Interior designer salary and day rates in the UK: ONS 2025 data, pay by seniority and freelance rates

What is the median interior designer salary in the UK?

Interior designers in the UK had a median gross annual pay of 34,962 pounds in April 2025, up 3.4 per cent on the year, across 18,000 employee jobs coded to SOC 2020 unit group 3421, according to Table 14.7a of the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2025 provisional edition).

The mean for the same group was 34,973 pounds, down 2.8 per cent on the year, which places the mean almost level with the median and indicates a pay distribution without a long high-earning tail among employees. The ONS table also gives the spread: 25 per cent of interior designer employee jobs paid less than 26,951 pounds, 30 per cent paid less than 29,494 pounds, 40 per cent paid less than 33,525 pounds, 60 per cent paid less than 36,622 pounds and 70 per cent paid less than 38,722 pounds. The ONS suppressed the 10th, 20th, 75th, 80th and 90th percentiles for this occupation because the sample was too small to publish them reliably.

Full-time interior designer jobs, 14,000 of the 18,000, had a median of 36,485 pounds (up 3.7 per cent) and a mean of 38,597 pounds. For full-time jobs the 20th percentile was 30,000 pounds, the 25th 31,328 pounds, the 60th 38,108 pounds and the 70th 39,928 pounds.

ONS ASHE April 2025, interior designers (SOC 3421)	All employee jobs	Full-time employee jobs
Number of jobs	18,000	14,000
Median annual gross pay	34,962 pounds	36,485 pounds
Mean annual gross pay	34,973 pounds	38,597 pounds
25th percentile	26,951 pounds	31,328 pounds
40th percentile	33,525 pounds	35,081 pounds
60th percentile	36,622 pounds	38,108 pounds
70th percentile	38,722 pounds	39,928 pounds

The ONS annual pay figures cover employees who had been in the same job for at least a year, and all 2025 estimates are provisional until the revised edition due in autumn 2026.

How does interior designer pay compare with the UK average?

Full-time interior designers earned a median of 36,485 pounds in April 2025 against a median of 39,039 pounds for all full-time employees in the UK, a gap of 2,554 pounds or 6.5 per cent, according to the ONS ASHE 2025 bulletin and Table 14.7a.

The hourly comparison is closer at the bottom of the distribution and wider at the top. ONS Table 14.5a gives interior designers a median hourly rate of 16.52 pounds across all employee jobs against 17.96 pounds for all employees, and a 10th percentile of 13.34 pounds against 12.44 pounds. At the 75th percentile interior designers earned 19.43 pounds an hour against 26.07 pounds for all employees, so the profession starts slightly above the national floor and reaches a lower ceiling among employed staff.

Interior designers also work longer paid weeks than the average employee. ONS Table 14.9a gives a median of 39.9 total paid hours a week for full-time interior designers against 37.5 hours for all full-time employees, and 39.8 hours for interior designers across all employee jobs against 36.9 hours overall. Gross weekly pay in Table 14.1a was 648.20 pounds for interior designers against 642.50 pounds for all employees, so the longer week lifts the weekly figure slightly above the national median even though the hourly rate sits below it.

ONS ASHE April 2025 measure	Interior designers (SOC 3421)	All employees
Median hourly pay, all jobs	16.52 pounds	17.96 pounds
10th percentile hourly pay	13.34 pounds	12.44 pounds
75th percentile hourly pay	19.43 pounds	26.07 pounds
Median weekly gross pay, all jobs	648.20 pounds	642.50 pounds
Median paid hours, full-time	39.9	37.5
Median annual pay, full-time	36,485 pounds	39,039 pounds

What do junior, midweight and senior interior designers earn?

Junior interior designers earn 19,000 to 23,000 pounds, midweight designers 25,000 to 40,000 pounds and senior designers 50,000 to 75,000 pounds, according to Prospects, which draws the bands from SBID income data, while the National Careers Service gives 23,000 pounds for a starter and 45,000 pounds for an experienced designer.

Recruiter benchmarks run higher than the public careers services at every level. The Architecture interior design salary guide, which the recruiter states is benchmarked against the market and updated periodically, publishes low, medium and high figures by role. Graduates are listed at 24,500, 27,800 and 29,000 pounds; junior interior designers at 27,800, 30,500 and 32,300 pounds; midweight interior designers at 33,500, 41,400 and 48,100 pounds; and senior interior designers at 47,000, 58,700 and 69,000 pounds. Management grades continue upwards: design managers at 46,600 to 61,500 pounds, associates with 8 years of experience at 64,600 to 80,200 pounds, associate directors with 15 or more years at 78,300 to 95,000 pounds, and directors at 82,600 to 117,900 pounds.

Role (Architecture salary guide, 2026)	Low	Medium	High
Graduate	24,500 pounds	27,800 pounds	29,000 pounds
Junior interior designer	27,800 pounds	30,500 pounds	32,300 pounds
Midweight interior designer	33,500 pounds	41,400 pounds	48,100 pounds
Senior interior designer	47,000 pounds	58,700 pounds	69,000 pounds
Design manager	46,600 pounds	54,000 pounds	61,500 pounds
Associate (8 years)	64,600 pounds	72,300 pounds	80,200 pounds
Director	82,600 pounds	105,800 pounds	117,900 pounds

The ONS median of 34,962 pounds falls inside the recruiter's midweight band and above the Prospects midweight band, which is consistent with the ONS table describing the whole employed workforce rather than the London studio market that recruiters serve.

How much do London interior designers earn compared with the rest of the UK?

Midweight interior designers in London typically earn 34,000 to 48,500 pounds against 28,000 to 38,000 pounds outside London, and senior designers 46,000 to 60,000 pounds in London against 40,000 to 50,000 pounds elsewhere, according to the Interior Designers Hub salary guide, last reviewed in April 2026 and citing Architecture Social 2025 and Haus Careers 2026 hiring data.

The same guide places graduates at 24,000 to 29,500 pounds with London studios at the upper end, juniors with one or two years of experience at 28,000 to 34,000 pounds, London associates at 60,000 to 75,000 pounds, and London directors at 75,000 pounds to well over 100,000 pounds with profit-sharing common at the top. The guide gives no separate regional figures for associates and directors.

Prospects lists the factors behind the spread: location, sector, size of employer, type of project, skills, experience, reputation and professional qualifications, with high-profile prestige projects allowing high earnings. Prospects also states that jobs follow the concentrations of the wider construction industry in cities and large towns.

What day rates do freelance interior designers charge in 2025?

Freelance interior designers contracting into studios were hired at 250 to 320 pounds a day at midweight level, 330 to 400 pounds a day at senior level and 400 to 500 pounds or more a day as design directors or leads in 2025, according to Interior Designers Hub, which cites industry data for that year.

The guide's arithmetic shows why freelancing attracts midweight designers: 200 billed days a year at 250 to 320 pounds gives a gross income of 50,000 to 64,000 pounds, above the employed midweight bands, before allowing for unbooked periods, tax and the designer's own insurance and software costs. Self-employed designers running their own practice charge clients differently: Interior Designers Hub reports 50 to 90 pounds an hour outside London rising to 150 pounds an hour for high-end London consultants, and flat project fees of 8,000 to 15,000 pounds for a medium-scale residential project in the home counties.

Freelance or self-employed rate (Interior Designers Hub, 2025 data)	Range
Midweight freelancer, day rate into a studio	250 to 320 pounds
Senior freelancer, day rate into a studio	330 to 400 pounds
Freelance design director or lead, day rate	400 to 500 pounds or more
Self-employed consultant, hourly, outside London	50 to 90 pounds
Self-employed consultant, hourly, high-end London	up to 150 pounds
Flat fee, medium residential project, home counties	8,000 to 15,000 pounds

Procurement adds a second income line for self-employed designers. Interior Designers Hub states that designers typically receive trade discounts of 10 to 40 per cent from suppliers, and its worked example shows a 15 per cent margin on an 80,000 pound furniture, fittings and equipment budget adding 12,000 pounds to income on top of the design fee. How clients are billed for that margin, and the share of designers using each fee model, is covered in the article on what an interior designer costs in the UK.

Which factors move an interior designer's pay?

Pay for an interior designer in the UK moves with location, sector, employer size, project type, seniority and professional qualifications, according to Prospects, and with the long paid week that the ONS records at a median of 39.9 hours for full-time interior designers against 37.5 hours for all full-time employees.

• Location: the Interior Designers Hub figures put London midweight pay 6,000 to 10,500 pounds above the rest of the UK at both ends of the band.
• Seniority: the Architecture guide shows the medium figure rising from 27,800 pounds for a graduate to 58,700 pounds for a senior designer and 105,800 pounds for a director.
• Sector: Interior Designers Hub names luxury residential, high-end hospitality and commercial workplace design as the highest-paying sectors in 2026.
• Employment model: a midweight freelancer billing 200 days at 250 to 320 pounds grosses 50,000 to 64,000 pounds, against a 33,500 to 48,100 pound employed band.
• Qualifications: Prospects lists professional qualifications among the salary factors; the requirements for BIID Registered Interior Designer and SBID Accredited status are set out in the article on how to become an interior designer in the UK.

How reliable are the salary figures?

The ONS figures are the only ones on this page that come from a national survey of employer payroll records, and even those carry three caveats that the ONS publishes with the table: the 2025 estimates are provisional, several percentiles for interior designers are suppressed as unreliable, and the annual pay figures cover only employees who had held their job for a year or more.

The ONS counts employee jobs, not people, so the 18,000 figure excludes self-employed designers entirely and counts a designer with two part-time posts twice. Recruiter guides such as Architecture and Interior Designers Hub describe asking salaries in live vacancies, which skew towards London studios and towards employers who use recruiters. The National Careers Service band of 23,000 to 45,000 pounds is presented as a guide rather than a survey result, and Prospects states the same about the SBID-derived bands. A reader comparing an offer should therefore anchor on the ONS median of 34,962 pounds, adjust for London or regional location using the Interior Designers Hub bands, and treat the recruiter high figures as the ceiling of the advertised market rather than the average.