What will it take me to a professional web design and web hosting?

Learn, Practice & build your own project.

well Jacob what you will need is knowledge.if you want to be a professional in something then go study.cause you don't expect to get up from sleep one morning and you already know everything.more to that there are many free materials(books and software ) to aid you.

Get a client to Design a Web Site for them and from their make your utmost to Design it and ask a client a layout, colour of font, picture to use and you could suggest to, to make it appealing to Web Site and get attention of people who search to view when you publish your work to media.

Practice I would say is your way to being a professional in any creative industry. Make your own project briefs and imagine as if you have clients from different industries. This way you get to make different types of websites and it makes you more experienced.