This Is Why The Interior Design Industry Is Booming

The Interior Design Top 100 Giants have reason to celebrate, along with others in the industry.

Total design fees from the Top 100 have steadily climbed since 2010 and surpassed forecasted amounts for 2013, according to Interior Design.

The Top 100 racked in more than $3 billion in client fees after forecasting $2.7 billion for 2013.

For those fees, companies installed 877 million square feet — 20 percent more than anticipated.

But the most surprising number is the total volume of projects, which "exploded" in 2013, according to Interior Design.

"The total number of projects also exploded, from 34,000 to 49,500, which meant specifying fixtures, furnishings, and construction products to the tune of $69 billion, with $20 billion of that for interiors," wrote Wing Leung, at Interior Design.

So where did all of this come from? That wasn't answered explicitly answered in Leung's report but her article did mention the sustainability movement.

Green jobs are generating half of all fees but the number of staffed employees with Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certifications dropped from 35 to 31 percent last year.

That data suggests fewer designers are producing more green square footage (55 percent) and more green products (62 percent), Leung wrote.

Business doesn't appear to be slowing down either. Out of the Top 100, 95 companies projected 2014 to be better than 2013 — the highest volume of positive projections since the inception of the report in four years ago, according to Leung.

The Top 100 were also polled on what markets they foresaw expanding. Outside of the U.S., China led the way with 46 percent of the Top 100 expecting growth. The Southeast Asia, Australia and the Middle East were the other areas where international growth was predicted.

HBA, a hospitality design firm, was the only one in the overall top ten that has almost entirely foreign projects, with 95 percent.