Mosima Mpho Ngoasheng comes to the interview in a fetching red dress.
She runs Sheeqliving Interiors, a name that derives from “chic”. It is not exactly rocket science that she is passionate about fashion, a fact she readily owns up to.
“It hasn’t always been interior design,” she says of her business. “We started many years ago importing shoes from Thailand, Turkey and all those places.”
She stocked women’s shoes, something she clearly has an eye for. She still had a corporate job then. “Shoes were a side hustle.”
“And from there we felt that the market wasn’t responding very well. We quickly evolved into interior design. At some point we even did events,” Ngoasheng says.
In 2003, they boldly launched into interior design, which she says allows her the creativity she enjoys. From 2018 she started working full time in the business.
It sounds almost hollow to ask a woman dressed to the nines like her – “which is me at my coolest” – why she launched into interior design, a field known primarily for aesthetics. “It was very easy for me to transform spaces,” she says in response.
She did not study interior design: “My background is in commerce.”
Breakfast drinks are served and her train of thought is interrupted. “And I thought to monetise it. I did many family homes – for free, until I thought I should perhaps turn this into a business.”
On the recommendations of families, Sheeqliving Interiors gained traction and Ngoasheng began by manufacturing scatter cushions.
She was ready “to take the brand out there” through social media platforms. Her pages look like something out of a glossy property magazine.
Her client profile comprises upmarket homeowners, “people who love beautiful things, quality”.
“A lot of my clients are people trying to learn how this works. People have homes that they don’t know what to do with. This is when I come in to show you how you can style your home. A lot of wives look forward to furnishing their own homes. But a lot of what we do is work no wife can do herself. We have partners in various fields, like designers of tailor-made furniture.”
Corporate clients include, among many others, Gibela, the train consortium and breakfast cereal makers Kellogg’s.
The Gibela project proved to be an exciting challenge for Sheeqliving, one that Ngoasheng cherishes up to this day.
“We are very proud to say we do a lot of corporate clients lately,” she says.
She says they prefer an empty space to work on, what she calls an empty canvas. But some people insist on keeping family heirlooms, for example, “and we have to work around these”.
Ngoasheng says people still think interior design is expensive. “There’s a lot of education that still needs to be done.”
Why should a client come to you, and not do it themselves?
“It starts with trust, she says. “Already with the reputation we’ve acquired, you can trust us.”
Ngoasheng says they work with young families, “whom we understand and know their lifestyles. We understand, for example, that you work from home. We know how many kids you have. It is our business to know our clients so that we can give them tailor-made designs.”
This intelligence is gathered during the first stages of consultation where Sheeqliving Interiors goes out of its way to get to know the personality of a client.
Their emphasis is leaving a client a home that is “not just appealing but functional”.
“We understand pricing is an issue. Previously, interior design was a high-end service. We know our clients; we know where to source our furniture. Interior design can direct the mood of a house. Lighting, colours, textures of furniture can lead to a space giving off a certain vibe.
“You want to come home to a space that speaks to who you are,” says the boss lady.
Sheeqliving Interiors employs a few graduates of interior design “and they tend to be too technical”.
She cannot emphasise the fact enough that interior design is not just about looks. It is not just about pretty pictures on the walls.
“It is a full 360-degree project.”
She also gets their hands dirty while working on an assignment. “We now provide the whole service. Sometimes a client would want a bathroom redesigned. You have to then break things down. It involves a lot of work,” she says.
Project management is also crucial, says the lady in red. “A lot of creatives don’t realise how important this is in interior design.”
Her crew is usually a posse of men doing such work as tiling, paving, painting and the artisans who sit at machines to manufacture interior accessories such as cushions, curtains to all kinds of furniture.
In her down time, Ngoasheng visits beautiful places, finds new suppliers and watches the home channel.
Every home or office deserves a touch of “Sheeq”!
The Star
Don Makatile