Posted: Mon May 6, 2019 12:42pm
Interior Design as a profession - as opposed to advice on sofas and curtains - does not appear to have the same standing here as in UK. Spanish tastes and ideas are very different. There may be opportunities in large international cities - Madrid/Barcelona - maybe Valencia - but without Spanish fluency, she will find it difficult. Most of the expat residents - of whichever nationality - are usually retired with considerably reduced incomes and therefore not really her target audience. Like everywhere, there are of course, the wealthy, but not in the kind of numbers for her kind of professional design. There are various shops selling furniture and curtains and so on, who , allegedly, offer ‘design’ services, ditto kitchen and bathroom studios. In the main these are not owned/staffed by professional designers. This is not to downplay their undoubted skills; both of these disciplines - at the more upmarket/expensive/higher quality - are specialisms requiring specialist knowledge of products/installations/electrics/plumbing/imagination - but successful people in this area have usually worked in that specific industry for several years to gain the very specialised knowledge. At the run of the mill end of the market, they are mainly salespeople selling boxes and bathroom fittings.
If she wishes to work abroad, she could try applying to architectural practices, or go to an English speaking country - the daughter of friends, who had a degree in commercial interior design, easily found work in Australia, for example.