7 of the Best Free Interior Designer Courses Online

If you are interested in becoming an Interior Designer, you might have searched the internet for online platforms that offer interior design courses. This can be discouraging, since much of what’s available includes on-campus only courses that will definitely put a dent in your pocket. These expensive courses also come with the inconvenience of having to fit class time around your already busy schedule.

Because of this, free online interior design courses are the best starting point for specialising in interior design. They allow you to not be dogged down by your schedule, the distance from campus, or even the heavy price tag. To help you, here are7 online interior design courses that can set you on the path to an interior design career at no extra cost.

1. HSC Oxford: Home Study Center

The HSC level 1 interior design course, will definitely be worth your time. The main aim of the course is to make it as easy as possible for aspiring candidates to have a solid introduction into the field and industry of interior design. This 80 hour course has been carefully crafted to guide you in your path of turning your hobby into a career.

The online course boasts of access to quality interior design classes for free. Their courses are self-paced and have no entry requirements for that matter.

Course Topics

• Interior design overview
• Elements of interior design
• The principles of design

2. MIT: Open Course Ware

The prestigious and highly acclaimed ivy-league university, has made it possible for any aspiring interior designers to learn the beginner basics of design from the comfort of their gadgets. This is assuming They have ample access to the internet.

This free online interior design course has been broken down into two sections/categories: Principles of Design and Daylighting. 

The principles of design course has been crafted to cover design theories and textual analysis. The major aim of this course Is to enable any aspiring interior designer to approach text with a fresh vision and translate that vision into design for performance.

The daylighting design course on the other hand is advanced and technical but covers the use of natural and electric lighting to ameliorate the indoor spaces.

3. Open University: Design Thinking

This Design Thinking program from Open University is a 10- hour online course that is meant to equip you with beginner’s content on interior design topics. The course is also characterized by assignments that are meant to keep you engaged as you progress with the course work. The course has no entry requirements apart for access to the internet.

The pros of taking this course include credits from the modules being counted towards a certificate of higher education, a diploma of higher education or even a foundation degree or honours degree.

4. Interiordezine

Interiordezine is a 2 week course on interior decorating with 10 free interior design lessons that are surely going to instil knowledge and confidence in your practice of interior design. The course outline has been structured to imitate the life cycle of the actual process of interior design, i.e. from idea to concept and then eventually to the implementation of the design.

This course is free and only requires you to sign up and from there, you are good to go.

Course Topics

• Learning how to prepare your project design brief
• Brainstorming concept design ideas
• The secret to correctly using color
• Choosing fabric
• Correctly choosing fittings and fixtures
• The art of knowing what to look for in home finishes
• Pulling together your decorating scheme
• Collating finishing touches

5. Decorating Studio

This Decorating Studio course offers a unique delivery of its free interior design content with engaging exercises that are meant to cultivate core understanding of the content made available on the website.  The course content has been divided into two major sections: Decorating Ideas and Decorating by room.

This course structure, albeit simple compared to other free online interior design courses breaks down the living spaces and approaches them by theme and function. This has been done to enable you to have a better understanding of the core principles used in interior design.

6. People Centered Designing

People Centered Designing is a free online course is genuinely different from the rest due to its user focused approach to designing spaces that people find appealing. According to the online course outcomes, upon competition of the course you will be able to acquire observational skills, analyze products from a user’s perspecive, and research user experience in the design space. 

Course Topics

• People centered designing
• New products- old failings
• Designing for users
• Design for the average user
• Inclusive design
• Ergonomics and human factors
• User research techniques
• The voices of the customer.

7. Home Design Institute – Interior Design Fundamentals

The Interior Design Fundamentals free course from Home Design Institute is a two month real-time course course with set enrolment dates throughout the year to learn the basics of interior design. These basics include but are not limited to how colour effects moods and which go together, types and placement of furniture and balancing storage and style.

The course includes a selection of real-time classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Becoming an expert Interior Designer can be an overwhelming journey. There is a lot to learn, and the industry changes quickly with new trends. And yet, the success of living your dream is definitely worth the effort. And taking a great design course can help make your experience much more enjoyable. But if a busy schedule and the expensive cost are keeping you from reaching your goals, your time is now.

Any of these free courses can get you on the road to being a confident interior designer.