A student at a desk arranging a material and finishes board for a room scheme, choosing between fabric swatches, paint chips, a tile and a timber sample. An interior design book lies open beside the board, with a scale ruler to hand.

DEGREE GUIDE

Interior Design

What do Interior Design degrees involve?

Interior Design degrees teach you how to create functional and visually inspiring spaces that enhance the way people live, work, and interact. You will explore key areas such as spatial planning, materials and textures, lighting design, sustainability, and digital modelling. These courses help you develop creative and technical skills while understanding the impact of design on well-being and the environment. You will also learn how to communicate ideas through sketches, 3D visualisations, and industry-standard software. Many degrees offer opportunities for live projects, industry collaborations, and portfolio development, preparing you for careers in residential, commercial, and sustainable interior design.

Example
Modules

Design Process: Follow the journey from the first idea to the final concept, learning how research, sketching, testing, and feedback shape successful interior design projects.

Materials and Construction: Explore how materials behave and how spaces are built through studio workshops, 3D models, and hands-on experiments with real materials.

Design History: Discover how interior design evolved, examining iconic spaces, movements and the theories behind how we live and work.

Common Degree Names

💼 Placement years are widely available in interior design studios, architecture firms or retail and hospitality design companies.
🌍 Study abroad is available at many creative universities.

BA (Hons) Interior Design
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design
BA (Hons) Interior and Spatial Design
BA (Hons) Interior Design and Decoration
BA (Hons) Interior Design with Architecture

A top-down view of a desk with a hand-drawn interior floor plan showing furniture laid out in each room. A scale ruler and a few fabric swatches sit beside it.

Level 3 (A-level / IB Diploma (HL) / Scottish Highers)

Interior Design is about shaping how people experience spaces – combining creativity with practical understanding of materials, lighting, and how rooms function. Your portfolio is key to your application, so universities want to see evidence of spatial thinking, design skills, and creative problem-solving.

Subjects that strengthen your application:

Art or Art & Design – usually expected or strongly preferred
Graphics or Product Design – useful for visual design and 3D thinking
Design & Technology – good preparation for practical and spatial skills
Textiles – relevant for understanding materials, surfaces, and finishes
Photography – helpful for visual communication and presentation

✨ A Foundation Diploma in Art & Design is the traditional route into competitive interior design courses, and is recommended if you haven't studied a creative subject at Level 3. Your portfolio is the most important part of your application – see Other Requirements for portfolio guidance.

Universities may also accept:

BTEC Extended Diplomas in Art and Design
BTEC National Extended Certificates or National Diplomas alongside relevant A-Level subjects
UAL Level 3 Diplomas in Art & Design or Interior and Spatial Design
T-Level in Craft and Design with a strong portfolio
IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) with a Visual Arts subject at Higher Level among your IB subjects (minimum two, ideally three) alongside your Career-Related Study; an Art & Design pathway would be directly relevant

Requirements vary between courses. Always check specific course requirements.

Level 2 Qualifications (GCSE / MYP / National 5)

Most courses ask for:

GCSE English Language and Maths at grade 4/C or above, or the equivalent such as National 5s or MYP

📘 GCSE Art, Design & Technology, or Graphics can help build early skills and prepare you for studying a creative subject at level 3.

🎨 Portfolio

A strong portfolio is essential. It should include:

Sketches, concept drawings, and design boards
3D models or photos of projects
Examples of research and development work

💬 Interviews or Portfolio Reviews
Many courses include an interview or portfolio review where you can talk about your design process, influences, and creative ideas.

🔍 Work Experience

You don't need formal work experience to apply for Interior Design. If you're looking for ways to develop beyond your own projects, redesigning a real space, volunteering to help with set design for a school production, or visiting show homes, studios, and design exhibitions all help you think about how spaces work in practice. If you have a school placement to fill, an interior design studio, architecture practice, or furniture showroom gives you useful context.

✨ Personal Statement Tips

How have you explored your interest in interior spaces? Whether through redesigning rooms, creating mood boards, experimenting with materials, or thinking about how spaces affect how people feel, reflect on what you've learned from these projects. Think about the designers, spaces, or styles that inspire you and how they've influenced your own ideas. Interior design combines creativity with practical problem-solving, so show how you approach both. Admissions tutors want to see your passion for how spaces shape people's experiences and evidence of your own creative exploration.

If your qualifications don't match the usual entry requirements, there are some other possibilities.

🌱 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design

A very common route into Interior Design degrees. This one-year course helps you develop your portfolio and explore creative disciplines before applying for the full degree.

🎓 Access to HE Diploma (Art & Design or Spatial Design)

Accepted by many universities offering Interior Design degrees. Your portfolio will usually carry as much weight as your grades, so check individual universities for their portfolio expectations.

Is this degree right for you?

Members can explore whether this degree fits who they are:

Skills you'd develop and whether they match your strengths
How this aligns with your interests, motivators and values
Career paths and where graduates end up

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Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Use the tabs to explore the kind of person that this would be a good fit for. Do you share the Interests, Motivations, Values, Work identity and skills that people who thrive in this course tend to have?

Not sure what these things are? Explore your Identity Tree with us first.

Interests that connect well with an Interior Design degree

Students who enjoy this degree often share these interests. You don't need to feel strongly about all of them, and interests develop over time. If one or two catch your curiosity, or sound like something you'd like to know more about, that's a good sign.

Designing Spaces & Places: This is Interior Design's core territory. You'll work on how rooms, buildings and environments function for the people using them, studying spatial planning, ergonomics, light and atmosphere, and what makes a space work well for the life inside it.

Visual Art, Craft & Design: The visual craft of interior design runs through every module. You'll sketch, draw, model, make mood boards, work with texture and colour, and develop a strong visual language for communicating ideas, from hand drawing to digital visualisation.

Students who thrive in an Interior Design degree are often motivated by

Sharing Your Work with Others

You take pride in showing what you've created to others, whether that's exhibiting artwork, demonstrating an invention, publishing writing, or presenting project results. The moment when someone else experiences or responds to your work gives you a buzz. You create with an audience in mind, even if that audience is small.

Practical Problem-Solving

You're energised by finding fixes to real-life issues, whether they're mechanical, technological, or social. You're motivated by problems you can see, touch, or experience directly, and you get satisfaction from solutions that work in practice, not just in theory. You'd rather build a prototype than write a report about one.

Creativity and Innovation

You're energised by the act of creating something new or finding a fresh way to approach a problem. Whether it's designing, writing, building, or experimenting, you feel most alive when you're generating original ideas rather than following established methods. The possibility that something has never been done before excites rather than intimidates you.

Making and Crafting

You love hands-on work: building, shaping, or creating physical objects. Whether it's working with tools, materials, or your own hands, you're happiest when you can see and touch what you've made. The process of turning raw materials into something finished gives you a deep sense of satisfaction, and you'd rather make something than just talk about it.

What makes Interior Design click for the students who love it?

A room is never just a room to them: they walk in and start redesigning it, that wall gone, the light softer. The pleasure is in making a place people want to be in, part instinct and part craft. The model-making and materials are half the draw, working out how light, colour and layout will come together before anything is built. They find satisfaction in a space that quietly works: people move through it easily and feel better in it without knowing why. And presenting the finished design, boards, model and all, is a pleasure.

These are the skills that students who love this degree tend to enjoy using. You don't need to be great at them already, but if they sound like you, that's a good sign.

Skill Name

Skills that suit this degree

You don't need to be great at these already — but if you enjoy using them or want to get better at them, that's a good sign.

Do you enjoy imagining how a room or space could be transformed — thinking about how it would look, feel, and work differently?
Do you find yourself drawn to creating visual things — sketching, making mood boards, or arranging colours and materials together?
Do you like understanding how things are made — what materials feel like, how they're used, and how spaces are physically put together?

Careers an Interior Design degree could lead you to

Interior Design

What do Interior Design degrees involve?

Example Modules

Common Degree Names

Is this degree right for you?

Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Careers an Interior Design degree could lead you to

Example
Modules