Sarah’s NCIDQ Certification
There is a lot of indoctrination on a college campus: who to pledge, what to wear, where to live, who to vote for, etc. This list goes on and on! While some of this varies based on your campus or your major, there’s one point that all interior design students learn: Design certification matters. In Intro to Design, or Design 101, they’re not just teaching about color theory or design philosophy. The professors are broadening and correcting the students definition of interior design. The core of interior design is not just making spaces beautiful—it’s about the health, safety, and welfare of the client or end-user.
I hope you look at the Lambert Home portfolio and think things are beautiful, but if the shower floor is slippery, or the kitchen countertops are uncleanable, I would’ve failed as the interior designer! My main job as your interior designer is to keep you safe. Once I know you’re safe, then we can address the beauty! We’ve all seen those posts on instagram of the outlet installed IN THE SINK or of the refrigerator IN THE BATHROOM. The horror!
Certification is important to me because it shows that I’ve got both the education and the practical experience to keep the public healthy and safe. While I was born with a talent and passion for design, I had to learn about the career itself including the codes, best practices, etc.! For the last 12 years, I’ve been working toward my professional certification through the Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ). TWELVE YEARS! I had to work for 10 years to get enough hours as a self-employed designer to even qualify to take the test. Once I qualified at the end of 2018, I could sign up to take the first of three parts of the test. I had to take two parts in April, and pass them, to qualify to take the final part in October.
Y’all. Full confession time. I have never had to study before. In school, I would read it and hear the professor lecture on it and know it. I’m not one of those students who needs to mull over an answer on test day—I either know it now or I do not! No amount of waiting will jog my memory if it’s simply not there! But I had to study my absolute face off for this. I bought test prep materials for the first time. I stressed out for months. I took (and sometimes failed) practice tests!
After the first two tests, I felt pretty positive and encouraged by my preparation but let me tell you about the last part. The test is given in an official testing center where they check your glasses to make sure you’re not a spy and squeeze your messy bun to make sure you’re not sneaking in notes! I’m not! I got checked in, took a deep breath, sat down to my computer, opened the first question….and almost burst into tears! I had absolutely NO idea how to answer the first question. It was something crazy like “Looking at this architectural drawing, how many more fire sprinklers would be required in zone three if the end-user capacity was over by 200% on the Tuesday after the Super Bowl...” Wait. What?! There wasn’t even a zone three. I had no idea how to even begin guessing. Or what math to even try to compute. I thought, “Ok. Don’t panic. Go to question two and you’ll find your groove.” I’m nothing if not optimistic! It was a four-hour beast of a test and I barely finished in time. I tell you all of that to tell you this--I PASSED! I still can’t even believe it!
I am now Sarah Lambert NCIDQ. Think of NCIDQ as a similar title to MD or JD! The Council for Interior Design Qualification has been considered the gold standard for interior design professionals for over 40 years. I am now able to register with the state of Texas as an Interior Designer. The Fall 2019 statistics from CIDQ for their test: 531 designers passed the certification with a 63% pass rating. For your knowledge—the Texas bar exam pass rate for 2019 was 57%. These tests are hard!
I want you to know about this certification because it is designed to keep you healthy and safe! While lots of men and women have great taste, or a great sense of style, they may not have the knowledge or the formal training to protect you and that should matter to you! Everything from accessibility, asthma, or aging in your home are considerations that your designer should be thinking through. In the same way that we bring our legal problems to a lawyer and trust them to take care of us, your certified designer can be trusted to take care of your design problems.
Finally, this is one of the things I’m most excited about as a certificate holder, Lambert Home can officially train designers who are pursuing their certification! This opens up a world of opportunity for us to expand our design team in the future with people who are passionate about design, have or are getting their design education, and are ready to get practical experience.
