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Job burnout among interior designers is a real thing. Burnout exists when you no longer feel engaged and interested in participating in your professional responsibilities, tasks, and obligations. Burnout can result in emotional exhaustion, cynicism about your work, and a reduced sense of personal fulfillment from that work. At the most extreme, it can cause a sense of hopelessness and despondency. That is pretty grim and should not be ignored. It can easily affect one’s mental health, but it can also affect the health and prosperity of a designer’s business. So it is a topic well worth exploring and understanding.

We asked interior designers who subscribe to The Weekly Install® to weigh in on their own experiences of professional burnout. Taken together with what is already known about burnout among design professionals, the responses were very enlightening.

What Did Our Survey Uncover About Burnout Among Interior Designers?

Quite notably, of the designers who completed our online burnout questionnaire, 100% reported they had or were currently experiencing professional burnout!

Equally alarming, 100% of respondents reported burnout symptoms that were behavioral, like:

diminished job performance
procrastination
difficulty mustering sufficient effort to perform job tasks.

Nearly 90% reported emotional symptoms of burnout, such as feeling detached, unmotivated, irritable, hopeless, and like a failure.

Almost 80% of the designers who completed our survey also felt both physical symptoms (fatigue, headaches, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite) and cognitive impairments (forgetfulness and lack of concentration or creativity).

We also asked about additional general side effects of professional burnout. The top responses were:

difficulty concentrating or being productive (90%)
increased length of time needed to complete work (90%)
disinterest in socializing or engaging with others (78%)
irritability that impacts relationships with others (67%)

Clearly, there is a social and interpersonal toll at play.

Top Causes of Burnout Among Interior Designers

When asked about the causes of burnout in their professional lives, the top responses, in order, were:

working too much without socializing or relaxing
overly demanding job expectations
too many responsibilities without enough assistance
no time for self-care
their own perfectionistic or high-achieving tendencies

Ways Interior Designers Counteract Burnout

We asked interior designers what steps they took to counteract experiences of burnout. The highest-scoring tactics were (in this order):

exercising
speaking with a therapist
reducing workload, and
implementing a “no meeting/no call” day during the work week.

These themes emerged again in response to a question about specific tools and strategies used to mitigate burnout. The highest responses were (in this order):

physical activity or relaxation practices
utilizing support systems (coaching, therapy, etc.)
scheduling downtime/vacation time, and
delegating/outsourcing tasks I don't love doing.

What Else is Known About Burnout Among Interior Designers?

In 2014, a study was completed that found particularly high levels of professional burnout, specifically among interior designers (Hill et al., 2014). Although the 130 interior design study participants were mostly practicing in commercial design, there are several notable conclusions that are relevant to residential interior design business owners as well.

This study specifically looked at three characteristics of professional burnout:

Exhaustion: the stress dimension of physical, mental, and emotional fatigue
Cynicism: mental distancing from job interest, indifference and apathy, disillusionment with the profession
Professional efficacy: self-confidence (or lack of) in one’s professional abilities

Although nothing notable was found regarding interior designers’ professional efficacy relative to other professions, the other two dimensions (exhaustion and cynicism) were telling.

Composite scores of interior designers were compared to three other well-documented and burnout-prone professions: nurses, psychiatric care providers, and military personnel.

Interior designers scored higher on cynicism than these other three professions and were second only to nursing on exhaustion.

!!!!

The authors of this study concluded that several unique aspects of the interior design profession led to this discontent:

The endless need to value engineer innovative design solutions (reducing the cost of design features to stay in budget) can feel draining
A lack of appreciation and understanding of the value of the profession and what interior designers contribute can feel demeaning
The repetitive nature of certain design and documentation tasks—replicated for each project and client—can become tiresome
Unrealistic expectations and demands from clients can feel demoralizing

^^^THIS!!!!!

Let’s Look at the Bigger Picture - The Gender Factor

The fact that the interior design profession is a predominantly female profession matters in the consideration of professional burnout. In 2023, Time Magazine published an article called The Secret Tax on Women’s Time about the extra burden that falls on women in our society. Childcare and home chores taken up by women in homes across America equate to five fewer hours of available leisure time each week (for women versus men), equating to almost eleven fewer 24-hour days each year. These unpaid, uncounted, and often unseen tasks that women undertake far more often than men are the things that keep a household and a family unit humming along day in and day out.

Not only does this secret tax on women’s time exist and take its toll, but women also experience higher levels of guilt—feeling pressured to be continuously busy and productive, at the same time as being less likely to delegate tasks to others, or negotiate for adequate time to complete assigned tasks (Howe et al., 2023).

Add in the “grooming gap”—the disproportionate amount of time (and cost!) women spend on physical appearance and hygiene compared to men—and it is no wonder working women feel devoured by what they need to accomplish daily.

Following the pandemic, the term time poverty entered our discourse. When people feel time impoverished, they become increasingly intolerant, stressed, and unhappy.

While a lack of personal financial resources is well recognized as being linked to stress, mental health issues, and reduced well-being; the lack of time is almost always overlooked as a contributing factor. But, as the respondents to our survey can attest, burnout related to overwork is very real!

What Are Effective Strategies to Counteract Burnout Among Interior Designers?

Regarding the experience of burnout, there is actually a lot of good news to consider!!

Small business owners have far more latitude to affect their own experiences of burnout than people who are employees. Business owners can actively control and reduce the factors that contribute to their own personal experiences with burnout.
There are very specific, actionable strategies that can be employed to reverse or avoid factors that contribute to professional burnout. Read on!
When factors that are recognized contributors are eliminated from your professional lives, time poverty and burnout symptoms can be effectively eliminated.

Strategy #1 Establish Schedule Parameters to Reduce Burnout

As an interior design business owner, you need to effectively manage your allocation of time within the work week. And, as your own boss, you can!

Set clear boundaries within your schedule that are never violated! Whether this means no work activities after 5:00 pm, no work activities on the weekend, or just no work activities any time you decide to quit for the day, there need to be mechanisms in place to protect your downtime.
Set your schedule with a life-first approach. This may have been the reason you initially started your business—to have the freedom and flexibility to devote your time to the people and activities that are most important to your relationships, health, and well-being. This simply must be your highest priority.

This may include family time, exercise, preparing healthful meals, pursuing hobbies, having downtime within your week, doing self-care, maintaining a desired level of home organization, and getting all health care appointments scheduled (dental visits, annual exams, vision checks, etc.). will burn out and resent your business.

When family obligations and self-care are neglected due to work demands, the result is guilt, regret, and resentment. This is NOT a good place to be when you are trying to grow a successful business.

Consider these non-negotiables in your schedule. These are at the heart of quality of life, satisfaction, and personal gratification and fulfillment.

Strategy #2 Establish Solid Processes for Key Parts of Your Interior Design Business

Interior design business owners often feel that each new client and project requires a novel process and deliverables because each client is completely different.

NOT TRUE!!

An interior designer needs to have very refined and established processes and deliverables for each.step.of.the.business. You should have a very efficient process established for client inquiries and discovery calls.

There needs to be a set procedure for onboarding new clients, design development and presentation to the client, billing and invoicing, vendor accounts and POs, project implementation, wrapping a project, and offboarding. You get the idea.

Processes need to be well-established, time-tested, well-understood, and likely documented. This not only saves countless hours in executing each project but also allows you to delegate easily.

If you don’t have well-established processes, a good place to start is to do a task inventory of each and everything you do at any given point in your client interactions. This will allow you to understand recurring activities and redundancies that you typically handle.

Read here for a list of the must-have client-facing processes you need to have in your interior design business.

Strategy #3 Set Minimums, Boundaries, and Limits For Your Interior Business

Significant job stress for interior design business owners comes from trying to execute a fantastic project for a client who may not actually be a good fit for your business and services.

This is why it is critical to set project minimums (for instance, design fees begin at $10,000, or projects have a minimum of $50,000 in furnishings budgets). Minimums will prevent you from taking on a client project that may run you in circles for very little profit. ← Essentially, you’ve got to know your “get out of bed number”.

You’ll also want to implement policies for any area of your business where things feel out of control. Often, this is client communication, scope creep, and the entire phase of construction administration.

As a business owner, you can establish whatever parameters and limits you want to your client interactions. Evaluate what will simplify your work week, and communicate those clearly.

One respondent who participated in our online survey about burnout offered this advice:

You don’t have to take on every client. It’s so stressful thinking one day the well will dry up. But the clients who are red flags at the start will ruin your mental and physical health which bleeds into your family. I learned I had to set extremely clear boundaries with my clients. My kids and family are absolutely #1. But I also can’t take care of them (or my business) if I’m not taking care of myself. I have to drink water, eat lunch, exercise etc. These basic physical needs are imperative to being able to run my business!
Anonymous

If any of the three strategies above seem difficult to implement, we help interior designers establish clearly defined services, solid boundaries, and elevated processes in our Designed to Scale® Method Program.

Strategy #4 Leverage Software and Systems to Streamline Operations

Simply put, you can save time and work fewer hours by adding efficiencies to your business.

Fewer tedious admin tasks? No doubt this will reduce stress and feelings of burnout.

This includes setting up software to do redundant tasks, and utilizing templates for recurring correspondence. At a minimum, you should have:

A project management software, such as Asana or Trello
A cloud-based document storage system, such as Google Drive
A product management software, such as Design Files or Studio Designer

More established businesses may also want to utilize a CRM (client relationship management software), such as Honeybook or Dubsado. More about that here and here.

For more information about building software efficiencies into your interior design business, read here and here.

Strategy #5 Surround Yourself With a Community of Support

Being part of a community of like-minded professionals has been shown to exert a positive effect on well-being and to reduce the risk of burnout and its consequences: burnout, stress, depression, and reduced work productivity. This is why Dakota Design Company exists!!

Through The Weekly Install®, the Designed to Scale® Method Program, and The Studio, my company provides interior designers with wide-ranging opportunities to interact with and learn from other interior design professionals.

The sharing of thoughts, experiences, frustrations, mutual interests, and advice can be very helpful and satisfying for anyone experiencing professional challenges.

Additional Resources for Keeping Burnout At Bay:

Working All The Time, But Not Making Any Money? Read this.
Need to Take Time Off from Your Interior Design Business? Here’s how.
Why Interior Designers Need Processes & Systems? Read this.
Want Better Boundaries and Processes In Your Design Business? Check out our Designed to Scale® Method program.

Sources:
Hill, C., Mathews, C., & Hegde, A. L.(2014). Throwing in the towel: Burnout among practicing interior designers. Journal of Interior Design, 39(3), 41-60. 
Howe, L.C., Howe, L. B., & Whillans, A. V. (2025, Jan 25). The secret tax on Women’s time. Time.