Today we’d like to introduce you to Fatima Lewis.
Hi Fatima, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was inspired to become an interior designer by my husband, Curtis.
When we met I was a First VP in the compliance department of a bank on Wall Street and a few months later on September 11th 2001, after I walked 4 hours from ground zero to Harlem, he and his brother picked me up and he asked me to marry him.
When we moved into our first home together, I wanted my parents to help me redesign our home, since my step dad is an architect and my mom is a glass artist. Unfortunately, they were not available, so Curtis said I can do it myself. What he didn’t know at the time was I tried DIY before we met and i wasn’t very good at it. However, I completed my first project and I loved it.
We then moved to a fixer upper and I redesigned it from the attic to the basement. Then, after we had our first child, I didn’t want to be on Wall street anymore, so i told Curtis I wanted to move South.
We sold that home and moved here to Charlotte. Once here, Curtis’ job transfer fell through, and he had to stay in New York for a year while my daughter and I stayed in Charlotte.
I decided to take a home staging course and then I started a home staging business, but unfortunately that was right before the crash of the housing market in 2008. So I had to go back to working in financial services.
After we had our son in 2009, I was laid off. During that time. I staged homes for relatives, friends, neighbors, and decorated for events at our church. Anything, I could do I did, but mostly for free.
I finally found another role in financial services. I worked there for several years, then Curtis was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, had an ICD put in his chest, and retired early.
Since, I was going to be the only one in the workforce, we made a plan for me to do what I enjoy. I resigned from my job to go back to school to get a second degree in interior architecture and Design.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
While I’m in school Covid 19 hits and we’re in lock down. My degree was finished virtually. When I graduated, I had 2 degrees, decades of work experience, and nobody’s hiring.
We’ve blown through our savings, our plan is shot, so I decided to start my business as an interior designer.
My daughter was accepted to a new high school not far from where we lived, but it was an opportunity for us to ensure my son went to the sane high school, and we had a fresh start for some challenges we faced. We moved, I redesigned our new home and wrote my book, Bad Design, An Adult Design Book. The book is a parody of design, an outlet of my frustration trying to make it in the industry.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Sage &Tima Designs, LLC.?
Fatima is the owner and lead interior designer of Sage & Tima Designs, LLC. in Charlotte, North Carolina. She designs residential and commercial spaces. Fatima is the author of Bad Design: An Adult Design Book.
Fatima designed the first soul food restaurant inside a Walmart, Skyview22, located at 9820 Callabridge Ct, in Charlotte.
Fatima has a BA in Interior Architecture and Design and a BBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management.
What are your plans for the future?
I will continue to help clients that are transitioning in their lives, whether through marriage, starting businesses, empty nesters, healing, or loss.
July will be 5 years for my business and March will be 2 years since I published my book. Interior design is not just what I do, it is my testimony, my ministry, my purpose, and my story of God’s glory.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sageandtimadesignsllc.net/store
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sageandtimadesigns
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatima-l-b51667173
