Home Designer Overview
Working as a Home Designer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a home designer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $29.3 an hour? That's $60,944 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 3,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Home Designer Do
There are certain skills that many home designers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed problem-solving skills, visualization and artistic ability.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a home designer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 31.3% of home designers included in-home, while 26.1% of resumes included customer service, and 13.5% of resumes included design solutions. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the home designer job title. But what industry to start with? Most home designers actually find jobs in the retail and manufacturing industries.
How To Become a Home Designer
If you're interested in becoming a home designer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 54.0% of home designers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.1% of home designers have master's degrees. Even though most home designers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a home designer. When we researched the most common majors for a home designer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on home designer resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a home designer. In fact, many home designer jobs require experience in a role such as designer. Meanwhile, many home designers also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or interior designer.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Home Designer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a home designer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as owner, progress to a title such as facilities manager and then eventually end up with the title director of construction.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Home Designer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Smith & Noble Home Inc. In-Home Designer In-Home Designer | Smith & Noble Home Inc. Smith & Noble Home Inc. | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $100,00001/30/2021 $100,000 |
Smith & Noble Home Inc. In-Home Designer In-Home Designer | Smith & Noble Home Inc. Smith & Noble Home Inc. | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $100,00001/30/2021 $100,000 |
Smith & Noble Home Inc. In-Home Designer-Long In-Home Designer-Long | Smith & Noble Home Inc. Smith & Noble Home Inc. | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $100,00001/30/2021 $100,000 |
Smith + Noble In-Home Designer In-Home Designer | Smith + Noble Smith + Noble | 01/06/2021 01/06/2021 | $100,00001/06/2021 $100,000 |
Smith & Noble Home Inc. In-Home Designer In-Home Designer | Smith & Noble Home Inc. Smith & Noble Home Inc. | 12/30/2020 12/30/2020 | $100,00012/30/2020 $100,000 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Top Colleges for Home Designers
1. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
2. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Public
3. University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD • Public
4. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
5. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
6. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
7. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
8. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
9. Yale University
New Haven, CT • Private
10. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Public
Top Skills For a Home Designer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 31.3% of home designers listed in-home on their resume, but soft skills such as problem-solving skills and visualization are important as well.
- In-Home, 31.3%
- Customer Service, 26.1%
- Design Solutions, 13.5%
- Sales Goals, 10.0%
- Long-Term Relationships, 2.9%
- Other Skills, 16.2% See All Home Designer Skills
Best States For a Home Designer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a home designer. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Rhode Island, Wyoming, and North Dakota. Home designers make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $72,442. Whereas in Rhode Island and Wyoming, they would average $70,357 and $70,042, respectively. While home designers would only make an average of $68,487 in North Dakota, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Wyoming
$70,043
Avg. Salary
2. Alaska
$72,442
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$67,010
Avg. Salary