IADT’s Interior Design program attracts creative and detail-minded individuals with a desire to improve the built environment. Students can discover how interiors, when designed properly and inventively, can influence human interaction and emotional response, as well as improve the quality of our lives.

The curriculum encourages students to experiment with form, space, texture and colour, while simultaneously drawing on holistic and cultural references, technical expertise, intellectual disciplines, creative sensitivity, and environmental and global awareness. Graduates can become specialists in the relationship between people and spaces.

Coursework examines the basics of two- and three-dimensional consciousness, the study of human factors in planning interior spaces, colour theory and psychology, lighting, material knowledge and the impact of materials on the environment, and historical references. Visual communication skills can be developed to transmit ideas into three-dimensional concepts. Technical drawing and architectural detailing skills begin with manual drafting and should lead to AutoCAD competency in the second year. Throughout the two-year program, students will apply design theory and conceptual abilities, from the development of simple spaces to complex residential, retail, corporate, and hospitality projects intended for diverse social and economic populations.

This program consists of six terms divided into twelve-week quarter terms of design-specific course study. Students may complete the program in two years or in eighteen months of continuous study. Graduates from the two-year program should be qualified as designers and/or decorators who may practice in the residential or retail areas of design where full knowledge and application of regulatory codes and life safety may not be required.

With a further year of study, students can graduate with a 3 year Diploma in Interior Design that is accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (formerly FIDER) as a professional level program. Graduates of the advanced program will complete the first component of a recommended sequence including formal education, experience, and satisfactory completion of the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) qualifying exam to become Registered Interior Designers by meeting the eligibility requirements for membership in the self-regulatory body, ARIDO (Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario), and to use the title Interior Designer. Students preparing to complete the full three-year program are required to complete liberal arts electives.

*IADT does not guarantee third-party certifications. Certification requirements for taking and passing certification examinations are not controlled by IADT but by outside agencies and are subject to change by the agencies without notice to IADT. Therefore, IADT cannot guarantee that graduates will be eligible to take certification examinations, regardless of their eligibility status upon enrollment.