Thank you for having me, Iwona.

So, I'm an interior designer and we specialize in high-end residences, but now my company is moving towards commercial projects, especially high-end offices. And I think every single studio has this challenge where, on one hand, you have your passion, which is high-end residences, high-end interiors, and on another hand, you have a business that keeps growing and you see what brings you the most income and you move towards that. I mean, it's simple as that.

We have a lot of European clients here in Middle East, but I worked with Middle Eastern clients and European and there is a huge difference. I think the biggest challenge was to understand the functions of the house because it's a completely different culture. When you're entering Arabic house, you have first function, which is reception. We don't have it in our European houses because European houses are much smaller. The space is much smaller, the scale of the furniture is much smaller. Here, we love big spaces. We love huge, huge living rooms. We have not one living room in the house; we have at least two or three. So we always have a family living room. We don't have one kitchen; we always have two kitchens. One is chef kitchen and one is show kitchen, which is usually not really used. It's there to maybe boil the water.

We also, when we are designing kids' rooms, we don't design it the same way as in Europe. We usually design a play area where we keep all the toys and the kids' bedroom, which is only for sleeping, for relaxing, for clearing their mind after the long day at school. And all the bedrooms, they have their own bathrooms. That was very different for me.

Oh, I didn't know. You're right in all the movies. I noticed. I didn't work in the US so I can only tell from the experience I got here, but it was a shock for me.

Yes, that's true. That's crazy. And, I'm sorry... and the live-in nanny. That was something completely different for me.

Here when we're designing, we're designing the whole part of the house for the service.

I think here it's much more affordable and it's part of the culture. So yeah, that was much different approach to designing the residences for me.

Oh, that's a funny story. So I wanted to become a hairdresser. After the high school, I told my parents who are both doctors, "Mommy, Daddy, I will become a hairdresser."

They told me, "No." And my brother was already studying IT, so they said, "Go for one year, study IT." My Matura, which is the final exam of the high school, was quite good so I was able to get to that university. But after half a year of studying IT, I said to my mom, "Dad, unfortunately... I don't feel it, yeah." And I always wanted to do something creative. I was always good with decorating the house. And I decided to try it. That was it. I was studying for half a year drawing and painting, and I got it.

I would say that, yes. I have a Bachelor degree in Interior Design and Master degree in Digital Arts.

I would say my internship. It was at the very beginning of my career. Ms. Rostocka, she was... she just came back to Poland and she reopened her studio and I was lucky enough through my friend to be her intern. And I think that's how it started.

No, I was already in love with designing, but I think she influenced me a lot. And I saw this powerful woman having this amazing agency, and also she was a contractor at the same time with so much passion. I felt I want to be the same. She inspired me, yes.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And she had so much knowledge and she was very generous to share it with me.

I think a lot of people think this is only... we're only going to the Pinterest searching for inspirations and copy-paste them to our projects, which is obviously not true. We're working on the project starting from the material selection. We love to make cohesive houses. Even if the client would like to have one room classical, one room in this marble, one room in another, we always try to push them towards the cohesive interiors where when one material finds its ways to another. And the scale is very important. For example, if you have a huge living room, you cannot put a small sofa and other way around.

It would look first weird, yes, and secondly, it's not functional. So we start probably from material selection, functions of the interior, and that's often very challenging. Especially in the office space where you have different sizes of the offices and different functions. You can't come up with one format of the room and copy-paste it.

That's true. Usually we have requirements from the client and we know already more or less what they like. And if they're coming to us, they probably saw our recent projects. And I always try to create interiors which are timeless. And I often try to build the space which you can fill with items that are trendy at the moment and exchange them quickly next year or, let's say, in five years. I often use iconic design which never goes out of fashion.

There is this one armchair that I love, and I promised myself straight after the university, if I can afford it, I will buy it. It's B&B Italia armchair, Serie Up 2000.

Yes, I did.

It's a beautiful chair that has a very feminine shape. It represents woman.

Yes, with a womb, and it has a round ball as an ottoman that is connected with the armchair with a line...

Yeah. That represents a child, which is the ball which... you know, like the... what is it called? In the jail, the...

Yes, they had this cuff and the metal ball. Yeah. So it represents that women, jail is home and the ball is the child and this is their...

Yes. And the first design would come only in the fabric that has stripes, white and black, like the prisoners, female prisoners.

It's very deep, but I loved it so much.

It is not that I believe that we women are prisoners of the house, but I think every single woman that gave birth to a child felt like this for a couple of months.

And it's amazing that you can have a furniture that represents that... I wouldn't say pain, but a little bit of truth of the woman life and being a mother.

The best investment... Oh my god.

My master degree. A lot of people nowadays, they skip master degree. They stop on Bachelor. I was lucky enough, I had parents who encouraged me. They're both doctors as I said. So when I finished my Bachelor degree, I was extremely happy. I said to my parents, "Now, I finish my school, I go to work, I don't have to do anything." And they were like, "Bachelor degree? It's not even a higher education." So they're like, "Come back to the university and bring the master degree." And yeah, that's what I did.

In that phase, I got more familiar with the 3D designing. I think it's a different approach. Bachelor degree, you're still a kid. And when you're doing your masters, you have different approach. It was... maybe I didn't get the knowledge that would extremely change me, but achieving that academic title changed a lot in how I saw myself.

Yes, absolutely. I mean... And it is a creative job, so it makes sense, right? I know a lot of designers that they don't hold any degree and they're maybe more famous than I am and they might be better. But just for me, if you ask me for my perspective, I'm extremely proud of that.

So the risky part for me... I'm a 100% owner of my company, so I take the whole responsibility, also financial. And the biggest challenge for me was to hire someone who will depend on the income of the company and I felt a lot of pressure. And at the same time, it was the best decision in my life. So I start hiring.

But you cannot build a business on your own. You have to start hiring and you have to start hiring people that are professional.

Um, what do they mean? I'm always very humbled when they invite me. I'm very humbled that you invite me as your first guest. I'm very happy. And it's always a pleasure for me to share my knowledge and to be a leader in the industry. I'm a woman in the industry that is dominated by men.

It is. I feel that, yes. Absolutely. And I think men are more likely to take a risk.

Than women. We overthink every single step of the process.

I think there will be a huge shift towards AI. We won't lose our job, that's for sure. But it will be completely different process of designing. What I think will be able to design much faster, that AI will be a tool for us, not a competition. You can't change... I think you cannot replace talent.

It will be extremely helpful tool. But do you think... I'm sorry... Do you think that a lot of people will probably lose their jobs? I don't think so. I think it will shift the way we're working at the moment. I don't think people will lose their jobs. Of course, if you look at years ago how they did the technical drawings and now everyone can do it on their notebook... The CAD works on... basically on the potato if you connect it to the electricity. So this will be a completely different way of working. I believe in AI and how the technology is changing so quickly. AI can inspire us. It's incredible what you can do at the moment with it.

Definitely 3D modeling is something that we should all focus on. We have specialists who are only focused on 3D modeling.

At the moment, we are able to show the client exactly one-to-one their future interior.

Yes, you just put your VR glasses and you can have an actual tour through your new house.

I will tell you the most unusual job... Maybe it's a usual job, but I loved being a waitress. Really? Yeah. I love people. So you meet so many people during the day when you're serving food and you always have a chat. I think I learn a lot about human nature. So that helped me to deal with clients.

I was working in very high-end restaurant so it showed me their behavior, how they behave if they're not happy with the meal or with slow service.

Probably. Okay. I mean, why not? You learn a lot of skills in different jobs so, yeah.

So that advice would be: Don't be scared to risk.

I think it wouldn't change but definitely it would be faster to achieve some goals.

I think I have a lot to share but at the moment I don't know. Do you have any other questions?

Yes. I'm working...

So definitely I'm working on a very special project which is office in the industrial area but the client is Belgian and they have completely different approach to the office. Even though it's a factory office, we're making it very high-end.

It means we're using high-end materials but very durable because it's next to the warehouse. And we are designing it from a human perspective. So human is in the center of design. There is not even one workstation that isn't height-adjustable.

But I think I could not work like this. I have to like concentrate on one thing. Either it's running or it's working but not both. The client has their own chef for their workers.

He's taking very good care of his people. It's beautiful. He's bringing European approach to the Middle East.

No, it's not 2027. I think we can... yeah, till the end of the year we don't have any free spots for a new project. But 2026, yes, we can start.

We're not advertising ourselves. Maybe if I will have a bigger team, we'll start, but at the moment we don't feel the need for that. I have a boutique studio so every single project has to be designed by me and overlooked by me. And it's usually the word of mouth. And we have coming back clients. We have developers who are coming back to us and they have unlimited amount of projects.

Oh my god. Sounds so bad.

Yes. No, we have everything very well scheduled and we always add a little bit of time during the program of the project so we can accommodate a new project while working on another one if it's something urgent for clients who are coming back to us.

And in the design studio you have so many people that you need to hire who has to take care of the office, they have to take care of the financials that you're dealing with, the invoicing. They have to check what's going on on site. I like to go on site. I like to see everything.

No, they're very respectful and we work as one team. I'm a team player. Usually when the client has their own contractor, we work very well. And this is something that people should know. Interior design project, it's a living organ, I would say. You will always face mistakes from our side or the contractor side. I've never saw a project that would be finalized without one mistake. There is always a mistake. So me and contractor, we have to be one team. Otherwise, there is no way we can finalize the project.

The design of my apartment... Of your own. Of my own is timeless. I wouldn't change one thing. I can't even change one pillow because I love it so much.

It does. It's... my interior is very Zen. I come back and I don't have to think about anything. That's maybe why I never redecorate. The space is perfect. Very Zen.

I'm trying to build the canvas that they can later add something from themselves because usually women, we like to... we like changes. My work is to design. So when I come back home, I don't have this urge of changing or adding anything. But I know it's... it can be a hobby. So I'm trying to build something that it's easy to change with small accents.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much, Iwona.