Interior designer creates a perfect home concept

When Winnie Banage quit her telecom company job in 2018, she knew all her next moves. She understood that her heart beat for interior design that it was not surprising she decided to go back to school to study.

Many years later, the books have paid off, she has since established the Bedazzle Interior in Ntinda, but to practice what she preaches, Banage lets her home décor and design, speak for her work.

“We make our own furniture and wood work. It is easier to practice when you have a place where you can take a client and try and tie a concept together because you have most of the items in the same place,” she explains.

Her home décor ideas are unconventional. The walls are lemon yellow with a touch of burgundy.

“The wall in the living room is yellow. I did yellow for the pop of colour effect,” she says, adding, “If you make the wall brighter, it is easily seen than a dark one,” she notes.

She says, her home is a mixture of four interior designs.

“My approach to interior design is to put ideas I like to life. I have some contemporary designs, for example the tables are classic contemporary. I have a lot of Bohemian silk, then plant life both in the indoors and outdoors,” she says.

Relationship with plants

Banage’s love for plants is not something she simply adopted, it was rather nurtured since she was a child, by her mother, was a gardener who usually brought different plants home.

Like any child, she got curious and like that, her love story with nature started taking shape. 

She says that it is a deliberate choice for her home to have less décor and more plants. She gets her plants from different dealers around Kampala.

Besides plants, the chairs in her lounge are yellow, opposed to the common burgundy, she says this was to make the room more appealing.

Part of her wall décor is of plates and different pictures which she says are all symbolic. For instance, some of the pictures have wild horses which Banage says are a symbol of peace and another one with lions which represents strength.

In her children’s room, she plays with their imaginations with murals of famous cartoon characters and super heroes such as Spiderman and Disney princesses.

Other rooms though have ordinary pictures of her family. She says all of these were taken using smartphones, “We do not take studio pictures because I love moments but moments will not wait for you to walk up to the studio and then take people to pose,” she says.

Safe spaces for children

In her line of work, Banage is keen on ensuring safe places for children as she creates homely spaces. Her approach to interior designing is to visit a client’s home in order to understand them better.

In doing so, she is able to share ideas and harmonise them with what a client has in mind or is comfortable with.

“We try to plan a home design that is safe for children and will make everyone at home happy,” she says.

But in creating safe places for the little ones, she makes sure the approach does not entirely compromise their fun.

“If there is space, we can make a play room and a study room. I try to advise people who build big houses with very little space for their children to play to remodel them to make room for children to be happy. Even if it is a small space, one can find space to accommodate the little ones to come alive,” she advises.

Advice

Her observation is that whereas many people might not see the importance of hiring an interior designer, space utilisation is not as easy as people think.

Banage says that interior designers will help you make your space functional and safe.

“It is better that you have someone to put your house to order. You might have everything but actually you do not know how to put it together,” she says.

And the perception that an interior designer like herself caters to needs of those with big houses, is a myth. She has worked with clients with small spaces.

“My advice to someone living in a single room is not to clutter the room with furniture. People have been brought up to think that to have a house you must have a set of chairs that is wrong. It should purely depend on your space. If you live in a small space, you can have a small three seater or a sectional chair,” she advises.

Banage advises that you can have a plant or art piece but not clutter the room with too many art pieces. Otherwise, the room will cause a dizzy effect.

Additionally, brighter colours such as white, off-white are preferred for small spaces as opposed to dark colours.

Representation

Besides plants, the chairs in her lounge are yellow, opposed to the common burgundy, she says this was to make the room more appealing.

Part of her wall décor is of plates and different pictures which she says are all symbolic. For instance, some of the pictures have wild hourses which Banage says are a symbol of peace and another one with lions which represents strength.