Members of Liberty’s Interior Design Association practice technical and creative skills of interior design

 Up on the fourth floor of DeMoss lies a world that can only be described as real-life Pinterest. 

Walking into an Interior Design Association meeting feels like being thrown into an alternate universe with tons of beautiful fresh-faced girls with braids in their hair, working on what appears to be crafts and mood boards. There are flowers and sugar cookies everywhere. Everyone is chatting and smiling in the most welcoming manner. The association makes their meetings feel more like a party. 

Interior design is more than HGTV and Chip and Joanna Gaines or deciding what neutral shades of gray go best in an off-white kitchen. According to Alyssa Cirillo, a senior Interior Design major, she was drawn to the creative major because of the skills needed. 

“I chose it because I love interior architecture and luxury design,” Cirillo said. “I hope to redo houses one day too.” 

Sophomore Emily Engle found interest in interior design at an early age. 

“It has always been something I was interested in,” Engle said. “When I was a little girl I always loved rearranging my room. That was just always something I enjoyed doing. Once I got older I found out you could make a serious career out of it. One day, I hope to work residentially redesigning clients dream homes.” 

Members of Liberty’s Interior Design Association, many who are majoring in interior design, said they need to have more skills than simply having naturally good style or being creative. 

While “interior architecture” may be a new term for those not familiar with interior design, Cirillo was not shy in explaining how knowledgeable an interior designer must be. 

“It is not just decorating, which is what most people think of it as,” Cirillo said. “There is a difference between an interior decorator and an interior designer. Interior decorators tend to decorate or redo a space with just furniture while interior designers … need to know about things such as building codes and structurally redoing an entire space.” 

She explains how interior designers tend to have a lot more skills and information and are problem solvers but in an artistic way. 

While the program might not be that well known and is still a smaller department, the girls are excited for some of the changes coming to this major very soon. 

“The program has been revamped, and our department is currently working on getting our CIDA (Council of Interior Design Accreditation) which will take our program to a whole new level, which is very exciting,” Cirillo said. 

Cirillo described this major as creative and fun but also lots of hands-on projects that go outside the classroom. 

“It is a lot of independent work and not as many tests and quizzes necessarily,” Cirillo said. “My friend that is a nursing major jokes with me all the time and says I have more work than she does and that is coming from a junior year nursing major.” 

Emily Wilson, a senior interior design and business major at Liberty, is also the president of the Interior Design Association. 

“What I really hope to do is be a designer for both residential and commercial but be able to be the light in people’s homes showing Christ’s love while I’m decorating for them.” Wilson said. “This area of work can actually become quite personal.” 

Interior Design can offer a variety of careers especially for someone like Wilson who has paired her Interior Design major with a degree in business. 

“We learn both the technical side and the pretty side. There really is a lot of diversity in this major,” Wilson said. “It trains you to not only be your own entrepreneur but to have the skills to go out into the workplace and have a very diverse set of skills, such as furniture and décor design and even becoming a buyer and seller of a company like Pottery Barn.” 

Wilson described just how necessary it is to have good communication skills is for a designer. 

“Sometimes you have to go back and forth a million times until you come to a mutual agreement,” Wilson said. “You need to know what they want and be able to cater to a client and remember that this is not your project or your dream and that it is your job to give them the best possible choices and guidance.” 

Wilson is looking forward to a semester packed with creativity and learning for the organization. 

“Our Pinterest Party is one of our first, and always our biggest, meeting every semester,” Wilson said. “This year we will be painting jars but we also want to start incorporating more service projects into what we do. During our Pinterest Party we will be writing Valentine’s Day cards to a nursing home and will also be delivering them in person.” 

The Pinterest Party will take place on Feb. 7 at 5:30 p.m. in DeMoss 4162, and is open to anyone interested in interior design.