From Interiors to Motherhood, Amna Wali Does it All
Interior design is the bedrock of having an extravagant lifestyle and the creatives who manifest that into reality are the ones to look out for. One such person who has a keen eye for detail and has a passion for the creative realms is Amna Wali, owner of Amna Wali Design Boutique. From luxury interiors to bespoke furniture to eccentric design aesthetics, this creative visionary is not only one to make the beauty of space come alive, but she is also a mother and a proud one at that. We got a chance to speak to the wonderful interior designer herself and got to know her a bit better:
1. Tell us more about yourself, who is Amna Wali?
I am a mother of three, which is something I am very proud of, and an interior designer. My main goal in life is to balance out these things. So that’s basically me; a mother, a wife, an interior designer, and an entrepreneur trying to strike a work-life balance which is something very important to me.
2. Tell us a bit more about your brand, what is your expertise in interior designing?
Amna Wali Design boutique, the name itself was derived from our design philosophy which is to create one-of-a-kind spaces along with bespoke pieces for our clients. They’re not something that is massed produced, so if we are designing something it will be for that particular client only. Although we are now also getting into retail as well where we will be taking orders on the pieces particularly conceptualized for our retail clients, as far as our design projects go, everything is tailored to the client’s needs and that’s the reason we have called ourselves a design boutique instead of just an interior design studio.
3. Tell us a bit about your background, where are you from and what did you study?
I am based in Karachi, Pakistan. I have always been here. As kids we were always ingrained into thinking about certain professions as more respectable or realistic than others hence as a young adult I wanted to do something very different, I wanted to be a surgeon but that phased out very quickly in college and then I transitioned into arts. That’s when I discovered that this is something that I would like to explore better and one thing led to another and in a way I stumbled into the world of design. I got myself enrolled in Indus Valley school of art and architecture which is one of the most competitive art institutes in Pakistan. While I was there I enjoyed my time a lot however, I felt that I really needed a little bit more push and a little bit more exposure which is why I chose in my 3rd year to transfer to a university in London, and then I shifted my entire course to Kingston University in London where I graduated with an Honors degree in Interior design. Following my graduation, I came back and started an internship at a renowned architecture and interior firm and eventually joined their team as well where I worked for a couple of years before launching my own brand. After that, I got married and right away embarked on a wonderful journey of motherhood. I had earlier launched my brand because I knew that a new life is going to be demanding after I'm married and had kids and I needed my hours to be flexible without having to let go of my dreams and being essentially who I am. I took it very slowly, it wasn’t a huge launch, it was a small pop-up in Karachi that I had started with, where we had a few selected pieces designed and a few accessories on display as well. Then eventually we grew, we were a part of more exhibitions, and now because we feel it’s the right time to take on better opportunities in terms of the scale of the projects and getting interesting clients to work with we are now launching our very own interior design studio and retail space.
4. What made you want to pursue interior design?
I think I've always seen that around me. All my life, my mother has been really into it as well. Whenever I would come back from school when I was really young, I would see something in the house kept on changing like she would break down one wall and be like this is where we will eat food now and this is our new dining space, and then another day in a few months she would again be renovating some new space. You won't believe me, but I still have that labor as a part of my team. It’s such a great feeling to have the same team that worked with my mom and to share such a great level of trust and comfort with all those people over the years which makes such a dream team for all involved.
5. Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Inspiration is everywhere, I believe. Personally for me traveling is the best source of inspiration; that’s the most exposure you can get, you meet different kinds of people coming from different kinds of cultures, they have different styles of living can really be eye-opening. Even if it's not that luxurious or grand, just the way they live, the way they’ve kept their stuff, the way they styled different kinds of stuff in their houses and restaurants like when you travel when you eat different cuisines, you go out. You see how people have sort of linked their culture to their way of living and how they work. So you pick up inspiration from all this. Then of course the different kinds of experiences that you go through, as a mother, as a wife, the kind of experiences it puts you through really add perspective to one's life that allows you to grow. I feel everyone has a lot of exposure to a lot of things nowadays, but you need to have the ability to absorb it all in. You need to have that eye to draw inspiration from that thing. Anything can be inspiring for me, like this table over here could be very inspiring but you know it might not be inspiring to someone else, it could be to me because of the way I look at it. The way I look at things is how I draw my inspiration, more than where I get It from. Everything can have inspiration..
6. What demographic do you cater to?
Well, we are a luxury brand so I would say that that’s not a very huge demographic in our country unfortunately, I wish there were more people. The idea is more than the age to work with people who give you the opportunity to grow and allow us to create dynamic spaces. As far as age group is concerned, I would say young couples and above. Young people, who are trying to launch their businesses.
7. What's your personal interior design style?
I love luxury, I love layering, even when I see something that’s minimalistic; I understand the concept behind it but that’s not my style necessarily. We are a luxury brand; we use a lot of luxurious materials in our interiors, and we love to layer and make them look grand and bold and beautiful. We love tall ceilings, we love moldings, we love layering our walls with different patterns, and we love our furniture to have that kind of bold textures and colors. I am not scared of colors; I would say we love bold interiors and that’s what we do. Also of course it depends on the client, so if the client has certain requirements or a certain kind of style or taste, we cannot impose our style on them completely; we will take up what they want because eventually, they are the ones who have to live in that space. It's their space, they are investing in it so we have to listen to them we have to incorporate what they like as well and then make it our own.
8. Do you style for offices as well as homes?
We are doing all kinds now. Like I said before, we were not working on a big scale because I didn’t have that kind of space to work from and I didn’t have that kind of time as well. But now, other aspects of my life are a bit settled. I can give more time and I would like to do different kinds of projects, whether retail or corporate, which I have done, residential of course as I have been doing residential. We are not limiting ourselves to any specific kind of interior design work, we are going to explore, and we do sort of look into different aspects of interiors. Different styles, different kinds, depending on the client.
9. What's the process for creating the pieces for your design? How do you cater to clients?
It really depends. At our new boutique, we will be catering not just to the interior design clients but also to our retail clients and so both will have a different process. For example for furniture the client would come into our retail space and choose the furniture they would like and we will help them pick out their preferred fabrics, whatever finish they would like. The item would be available to order as displayed but if they want to customize it, it can be based on their interiors and colors. So that’s for the retail bit. As far interiors go, we first have a consultancy meeting where we discuss what the client is looking for. Once they let us know we come up with different mood boards and the concept design basically. We create the concept, where we give the exact kind of vibe that the interior is going to have. It is not going to be 3D, that comes later. But first and foremost is what kind of vibe we want to create for this client, for each particular room. Each room would have its own mood board and that’s how we first engage with the client and tell them that this is the direction we are going in. If the client likes the direction then we take it further, get into the 3Ds, get into more details of how everything should be and the mood board will have furniture, will have the wall treatments, will have the flooring and the ceiling, everything in it. But then eventually, if they don’t like the direction and they don’t like aspects of it and want changes, then we do redo the mood boards and again present and those are two different directions. After the mood boards are approved we get into the construction set, and we show them the planning. This is how we are planning it, that this room will have this kind of layout and that room will have a different one. Again, if they approve the plans then we get into the construction phase where we get the construction drawings ready for the site. If they don’t like the planning, they of course are the ones who will use it and will be able to tell if it's comfortable for them or not and if they want changes. If they approve on the first go, which is not normal as clients obviously have their preferences, once that phase is out then we can go into the construction phase. Once the construction set is out we have our own turnkey team as well which does the onsite work, but if they prefer to have someone else do it other than us and only want us to design and co-ordinate then we can do that also. After the site is completed, there is a phase where we choose the fabrics of the furniture also, we have a fabric presentation with the client, we have a certain presentation, a light presentation; so we style it till the last plate.
10. Do you work on commissioned pieces as well?
No, I do not work like that, they can give me reference images to see if this is the kind of feel or vibe that we want. But I am not going to copy what someone else has because then what's the point of having me, they can go to a factory and get that produced.
11. Tell us more about your studio, where is it located and when is the launch?
We are opening right after Ramadan, and that’s the plan unless God has other plans and so does our onsite team, which is trying to meet the deadlines but of course, in this kind of COVID situation and then Ramadan coming up and then Eid coming up, things might get delayed. What we are aiming for is right after Ramadan and it is located at Bukhari Commercial where we have a 200 square yard building and we are opening on the ground and the basement floor.
12. Tell us more about the luxury interiors you want to pursue?
Luxury interiors basically give you the kind of budget and scope to really experiment with the different design concepts. It gives you the flexibility of creating something new and not the limited kind of luxury that involves heavy traditional pieces. I don’t really believe in that, that anything expensive is necessarily luxurious. It basically has the kind of clientele that allows you to experiment, which allows you to do something new. At the same time, those kinds of clients will give you the budget that you require to create those pieces because not everyone is going to be willing to spend that kind of money to create something new that they don’t know whether they will like, or they won't like and how functional it’s going to be. There is a very limited market for those kinds of clients, and we want to reach that kind of a market so as designers we are allowed to sort of experiment. Right now, if someone walks in and comes, I’ll know that they want something like the next person who walks in. Everyone wants what the other person has, that kind of mentality is very common and as designers, we see it a lot and we want to break out of it. So when we say luxury we mean we want to recreate something new, we want to work on a much larger scale. When the scale becomes bigger the budget becomes bigger, when the budget becomes bigger it’s a lot riskier, more responsibility, but at the same time it gives you the opportunity to really showcase your talent, what you are all about. We are still waiting for that kind of opportunity right now.
13. Anything else you would like to add?
I feel being a working mother, is my biggest challenge. More than a designer I feel working mums face many issues, be it a mom in any profession, we do not have a mum-friendly working environment. I want to be that person who succeeds in that and a small part of that is I’m building a nursery at the studio as well which is essential for my kids and for any female staff member who would like to avail the space for their young ones. It is to set an example for other women to be successful and say that you can have kids and still be a good mother and still be good at what you're doing professionally.