Charles Percier and Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine
French designers Charles Percier and Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine are often thought of as the first professional interior designers in the modern sense, conceived interiors under their full control in the manner of modern practice.
Elsie de Wolfe
In 1905, Elsie de Wolfe obtains her first commission as an interior decorator, and is identified as being the first interior decorator. In 1913 she goes on to publish the first recognized book on interior design “The House in Good Taste”
Dorothy Draper
In 1923 Dorothy Draper starts the “Architectural Clearing House” and is identified as the first woman interior decorator to specialize in commercial interiors.
Florence Knoll
Florence Knoll declared “I am not a decorator,” in a New York Times article (September 1 1964). She does not think of herself as an architect either, the author writes. Her stance promoted a more professional image of the interior designer compared to its titular predecessor, an interior decorator. Knoll combined concepts of architecture, decoration and industrial design.