How I Created My Own Space In The Interior Design Industry With The Black Home

When it comes to popular home renovation television programs or the interior designers behind the celebrity homes coveting magazine covers, there's a clear racial disparity. The interior design industry has risen to consumerism notoriety as a predominately white space with TikTok videos, Netflix shows, and sole magazines — and Black designers accounting for less than two percent of the American Society of Interior Designers.

However, Black designers are looking to change that reality more than ever, including Neffi Walker, an award-winning Black and Puerto Rican interior designer from Harlem, New York. This profession wasn't always in the plan for Walker, who ran basketball clinics and events for NBA hopefuls. When the constant traveling for work put a toll on her family life, she decided to pivot, and the timing couldn't have come at a better moment as she was getting ready to decorate her newly bought home in New Jersey. She would go from designing her own home to working with celebrity clients like Porsha Williams and Elle Varner, carving a space for herself in the design industry. She is now in the process of opening her home store, The Black Home, in Newark, New Jersey, on Juneteenth, which will sell items like velvet sofas, wallpaper, and acrylic coffee tables.

In anticipation of her storefront, we asked the interior designer about balancing her work as a mother of five, navigating spaces, and starting her own business in an underrepresented industry. Walker shares more about the unapologetic impact she hopes to make in the design industry, ahead.

Purchasing her first home in the suburbs of New Jersey gave Walker a chance to start over and switch her career to interior design. "I felt a little disconnected from corporate a few years prior to changing my career, and I started redesigning my home. That project gave me lots of comfort and joy," she says. Then, she began to further explore this path, which made it all more clear to her. "I found enjoyment in redesigning the homes of my other friends, and that's when I decided to make that into a career," she adds. While transitioning careers was frightening for Walker, it gave her an opportunity to build herself up and figure out what it is that she loved.

Walker recalls what it was like transitioning from one career to another, noting that it wasn't this straightforward, plot-turning moment that gets you from one job to another in just one day as seen in movies. "It was one of those pivotal moments in my life where I felt like I was at the top, and then at the same time, I felt like I was all the way at the bottom," she shares. "It felt like I was living two lives." That's why the interior designer suggests creating and following a plan that best suits your circumstances while working against the doubt that will inevitably creep up along the way — which is what helped her eventually find her place in the industry.

Walker stresses that it's never too late to reassess your interests and pivot your career based on your needs — no matter how many years you've dedicated to a particular industry or how drastic the change is. For those interested in entering the interior design industry, Walker suggests starting within your own home. "Purchase some items for your home, redesign your space to what makes you feel most comfortable, see if your friends allow you to redesign their space, and take loads of pictures," she advises. "As long as you start, try to figure it out, and see how you feel about it. You just have to start."

The 2019 Design Census, an annual brief on demographics within the design industry, revealed that 71 percent of the 9,429 participants, which consisted of designers, students, educators, freelancers, and business owners, identified as white. Eight were Latinx, and five were black. Fueled by numbers like these, Walker proudly affirms her Afro-Latina identity in every space she enters. In fact, her cultural identity also serves as inspiration for her work, including the The Black Home x Verna Fogg wallpaper she designed with banana leaves, influenced by Puerto Rican pasteles.

"I am very black, very Puerto Rican, and I lead with that in everything," she shares. "I made it my business to surround myself with people that could understand and support who I am. I don't navigate in other people's spaces." Instead of navigating underrepresented spaces, Walker urges people of color to build and nurture a network of support and not be afraid of creating their own spaces. 

The inspiration behind The Black Home is one that came from frustration with her design work at home. "Everything in my house was stark white and made me feel like I was in a museum," she explains. "My business represents Blackness from color to culture. Black gets a bad rap. I wanted to showcase how beautiful black is, and that was very intentional and important."

She's continuing that mission by opening up her storefront business on Juneteenth — a day that honors the emancipation of those enslaved in the United States — although the shop has been ready for launch since February, a decision she made based on what the day symbolizes for the Black American community. With the day still not being officially recognized as a national holiday, Walker aims to have her business commemorate it as such, honoring it the same way that other companies observe Fourth of July or Labor Day. "As time goes on, I would love the Juneteenth celebration to be the place where people come from nationwide to celebrate Black culture in the city of Newark, New Jersey," she shares.

Once the store is open, she hopes her work continues inspiring Black people to invest in their spaces and create the comfort she's built in her own home. "We put money into our hair and shoes, and sometimes we miss the boat in making sure that our home and our space feels incredible as well," she tells R29. The interior designer also hopes her business motivates Black aspiring designers and Black entrepreneurs to invest in their ideas even if nobody else is willing. Venture capital currently invests in fewer than 1% of Black female founders, and that's why Walker strongly recommends that women of color find a mentor in their industry and build a collective network.

As a mom of five children, Walker proudly admits that she doesn't have the perfect balance between work and family, but she ensures that she's making time for herself and the kids whenever she can. That's why Walker stresses that you don't have to wait for that "perfect balance" to advance in your career while starting or growing a family — understanding that this comes with access to resources like childcare. 

"Sometimes society can make you feel that you can't dream outside of that capacity of being a parent or mother," she shares. Walker hopes that other mothers of color can look to her and know that they can accomplish their goals while building their families. The interior designer switched her career path, launched her interior design business, and expanded it into a shopping experience with her storefront while becoming a mother of five. "Anything is possible as long as you have a good head on your shoulders and you have goals," she says. Being a Black mother in the U.S. is hard enough with the worst rate of maternal deaths and the pressures of raising Black children in a society that fails to protect or uplift them. Still, Walker won't let the misconceptions of motherhood stop her from being the best mother and businesswoman she can be, and she wants other women of color to feel that same empowerment.