International women’s day: Four interior designers we love

Hey guys, welcome to another exciting Thursday on the blog. Today being the international women’s day, we join the rest of the world in celebrating women across the world in our blog post- International women’s day: Four interior designers we love. We celebrate their strong spirit, resilience and will to challenge the ubiquitous narrative of a patriarchal society. It is all too commendable to see women achieving heights that may have been camouflaged as overreaching in the past. Think of every sector in the world now and you will be sure to find a woman driving change and doing the things she was told she couldn’t do. Science, technology, politics, business, architecture…there’s a woman making a change. We have compiled a list of some of the female interior designers we love. From luxury designs to minimalist approaches, we can’t get enough of their designs and how much they have projected the fresh possibilities of design in Nigeria and Africa at large.

Titi Ogufere

Titi Ogufere is the current President of the Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN). She is the CEO/ Creative Director of Essential Interiors Consultancy and Publisher of Essential Interiors Magazine; Essential Traveller and Essential Woman magazine. She also founded the Interior Design Excellence Award (IDEA) and Made by Design show of which she is Director.

She started her career in 2001 in Design Option where she worked for a year. She went on to start up Essential Interiors in 2002, a furniture-making company. In 2004, she went to Dublin where she eventually gained a qualification as an Interior Designer. She eventually returned to Lagos full time in 2017 where she continued to run the operations of her design company.

As a truly revered leader in the Design community in Africa, Titi  Ogufere was elected President Elect of the international Federation of Interior Architects/ Designers which is the world body for the interior architecture/ designers industry based in New York. She will be the youngest and first black president of the world body for the Interiors Profession in 2019.

Eva Sonaike

Eva Sonaike is a Nigerian, London-based interior designer. Her design company named after her is an interior and lifestyle brand that creates luxurious textiles, home-décor and accessories with a distinctive and vibrant West-African aesthetic. Inspired by the cultural mélange of West-African textile tradition and European craftsmanship, a passion for interior design and an exuberant love of colour, the company’s boasts of a breadth of exclusive designs that bring a touch of African luxury to any setting.

With her initial background in journalism, she worked for several years as a fashion journalist for glossy lifestyle titles in London. Her journey into the world of design started after she decided to re-decorate her apartment and make some cushions from ‘ankaka’ fabric. The cushions looked really nice that she decided to produce a small collection of samples with a local manufacturer. With the products loved by everyone, she approached the big department stores in London. And within one year Eva Sonaike products became stocked in London’s top department stores Selfridges, Liberty and Fenwick of Bond Street. She started running Eva Sonaike on a full-time basis from 2011.

Her uniquely designed pieces  combine a traditional ‘African’ aesthetic with a contemporary, luxury style, which many of her professional clients describe as ‘new’.

International women’s day: Four interior designers we love

Temitope olagbegi

Temitope olagbegi is the Md/C.e.o of Sixth sense Interiors, an interior design company based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Her career in interior design can be traced back to her days after graduating with an accounting degree from the University of Lagos. With an unquenchable passion for design, she went on to pursue a diploma in the Sheffield School of Interior Designs, and an advanced diploma from the Ivory Design school.

Undoubtedly one of the top players in the African design industry, her company Sixth sense interiors which was formally established in 2004, is best known for offering unique interior design services and producing aesthetically appealing pieces of furniture and accessories to enhance and beautify spaces.

In a bid to extend her wealth of experience with the design community, she has launched her interior design academy to train interior design enthusiasts.

Osaru Alile

Osaru Alile is an Interior Designer and co-founder of CaxtonAlile Design and CC Interiors Limited, a home products and decoration brand.

With a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Osaru has successfully worked on numerous creative projects in the UK, USA and in Nigeria. During her stay in NYC, she worked as a design assistant with studioLUXE and also as an Interior designer with CetraRuddy Architects. On leaving CetraRuddy, She co-founded CaxtoAlile Interiors and has since successfully worked on numerous residential and commercial projects in the USA and here, in Nigeria.

She is very passionate about creativity, entrepreneurship, education and the empowering of Nigerian Youths. She is also one of the judges of Nigeria’s 1st ever competitive reality TV show “Interiors by Design”

International women’s day: Four interior designers we love