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If you hire an interior designer, do you know what you’re getting?
You’ll soon have some assurances of education and experience with the recent passage of a law that creates a publicly accessible online registry of certified interior designers in Indiana.
The law has been sought for five years by the SAFE Interior Design Coalition of Indianapolis, led by Roberta Stone, a certified interior designer from Rome City.
Before the law, Stone says, Indiana was one of many states that had neither licensing of interior designers nor a legal definition of what they do.
That essentially meant that anyone could declare herself a practitioner, she says.
"I wouldn’t say there’s a glut of (unqualified practitioners) out there, but there are some who may be hurting consumers, mostly expense-wise," Stone says.
Under the new law, people with a variety of backgrounds can still call themselves interior designers. But if someone uses the term "certified interior designer," the person has to have proper credentials.
Those credentials include passing the National Council of Interior Designers Qualifier certification exam. Those who qualify to take the test must have no less than 40 semester credits or 60 quarter credits of college-level coursework that culminates in a degree, plus various levels of supervised work experience.
The experience must be under another NCIDQ-certified designer, according to the group’s Web site, www.ncidq.org.
Stone says certified designers would pay a $100 fee every two years to be listed on the state registry. The registry listing would be voluntary, she says.
Initially, Stone expects about 200 certified interior designers to be listed, but she says it’s still unclear when the registry will be up and running.
While the registry will help guide consumers who check it before hiring designers, it also will be helpful to design students and recent grads, Stone says.
At least seven Indiana colleges and universities have interior design programs, she says.
But often, students and graduates must seek supervised work experience out of state because there are so few certified designers in Indiana with whom to accumulate the experience required to take the NCIDQ exam, she says.
As more designers register, that problem should be alleviated, Stone says.
Certified interior designer Sue Tappy, owner of Designs by Susan in Fort Wayne, supports the law because today’s interior designers do much more than pick out paint colors or choose carpeting.
Especially those who do designs for commercial buildings. They have to be familiar with building safety and fire codes, lighting requirements and accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act, she says.
"(The danger is) that someone could design something that is structurally unsound, like they could knock out a wall that needed to be there, something that could inhibit the safety of a structure to people who enter it," says Tappy, who has been certified for 20 years.
"If you want to have your taxes done, you want to go to someone who is qualified, who knows what they’re doing," Tappy says. "(The registry) weeds out the wannabes."
But Carol Lepper, the uncertified owner of Carol Lepper Designs in Fort Wayne, says she doesn’t think the registry will make much difference, even for older workers like her who have lots of experience but who lack the qualifications to take the certification exam.
"If they’ve been in the business for years, they’re going to have their customers and people will know their work. Who cares if they’re certified?" says Lepper, who has a degree in art and nearly 30 years in retail and specializes in window treatments and upholstery.
Rachel Mitchell of Fort Wayne, a 27-year-old recent graduate of the interior design program at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, says she supports the law, even though it might make her professional life a little more difficult.
Mitchell, owner of Abode Aesthetics in Fort Wayne, intends to become certified, even if she has to move out of state for her supervised work experience.
"That aspect does make me a little uneasy, but I’m fully prepared for that," she says. "I was definitely supporting it (in school)."
