Residential Decorating Consultant - 4 Sessions
2026-07-23 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Virtual Classroom
Understandably, over the past few years, attitudes toward our homes have changed significantly, affecting the entire interior design, decorating & staging industry. Consumption rocketed. Revenue in the decorating market exceeded $28 BILLION in 2023 and is forecasted to grow annually by 5.0% YOY through 2028. Would you like to have a piece of that business?
“Perfecting the Art of Decorating” is a comprehensive interior decorating master class designed to excite, illuminate, and empower individuals with knowledge and skills. Whether you are a staging professional wanting to expand your business or improve your work, someone with a penchant for style and décor wishing to start a business, or simply a homeowner wanting to beautify and enhance your own home, THIS class is for you as you learn to evaluate, plan, and decorate residential interiors.
Why Did We Create The Course?
We know many stagers impress their sellers so much that the request comes in to help that same client when they move into their new residence. Decorating or long-term living is different from staging. The RDC program will help you select additional items when working with owner-occupied properties and provide advice as they prepare for long-term living.
The skills learned in this course will also help practitioners who work with seniors, stagers wanting to improve their portfolio, practitioners who work in short/mid-term rental/vacation design, and even those with color certification to expand their skill sets and earning power. The practical, real-world curriculum, garnered from working with clients in their homes, will enable you to work in person and create mood boards or 3D renderings. Objective:
To provide participants with the confidence, ability & understanding to create visually appealing and harmonious living spaces either from scratch or work with what people have while advising on their subsequent shopping purchases. We discuss the full array of tools, trends, styles, colors, lighting, accessories, art, furniture, and placement. You will understand the fundamental elements of the main design principles, how to solve problems, and how to decorate rooms from scratch. You will learn everything except window treatments. Benefits:

Learn and understand design principles and styles
Gain confidence working with color, lighting, accessories, and art
Develop the ability to design & execute complete room makeovers
Learn how to use room planning software for client visualization

Module One: Introduction to Interior Decorating

The role you play in transforming space.
Trends, essential tools, and design styles
What you need to know about sustainable, eco-friendly & biophilic practices, aging in place & universal design
Learning space planning software tool

Module Two: Space Planning

Working with the lifestyle questionnaire
Analyzing the five aspects of a room
Space planning: measuring function, focal point, flow, furniture placement & floor shape

Module Three: Design Fundamentals

Understanding the three design elements
The Golden ratio and how to use it
Scale, proportion, balance, and rhythm

Module Four: Lighting, Accessories and Art

The role lighting plays in creating ambiance and mood
Three layers of light, best color temperature
Size, scale, and placement
Suggested lighting for various rooms
Selecting, placing, and use of accessories and art

Module Five: Color and Texture

Color: understanding the color wheel & various palettes
How to work with existing furnishings and provide a refreshing new look
Color balance, color mapping & healing color
How to work with patterns & texture for depth & interest
Hands-on exercise creating a color palette for a specific room

Module Six: Putting it All Together

Shopping wholesale – list of vendors
A simple recipe for outstanding rooms
Workflow process
Final project and presentation

What does the RDC Training include?

You earn a designation as a Residential Decorating Consultant™ to leverage your marketing,
Three 4-hour sessions with Christine Rae (who is certified in decorating)
Homework project assignments with feedback
Final assignment exam: putting into practice what you learned
Beautiful linen certificate, personalized with your name and the seal of the CSP International Business Training Academy
6 credits toward your Master of Real Estate Staging Designation
Resources, preferred pricing vendors, and wholesale vendor list
Access to the RDC marketing portal with forms for business, graphics for social media, and ideas for creating business
How to work and make money with eDesign Software
Preferred pricing for extended learning in Biophilic Design, Universal Design, Aging in Place, Renovation Project Management, Color certification, and Residential Senior Transition and Feng Shui for Living

FEE: $799 CSP’s: $749
DURATION: 12-Hrs. Four x 3-hr sessions
CREDITS: 6 CECs towards Master of Real Estate Staging designation
DATES:
Thursdays, July 23, July 30th, August 6th, August 13th
TIME:
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST/EDT All Sessions
TRAINER: Christine Rae
Register today!
Residential Decorating Consultant™ Course

Testimonials / Reviews
Hi Christine:
I mentioned I would write you a testimonial for the Residential Decorating Consultant course and notice you are advertising it for June 5th so thought I would get a move on! Here are a few candid thoughts which I hope will help encourage others to take your course.
The Residential Decorating Consultant course was absolutely EXCELLENT!. I have taken a number of Christine’s staging-related courses, but always wanted to learn the decorating side of the equation and this course did not disappoint! The four weekly sessions were packed full of information covering all aspects of residential decorating.This is not just a theoretical course but one which provides numerous real world examples about what to do, and what not to do, and a course which demonstrates the significant impact professional decorating can make.
It was highly valuable to take the course live (online) to benefit from the opportunity to ask Christine questions. I also really appreciated the recordings (to solidify the learning) and the homework! Each week we received assignments based on real world challenges with rooms which we virtually decorated. This is an excellent opportunity to build your skills while having the ear of a practiced expert to provide valuable feedback. With the combination of live sessions, recordings,and homework, I finished the course feeling much more confident about my ability to offer residential decorating as a service. I highly recommend this course if you want to round out your skills and create a new service to offer increased value to your clients.
I hope this helps, Christine. If there is anything you don’t like or would want me to tweak, please let me know.
Have an excellent weekend!
Kate Read
