What Top Interior Designers Do Differently on Instagram

I spent the weekend running competitive benchmarks for Mixplate's interior design vertical, and the data turned my assumptions upside down. The picture-perfect portfolio posts most designers lead with are probably the wrong bet if you care about engagement and inbound leads.

Here's what the data says the top accounts are actually doing—and what it means for how you show up online.

The Setup

To validate Mixplate's value prop, I'm mapping Instagram content patterns by vertical. For interior design, I only looked at creators who are pulling real engagement and, presumably, converting followers into clients. The goal wasn't to collect "best practices." It was to isolate what actually works for designers right now, backed by performance data.

BrandCulture Dominance

The first punchline: top performers publish 67% behind-the-scenes content.

Not gallery shots. Not inspiration boards. Process content—material sourcing trips, install days, client walkthroughs, the messy middle of projects. The content mix breaks down into:

• 67% BrandCulture/BTS (process, logistics, day-in-the-life)
• 17% Educational (tutorials, tips, how-tos)
• 17% Inspirational (final reveals, mood boards, portfolio)

That BrandCulture bucket delivers a +26% engagement lift versus educational or inspirational posts. In other words, the content you probably consider "too messy" is the content that actually moves the needle.

Why This Works

Your dream client isn't hiring you for inspiration. Pinterest and Houzz already give them that for free. They hire you because they can't execute: they don't know which contractors to trust, how to source materials without getting fleeced, or how to manage a timeline that has 200 micro-decisions baked in.

Behind-the-scenes content proves you can do the logistical heavy lifting. It signals operational excellence, not just taste, which is exactly what a nervous homeowner needs to see before they wire a deposit. The engagement lift suddenly makes sense—it's the content that builds hiring confidence.

Format & Frequency Patterns

A few other patterns jumped out while combing through the data:

• Video-first: 50% of top-performing posts are Reels. The remaining half splits between carousels and single images. Video is table stakes now.
• Humans in frame: 83% of winners feature a person—the designer, team, clients, contractors. Faceless brand content flops.
• Low cadence, high intent: Average posting frequency is just 0.67 posts per week (under three per month). This vertical is about consistent, high-quality touchpoints, not volume.
• Direct CTAs: 33% of posts include explicit calls-to-action (DM for pricing, book a discovery call, link in bio). Soft, vague prompts lose out.

A Four-Week Blueprint

If you're ready to test this, here's the sprint I'd run with a new client:

• Content mix: 2 BTS Reels per week (sourcing, installs, client walkthroughs), 1 educational explainer, 1 inspirational portfolio post every 2–3 weeks.
• Format priorities: Keep Reels tight (15–60 seconds), show faces, use text overlays for silent autoplay, and stack in local hashtags.
• CTA rhythm: Every post should earn a next step. Rotate between engagement hooks ("Save this if you want the vendor list") and conversion prompts ("DM 'Moodboard' for sourcing support").
• Measurement: Track discovery profile visits, DM volume, discovery call bookings, and how engagement splits between BTS and portfolio.

The accounts already executing this pattern are logging measurable upticks in discovery calls within two to three weeks.

What This Means for Mixplate

This exercise reinforced Mixplate's core thesis: generic social advice is worthless. "Post consistently" and "use video" aren't strategies—they're table stakes.

What's actionable is telling an interior designer, "BTS content drives a 26% engagement lift in your niche. You're posting 0% of it. Here are three BTS shots you can capture this week based on your last install."

That's the gap Mixplate fills. We translate real performance data into ready-to-shoot concepts tailored to your business model, customer psychology, and competitive landscape. Cafes, gyms, fitness studios, specialty food—it all changes. Interior designers just happen to win big when they let people see the work behind the work.

If you're curious what your niche's winning playbook looks like, DM me your handle. Let's build it.