Interior Design Competitions and Awards: A Complete Guide for Designers
6 min read
Interior design competitions and awards serve a purpose that goes beyond trophies and press releases. For working designers, they're a mechanism for getting serious work in front of the right people — industry peers, potential clients, and brands looking for design partnerships.
The challenge is knowing which programs are worth entering, what judges actually look for, and how to submit work that stands out rather than blends in. This guide covers all of it — from global prestigious awards to community-voted platforms like Interior Design Awards (IDA) where designers compete monthly.
Before spending time on any submission, it's worth understanding what competitions actually deliver.
Portfolio credibility. An award designation — even a shortlist or "highly commended" — gives clients a reference point for quality. Most clients can't evaluate interior design the way another designer can. An external award gives them a shorthand.
Industry visibility. Major award programs publish shortlists and winners in trade press, social media, and exhibition catalogs. A strong submission gets seen by editors, brands, and other designers who may not have encountered your work otherwise.
Honest feedback. Community-voted platforms like IDA give designers something most awards programs don't: real-time data on how a broader audience responds to their work. Vote counts and engagement patterns tell you which projects resonate and which don't, independent of editorial taste.
Business development. Award-winning designers are easier to hire. "Our principal designer is an award-winning interior designer" is a straightforward credential that converts at the proposal stage.
Not all awards programs are the same. Understanding the different formats helps you choose where to invest your submission energy.
Jury-decided awards rely on a panel of industry experts — architects, editors, designers, brand representatives — who evaluate submissions against stated criteria. These are the most prestigious and the hardest to enter competitively. Examples include the SBID International Design Awards, the A' Design Award, and the Interior Design Magazine Best of Year Awards.
Community-voted platforms allow submissions to be voted on by a broader audience of designers, homeowners, and enthusiasts. The result is a more democratic form of recognition — and often more commercially useful feedback. Interior Design Awards (IDA) operates on this model, with monthly competitions across 17 room categories.
Publication-based awards are run by trade magazines and media companies. Interior Design Magazine's HiP Awards and Best of Year Awards fall into this category. They carry significant brand value because they're associated with authoritative editorial voices.
Regional and specialized awards focus on specific geographies or room types. These are often less competitive at the entry level and can be highly effective for designers building reputations in specific markets.
SBID International Design Awards (UK)
One of the most respected global programs. Covers residential, commercial, hospitality, and retail categories. Judged by a panel of international industry experts. Submission open to professional designers worldwide.
A' Design Award (Italy/International)
A large-scale international program covering multiple design disciplines including interior design. Multiple award tiers from bronze to platinum. Strong on international reach and publication. Entry fees apply.
Interior Design Magazine Best of Year Awards (USA)
The BOY awards are highly respected in the North American market. Published in Interior Design Magazine, one of the industry's most authoritative trade publications. Judged by editors and industry professionals.
Andrew Martin International Interior Designer of the Year
One of the most prestigious individual designer awards. Focuses on design excellence across residential projects globally. Winners are featured in the annual Andrew Martin Interior Design Review.
Architizer A+Awards
Covers architecture and interior design. Strong on hospitality, commercial, and residential design. International scope with significant press reach.
Interior Design Awards (IDA) — maestroida.com
A monthly community-voted platform where designers submit room projects across 17 categories including Bathroom, Kitchen, Bedroom, Living Room, and Home Office. The community votes, and the top 3 designers each month earn cash rewards and recognition. Free to enter. Open to designers worldwide. Unlike annual jury awards, IDA gives designers monthly feedback cycles and ongoing visibility.
Whether the program uses expert juries or community voting, the submissions that perform best share certain qualities.
A clear design intention. The strongest submissions communicate a point of view — what problem was being solved, what experience was being created, what the designer was thinking.
Photography that serves the work. In competitions, the work is only as good as the photography. Poor photography of a great project will consistently underperform good photography of an average one.
Material and detail quality. Juries and community voters alike respond to rooms where the material choices are clearly considered — where the countertop, the hardware, the lighting, and the textiles form a coherent material language.
Spatial intelligence. How does the room handle its actual constraints? A small bathroom that feels generous, an open-plan kitchen that maintains distinct zones — these spatial achievements are immediately visible to anyone who works with space professionally.
IDA is designed to be straightforward to enter. Here's how it works:
Step 1 — Create your profile. Register at maestroida.com and set up your designer profile. This is your public-facing presence on the platform.
Step 2 — Select your project. Choose a room project you want to submit. It can be a recently completed project or a strong portfolio piece. IDA accepts projects across 17 categories: Bathroom, Kitchen, Bedroom, Living Room, Home Office, Dining Room, Outdoor, and more.
Step 3 — Submit your space. Upload your project photos, add a title and description that explains your design intention, and choose the appropriate category.
Step 4 — The community votes. Your project is live on the platform. The IDA community — designers, homeowners, and design enthusiasts — votes on submissions throughout the month.
Step 5 — Top 3 win. At the end of each month, the top 3 submissions in each category earn recognition and cash rewards.
There are no entry fees. The submission process takes approximately 5 minutes.
Submit your best project, not your most recent one. The temptation is always to submit the project you just finished. The better choice is the project that best represents your design thinking, regardless of when it was completed.
Invest in photography before submission season. A professional shoot amortizes across every program you enter. The same photos can be submitted to multiple competitions.
Write a submission statement that explains rather than describes. "This bathroom features dark marble and brass fixtures" describes. "This bathroom was designed as a neuroaesthetic sanctuary — the dark palette and organic forms are specific responses to the client's stated need for a space that counteracts ambient anxiety" explains.
Enter multiple programs simultaneously. IDA for monthly community feedback and ongoing visibility. SBID or A' for jury recognition and press coverage. They serve different purposes and are not in competition with each other.
The most significant shift in interior design recognition over the past few years is the democratization of visibility. Historically, getting recognized required access to editorial gatekeepers — editors, jury chairs, publication relationships. That access was unevenly distributed.
Community-voted platforms have changed this. A designer in Austin or Kyiv or Cape Town can submit work to IDA and receive immediate, honest feedback from a global community of design-literate voters. The work that earns recognition on community platforms is the work that genuinely resonates — not the work that reached the right person through the right channel.
Interior Design Awards runs monthly competitions across 17 room categories. Submissions are free. The top 3 designers each month earn cash rewards and recognition.
→ Browse this month's submissions
Interior Design Awards (IDA) is a platform where designers share room projects, the community votes monthly, and the top designers earn recognition and rewards. Based in the US, open to designers worldwide.