Meet Kseniia Riasnianskaia | Interior Designer & Artist

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

Hi Kseniia, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
My passion for creativity and art was always something that defined me. The way I see this world is through creative thinking process, assessing its’ expressions through feelings and meaningful interactions. It’s like a movie, I am a very visual and sensual person. For me the atmosphere is one of the main aspects in perceiving reality. That’s why creating this atmosphere and environment became my research and exploration project for life. I feel excited seeing how life environment influences the life scenarios. I believe there is a power to change the situation, the way you live, the way you feel through environmental transformation. And I like to observe how these changes are happening. It’s a great happiness and satisfaction for me to see how ideas in my head start to exist in real life through tangible things.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started as a set designer and I loved to work for movies, creating set environments and experiencing the energy of film production. It was very exciting and intense! I created decorations that helped to express the mood, atmosphere, the character and influenced the whole story. At some point I realized that the environment is a powerful tool and that I would be interested to learn and to see how it could influence real people’s lives. I started my journey into interior design, and it completely involved me. I was amazed by the importance of the environment and opportunities it gives for exploring, researching, and developing the way we live and feel ourselves. Everything is connected and when you start to notice it, you can influence it and take ownership. With the help of smart design approaches and knowledge you can create not only the atmosphere you desire, but also the lifestyle. It seems artistic and mysterious, but behind every solution there is a verified rule, calculation or proved theory. I love to see how the creative ideas in my head transform into real life for real people and I feel proud that my skills and expertise helped them to solve their real problems and changed their lives. The construction and remodeling process itself became the magical and the most rewarding part of my job. I was able to work in a range of different types of projects – residential, commercial, educational, healthcare and hospitality. And each field has its own exciting design opportunities. I am grateful and happy to be able to work with great companies and brands. My path to where I am now was not easy at all, a lot of ups and downs, mistakes, and wrong expectations. Being creative you need to put your soul out to the world, and it is always emotional and stressful. I had to learn how to be more confident and less reactive and not let others influence my mood or self-esteem. It is a lifetime learning process. To deal with it, you need to become more and more aware of your value and your personality. I also delt with perfectionism and the feeling that I am not good enough, which sometimes led me to the wrong places or was the reason of missed opportunities. Step by step I am learning to accept myself and be brave enough to get what I want. It was difficult to change careers even within related fields, it was even more difficult to move to another country with a totally different culture, people, even language. Sometimes I felt so lonely on my journey and with so much pressure around. At these moments I came back to the very start, recalling why I started this journey, what I am passionate about, what I love in what I am doing and what makes me be who I am and that gave me energy to keep going. Moving forward, I became more and more excited about the opportunity to address the big problems with the help of design – climate change, wellbeing, conscious living, social justice, and inclusion. I believe that design has a very important mission and there is so much more to explore and to create for the benefit of people and the planet! I am moving in this direction and I never forget about the personal approach and a drop of magic in every process.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love nature with all my heart. When I was moving to Los Angeles to study, the ocean was among the most important factors that influenced my choice. When I am walking along the coast and watching the powerful waves and delicate sunshine on the water i feel blessed, I feel connected and I am healing, the time literally stops, and I want to be in this moment. It doesn’t really matter what beach I am at; I love all LA beaches because I can see the beauty of nature there and stay present and inspired, but one of my favorites is Manhattan beach. I also love Marina del Rey because I enjoy watching the boats floating on the water. I am a very sensual and visual person; I love observing and I always find something beautiful around. I see the reality like through the lens of camera that recording the movie trying to frame the atmospheric scene. As for the entertainment, I love WeHo, it is never boring there and there are nice places to eat, hang out with friends and dance. Melrose is a place for sophisticated and artistic shopping experience.

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?
I wouldn’t be able to go that far without the support of my closest person – my sister twin. I love her to the moon and back and I feel that there is always a person in this world that is going to be by my side even when there is an ocean and thousands of miles between us. In our childhood we always created something together, we almost never played ordinary games, we liked to imagine something and to make it happen. This creativity between us is always so natural, it is like an invisible thread. We were always together and supported each other’s ideas, so that we always had the opportunity to express ourselves. I am also grateful to my grandma who never limited us on that and believed that it is important. That helped me to develop my creativity and to believe that the world is magical and that everything is possible. Because you can never make it alone, when life gets hard there should be someone who will believe in you and your dreams even if you are about to give up.

Website: www.ksenia-design.com

Instagram: @interiorsandbeauty

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kseniia-riasnianskaia/