After reading 99 million home decorating and budget decorating magazines, I finally decided to enroll in a design class. I chose "Interior Decorating and Design," one of the core classes in University of Richmond's Interior Decorating Certificate program. They also offer an advanced certificate program... both programs are geared towards preparing students to embark on a career in interior decorating, and are taught by local designers with lots of local Richmond experience. My class was held every Sunday morning for four weeks, and provided a great introduction to interior decorating. It definitely touched on every aspect of design, and I am definitely considering taking some of the other courses that dive deeper into specific subjects (like window treatments, bathrooms, kitchens, etc.) What I liked best about this class was that it focused on classic design principles that allowed me to see past personal preferences and understand what makes good design. It was clearly geared towards training students to work with clients regardless of their personal taste... The teacher of the class, Marilyn Creech, has over 20 years of "industry" experience and is very knowledgeable. She's more of a classic southern belle and she definitely tells it like it is... but she's got some great tips (like how to read a fabric label and how to make window treatments without sewing) and she covers a lot of material in this class. If you are expecting this class to be a crash course in modern design, you'll be sadly disappointed. But that is pretty much the only thing it doesn't give you- you learn how to sketch rooms and how to choose furniture based on proportion, you learn about colors and fabrics and how to measure... and Marilyn is great about answering questions and offering help after class if you are working on a specific project. When I took my class, the other students were mostly women looking to re-enter the workforce by starting their own consulting business... but there were one or two people like me who just have an interest in making their own homes look pretty :) The classes are very reasonable, ranging from $59- $139 per class. read more