STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

bumblebee · Coach

interior designer?

Hermes

you don't need any special training to call yourself an interior designer or decorator, ASID certification is for those who are most experienced/educated. all you need is a tax ID, which requires that you register a business with your state. do keep in mind that you will need to pay the tax on your items at the end of the year.

FashionPrincess · Hermes

All ASID is, is basically a membership that people who graduate with their interior designer degree can buy (kind of like a big club). The main difference between interior designer and interior decorator is that to be a designer you must go to college and you learn about architecturial design and space planning (like for building codes, etc) and a decorator is just that, a decorator, in order to do any renovating, they must consult an architect. I have several friends who went to school for interior design (worked in that industry for awhile) and they said just because someone is a "designer" or "asid" doesn't mean they know squat about decorating.

In short, anyone can call themselve a decorator, but to be a designer you must have a college degree. Being a decorator just takes some talent, a little training on color, room drawing and layout doesn't hurt. I got trained actually thru the La-Z-Boy trainers when I worked in furniture retail. And yup, to buy wholesale, all you need is a tax id.

bumblebee · Coach

thanks for the info, ladies.

i guess i just need to figure out if it would be worth it to incur the expense of getting the tax id. i think in my state (CA) the minimum tax you must pay per year is something like $1200, so i'd have to see if i would end up saving at least that much each year.