Home décor is undoubtedly one of the best-performing niches out there. Millions of people look for ideas on how to design, decorate, and purchase items to add to various parts of their homes to give them a satisfying look.
A lot of people are searching for various interior design ideas on search engines like Google and Bing, and on social media platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and others social media platforms.
You can capitalize on this, and start a business in this niche. Most people start an offline business or online business under the home décor niche.
I recommend starting an online business not only because you’ve got a low entry barrier to start an online business but you can also promote your business easily online.
However, home décor is largely a hands-on type of work. Most businesses can be run offline.
In this post, you’re about to discover both online business ideas and some amazing offline in the home décor niche –especially in the interior design niche.
Related post: 20 Easy Things to Make and Sell for Money
Let’s dive in.
What is the Best Interior Design Business Idea?
1. Cleaning business
The first business you can start with low overhead costs is the cleaning business. Everybody loves a clean living room, bedroom, or office.
You can capitalize on this popular demand, and start your business today. You can specialize in commercial building cleaning, residential cleaning, disinfecting, or interior cleaning.
To start this business, you only need a vacuum cleaner, environmental-friendly cleaning chemicals, and some few stuff. You can start this week.
You can start offering the services in your neighborhood. And if you can secure your first client, you’ll ask them to refer you to their friend for a discount.
FYI: you can set up a blog and target local keywords to rank on Google. Examples of the local keywords can be “affordable house cleaning services in Ohio,” or “mistakes people do when cleaning in Ohio”.
You can also ask your first clients to drop a five-star review and testimonial on your blog. Once your blog starts gaining traction, you’ll start gaining a large number of clients.
You can also use local google ads, these will land you a lot of clients if you perfect your skills.
2. Furniture refurbishing or restoration business
The furniture refurbishing business is very similar to furniture restoration. The only exception is that in the furniture refurbishing business, you use old pieces of furniture to create a new one.
On the contrary, with the furniture restoration business, you bring to life the old furniture in the exact form. If it was a sectional sofa, you would bring back a sectional sofa.
People will hire you to restore their furniture. If the furniture is so old, people will hire you to refurbish the furniture into new ones.
This business will work the best if you’ve got carpentry experience. However, if you can find and hire people with carpentry experience, you’ll strive in this business.
Note: if you want to start this business by hiring carpenters, you need to have experience in marketing and sales. This way, you’ll succeed.
True is the saying: smart people hire their weaknesses. So, hire people with expertise, skills, and experiences you don’t have.
3. Decorating Business
Decorating is no doubt the most important part of the interior design business. You can start an interior decorating business in isolation.
Your services will include interior event planning, landscaping, mirror and art installation, artificial flowering, and more.
You can also start a couple of businesses related to decoration. You can blog about decoration, dropship decorating products, and make affiliate commissions selling decorating affiliate businesses.
Decorating business is a very lucrative business depending on location. If you’re located in a busy city, you should start a decorating business.
To market your business, you may blog about decoration, or maintain a social media presence. People will click from your blog or social media to your sales funnel.
Your sales funnel needs to start with a freebie. People will get on your email list to get the gift you offered them related to decorating.
Through well-crafted emails, you’ll promote your services.
4. Interior Landscaping
Landscaping involves changing the view of a particular place to look pleasant. In this way, you’re changing a particular place to look deluxe and luxurious.
Wait! Isn’t landscaping an exterior design work? You ask.
Landscaping is particularly popular in exterior design. However, interior landscaping is a business that falls under interior designing.
You’ll be hired to rearrange furniture, rugs, wall art, bubbles, and floor to provide a beautiful view as per your clients’ preferences. Your job is to make the interior design look stunning to your client.
5. Mirror and Art Installation
Not everyone has the ability to install mirrors and artworks to give the luxurious scenery customers desire.
However, if you feel like you’re damn good at the installation of these pieces. You should consider advertising your skills to start a business.
People will hire you to help them decide on the kind of art or mirrors needed in certain parts of the house and to do the installation.
You can do this business in isolation. That is, you can super specialize as a mirror and art installer if there is a large market for the service.
I recommend offering mirror and art installation as part of your interior design services. This way, you won’t run dry of the clients.
6. Art Supply Business
If you know how to paint or find the best artworks that suit a particular design, you’ve got a business right there.
You can sell these wall arts as an upsell to your interior design business. You’ll offer your clients these wall arts as a suggestion to improve the interior.
You can also set up a wall art shop online. If people buy from your shop, you’ll ship them the ordered wall arts. You can even dropship these products from Aliexpress.
7. Start a candle business
Elegantly designed candles with sweet pleasant scents add a romantic atmosphere to a bedroom. It is for this reason, plus the fact that demand for candles is on the rise, that makes a candle business a good business idea to start.
You can start a candle business with very low overhead costs. For the most part, to keep a consistent production line, you’ll need to find a trustworthy supplier of candle wax, glasses, and other fragrant ingredients.
In the beginning, you can use some kitchen utensils to melt candle wax, and in the empty basement process your candles.
Besides that, you’ll need software to help you in keeping track of your customers, and social media to market your business.
You can use Shopify to set up an online shop, track customers coming to your shop, and manage inventory.
Note: Once you start producing candles at a medium to large scale, you’ll need to hire a third-party fulfillment company to help you pack, and ship your candles professionally.
My favorite example is Jazmin Richards of Blk Sunflower. She started her business on Instagram and grew it to over $300 000 a year.
8. Painting Business
The painting business is a profitable & wonderful business idea you can start in the interior design niche. And there are a couple of painting businesses you can start.
If you’re good at painting the walls, doors, or kid’s room, you have got a very profitable skill set that you can use to set up a successful business.
You can sell your artwork, painting services, or both. And if you follow the current trends, you’ve got an added advantage.
You can blog about the most trending interior design ideas. This way, you’ll attract a lot of people interested in interior design to whom you can sell your painting services or artwork.
9. Wiring & Lighting installation
Lighting is part of interior design. Well-selected, well-placed bubbles, bubble holders, and luxurious lamps add an extra level of elegance to the interior design.
However, not everyone is capable of doing the wiring and proper bubble selection as well as installation to give the deserved elegancy. If you’re gifted, or skilled in such an area, you can create a profitable business out of your expertise.
If you’re aspiring to be an interior designer, you can consider adding electric installation to your skill set. It’ll save you tons. However, don’t try to be one if don’t know anything about electricity.
10. Home organization
Home organization business is another profitable business idea. As a home organizer, you’ll be hired to restore order, control clutter, and implement space solutions.
With this business, you’ve got two options: in-home organization and virtual home organization. As an in-home organizer, you’ll be hired to do the actual shifting, cluttering, and arranging stuff.
On the contrary, you can also offer home organization services online. People will hire you to get home organization advice, or just tips and hacks so that they can do it themselves.
11. Homemade Craft Business
If you’re obsessed with handmade crafts, you can make a business out of them. You can create and sell craft products for interior design.
You have a couple of options to choose from. You can sell these self-made products, or buy crafts at wholesale and sell on retail, or you could run a niche blog on DIY crafts.
All these are profitable business ideas. It’s up to you to choose what you want to do better yourself and help the world.
12. Artificial Flower
If you know how to make artificial flowers on your own, you can make money out of it. Flowers can make your interior décor look classy and elegant.
FYI: You don’t need to know how to make artificial flowers to make money from the floral business. You can still make money by buying them wholesale and selling them at retail.
This business could be in form of dropshipping, or just an online retail shop. You can set up the shop on Wix, or Shopify.
13. Plumbing
The plumbing business is part of interior design. For the best drainage and look of your interior, designers choose a classy up-to-date plumber.
You can start this business to help designers in the choice of the latest elegant bathroom and toilet sets.
If you’re an interior designer, you should know that the bathroom and toilet need to start in a luxury interior design.
People will hire you to remodel their interior design. If you’re an interior designer and know a little bit of plumbing, you can sell the service as an upsell. You can offer your clients after, or to be included in the normal interior designing work.
14. Hot Tub Installation
Not all designers know how to install Jacuzzis or deluxe showers. On top of plumbing, you can specialize in hot tub installation and fixing.
This business may also include indoor luxury swimming pool installation. You’ll be hired to install, fix and repair various parts of hot tubs.
Interior Design Online Business Ideas
The internet is filled with various opportunities for everyone. Interior designers can also run online businesses right in the comfort of their homes.
Here are a few online business ideas in the interior design niche.
15. Social Media Influencer
If you like hanging out on various social media platforms, you can become a social media influencer and make money online. You can run this business using your smartphone.
To start this business, it’s very simple. You create profiles on various social media platforms. You can start with a Pinterest business account (for free), Instagram profile, and TikTok profile.
You’ll then keep posting interior design posts consistently across these platforms. Video content is highly favored on social media these days.
You can also use YouTube shorts and post the same content you posted on Tiktok.
To make money as an influencer, you can use sponsorship, affiliate marketing, print-on-demand business, or drop shipping.
You need to include a call to action in all your videos. You can edit the videos on Canva for free. You need to add text above or below the videos.
The most notable products for home décor can be wall art, rugs, curtains, candles, lamps, or low-content books like planners.
16. YouTube channel
As mentioned above, you start a YouTube channel talking about various interior design and decorating ideas.
You’ll need a camera, laptop, editing software, and fast internet to start this business. You can use Canva for editing, and your phone for shooting and editing.
You can still use free stock videos online, or free online software that changes text into videos called Invideo. You can start for free here.
YouTube videos make money through YouTube ads, affiliate marketing, and sponsored content.
17. Blogging
The other profitable online business idea under the interior design niche is blogging. Gosh! I love blogging.
If you love to write, you can make money from your hobby. By the way, writing is one of the numerous hobbies that make money online.
Blogging is also called content marketing. Why? This is so because you write content and monetize your content.
You can write roundup articles, how-to guides, and review articles. For a start, you’ll use social media platforms like Pinterest, Quora, Tiktok, and maybe Facebook to drive traffic to your blog.
You can monetize your blog through affiliate marketing, passive ads, your products, and more.
18. Dropshipping
Dropshipping business is the next one you can start in the interior design niche. People are making millions of dollars from dropshipping.
The way it works is that you set up an online shop using Shopify or Wix. Then you research and find the best products from Asian wholesalers. Finally, you add those products to your store and drive traffic to it.
If a customer buys from your store, the wholesaler packs and ships the product to your customer. All you do is research the product, restock your store, handle customer service and receive money.
You can use free advertising on Tiktok to showcase various products you’re promoting. If you want to start paid advertising, you need to start with Instagram shootouts.
Until the product is proven to be selling, you can start experimenting with other advertising platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google Ads.
19. Print On Demand Business
Print on Demand business involves setting up an account on a Print-on-Demand service, creating a design for a product, advertising your product, and making money.
The popular print-on-demand services are Printiful and Printify. They’re free to get started.
In the interior design niche, you can create rugs, cushions, pillows, or artwork as print-on-demand products. People will order the products from the Printful or Printify site.
Most print-on-demand platforms will take orders, print the product, ship the product to the customers, and process payment.
Your main work is to set up the store, design the product photos, and advertise.
Final Words on Interior Design Business Ideas
Some interior design business ideas require professional training while others business ideas in this niche require skills that are completely unrelated to interior designing.
The skillset that can be applied to these business ideas is advertising and marketing. Nowadays, online advertising and marketing are pillars of both offline and online businesses.
Let’s wrap it up here. I wish you the best of luck.
Cheers,
B. Betha.
