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Home designer vs architect

The differences between home designers and architects can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a home designer and an architect. Additionally, an architect has an average salary of $86,635, which is higher than the $66,541 average annual salary of a home designer.

The top three skills for a home designer include in-home, customer service and design solutions. The most important skills for an architect are cloud, java, and infrastructure.

Home designer vs architect overview

Home DesignerArchitect
Yearly salary$66,541$86,635
Hourly rate$31.99$41.65
Growth rate1%3%
Number of jobs86,22394,621
Job satisfaction-3
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 61%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age4245
Years of experience44

What does a home designer do?

A home designer is responsible for executing creative designs for house furnishing according to clients' requirements and specifications. Home designers assess the clients' best interests to make decisions about layouts and structure. They also select the best materials and equipment that go along with the house's designs, customizing decors, and emphasize the elements of the residential space. A home designer must have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially in creating cost and expenses reports for the client's preference.

What does an architect do?

Architects are licensed professionals who specialize in art and science of design, building constructions, and structures. They play a vital role in the construction and not only responsible for the appearance but also the safety of users. They ensure that every structure is functional, safe, cost-effective, and suit the needs of the future occupants. They closely monitor the working progress to make sure that the project is built according to plan. Some architects are focused mainly on creating designs while some are exclusive in the production of building plans or "blueprints".

Home designer vs architect salary

Home designers and architects have different pay scales, as shown below.

Home DesignerArchitect
Average salary$66,541$86,635
Salary rangeBetween $38,000 And $114,000Between $54,000 And $137,000
Highest paying CityAlameda, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateOregonAlaska
Best paying companyBest BuyMeta
Best paying industryRetailTechnology

Differences between home designer and architect education

There are a few differences between a home designer and an architect in terms of educational background:

Home DesignerArchitect
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 61%Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common majorInterior DesignArchitecture
Most common collegeCornell UniversityCornell University

Home designer vs architect demographics

Here are the differences between home designers' and architects' demographics:

Home DesignerArchitect
Average age4245
Gender ratioMale, 53.6% Female, 46.4%Male, 76.7% Female, 23.3%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 1.5% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 7.6% Asian, 4.6% White, 82.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%Black or African American, 2.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 11.8% Asian, 16.0% White, 65.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage23%15%

Differences between home designer and architect duties and responsibilities

Home designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage multiple residential kitchen and bath projects simultaneously from design inception to delivery in a fast pace energetic environment.
  • Prepare hand sketch elevations in perspective views.
  • Design kitchen and bath building and renovation projects for consumer and commercial customers, coordinating credit applications and processing payments.
  • Monitor orders utilizing POS system.
  • Manage multiple residential kitchen and bath projects simultaneously from design inception to delivery in a fast pace energetic environment.

Architect example responsibilities.

  • Manage Daimler resources for development of RFC programs
  • Manage overall testing activities withing the group including functinal, system and regression testing.
  • Manage the company website using HTML and CSS to produce an easily read website that customers can access more intuitively.
  • Manage GitLab and Jenkins deployment environment to support automate AWS- development software builds.
  • Lead re-architecture and implementation of cloud solution for enterprise auto-backup of individual computing devices.
  • Provide insight and manage all technology relate aspects with presentations and communications at Sr. management and CxO level.
  • Show more

Home designer vs architect skills

Common home designer skills
  • In-Home, 35%
  • Customer Service, 31%
  • Design Solutions, 16%
  • Space Planning, 3%
  • Sales Associates, 3%
  • Retail Sales, 3%
Common architect skills
  • Cloud, 10%
  • Java, 8%
  • Infrastructure, 7%
  • Azure, 5%
  • AWS, 5%
  • Digital Transformation, 5%

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