Online (Flexible)
Professional Interior Design Diploma
Study flexibly online for your Level 3 Diploma with the National Design Academy. Become a professional Interior Designer!
Start Date
Enrol at any time & choose your start date. No term times or semesters.
Entry Requirements
No previous qualifications required to study. Just an interest in interior design.
Study Duration
Online: 8-10 months
Via Zoom: 14 weeks
In-Studio: 12 weeks
Become a Professional Interior Designer
This Professional Interior Design Diploma will provide you with the skills you need to design your own project or help family and friends with theirs, to start your own business or enter a new career and, it will even give you the confidence to move on to study a degree!
No qualifications are required to study this diploma course, so – if you already hold a Level 3 or A-Level equivalent qualification in an Art and Design based subject, you can enrol straight onto one of our online degree courses.
What our Students Say
Course Breakdown
You will study 8 dedicated units during this professional diploma.
Unit 01 - Interior Design & the Role of the Designer
Interior Design & the Role of the Designer
This unit introduces you to the fundamental elements and principles that are common within a successful design scheme and how they are adopted by Professional Interior Designers today. You’ll learn how and why interior design has changed over time and to identify key interior design trends. What you learn in this unit will provide an essential foundation to underpin your future designs. This unit also includes:-
- The 7 design elements of good design
- Interior Design history and contemporary practice
- The role of an Interior Designer and different project types
- Professional presentation boards
- How to write a short design report
Unit 02 - Using Colour in Interior Design
Using Colour in Interior Design
This unit will spark your creativity by giving you the opportunity to play with colour. You’ll explore practical colour theory to enable you to design both historical and contemporary colour schemes. This unit also includes:-
- Basic colour principles and terminology
- The impact of colour in a design scheme
- The psychological importance of colour in an interior space
- Historical and contemporary colour trends
- Creating a successful interior design colour scheme
Unit 03 - Exploring Surface Finishes in Interior Design
Exploring Surface Finishes in Interior Design
This unit covers the wide and exciting range of surface finishes now available to create fabulous interiors. You’ll explore the versatility and impact of materials for walls, floors and soft furnishings and how to use them to create an effective design scheme. This unit also includes:-
- The characteristics and suitability of different materials
- Sourcing and using materials to develop a design scheme
- Practical skills to represent colour, pattern and texture
- How to visually present your design ideas
Unit 04 - Plans and Space Planning in a Professional Context
Plans & Space Planning in a Professional Context
This unit shows you how to plan the space for a room design. From initial sketches to final layouts, you will visualise and present design solutions to meet a client brief. This unit also includes:-
- Understanding the space and the client brief
- Traffic flow and zoning of space
- Developing floor plans by hand
- Creating elevations by hand
- Practical sketching and hand drawing techniques
Unit 05 - Furniture & Accessories in Interior Design
Furniture & Accessories in Interior Design
This unit focusses on the limitless range of furniture and accessories available to the Interior Designer. You’ll learn to recognise key styles in furniture and accessory design and how to select and source appropriate furniture and accessories to meet a client brief. This unit also includes:-
- Understanding of different furniture and accessory styles, historical and contemporary
- Influential practitioners and design movements
- Characteristics & suitability of furniture & accessories
- Choosing and sourcing items
- Producing furniture layouts
Unit 06 - Creative Lighting in Interior Design
Creative Lighting in Interior Design
This unit explores the potential of creative lighting in interiors and develops your knowledge of lighting design, including traditional and contemporary products. You’ll learn how to choose lighting for your schemes and how to deal with suppliers. This unit also includes:-
- Understanding different lighting products and lamps
- Task, ambient and decorative lighting
- Lighting levels for room design
- Cool and warm lighting
- Creating a lighting scheme for a furniture layout
- Applying symbols appropriate to industry lighting plans
- Developing a lighting plan to meet a client brief
Unit 07 - Professional Practice in Interior Design
Professional Practice in Interior Design
This unit explores the diverse possibilities for a career in the Interior design industry and helps prepare you to work successfully in the professional environment, whether this be in an established practice or setting up an interior design business. With a focus on your personal and professional development, you will consider the steps you should take to achieve your own progression ambitions. This unit also includes:-
- Being employed, self-employed and setting up an interior design service
- Portfolio development
- Working with others in a professional environment
- Effective marketing and promotion
- How to charge for your design service
- Studying for a degree
Unit 08 - Professional Interior Design Project
Professional Interior Design Project
For this final unit of the course, you bring together all your newly learned skill by producing conceptual designs to create a wonderful interior design scheme for a new client. When complete, your work will form an asset to your developing portfolio to show future clients. This unit also includes:-
- Developing a design concept
- Creating a colour scheme
- Selecting surface finishes
- Space planning, including furniture and accessory arrangements
- Creating a lighting plan
- Professional presentation techniques
Is This Course For You?
- Have you always loved Interior Design?
- Do you avidly read all the interior design magazines?
- Are you always changing your colour schemes and moving furniture?
- Do family & friends say you should start your own interior design business?
If your answer is yes… then this NDA Professional Diploma is just the course for you!
The NDA fully accredited Professional Interior Design Diploma will help you to start that business you have always promised yourself, and even gain you a place on one of our online degree courses if you decide you would like to study further.
The best part…. you don’t need any previous qualifications to study – just enthusiasm for design!
Flexible
Affordable
Online
Our Learning Eco-System
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Responsive Learning, Designed For You.
Offering a fully responsive learning experience our course content can be opened, studied and enjoyed on any device, from anywhere in the world.
Virtual Learning Studio
How do you learn online, you ask? It’s simple: introducing our Virtual Learning Studio, or VLS for short. This is where you go to access your lessons, assignments, and upload your work.
Personal Tutors
Every National Design Academy student has a Personal Tutor to guide them through their qualification.
You have unlimited access to your tutor and can contact them by email, telephone, Zoom, Skype or in-person as often as you wish.
Student Support Team
We also have a dedicated Student Support and Administration Team to help deal with any other queries such as payments, student loans advice and anything else you may need a helping hand with.
Our Student Helpline is available Monday to Friday from 9.00 to 17:00 (UK Time).
Group Tutorials
All delivered online via zoom, join NDA tutors and like-minded peers to discuss interior design topics, course content and gain valuable live feedback.
As a Diploma level student, you will be invited to course introduction sessions, interior design discussions and also receive advice on how to progress once you complete your course.
Online Forums
Once you enrol, you will also have the opportunity to join our dedicated NDA Facebook discussion group. Student cohorts will often set up their own Whatsapp chat groups to communicate also.
Students enjoy discussing their design projects, encouraging others and offering advice, as well as sharing work and offering top tips for approaching units.
Student Gallery
A sample of work completed by our talented interior design students.
One Great Course, Three Ways To Study
Choose from flexible online learning, online fast-track (zoom lectures) or in-studio fast-track classes.
Most Flexible
Online
8 to 10 months online study. This course offers the most flexibility
- Choose your own start date
- No class commitments, responsive learning from anywhere in the world
- Flexible study, earn while you learn
- No entry requirements
- No exams
Fastest Option
In-Studio
12 weeks total. Study 2 weeks in studio + 10 weeks home study
- Attend our Nottingham or Dubai design studios
- Study alongside like-minded designers
- Flexible study, earn while you learn
- No entry requirements
- No exams
via Zoom
Online Fast-Track
14 weeks total. Online live lessons blended with home study
- 2.5hr live lessons twice a week for 8 weeks + 6 independent study weeks
- Study alongside like-minded designers
- Flexible study, earn while you learn
- No entry requirements
- No exams
What Our Students Say
With the course being online, it was really convenient, as I could fit the course around my children and family life…. My tutor was Simone. The support was wonderful, and she was always super helpful.
Last year, I set up my own online furniture shop and this year I have started an interior design service in and around Norfolk.
Laura Ruddy
Professional Interior Design
The flexibility of the course appealed to me hugely as I knew I’d be able to do the course around looking after my toddler. I was able to complete the modules during the evenings and at weekends.
The VLS and its resources were incredibly helpful. I particularly enjoyed being able to see upcoming events in the interior design field as well as having access to the forums and discussion topics.
Kate Coslett
Professional Interior Design
I actually did the in-studio diploma course in Dubai, but navigating around the VLS upon completion of tasks was easy. Deadlines were good in order to keep me on my toes.
My tutor was fun, intuitive and friendly. Just the way a teacher should be!…
Kadambari Uppal
Professional Interior Design
Online learning wasn’t something new to me; I enjoyed it and it was ideal for my needs of working during the day and studying in the evenings and on the weekends.
The VLS was simple to navigate and easy to find anything you wanted.
Ashley Dawkins
Professional Interior Design
I studied the Professional Interior Design Online Fast-Track course in between working and caring for my toddler. It was challenging, but I loved the course so much, I was willing to fit it all in!
The Virtual Learning Studio was easy to use, and the resources given were brilliant.
Hayley Fellows-Prior
Professional Interior Design
I found the course to be very good if you want to kick-start your career in interior design. The VLS is easy to use and navigate around, which is helpful when studying fully remote.
My tutor was able to offer me support and feedback for each unit that I completed. The Virtual Learning Studio was a massive help for maintaining the communication between us.
Daniel Stasac
Professional Interior Design
I found the course to be clear and incredibly informative. The Virtual Learning System was super easy to use, and I loved getting to know my classmates via Zoom. It was all very approachable.
The communication was amazing. My tutor was super supportive and friendly, with clear advice and expectations for me.
Kim Bunce
Professional Interior Design
What's Next?
An NDA Diploma will provide you with the knowledge and design skills to start your own business, the qualification to progress to higher education or why not both! Find out more below…
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Higher Education
Successful completion of your NDA Diploma provides a guaranteed place on one of our online Bachelor’s Degrees with a generous Progression Scholarship. Degrees are validated by De Montfort University (DMU).
For those who wish to continue their study at an on campus university, all NDA Professional Diplomas carry a UCAS tariff point value. You can top up any existing UCAS points you may have with points from an NDA Diploma.
Diploma in Professional Interior Design = 24 UCAS tariff points.
Careers
The NDA Diploma in Professional Interior Design is designed to help you start your own Interior Design business. Like the Diploma course itself, you can work flexibly for your clients around your family commitments and gradually expand your business.
Many of our Diploma students start their own business and then progress to study for their NDA Bachelor’s Degree flexibly alongside their client projects.
Progression Scholarships
National Design Academy is part of the NDA Foundation – a not for profit organisation for education.
As all profits remain in the Foundation for the benefit of our students we are pleased to offer generous Progression Scholarships to all NDA students, awarded at the end of every course they study to assist them to progress onto a higher level course.
Internationally Recognised
Accredited by AIM Qualifications
All NDA Professional Diplomas are accredited by AIM Qualifications. NDA is the only design school to be able to offer government funding & student loans because our Diplomas are fully accredited.
Course Pricing
Fees and payment options may differ depending on whether you are a UK resident or an internationally based student. Please select the correct tab below.
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Student Loan
Most Popular
£50*
Loan Covers Full Course Fee of £1,645.
* Refunded on course completion
Pay in Full
£1,645
£895
On Enrolment
Spread the Cost
8x Monthly Payments
£120
£960 in Total*
Breathe easy. Spread the cost of your course over 8 months.
*Monthly payments includes admin fee
Pay in Full
One-Time Payment
$1,850 (USD)
On Enrolment
Make one easy payment to cover the full cost of your course.
Save $250 by paying in full
Spread the Cost
7x Monthly Payments
$2,100 (USD)
In total*
Spread the cost of your course.
*Monthly payments include admin fee.
You Can Afford to Study a Diploma Course
UK Advanced Learner Loans (ALL) are the most popular way for NDA students resident in the UK to study as they cover the entire cost of their diploma course.
Loans are not based on income or means tested and most students in England will qualify (Wales, Scotland & NI have different arrangements).
Get Equipped
To complete your NDA diploma course, you’ll need access to the right tools – and we’ve got you covered!