Is It Time to Regulate the Interior Design Profession?

Earlier this year, Alex Dauley, the founder of Alex Dauley Design Consultancy, shared a post on Instagram with a simple question: Is interior design having an identity crisis? Quickly, other influential interior designers, magazine editors, and industry bodies flocked to the comments section, each seconding the incisive observations, leading line of questioning, and anecdotes that Dauly so deftly summarised in her carousel.

Her points verged on the existential, following a recent exchange with a production team about a prime-time TV role for a designer, but one which involved “cleaning, light DIY, and styling support.” “Why is the expertise edited out?” she asked, noting that the list of requirements for the position are valuable skills, but that they do not constitute interior design. “If I represent interior design on screen,” she wrote, “it needs to reflect the depth of what we actually do.” For Dauley, this is an issue of articulating and protecting the value of interior designers to projects in a quickly changing world, and it turns out, many, many others feel the same. It seems that regulation, clearer frameworks, and a more transparent conversation are the orders of the day.

So this week, I spoke to Dauley and three of her contemporaries to get deeper into the weeds of what the problems are and how the regulation of the industry might help to combat them. While the conversation is still nascent, it seems there is a general air of agreement, not only in the thriving comments sections of Dauley’s popular Instagram posts, but also within practices, and the conversation is spilling over into broader industry discourse.

Alex Dauley - Public perception, creativity, and expertise

“This conversation around regulation has been a long-standing discussion point within interior design, but it feels increasingly urgent because of the way the industry is changing,” says Dauley. “I’m very aware of how interior designers are portrayed in the media, and we’re operating in a moment where financial pressures, AI automation and budget reductions are reshaping the industry. Our scope has reduced, the number of projects is down, and clients are becoming far more savvy and informed.”

For Dauley, one of the major issues when it comes to protecting the value of interior designers in client perception is the lack of public understanding around the differences between interior designers, interior decorators and stylists. “All three roles are valuable,” she says, “but they are very different disciplines. Interior designers are dealing with construction plans, technical drawings, architecture, plumbing and spatial planning. It’s highly skilled and very technical work.”

“At the moment, anyone can call themselves an interior designer without minimum standards or qualifications,” says Dauley. “Regulation would help clients better understand what to expect when working with a qualified interior designer. Architects work within a clear framework, whereas interior design still exists in a grey area,” she adds.

But for Dauley, this exercise isn’t about gatekeeping creativity or making the industry inaccessible. “Creativity needs nurturing, and everyone should feel encouraged to enter the industry,” she says. But Dauley is committed to the notion that designers and clients alike deserve to feel confident and equipped in a team’s knowledge and abilities. “Interior design is only a small percentage creativity - if you’re lucky, maybe 15 or 20 per cent. The majority of the job is technical problem-solving, managing people, understanding psychology and knowing how to deliver the best possible outcome for a client.”

Daniel Gibbons - Experience and fees

For Daniel Gibbons, Creative Director of X Interiors, regulation is a force that would drive industry standards forward. “With increased regulation, end clients would have the assurance when instructing a designer that they have the necessary experience, skillset, and insurance in place,” he says. “It would also ensure that those seeking entry into the industry have the relevant experience, education and qualification.”

“Clients are often working on the basis of what little information is available to them, meaning an experienced interior designer can be compared to a ‘hobby’ designer who may not have the experience, skillset, or legal framework in place to protect their clients but also their own practice,” says Gibbons. “This usually surfaces at the fee stage, where apples simply aren’t being compared to apples.” For Gibbons, regulation would end this confusion, and all parties could rest assured that standards are kept and agreed practices are being followed. “Regulation would give clients the confidence in the fee structure that what they are paying is market, experience and quality driven,” he says.

For Gibbons, the answer to the question of industry regulation is grounded in fees. “Fee structures based on experience, qualifications, project values and services required can be regulated,” he says. “This would streamline the unknown for many designers who have no idea what their counterparts do,” he says, citing hourly rates or set fees, room by room , or percentage rates on top of trade. “This doesnt mean people without formal routes cannot enter the industry,” he says, but, “it just cultivates their route to ensure, like most professions, they have the relevant understanding, skillset, experience, and insurances, before they present themselves to clients as professionals.”

Ana Caetano Alves - Early-stages involvement

For Ana Caetano Alves, founder of ACA Interiors, interior design is still widely misunderstood by the public. “I do believe that some level of regulation or clearer standards could have a positive impact, not to create unnecessary barriers, but to better differentiate trained professionals from those who simply adopt the title without the relevant education or experience,” she says. “This would be a valuable step in helping clients and the wider industry better understand what interior designers actually bring to a project.”

In a sentiment shared with the broader industry, Caetano Alves believes that there is a clear lack of clarity across the industry, and that clients often don’t fully understand the difference between decoration and professional interior design. “As a result,” she says, “clients don’t always recognise the value of the service.” Many still see designers as the final flourishers, coming in to select colours or accessories, when, for Caetano Alves, “we should actually be involved from the very beginning,” due to the role’s complexity.

“I have seen firsthand how this misunderstanding can affect projects,” says Caetano Alves. “In one case, clients had already started construction based on architectural drawings that didn’t align with what they believed they were building. What they described as a large open plan extension with expansive glazing turned out to be something entirely different. Resolving this meant pausing construction, re-engaging consultants, and incurring additional costs.” For Caetano Alves, much of this could have been avoided with the earlier involvement of her and her team, and investing time in the design phase. “This approach reduces risk, avoids costly changes during construction, and ensures the project is fully thought through from the outset.”

For Caetano Alves, the goal for industry regulation is not to limit access, but to “elevate standards, improve understanding, and reinforce the long-term value that professional interior design brings to clients and projects.”

Susan Van Meter - The question of memberships and investing early in quality teams

For Susan Van Meter, founder of her eponymous practice, the topic of industry regulation is a controversial one. Like Dauley, Van Meter sees that, “for some, interior design is viewed as a hobby rather than a serious profession.” Growing up watching TV shows like Changing Rooms, Van Meter has always been conscious of this gap in public knowledge. “These shows presented a misleading image of what it means to be a designer and encouraged the idea that ‘anyone can do it,’” she says. “While some individuals naturally have a good eye, that alone does not equate to the skillset required to perform this role professionally. This is fundamentally an education issue.”

Interestingly, while Van Meter is all for membership bodies, she is highly aware that membership alone cannot be a positive indicator of any one interior designer’s projects. “While membership bodies such as RIBA exist for architects, membership alone does not guarantee quality, and the same applies to interior designers, as it does in any profession,” she says. “However, not just anyone should be allowed to call themselves an interior designer; the consequences for clients can be significant in terms of time, cost, and stress when projects go wrong.”

Van Meter tells me that, rather interestingly, she has recently assisted a couple who chose not to engage my services four years ago due to my fees. “Instead, they appointed a cheaper, unqualified individual,” she says, “and the result was a project that went significantly over budget, remains incomplete after four years, and contains numerous design and functional issues.” For Van Meter, this was all due to a lack of thorough planning, detailed drawings, a defined scope of works, and a properly costed budget from the outset.

“The original ‘designers’ were neither qualified nor regulated,” she says. “Had they been, there would have been structured processes and documentation in place to guide the project. This highlights exactly what is needed within the industry.”

Is It Time to Regulate the Interior Design Profession?

Alex Dauley - Public perception, creativity, and expertise

Daniel Gibbons - Experience and fees

Ana Caetano Alves - Early-stages involvement

Susan Van Meter - The question of memberships and investing early in quality teams

Anya Cooklin-Lofting

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