About the Interior Designer Handbook
The Interior Designer Handbook is an independent reference site about the interior design profession in the United States, published since 2026 by the Interior Designer Handbook editorial team and reachable at info@interior-designer.us.com. The site sells no design services, runs no directory of designers, and takes no payment from schools, associations or software vendors.
What the handbook covers
The handbook covers the credentials, laws, wages, fees and costs that shape a US interior design career, organized in three sections: Education and the NCIDQ, Licensing and Pay, and Practice and Hiring. The Education section documents CIDA accreditation and the NCIDQ exam. The Licensing section documents the state practice acts, title acts and board fees, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data by state. The Practice section documents fee models, contract contents, ASID and IIDA dues and software prices.
Who the handbook is written for
The handbook is written for three readers in the United States: students choosing a degree program, career changers deciding whether to pursue the NCIDQ Certificate and state registration, and clients who are hiring a designer and want to read a fee proposal or a contract with the right questions in mind. The text uses American English and quotes prices in US dollars with the year of each figure.
Where the figures come from
Every number in the handbook is taken from a source page that the editorial team retrieved on the date recorded in the site's source list, and the main sources are the Council for Interior Design Accreditation, the Council for Interior Design Qualification, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, state licensing boards and statutes, the American Society of Interior Designers, the International Interior Design Association, and the published price pages of software vendors. Where two sources disagree, both figures are shown with their dates. The rules the editorial team follows are set out in the editorial policy, and corrections can be sent through the contact page.