Journey to Becoming an Interior Designer

Often, parents project their unfulfilled dreams onto their children, making the career journey of these young people more challenging. It’s not uncommon for parents to steer their children toward certain prestigious or popular courses, programs, and careers. While these aspirations are valid if they align with the child’s talent, passion, and career goals, the story of Gifty Kukua Ackom, the CEO of Seventh Vine Interiors, offers a different perspective. Her journey is a testament to the power of resilience and the importance of pursuing one’s passion, even in the face of societal pressure. 

Unknown Passion Interests

Kukua has always loved beautiful spaces, especially residential designs, and often wonders how such places come into being. Growing up, she was fascinated with colours, patterns, designs, and everything that makes a room safe and beautiful. Yet, she had no idea about her interests’ name or career prospects. She only knew she was talented in visual arts and wanted to pursue it at high school.

Ghanaian Parents’ Perspective on Visual Arts

If you are a Ghanaian, you would appreciate the fact that visual arts is not a course most parents wish their children to pursue. Visual arts is tagged as a course for non-serious and unintelligent students who failed their West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and have no life goals or prospects. Therefore, not many parents want their children to choose visual arts as a first choice because of the Stigma associated with it. Thus, when Kukua expressed her wish to study visual arts, it was met with strong resistance, and she succumbed to her parents’ wish to study general arts. Therefore, she went to Aburi Girls to study general arts with elective mathematics, though she was not a maths enthusiast. Her passion was for visual arts or creative subjects. 

At Aburi Girls, Kukua always arranged her locker according to colours and patterns. She was fascinated with space arrangement and ensured that her space, regardless of how small, was safe, beautiful, and lively. However, she still did not know precisely what it was and never thought she could one day pursue it as a career. She pursued Public Relations Management at the University for Professional Studies when she completed high school. After completing her undergraduate studies, she worked in different organizations, including hospitals. As a young woman, she also had to transition from living with her parents to living alone, as her workplace was far from her parents. 

Turning Passion into Profession: A Journey to Fulfillment

As someone fascinated with spaces, she arranged and designed her room well, which received many commendations from friends who visited. Consequently, one of her friends asked her for help designing his apartment, and she did. The friend asked for a video and pictures of the place, and when she documented them, she uploaded the video to her Instagram. She received many compliments about how beautiful the place was, and she felt happy about that. Yet, she still did not see herself working as an interior designer or entrepreneur. 

Therefore, when she woke up one morning and got a message from Madam Abena, who wanted her to design her home, she thought of declining the offer. However, upon second thought, she accepted her request. She went to YouTube to learn more about interior design and improved her knowledge to do an excellent job. Unlike the first one, she wanted to do this professionally.  The client was so happy about her work, and it made her feel excited and fulfilled that she could contribute to someone’s happiness and quality of life by providing her with a safe and beautiful space. She posted her work on Instagram and started getting requests. However, she was still working her 9-5 job and doing interior design only on weekends. 

When she was looking for better employment opportunities and could not find any, she decided to do interior design full-time and become an entrepreneur, something she never thought she could do. She had to study how to draw floor plans using Canva, SketchUp, AutoCAD, and other applications. She also had to learn project management, financial management, and negotiation and use her communication skills to succeed as an interior designer. She became a full-time interior designer in February 2021 and is happy she made that decision. 

In an interview with her, details on Mahcap TV, https://youtu.be/0f1MrzSl7ZI?si=Qu2nKUh1Wyp8EfpH she detailed what it is like being an interior designer in Ghana, the support and skills required to succeed, the challenges and how to overcome them and, importantly, what to do to become an interior designer. She also left a beautiful message regarding career choices and entrepreneurship for parents and young ones. 

The story of Kukua is inspiring and worth sharing because it emphasizes that we can pursue our passion as a profession and that every course, program, and career has prospects; it is more about how the individual maximize their talent and potential and their willingness to work hard and deliver quality services and not solely on the course/program/career.  Therefore, trust yourself or your child to carve a niche and succeed in any field. 

By: Huzeima Mahamadu