Start A Home Decor Business - Business Ideas

Updated: September 15th, 2022
Start A Home Decor Business

Please note that the data provided in this article are estimates and may vary depending on various factors, and should not be considered as perfect or definitive.

Are you a talented interior designer? Do you know you can turn your hobby into a side income opportunity? Home décor as a side hustle is a great opportunity to build a brand as you earn extra income. You first need to work on your portfolio to launch a successful home décor side hustle.

The portfolio communicates to your potential customers your potential when it comes to home décor. You may use your home as an example or request a friend for an opportunity to do their home décor as a sample for your portfolio. Once you have a portfolio, market your business, and remember to include photos from your previous gigs to increase the chances of closing a sale.

Starting a home decor business requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.

If you're interested in how to sell home decor, or selling home decor online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.

Want to learn more? You can check out our full guide on how to start a home decor business ➜

Key Stats

revenue (monthly)
$8.5K
starting costs
$34.6K
gross margin
32%
avg product price
$45
time to build
270 days
growth
SEO
business model
E-Commerce
time investment
Full time

Startup Costs

Min Startup Costs Max Startup Costs

Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$5,600

$20,400

Retail Business Expenses

$1,250

$11,650

Inventory Expenses

$350

$14,750

Software Expenses

$162

$3,094

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$4,636

Total Startup Costs

$7,811

$69,097

Successful Businesses

Business URL Rank

French Italian LLC

instagram.com/frenchitalianhomedecor

25

Crate and Barrel

crateandbarrel.com

3,811

AllModern

allmodern.com

6,566

Furniture, Home Decor, Rugs, Unique Gifts

worldmarket.com

8,094

CB2

cb2.com

8,391

Article

article.com

9,481

Oriental Trading

orientaltrading.com

12,079

Temple & Webster

templeandwebster.com.au

14,193

Birch Lane

birchlane.com

15,636

Floor & Decor: High Quality Flooring and Tile

flooranddecor.com

16,538

ELLE Decor

elledecor.com

18,640

Pros & Cons

Pros Description

Ability to start your business from home

It's not necessary to have a physical storefront or office space to get your business started. You can do everything from the comfort of your own home, at least in the beginning!

Rewarding work

Starting a home decor business can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.

Quick build time

The average time it takes to build your product is quick - typically around 9 months. This will allow you to bring your product to market faster.

Amazing perks and discounts

Working in the home decor business comes with its perks! As a seller for these products/services, you typically also get to enjoy industry perks and discounts.

You are your own boss!

With starting a home decor business, you are the one to make decisions for almost all of the operations. Calling the shots can be empowering and liberating!

Location is everything!

When operating a physical storefront, the location often speaks for itself and serves as it's very own marketing tool! It's important to choose a location in a high traffic area so you can spark curiosity and get people through your door!

Cons Description

Crowded Space

Competition is high when it comes to your home decor business, so it's important that you spend a good amount of time analyzing the market and understanding where the demand lies.

Finding The Right Supplier

Most businesses in this space go the supplier/manufacturer route, which isn't a bad thing! However, finding the right supplier can take a lot of time, energy and trial/error. If done properly, this process can save you months (if not years) of time and energy. More on this below in the "finding a supplier" section.

Niche Market

A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.

High overhead expenses

With starting a home decor business, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.

Work can be repetitive

You may find creating the same product over and over repetitive and tiresome. One way of avoiding this is to diversify product lines and revenue streams - this will keep things interesting!

Time commitment

With starting a home decor business, all responsibilities and decisions are in your hands. Although this is not necessarily a negative thing, work life can take over at times. This can place a strain on friends and family and add to the pressure of launching a new business.

Marketing Ideas

  • 1

    Affiliate Program

    Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in a new revenue stream, especially when you don't sell products or services.

    Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement where a business pays another business or influencer ("the affiliate") a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way.

    The affiliate typically gets a unique link where clicks and conversions can be tracked.

    Learn more about affiliate program ➜

  • 2

    Word of mouth

    Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.

    Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.

    According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.

    Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.

    Learn more about word of mouth ➜

  • 3

    Social Media Advertising

    Social media advertising is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience with the objective to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.

    According to Oberlo, approximately 48% of the global population use social media, and the number is ever-growing.

    Therefore, social media allows brands access to cost-effective advertising by enabling them to interact with a large audience.

    Learn more about social media advertising ➜