We had the good fortune of connecting with Rima Nasser and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rima, what role has risk played in your life or career?
The biggest risk was starting my business and deciding to follow my dreams full time. On one hand, there’s comfort in having a stable, full-time job while pursuing those dreams as a side hustle. However, I firmly believe in the saying “great things never come from comfort zones.” So, I took a risk that could have jeopardized everything I own and dedicated myself to my interior design business. I never took out any loans and had no backup plans. Today, I think to myself, if I can do that, I can do anything! My advice to others is to take your goals seriously. Take it one day at a time, and invest in yourself. If you do the hard work, things will fall into place.

It’s very important to me to stay true to myself, and our firm’s values, that design should be fun, exciting and daring. We create uplifting spaces that are visually inspiring and easy to live and work in. Reminding myself of why I started the company with these values and goals in mind has been of tremendous help in our growth.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
TEW Design Studio is a diverse, full-service interior design agency that helps clients to form distinctive spaces that are uplifting and highly functional. We design spaces to be fun, visually inspiring, and easy to live and work in.

“Great Things Never Come From Comfort Zones” hangs above my desk as a reminder for all aspects of life. When I’ve gone outside the box, good things came of it. We use this approach with our clients, especially those that may have conservative tastes and ideas for a monochromatic palette. Our clients come to us for our diverse cultural experiences and portfolio of bold ideas. So, they’ve already gone outside the box in reaching out to us. All we need to do is take them one more step, to help them tap into their personality and marry that with their family’s needs.

For homeowners, knowing that their investment in their home interior has helped their family’s daily life become brighter, more comfortable, and more efficient makes us happy. For our business clients, knowing that they are thriving due to a well-designed interior environment that brings in more foot traffic keeps us motivated and innovative!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Interesting question. Our bi-weekly newsletter has a feature called “Local Go-TEWs,” where we share ideas like these with new transplants and longtime residents of our community. Here are some of the places we’ve covered:

1) Raleigh Rose Garden
2) North Carolina Museum of Art
3) Carolina Hurricanes hockey
4) Lake Gaston
5) Jack Smith Park (for kids)
6) Boxyard RTP
7) Winterpast Petting Farm
8) Asali Desserts & Cafe
9) N.C. State Farmers Market
10) Moore Square
11) Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh
12) Durham Life & Science Museum
13) Sarah P. Duke Gardens
14) Duke Lemur Center
15) Mother & Sons Trattoria
16) Eno River State Park
17) Hayes Barton Cafe & Dessertery
18) Andia’s Homemade Ice Cream
19) Dorothea Dix Park
20) Marla Dorrel Park (for kids)
21) William B. Umstead State Park
22) JC Raulston Arboretum

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our TEWcrew! That’s the nickname for our the team in our boutique interior design firm. We have a uniquely diverse design team in an industry known for its traditionalism. Everyone brings their unique perspective from their own multi-cultural experiences and that translates into uplifting design that is fun, exciting, and daring.

Website: https://tewdesignstudio.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tewdesignstudio

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rimanasser

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tewdesignstudio

Other: https://www.pinterest.com/tewdesignstudio

Image Credits
Allie Mullin Photography

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutNorthCarolina is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.