Plan the inside of buildings so they work, pass code and look right. A 4-year degree, two years of practice and a national exam. Not decorating.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $60,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $38,000 at the lower end to about $101,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
6 to 8 years after high school, on the usual route.
$1,200 to $56,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$60,000
Lower end
$38,000
Upper end
$101,000
Job Bank's figures for interior designers and interior decorators across Canada (2023 to 2024) are $18.35 an hour at the low end, $28.85 median and $48.72 at the high end, about $38,000, $60,000 and $101,000 a year at 40 hours a week.
$31.25 an hour
The median in British Columbia, about $65,000 a year, the highest in Canada
Alberta ($29.50) and Manitoba ($29.45) come next. Ontario's median is $27.40 and Quebec's $27.56. Newfoundland and Labrador is lowest at $24.58. The group mixes decorators with degree-holding designers.
Roughly, all in
$1,200 to $56,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is teaching yourself the drawing software, building a portfolio and starting as a design assistant or in a kitchen, flooring or furniture showroom. The basic drawing tools cost nothing and a short decorating course covers most of the rest. The high end is the four year degree, the three part national qualifying exam and a first year of association dues, which is what you need to call yourself a registered interior designer and to win commercial work. The cheap door is harder because there is no credential for anyone to check, so you win every job on pictures of work you have already done, and larger firms will not interview you.
A typical university bill. The exam and dues are small next to the degree.
Health and dental
Standard at firms of any real size.
Pension
Rare. Government, university and hospital employers only.
Trade discounts
Furniture, fabric and lighting at trade prices.
Site and showroom travel
Part of the job, some of it out of town.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A degree, two years of supervised work, then a qualifying exam and registration.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Visual arts, technological design and math. Build a portfolio; most programs ask for one.
Degree
4 years
A 4-year interior design degree accredited by CIDA (Council for Interior Design Accreditation). Ontario has eight, British Columbia three, and Alberta and New Brunswick one each.
Supervised work
2 years
3,520 hours, about 2 years of full-time work, under a registered interior designer or architect, logged in set categories. This is a normal paid job.
The qualifying exam
1 to 2 years
The NCIDQ (the North American interior design exam) has three sections: fundamentals, professional practice and implementation (the old practicum), where you solve code and space-planning problems on screen. Ontario also accepts its own RIDA (Registered Interior Designer Assessment).
Registration
After the exam
Join ARIDO (Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario) or your provincial association. Now you can use the registered title.
Visual arts
Colour, drawing, composition. Your portfolio starts here.
Technological design or drafting
Plans and sections, the language of the job.
Math
Area, budgets, lighting calculations.
English
You present and write specs constantly.
Business
Most designers end up managing budgets and clients.
Interior design is not licensed in Canada, but it is not decorating. Designers handle fire exits, accessibility, finishes that meet code, and drawings that get permits for interior work. In Ontario, ARIDO (Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario) members hold the protected title under a provincial act; other provinces protect a registered title through their own associations. Registration needs the NCIDQ (the North American interior design exam), or in Ontario ARIDO's own RIDA (Registered Interior Designer Assessment).
Look for accreditation by CIDA (Council for Interior Design Accreditation).
Ontario
TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University), OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) University, and college degrees at Humber, Sheridan, Algonquin, Conestoga, Fanshawe and Georgian.
British Columbia
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver Island University.
Prairies and Atlantic
Mount Royal University in Calgary, Université de Moncton in French, and a master's at the University of Manitoba.
Quebec
Most start with the 3 year Interior Design DEC (Diploma of College Studies, 570.E0), in English at Dawson College. Université de Montréal has a bachelor's in French.
Quebec has a 3 year college route next to the university one, and the certified title belongs to an association, not a professional order.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
The college program has no required high school courses. Dawson College asks for a portfolio and a letter of intent, so start drawing early.
Interior Design DEC (570.E0, Diploma of College Studies)
3 years
3 years, about 2,625 hours. In English at Dawson College and Collège LaSalle, in French at about 10 colleges across Quebec.
Or a bachelor's degree
3 years
Université de Montréal's bachelor's in interior design is 3 years (90 credits), in French. Graduates of the 570.E0 college program may get credits through a college to university bridge.
Provisional member of the APDIQ (Association professionnelle des designers d'intérieur du Québec)
After graduating
The Quebec interior designers' association. A recognized college diploma or bachelor's gets you in automatically.
Pass the qualifying exam
A few years in
The NCIDQ (the North American interior design qualifying exam), or since 2025 RIDA (Registered Interior Designer Assessment), a Canadian assessment offered in French and English. Then you are a Designer d'intérieur certifié APDIQ (certified interior designer).
Things you don't need, but that help.
Revit and BIM (building information modelling)
Commercial firms expect it. Residential studios are catching up.
Healthcare design
Hospitals and clinics are steady, well-funded and technical.
LEED (a green building rating system) or WELL (a building wellness standard)
Asked for on corporate and institutional work.
Lighting design
A specialty most designers only half know.
Kitchen and bath
The most technical corner of residential work.
A portfolio
Drawings, models, before-and-after photos. Gets you into school and into your first job.
A retail job at a furniture, paint or tile store
You learn materials and how to talk to clients.
Sketching
Fast drawings in front of a client win trust.
A construction site visit
Ask a builder. You will design better once you have seen a wall opened up.
Contract furniture dealers, the companies that fit out offices with desks and chairs, hire a lot of interior designers to plan spaces for their clients. Sales commission is possible, but it is less pure design and more product. Plenty of designers move between dealers and firms over a career.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Commercial: a space plan for a 200-person office, finishes that pass fire code, a coordination call with the electrical engineer about outlets, a furniture budget spreadsheet. Residential: a meeting in the client's home, a showroom visit, sourcing tile and fixtures, a call with the contractor about a delay. Both: a lot of email and chasing samples that have not arrived.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
ARIDO (Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario) now accepts RIDA (Registered Interior Designer Assessment), a Canadian-made test, as well as the American NCIDQ (interior design qualifying exam). Quebec's designers' association accepts it too.
A registered interior designer who also holds a BCIN (Building Code Identification Number) can draw the plans and apply for the building permit, with no architect, on buildings up to three storeys and a set size.
The implementation section of the NCIDQ (interior design qualifying exam), once called the practicum, hands you floor plans and asks you to solve code, accessibility and space-planning problems on a computer.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Design first, then the rest of the field. See every career in architecture and design.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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