Let me first begin by saying, never in my wildest dreams would I have dreamt that I would own an Interior Design Studio. This journey has been filled with lots of hard work, dedication and patience but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It all started 2 years ago when I decided to follow my passion and first love: Interior Design. I was fresh out of University after having completed my bachelors in Biology and ready to take the bull by the horns so to speak.

I knew this was what I longed for because I spent majority of my time in each of my classes on my favourite app: Houzz and when I got home my mother would leave design magazines she had purchased for me that day on my bed.  I was a design junkie and I loved all things interior design. Christmas was my favourite time of the year; I couldn’t wait until my exams were over to begin decorating our home. I followed my design bloggers online and would anticipate their Christmas home tours. The thing I loved the most was HGTV, I loved binge watching shows such as Property brothers, love it or List it, Fixer Upper and Flip or Flop, just to name a few. I couldn’t get enough of those shows, and so, when the opportunity came for me to renovate our family home I was beaming from ear to ear.

I really don’t know what it was that made my parents trust me this much with this project, this was my first ever project and somehow I knew it wouldn’t be my last. We hired an architect who brought my layout to life. My father wasn’t too convinced of the wall I wanted to remove, in fact, I spent a lot of time assuring him this was the best decision and I believe this situation gave me the practice I needed to convince future clients (lol).

I was given a budget and I had complete design freedom, this is the type of job all designers crave… complete design freedom! On demo day, I really felt like I was staring in my own HGTV show and now I regret not taking enough video footage. I was so excited, I didn’t even get a proper before picture and the picture below was all I got. The renovation took two months in total. Once the cabinets were installed I couldn’t help but feel it was missing something and I decided to add mirrored doors with a design on 3 of the cabinets. This design sealed the deal and we were ready for phase 3.

Phase 3 of the renovation was the fun part, going into the stores to choose tiles/countertops, light fixtures and bar chairs was the best part. I sold our old chairs and bought new ones because I removed a wall, I wanted the now open concept living area to flow effortlessly and cohesively.

Once the renovation was completed my parents loved their new space so much and so did everyone who visited the space. I was relieved, my first project was a huge success. That night I prayed for God to direct my path. I asked him to show me if interior designing was the career I should choose and if it wasn’t show me what was.

Two weeks later, I ended up at a funeral of a family friend with my parents. After the funeral, I met up with an old family friend who asked me what my career was. Without any hesitation I replied, I am an interior designer. The words that followed were ones you could never make up “My wife and I are currently building a house and we would love for you to design it” ….