Working with an interior designer, whether for your home or for a commercial project, is a personal, emotional and poignant episode in one’s life.

Junaid Khan, Managing Director of Bibi Interior Architecture speaks passionately about design being an intricate part of his DNA.

“There’s no point hiring a designer if the client wants to design the project themselves!
“I have to have that conversation in the first meeting.

“Interior design is not just about putting together colours, fabrics, and then going shopping.
“It’s an emotional journey for the client.

 “I get all sorts of ideas from clients, from wanting aquariums to a waterfall, to emulating a building in Dubai.
“One client’s remit was that everything be more ostentatious than all her peers!

“There are two fragments to my work, residential and commercial.

“Residential projects are more emotional. A simple decision can take up to three weeks. That can be more laborious and arduous than a commercial project.

“The latter are more straightforward. You’re dealing with a budget. It’s far more clear cut.”

Junaid began his trajectory in Blackburn College and admits his time there cemented his decision to become an interior designer.

“The two years of Art and Design at College were the best years of my life. The teachers were incredible.

 

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“Even today it’s a wonderful institution and one of the best art schools in the North West.”

Junaid continued his education with a degree in Furniture Design and subsequently completed a Masters in Industrial Design and Manufacturing Engineering.

“I chose those courses because I like to understand how things are made.

“My approach to designing is a scientific approach. I assess the problems first.

“Good design should come naturally to any designer. I recently completed revamping Kebabish in Blackburn.

“That project should have taken two months, but we managed to complete it in one month!

“I am currently doing the interior conceptual work for a new mosque in Preston, Masjid-E-Salam which will open next year.

“On average I have four projects running simultaneously.  Sometimes my projects are local, in Blackburn, some in London and a couple in France.”

Junaid explains his own inspiration comes from Spanish architect and designer, Antoni Gaudi and the Bauhaus School of Art in Germany, describing it as the ‘godfathers of modernism.’

With over 600 accounts with manufacturers, it is Junaid’s own library that remains his point of reference for all projects.

“I’ll design things that are in my library. I’m quite specific about that.

“My library is an accumulation of years of work.

“A lot of my library is geared towards residential high end projects. There is so much I can do in terms of exploring that genre.

“Bibi Interior Architecture were finalists in the Society British Interior Design award three years in a row.
“We were also shortlisted for the Northern Design Award.

“This journey is exciting and unpredictable. Each project is different. Some are completed in a few days, other can take months.

“I see every project as a challenge fuelled by passion.”