It’s a very recent profession, considering how long we as humans have been decorating our homes. The earliest known use of the words ‘Interior Decorator’ was in America, during the early 1900’s. It wasn’t a prerequisite for those earning a living as designers to have academic qualifications but those at the top of the profession did have good taste, common sense and were able to see scale and proportion.
The first interior designer that received an official commission, was Elsie de Wolfe, who went onto publish the first known interior design book called ‘The House in good taste’.
It wasn’t until 1923 however that the first commercial design firm was set up by Dorothy Draper. She earned the distinction of being the first commercially successful interior designer.
However even with the accomplishments of these two women, they weren’t called ‘interior designers’ at the time. It wasn’t until the 1930’s and the creation of a magazine called, ‘Interior Design and Decoration’ that it came into common usage.
A competing magazine known as ‘Interiors’ insisted that people not call those decorating homes for a living, ‘decorator’ but ‘interior designer’.
AID, which was the biggest professional organisation in design was founded in 1931, after several people convened at a furniture show. They wanted to create something national, which all designers could belong to. AID added Interior to their name in 1936, after being the American Institute of Decorators for five years.
Another step in developing the role of interior designers was when design schools began to recognise the work of designers, architects and engineers.
‘Interiors’ published contract work more often than residential work, and soon after resuming publication the ‘Interior Design and Decoration’ magazine took the option of dropping ‘and decoration’ from it’s title.
It was in the 1970’s when two organisations were formed to maintain standards so that all interior designers were held to the same level of education and professionalism. They were the Foundation for Interior Design Educational Research (FIDER) and National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ).
Interior design is still evolving, as the world becomes more and more global. It’s become such an established profession that fictional characters such as ‘Grace’ from ‘Will and Grace’ are given the occupation, and there have been programmes such as ‘Changing Rooms’ in the UK which revolved around home renovation, and helping people decorate their homes in the most professional way possible.
Anyone in the Leicester area that has been inspired by this articlefeel free to get in touch with us at info@cravenandhargreaves.co.uk. We’re a Leicester based interior design firm with a well established reputation for passion and professionalism.