interior Design industry, and with a sneer, they would tell their customers not to waste their money on them. Today, it is a completely different story, because the tradesman now accepts that a home designed by an Interior Designer is far superior to anything they can provide. Furthermore, the tradesman often earns a far bigger profit when completing work for an Interior Designer compared to when they work directly for the customer.

This is because the Interior Designer will quote for the complete job: from basic design to provision of all the materials and completing the actual conversion. It can even include the supply of carpets, curtains, rugs, furniture, pictures, and ornaments. The fee for the decorator who does the painting and papering is perhaps only a small part of the overall price, and will often include a 15% to 20% profit margin to the Interior Designer.

Tradesmen in the home-improvement industry now spend considerable time and effort in developing a good relationship with Interior Designers, because today they can provide an increasing part of their annual income. This is a two-way connection, because the Interior Designer often receives valuable enquiries for design work from their pool of tradesmen. In addition, when the tradesman completes their work to a high standard, the Interior Designer is likely to benefit in the future from referrals and additional work from their clients.

However, working on designs for homes is only touching the surface of the income stream of a good Interior Designer. There is a vast and highly profitable design market in the retail, commercial, and industrial sectors where directors and managers are not slow in spending huge amounts of money in improving their environment. It is always easier to spend 'other people's money' and the wise Interior Designer will make sure they enjoy a large slice of this business income stream. It is far larger and much more lucrative than the domestic sector where people are spending their own money.

The retail industry is always looking for ways to attract customers, and the Interior Design of their store is becoming a vital factor in establishing their brand. Commercial offices need to have ambient Interior Design if they are to attract and keep the best people as employees, and they are willing to spend vast amounts of money to achieve that objective.

There is also a certain amount of fame and publicity awarded the successful Interior Designer.

The avaricious glossy magazine market is continually on the lookout for interesting stories to photograph and publish. The clever Interior Designer will nurture relationships with editors and journalists and feed them stories of work they have done that may be of interest to magazine readers. This not only includes the obvious VIP sector where most important people in business, politics, religion, sport, and entertainment are only too pleased to have their home featured in a magazine, but there are other sectors that must not be ignored.

You may be designing a new home for a lottery winner, an invalid or an accident victim, or a person with an unusual hobby or occupation that requires a specific feature of interest. The building may be a converted 15th Century barn, a spacious farmhouse, a prison, or even a railway station. A large number of your contracts will have the potential for becoming a glossy magazine feature article, and this can provide you with the PR, publicity, and promotion that can boost your income tenfold!

There are opportunities for Interior Design everywhere you look.

People worldwide spend more than 90% of their life indoors and they need the right high quality environment, which is created by an Interior Design professional. As an Interior Designer, you can contribute to the health, safety, and welfare of people living in homes as well as those working in offices, hotels, restaurants, schools, stores, and other business places. You can be self-employed, you can work for an Interior Design company, or architectural offices, retail groups, or other commercial establishments can employ you.

Some newspapers and magazines are willing to pay an Interior Designer a handsome fee for a complete redesign of a home, which they then offer as a prize in a competition that will increase their readership. You can contact the promotions & marketing section of the media and suggest this idea to them, arrange a meeting to discuss the project, and negotiate a suitable fee. This will be much easier if some of your work has been photographed and published previously, and your name is becoming known.

The show-homes on display at new housing developments require excellent Interior Design in order to encourage visitors to become purchasers. Shopping malls and department stores can provide space for you to display photographs of your work, distribute colour brochures and flyers, and collect names of prospective clients for your Interior Design services.

You can learn all the secrets of Interior Design by taking a Course.

This is a profession that is open to almost everybody with a keen interest in design, and there are no restrictions on age, sex, race, or creed--if you really want to be an Interior Designer, a Course will show you exactly how!

You can complete a course from the comfort of your own home by distance learning, which means you can live in anywhere with Internet access and download the modules onto your computer.

Finally, as an Interior Designer in the 21st Century, you are not limited to simply advising and selecting furniture and accessories. You will create attractive and functional surroundings with the right ambience for either productive work or relaxation. You interact with many different people, enjoy a profitable and creative career, and best of all you can set your own schedule.

Brian Hunt

The author of this article is Brian Hunt, who has been writing, publishing, and marketing books and articles on business and leisure related subjects for the past seven years. He is a highly successful person with a broad depth of sales and marketing experience in various fields gained over many years in business. In addition to his publishing business, Brian works as a consultant for selected clients wishing to expand their marketing presence online.

Interior Designs - Home Design Trends

Home design trends keep changing from time to time. New ones quickly replace trends that were in vogue yesterday. Here are some of the home design trends.

Personal Space

Everyone needs personal breathing space. Another trend that has progressed is the conception of private space in homes. The amenity of a private and dedicated space for each one in the home is becoming popular these days with even couples wanting space to spend some time alone seldom.

Fashionable Garages

Today's garages have gone under an entire reform as homeowners prefer contemporary garages equipped with various luxuries such as cabinet and storage systems, mini refrigerators, air conditioning and residential-looking flooring. Decked out, upscale garages have removed the image of gloomy and grease that is normally associated with them.

Rooms added for Serenity

A separate one-stop zone for relaxation is another very popular new design trend in homes. These serenity rooms are meant for a variety of relaxation and fitness activities such as yoga, meditation, exercising, steam baths, etc.

Renovate Your Outdoor Area

Convert your outdoor space into "warm zones" and spend more time outdoors, people living in colder climates can are now converting their outdoor spaces. A few great examples of such convertibles are patios, driveways and walk ways. This makes winter maintenance easy and spring and fall more enjoyable.

Add-on Extra room with the Master bedroom

People are attaching master bedrooms today with an additional room that serve up as a 'snoring room' for partners who snore. Instead of heading for an uncomfortable couch, now snoring sleepers can find their way toward a much more comfortable sleeping quarter. A typical bedroom for snorers is equipped with a double bed and chair, with easy access to the amenities of the master suite.

Internet Courses For Interior Design Home Study

All that has changed with the onset of the computer age. Most people now have access to a personal computer and many colleges and trade schools have developed online courses. This is true even in the field of interior design. A number of interior design home study courses have become available via the internet. This offers a wide open opportunity to many more individuals who wish to pursue home study interior design. With so many options, a person will have no problems finding an interior design course which will meet their needs and desires.

How to Choose a Home Study Interior Design Course

It only takes a quick search on the internet to become aware of just how many courses are out there. The problem is that the actual choosing a home study interior design course quickly becomes an overwhelming challenge. But with careful thought and insight and a little research this decision can become quite simple.

The first thing is for the prospective student to create a list of important criteria for their choice of home study interior design course. Such considerations might be the length of the course, cost of the course, and certificate or degree that is offered. Another consideration will be the actual quality of the education. It will be important to identify the accreditation and reputation of the school you are looking at. Holding a degree from a school with a poor reputation in the industry is not worth the time and money spent to acquire it.

Look for additional criteria such as the offer of job placement. Some home study interior design schools offer, and even guarantee, job placement after graduation. This an attractive benefit since new graduates often have a difficult time breaking into the industry. Ask about whether the school offers different specialties in their training. For instance, there is a vast difference between home, office and corporate interior design. If you are looking to specialize in a certain area, seek out that home study interior design course which emphasizes your desired area.

Home study Interior Design courses offer a wide-open door to those who are interested in the industry. With careful consideration and a time spent in careful research, the best course available will be easily identified. This can then lead to a rewarding career in interior design.

You can also find more info on Interior Designing Techniques. Interiordesignbliss.com is a comprehensive resource which provide information about interior designs.

Interior Design Home Decorating - Trendy Living Room Coloring Ideas

Synchronizing Colors and Themes

The first thing to do after you have decided which decorating style theme you will use for your living room in your new home or while renovating your existing home, you have to decide which color scheme you will use. You have to keep in mind to color coordinate with the color theme of your furniture, upholstery, furnishing accessories, floor covering, carpets, etc.

Another option is to begin with the furniture and coordinating paint colors with it. You may try to start with the major piece of furniture in the room or the room's central point. Either use balancing colors or make the focal point stand out with something light around it.

Choosing Classic Colors That Still Works

The most fashionable color today is still the various tone of white or off-white because it makes the room look very large and also makes small pieces, like lamps and tables, look larger. White also adds light to your living room while helping to keep it cooler in the summer months. However, too many rooms with white walls tend to make your home look sterile or generic, not to mention the time you'll have keeping your walls clean.

Great Colors Options

A great idea would be to add hints of colors to complement your white walls. You can use a little tan for your trim some tones in light green or blue, or a tan or taupe accent wall.

Brown: There is nothing like the shades of brown to bring out warmth and blend in nicely with just about everything. But be cautious to use brown colors in a small living room as it may dominate the room, oppressing the colors of your furniture and accents. Shades of Tan or taupe will work, although.

Reds: The color Red is a classic shade because they are so bold, vivacious and daring. Reds work especially well with light colored furniture, making it stand out even more. Still, people like to use red as an accent color with just a hint of that shade, more than a main wall color. But nowadays, a few people dare t o paint their walls red too.

Blues: Blues are cool and most often related with French country, Victorian or marine designs. In the more traditional uses, blue is great for expressing formality due to its consoling nature. Nonetheless, blue suggests countless different hues that can change outlook as well as atmosphere.

Learn from what you have read and got the basic ideas from different places and start experimenting. There are several excellent professionals who also provide color consultations to their customers. Hopefully, these few tips will help you find your own living room paint colors and get you on your way to creating the living room of your dreams.

New Home Interior Design - Plan Ahead

By failing to plan properly well ahead of time for your new home interior design, you could end up feeling too overwhelmed with other work to actually plan out how you want your new home to look. In addition, by the time all your belongings are moved into the new home, planning for the new home interior design will be close to impossible with all the clutter lying about.

Getting Started

When planning for your new home interior design, begin first by spending time in your new home and taking a good look around. Keep in mind that it is much easier to plan for a new home interior design when the house is still empty and bare. Visit your new house at least twice before you begin to lay out plans for your interior design.

Make sure that you visit at least once in the morning to see how the light plays around the rooms during the early morning. Then visit again in the afternoon to see how the rooms look and feel in the afternoon light. Remember that your new home interior design will work better if it is designed to harmonize with the light to achieve that warm, sunny and homey feeling.

When visiting your new home, take along a sketch pad and pencil with you. Never mind if you cannot paint or draw. What is really important here is that you note down all of the important parts of the house and then take the time to plan out what you will do with it. For instance, you will want to get the dimension and shape of the living room.

You will be taking measurements for drapes and window coverings. And if you intend to buy new furniture, you need to select pieces that will not look overly large for the space nor make the area look crowded. By jotting down the exact size and shape of the room and home interior design, you will be able to determine the types of furniture and fixtures needed in order to make that room look like your own, containing your own special touch.

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Learn Interior Design With Internet Courses

Have you always wanted to learn interior design but didn't have the time or money to go back to school? Maybe you are working a full time job, raising kids or have other daily responsibilities that make it difficult to go back to school for design. Now with advancements in technology and the Internet, you can take interior design with Internet courses.

There are now many credible interior design home study courses that you can choose from. This now gives many more opportunities to people who have always wanted to pursue a degree in this field but was unable to for multiple reasons.

So how can you choose the right home study interior design course? It will require a little bit of research to find the one that is best for your needs. There are many on the Internet - as a quick search will show you- but not all are created equal. With so many to choose from, it may seem overwhelming but when you take time to weigh your options, you can make the right choice.

Some things to look for are:

- Certifications and qualifications

- Te length of the course

- Who wrote/teaches the course

- Costs of the course

- Type of degree or certificate issued on completion

- Offer of job placement

Make a list of the things that you want to get from a course and then compare this to the list of what each Internet school has to offer. Interior design with Internet courses can help you get as rewarding career in design.

Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of ebooks and thousands of website pages and related content. She has also authored her own books and works as a consultant to other writers, Internet marketers and Internet businesses.