Film Career · Set Decoration
Set Decorator
Set Decoration · IATSE Local 44 and craft locals
- Union
- IATSE Local 44 and craft locals
- Day rate
- ~$2,800–$6,500/wk
- Experience
- 5–9 yrs
What does a Set Decorator do?
The set decorator furnishes the world the production designer conceived: furniture, drapery, fixtures, and the thousand objects that make a set read as lived-in. Their buyers shop it, the swing gang moves it, and the on-set dresser maintains it through shooting.
What does a Set Decorator make?
- About $2,800-$6,500 a week (scale around $2,900-$3,400), or roughly $100K-$250K a year.
- Set count and period or effects complexity drive it.
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
On the job
- Design the dressed reality of every set with the production designer
- Direct buyers sourcing furniture, fixtures, and objects on budget
- Run the swing gang installing and striking sets on schedule
- Keep the dressed world consistent through the shooting company's pass
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can dress a world and manage sourcing and a dressing crew
- You know decorating craft and budgets
Soft skills
- You have a decorator's eye
- You collaborate with the designer on how a space tells story
Career progression
The department ladder runs swing gang or set dresser, then on-set dresser, then lead person, then assistant set decorator, then set decorator; the buyer is a parallel purchasing specialty rather than a rung. Decorators build sourcing networks and prop house relationships that become their competitive edge, and strong ones pair with designers across many shows.
A typical path, from entry to the top of the craft. Times are rough and vary by market, luck, and how steadily the work comes.
- Set Dresser· 2-4 yrs
~$50K–$450K+/yr
- On-Set Dresser· 3-5 yrs
~$70K–$130K/yr
- Set Decoratoryou are here· peak of the craft
~$100K–$250K/yr
How do you become a Set Decorator?
Join a swing gang or assist a buyer; interiors, antiques, and retail display backgrounds transfer well. Knowing where to find things, and what they should cost, is the working core of the craft.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by IATSE Local 44 and craft locals contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.