My name is Ruqayyah Zainab. I'm a London-born, Thornton Heath-raised Interior Architecture designer, digital artist, and founder of RZ Designs Ltd. And if you're reading this, you're arriving at exactly the right moment — because this is where the story starts for real.
I grew up in a home full of love. That part I will never compromise on. But love doesn't pay the bills, and growing up with tight financial means teaches you things no classroom ever could. It teaches you to hustle. It teaches you to work two jobs as a teenager without complaint. It teaches you to look at the walls of your home and think — I could make this better — even when you don't have the budget to do it.
"I didn't grow up knowing that interior architecture was a career. Nobody in my world had done it. Nobody looked like me doing it."
That urge to transform spaces lived in me long before I had a name for it. I watched design shows. I rearranged furniture. I decorated with what I had. But without a roadmap, without seeing yourself represented in an industry, it's easy to assume a career in design simply isn't available to you. Architecture felt like a foreign language — I'd heard the word, but nobody had ever handed me the dictionary.
It wasn't until college, studying art and design, that a single offhand mention sparked something. Architecture. Interior architecture. Something in me went: that's it. I completed a foundation year in Architecture and Interior Design at London Metropolitan University through UAL — and it felt like discovering a part of myself I hadn't known was missing. Every hour spent watching those design shows finally made sense.
I went on to study Interior Architecture at the University of Westminster. Three years. Two part-time jobs running simultaneously — receptionist by day, hairdresser running my own business on the side. I graduated. I was proud. And then I waited for the industry to welcome me in.
It didn't.
"After a year of endless applications, I stopped waiting to be given an opportunity. I decided to make one."
A year of applications. A year of rejections and silence. A year of wondering whether the lack of representation I'd felt growing up was now following me into my professional life. And then — a shift in mindset. If the door isn't opening, you build your own.
In 2024, with no full-time job and no safety net of savings, I started a business on the foundation of two things: an idea and a set of skills. I looked at what I had — a laptop, access to design software, and the ability to create. I pivoted into digital art and launched an online store selling wall art.
I should be honest about something, though. My intention was never to be seen. I'm very introverted — ideally, I wanted to work, earn good money, and spend time doing the things I loved. When I started the business I tried to avoid showing my face, to sidestep the vulnerability that real connection requires. But a few pieces sold. Minor interior projects were completed. And slowly it became clear: I couldn't avoid it. The very thing making me uncomfortable was something I needed to learn to live with, not run from.
I tell myself now that producing and selling bespoke work is rewarding in itself — but being vulnerable enough to share my journey, to show who I am, and to know that it might inspire or help even one other person? That matters too. Maybe more than I expected.
So in November 2025, I stripped it back. Asked the hard questions. And what came out the other side was RZ Designs Ltd — reborn with a voice, a vision, and work I'm genuinely proud to put my name on.
This blog is part of that. Raw, honest, and ongoing. Welcome to the beginning.