Mosima Mpho Ngoasheng makes her strides with Sheeqliving Interiors

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, Türkiye and all those places."

She still had a corporate job then. 

"Shoes were a side hustle. And from there we felt the market wasn't responding very well. We quickly evolved into interior design. At some point we even did events," she says.

In 2003, they boldly launched into interior design, which allowed her the creativity she enjoys, and in 2018 she started working full-time in the business.

"It was very easy for me to transform spaces," she says in response.

She did not study interior design: "My background is in commerce. 

"And I thought to monetise it. I did many family homes – for free, until I thought I should perhaps turn this into a business."

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".

"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 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 to this day.

"We are very proud to say we do a lot of corporate clients," she adds.

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".