Wanting To Be an Interior Designer

[Avriae]

Honestly I wasn't sure which tab to put this under. 

I am wanting to start my own interior design business inworld but I'm not sure how that works. could someone help me understand how it works?🙂

 

[Rowan Amore]

40 minutes ago, Avriae said:

Honestly I wasn't sure which tab to put this under. 

I am wanting to start my own interior design business inworld but I'm not sure how that works. could someone help me understand how it works?🙂

 

It might be better in this section

https://community.secondlife.com/forums/forum/311-merchants/

Merchants

Discussion area for inworld and Marketplace merchants to exchange business and marketing ideas.

[Avriae]

I'm wanting to start my own interior design business inworld but I'm not sure how it works, could I get some help getting a better understanding of how it works?

[norajulian]

Step 1: Buy things
Step 2: Declare yourself an interior designer.
Step 3: Decorate.

The good thing about SL is that it's a relatively open market - you can create whatever you want to create. The bad thing about SL is that it's a relatively open market and ANYONE can create what they want to create.

That's all very helpful, I'm sure.

[LittleMe Jewell]

3 hours ago, Avriae said:

Honestly I wasn't sure which tab to put this under. 

Not sure how Land even entered into the list of possibilities

[Pixieplumb Flanagan]

Would you be creating textures for wall coverings, floors, rugs?  Maybe making furniture or deco items?  Or would you be putting together other creators items to create a custom look?  If the latter there is probably not much business to be had, as most home makers in sl like to do this themselves, and additionally most home decor is no transfer, so you would not be able to sell on whatever look you created. 

You could possibly create notecards listing the products you would suggest, but whether this is a service people would pay for is doubtful.  Also, most up to date builds incorporate custom textures and variations with provided maps for people to make their own.  Simple seamless textures are next to useless without the maps/photoshop files. 

If you are skilled in meshing, perhaps you could create a few pieces of furniture and see how they sell.  It's a fairly crowded field though.

[Avriae]

9 hours ago, norajulian said:

Step 1: Buy things
Step 2: Declare yourself an interior designer.
Step 3: Decorate.

The good thing about SL is that it's a relatively open market - you can create whatever you want to create. The bad thing about SL is that it's a relatively open market and ANYONE can create what they want to create.

That's all very helpful, I'm sure.

So let’s say I get a client, I would buy the furniture for them and decorate their house, business or whatever for them. 

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Avriae said:

So let’s say I get a client, I would buy the furniture for them and decorate their house, business or whatever for them. 

It would help if you had a portfolio of your work, too.  Either a Flickr acct or a website where people can see samples of your styles.  

[Quistess Alpha]

1 hour ago, Avriae said:

So let’s say I get a client, I would buy the furniture for them and decorate their house, business or whatever for them. 

I don't really know much about interior design, but the landscapers/exterior designers I've run across generally have their client buy things and rez them out, then the designer places them artfully  (the client needs to give you 'permission to take delete and modify my objects' a checkbox on the notes page of your in-world profile) Interior design probably has fewer duplicate objects though.

[Quistess Alpha]

10 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

13 hours ago, Avriae said:

Honestly I wasn't sure which tab to put this under. 

Not sure how Land even entered into the list of possibilities

To be fair, It's a bit confusing that there are two sub-forums named 'General Discussion'. I can partially empathize with not seeing the supersection if you stumbled there blindly.

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Quistessa said:

I don't really know much about interior design, but the landscapers/exterior designers I've run across generally have their client buy things and rez them out, then the designer places them artfully  (the client needs to give you 'permission to take delete and modify my objects' a checkbox on the notes page of your in-world profile) Interior design probably has fewer duplicate objects though.

I'd prefer to own the items myself if I were hiring a decorator.  If they showed me examples of their work, I could pick a style I liked and they could provide a notecard with what to buy.  The idea of having someone else's stuff rezzed.out at home doesn't appeal to me.  

[norajulian]

23 hours ago, Avriae said:

So let’s say I get a client, I would buy the furniture for them and decorate their house, business or whatever for them. 

Most folks that I know have a catalogue of furniture that they already own, and then decorate using those items. If you don’t have much furniture yet, you probably would need to purchase, but it also means that you’d probably be eating your profits for a bit. Sale times are usually a good time to make purchases like this - Black Friday, etc. Typically you would give your client edit rights after you’re all finished. 

 

21 hours ago, Quistessa said:

I don't really know much about interior design, but the landscapers/exterior designers I've run across generally have their client buy things and rez them out, then the designer places them artfully  (the client needs to give you 'permission to take delete and modify my objects' a checkbox on the notes page of your in-world profile) Interior design probably has fewer duplicate objects though.

This is also another option, but as somebody who decorates myself, I’m constantly tossing out multiple side tables to compare next to sofas to see what works the best. It simply wouldn’t be feasible for me to function this way. But perhaps that’s more to say about my design style than anything. I could see how this method would work for designers who pull rooms from Pinterest and try to mimic them. However, if you’re having the client show you the photo and buy the items, I would argue that you’re more of a consultant. It is because of this that I really don’t know of many designers who work this way! It’s interesting to me that you do! 
 

To each their own! 

[karenx0]

On 5/25/2021 at 6:20 PM, Avriae said:

So let’s say I get a client, I would buy the furniture for them and decorate their house, business or whatever for them. 

Before you start decorating, always remember these;

- ask if they want to own the furniture or want to use your furniture.

- ask how many prims does their parcel have or can provide you.

- as an interior designer, it's better to mix both forms of furniture, i.e., PG and ADULT, but it's also necessary to ask your client if they want PG, ADULT, or both. 

- ask them to give you their edit rights [if they want to own the furniture] , rezzing rights, and you to their parcel group or security, so you don't get booted out.

- have a thought of how much you want to charge for each project, and after that, ask a 50% of it before hand, this is for if they want to use your furniture, and you want buy deco and stuff which you don't have as the theme they chose, the first half will cover the buying cost, and after you are done, let them know about the 2nd half and a specific time given. the second half will be your payment for your hard work and time given.

- when you are decorating, make sure your clients aren't around the house, that way you can focus and it will be a surprise effect as well.

 

Even after all this, to be an interior designer/decorator, you will need a vast collection of home and decor items. Keep buying furniture and deco items, and start practicing by creating different room decor and upload them on your flickr as your portfolio. The more you practice, the more you'll learn.

[Avriae]

3 hours ago, karenx0 said:

Before you start decorating, always remember these;

- ask if they want to own the furniture or want to use your furniture.

- ask how many prims does their parcel have or can provide you.

- as an interior designer, it's better to mix both forms of furniture, i.e., PG and ADULT, but it's also necessary to ask your client if they want PG, ADULT, or both. 

- ask them to give you their edit rights [if they want to own the furniture] , rezzing rights, and you to their parcel group or security, so you don't get booted out.

- have a thought of how much you want to charge for each project, and after that, ask a 50% of it before hand, this is for if they want to use your furniture, and you want buy deco and stuff which you don't have as the theme they chose, the first half will cover the buying cost, and after you are done, let them know about the 2nd half and a specific time given. the second half will be your payment for your hard work and time given.

- when you are decorating, make sure your clients aren't around the house, that way you can focus and it will be a surprise effect as well.

 

Even after all this, to be an interior designer/decorator, you will need a vast collection of home and decor items. Keep buying furniture and deco items, and start practicing by creating different room decor and upload them on your flickr as your portfolio. The more you practice, the more you'll learn.

This Is extremely helpful, thank you so much😄

[karenx0]

21 hours ago, Avriae said:

This Is extremely helpful, thank you so much😄

No problem at all, if you want to know more or need more info, IM me inworld @ Karenx0 - I will let you on it more info, or give you some deco and house store names.