24-year-old Lucille Uwineza has a dream of making a mark in the world of interior design. She joined the field early this year and though it’s been only a few months into her line of work, she has deeply grown attached to her profession. Among the projects she has worked on so far, Uwineza, who works with Izihirwe Arts, says her work with residential interior stands out more for her. She had a chat with People’s Donah Mbabazi about her plans and the integral parts of design. Why did you choose interior designing? I would say interior designing chose me because my expertise is in business administration and marketing. However, when I started working with Izihirwe Arts, I discovered that I actually had a knack for design. I would find myself watching some interior design programmes and videos on YouTube. Slowly by slowly, I grew to love it, that’s how I entered this field. I later took on some short courses about interior design to up my skills. What are some of the design projects you have worked on? I started off working on small projects like designing living rooms and offices and with time I accelerated. And soon I will be working on very big projects such as designing apartments. What field of design are you most interested in? The field of design I am most interested in is residential interior. Having a chance to decorate places where people reside is a bonus for me, it gives me a chance to transform a house from just a mere building to a home. What inspires you? My inspiration comes from that warmth you get when you are in a well-designed place. This gives me strength to come up with more inspiring ideas. What does it take to be a good interior designer? It takes passion, courage, skills and perseverance. What are some of the challenges you face as an interior designer? The challenges I get mostly are with resources. At times some of the materials I need are not available here in Rwanda, and even when you get a chance to access them, they are not affordable to the majority of our clients. What is the most frustrating aspect of your job as a designer? When I don’t get the desired goal of what I intended to do for a certain project, it frustrates me a lot because I always want to offer the best of my abilities for our clients. Share something about interior designing that people should know? With interior design, you should basically create interiors that are not only aesthetically pleasing with the use of decorative furnishings, colour schemes, lighting, and materials, but also ensure that spaces are versatile, functional, efficiently laid out, and safe to live within. What advice do you have for young designers out there? The advice I would give to young designers or architects is that they should know that sometimes passion is overrated, instead we should know how talented we are. But most importantly, endeavour to avoid our own desires and listen to our clients’ wants. Another thing is that we should avoid goals and instead strive for specific outcomes. Aspiring designers should also attempt to be good at a variety of things. Where do you see the future of design? There are various waves of changes in this field, such a change of environment gives us room for variety and this, on the other hand, is leading us to a better growth in our field.
