Associate Residential Interior Designer | Design Build Remodeling

About this role

The Opportunity
At IHR, our Interior Designers are more than designers. They are thoughtful guides who help homeowners turn the way they want to live into beautiful, functional, and buildable homes.
We are looking for an Associate Interior Designer at the beginning of their professional career. This is an opportunity for a motivated emerging designer who has a strong design foundation, a thoughtful portfolio, and a genuine desire to learn how residential remodeling projects move from an early idea through planning, construction, and completion.
You may be a recent graduate, an early-career designer, or someone who has gained relevant experience through internships, residential design, architecture, retail design, hospitality design, or a related field. You do not need to have led projects independently. You do need to bring curiosity, organization, care for the client experience, and the drive to develop your craft within a hands-on, collaborative design-build environment.
You will work alongside IHR’s Project Coordinator, Drafter, Site Superintendent, suppliers, and trade partners. With structured guidance and increasing responsibility, you will support client-facing design work, create design and documentation materials, help organize selections and decisions, and learn how design intent is carried into the finished home.

About Us
Innovative Home Renovations is a residential design build remodeling firm serving homeowners throughout Northeast Seattle. We reimagine existing homes around the way our clients want to live, combining thoughtful design, detailed planning, and exceptional construction in one integrated process.
A successful remodel is about more than the finished home. We are equally focused on creating an exceptional remodeling experience where homeowners feel understood, informed, confident, and in control throughout their project.
At IHR, we believe the homeowner is the hero of the remodeling story. Our role is to understand where they want to go, guide the decisions along the way, and bring that vision to life.

What Success Looks Like in This Role
You will build a strong foundation in how IHR designs, documents, communicates, and collaborates. You will learn to translate client needs and design direction into accurate, organized, and compelling materials. You will prepare thoroughly, follow through on commitments, and ask thoughtful questions when something is unclear.
You will not be expected to manage full projects, own overall budgets, or independently lead complex client or construction decisions. Instead, you will receive mentorship while developing the judgment, technical skills, confidence, and cross-functional understanding needed for an expanding role in residential design.

What You Will Do
Support Client Understanding and Design Development

• Participate in client meetings, site visits, design presentations, and showroom visits with guidance from senior team members.

• Take clear, organized notes on client preferences, decisions, questions, and next steps.

• Help research the home’s existing conditions, architectural character, and design opportunities.

• Assist with concepts, mood boards, material palettes, finish selections, furniture plans, fixture research, and other design materials.

• Develop your ability to understand how clients want their homes to function and feel.
Create Design and Documentation Materials

• Assist in creating space plans, visual presentations, renderings, finish plans, selection schedules, specifications, cabinetry concepts, lighting intent, and other design deliverables.

• Help maintain accurate, organized project records for selections, product information, drawings, and design decisions.

• Coordinate with IHR’s Drafter and design team to incorporate feedback and maintain clear design information.

• Learn IHR’s documentation standards and develop the technical skills needed to communicate design intent clearly.
Help Guide a Positive Client Experience

• Prepare materials and information for client meetings so conversations are clear and productive.

• Communicate professionally and promptly with clients, teammates, suppliers, and partners, with support and review as appropriate.

• Help clients feel informed by making sure questions, decisions, and follow-up items are captured and addressed.

• Observe experienced designers as they explain recommendations, navigate tradeoffs, and guide homeowner decisions.
Learn the Design-Build Process

• Participate in project meetings and site walkthroughs to learn how drawings, selections, and design decisions affect planning and construction.

• Assist in tracking open design questions and follow-up items.

• Learn how existing conditions, material availability, lead times, investment priorities, construction methods, and schedule can influence design decisions.

• Support the team in responding to design questions during planning and construction under the direction of a Lead or Residential Interior Designer.

• Build familiarity with the people, roles, and collaboration required to bring a residential remodel to completion.
Grow With IHR

• Seek feedback, apply it to your work, and steadily increase your design and technical capability.

• Bring a reliable, positive, and solution-oriented mindset to daily work.

• Stay curious about residential design trends, materials, products, technologies, and best practices.

• Contribute ideas and observations that help improve IHR’s design work, tools, and client experience.

What We Are Looking For
We are looking for someone who combines strong design ability with the interpersonal skills, judgment, organization, and ownership required to lead residential remodeling projects.

• Foundation in Interior Design. A degree in Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Architecture, or a related field, or equivalent foundational training and a strong portfolio. Recent graduates are encouraged to apply.

• Design Potential. A portfolio that…