Design was her dream and she wanted to make her mark on it. By sheer dint of hard work, Layla S. Khashoggi has carved a niche for herself in the design world. Today she has created her own identity in a career that was once considered exclusively a male domain.
Passionate about interior design and architecture since childhood, Layla carried her passion into her profession. And she derives satisfaction from living her dreams. “As a child, I was into playing and arranging furniture in doll houses and also in my own room, and that’s where I became creative. The shifting patterns inside the rooms allowed me more room for my imagination and flair,” said Layla. “That set the tone. Since then I have always wanted to do something different, creative and artistic,” she explained.
When she graduated from high school in 1998, she had no chance of majoring in interior design since it was not on the King Abdulaziz University (KAU) syllabus. However, in 1999 her family gave her the chance to go to the United States to continue her education and that was the starting point of her career. In 2006, she received Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in interior design from Suffolk University’s New England School of Art and Design in Boston.
After graduating, Layla came back to the Kingdom and took a job at Signature Interiors, an interior and exterior design company in Jeddah. However, she found herself in a place that had gone through many changes during the time she was away. She saw the changes as an opportunity as well as a challenge. “I wouldn’t call the changes difficulties rather than challenges. I considered the challenges as learning opportunities,” she said.
Despite the day-to-day challenges, she has realized that the difficulties she faces everyday are an opportunity to improve her skills and prove her ability. “Things have changed in Saudi Arabia. Since I started working, I have learned to grasp each and every detail around me and this is standing me in good stead in my work. It has also helped me adapt myself to change,” she said.
Getting to know the interior design and architecture market in Saudi Arabia with all its ramifications and requirements after being away for six years was Layla’s main goal. “I dedicated the first few months back at home trying to understand how the Saudi market works. Also, building and defining designer-client relationships was yet another aspect that had to be learned at the beginning of my career,” she said.
Being a Saudi woman interior architect in a male-dominated field is considered in itself a difficulty. “One of the challenges that I still face is defining myself to clients as an interior architect rather than as an interior designer. Some clients question my ability when they see me on a construction site,” she said.
Layla works on the outside structure as well as on the inside design. Her job is to plan everything from scratch. It is a challenge for her as a woman to explain to her clients that she does all the spatial planning and the exterior and interior designing as well.
Interior design is like fashion; it has an incremental development. Everyday there is a new trend. Between the modern and the classic schools of interior design and architecture, Layla enjoys the creativity of modern design but at the same time appreciates the classical school with all its artistic features. “I believe both styles are great when they are applied correctly or mixed appropriately to give us a pleasant sense of harmony. Every style is beautiful as long as it is applied right,” she said. However, the Arabic style is different from any modern or Western flamboyance. Arabs are used to a classical and more carpentered designing with more artistic features. Layla believes she must adjust her designs to suit her clients’ tastes and the end result will be a win-win collaboration between designer and client.
“The first meeting with the client is the most important thing,” she said. “I believe that the client’s satisfaction is the most important aspect to my success. I always aim to understand my client’s needs to develop an environment that reflects the wish for a lifestyle as well as my professional approach to design,” said Layla.
Layla says that there is more opportunity for both men and women to enter the field, especially with the course now being offered in the Kingdom. In 1983, King Faisal University offered interior designing as a course but at that time, it was a new course. It ran well for five years and then it was closed. Now architectural studies have replaced interior design.