What is the difference between an interior designer and interior architect?

Interior architects and interior designers can actually perform very similar services, but an interior architect is a licensed architect that specializes in interior design. The breadth of skills that can be legally offered to a client is therefore greater where the interior architect can also do structural calculations, site work, life safety analysis and other skills that interior designers are not licensed to do (regardless of how competent they are at performing them). The skills that can be performed legally by interior designers varies from state to state. In some states, for commercial interior projects a licensed interior designer can complete and seal a set of construction drawings. In other states, only a licensed architect can perform this task.

Both interior designers and interior architects should be very skilled at space planning; locating the non-load bearing walls, lighting selection, power and data cable planning, finish selections, furniture selections and art selection.