Interior Design & Decorating
Certificate INTD05
Arts, Design & Creativity
Learning Method: Correspondence with online support

This course has been developed to meet the requirements of the interior design and decorating industry. As such, it provides a value-pack, comprehensive foundation for entering the industry. It is packed with practical activities and you will have real interior design planning and decorative layout projects to do. Plus your course includes A fabulous Resene colour kit. In addition, you will have online access to interactive activities in the eLearning Centre to further practise and test your knowledge and skills. And you can talk with other students from all over the country in the Student Forum.

Materials: Your course includes College folder and student case, all modules (tutorials and assignment projects), textbooks, learning tools, tutor feedback and marking, College support, progressive Transcripts of Study, Graduate Awards and final Academic Transcripts, access to the eCampus, eNews, Student ID Pass, and access to educational discounts.

Do you have a flair for colour and arranging furnishings? If you do, then this is a wonderful course to get you started.

Nearly everyone rearranges or designs their home, apartment, office or even individual rooms at some time or other. Some people do it for personal pleasure, others prefer to contract it out to freelance interior designers and decoraters. This opens the door to many opportunities for those with a little flair and some creative imagination, but you don't need to be especially talented. Interior design and decorating is skill you can learn. It involves learning about colour, space, arrangement, mood, theme, how to sketch an internal design and how to use measurements, selecting and sourcing furnishings and planning out rooms. The Interior Design & Decorating Basics Course will teach you all these things. In fact, even though this is a foundation course you can do in your spare time, it is so comprehensive you will feel like you have learnt everythng you need to know to start up your own home business.

Renovation Nation
AUSTRALIANS have an insatiable desire for home renovating, and if they can't work on their own homes they'll get their fix vicariously, by watching others from the safety of a sofa.
One of many television programs to hook renovation buffs is Selling Houses Australia. Each week the show's property experts advise sellers on how they can increase the sale price of their homes by making cosmetic changes to their property.
One of those experts is interior designer Shaynna Blaze, who helps sellers refine the design and decorating aspects of their homes. A former jazz singer, Blaze has been designing home interiors for more than 20 years.
A large part of her job involves convincing sellers to let go of the psychological attachment they have to their homes. "When we start doing things, they get emotional," she said.
"They look around and can't recognise their home anymore. But the houses aren't selling because they're overpriced. We're trying to fix the houses so they can get the original price they're trying to sell it for - that's the objective."
One case in point was a Port Arlington property in Melbourne valued at $920,000 but which the owners had hoped to sell for $1 million. With a central staircase that looked as though it had been built in the '80s, its idiosyncratic style had put off potential buyers.
"There was no way they were going to get that price," Blaze said.
"The layout was very odd. After we did the makeover for around $20,000, it eventually did sell for $1 million."
Although Blaze and her colleagues work to a budget, they're often pushed to the limit.
Mistakes are sometimes unavoidable, even for the experts.
Blaze admits she's had some stuff-ups. A screen she'd bought for 50 cents was decorated with mirror tiles but by the end it was too heavy to move and needed a backing board.
What started as a cheap project of no more than $200 ended up costing $600. "Some clients end up not doing anything because they don't want to make mistakes," she said. "They live in an environment that makes them miserable. 4 But I don't want people to be too scared to change things."
Decorating trends come and go, although these days Blaze admits the cycle is spinning a little faster as fashion and interiors increasingly cross-fertilise.
Of the latest trends, microsuede is out while sustainable fabrics like those made from bamboo are in. Texture is also big.
Now in its second season, Selling Houses Australia attracts a weekly audience of 300,000 and most recently took out two industry awards, for most outstanding lifestyle show and most popular lifestyle show.
"People want to focus on their home because they can control what goes on in their house. It's your oasis," Blaze said.
"Why go on holiday when you can make your home fantastic, so every day is good."

(Wentworth Courier 03/06/2009)

This course covers all the principle subjects and elements usually taught only in advanced courses. You will learn everything from decorating a room to taking a client brief and setting up your own stationary. Of course, you don't have to get started in interior design and decorating as a business. You can simply use the skills and knowledge you have gained to redesign and decorating your own home, office or apartment.

What's more, this foundation course is a great way to test the career and see if it's right for you—before venturing into a longer, more advanced program. It's the perfect way to get yourself started.