College Diploma - Interior Decorating

The Interior Decorating diploma is a two-year program in residential and light commercial interior finishes and furnishings.

Coursework covers design principles including proportion, balance and composition, colour theory and application, furniture styles and history, textiles and materials selection, window treatments and soft furnishings, lighting selection and layering, space planning and furniture layout, drafting and drawing for decorating, digital rendering and presentation, sourcing and vendor relationships, project estimating and client budgets, and business practice for decorators.

The line between decorating and interior design is regulatory rather than aesthetic. Decorators work with finishes, furnishings and non-structural elements; interior designers handle building systems, codes and construction documentation, which requires the four-year degree. Decorating is a faster, cheaper entry into the field with a genuine residential and staging market behind it.

Humber Polytechnic — formerly Humber College — is Ontario’s largest public college and a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19376943122). The North campus in Etobicoke is its main site, running technology, engineering, health science, business and skilled trades programs in purpose-built labs and shops rather than lecture halls, with three intakes a year and the deepest employer network in the Greater Toronto Area.

Its field maps to CIP 50.0408 (Interior design). Important: this is a college credential rather than a degree, so it is not exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction — eligibility depends on this CIP field appearing on IRCC’s eligible list when you apply. Humber publishes a PGWP-eligible program list with CIP codes; check it, and confirm with an Apply Study Visa counsellor before committing. IRCC makes the final decision.