Dilini Halvitigala radiates from her stardom in Interior Design
Starting from an amateur attempt to design her newly born daughter’s nursery, Dilini Halvitigala has now become one of the leading interior designers in Sri Lanka directing her expertise in a range of fields from residential to mammoth scale commercial project. Proving that age has no relation to one’s career pursuit, Dilini commenced academically following Interior Designing at the age of 27. This was all after she studied Business Management in Australia and came to Sri Lanka to settle down.
Dilini’s maiden venture into interior designing, the baby room, turned a page in her life, opening a new avenue in her career. With persuasion from her Aunt and Uncle, the owners of Spring and Summer, who were impressed by her first attempt in decorating, she decorated their Nugegoda branch which was a budding start for her interior designing career, which was up to then a mere hobby. This new found interest led her to small time decorating projects which were a learning experience for her. It didn’t take long for her to realize that this was the path Dilini had to pursue as a professional career.
She followed a Higher National Diploma in Interior Designing at Academy of Design which fueled her with academic and professional qualification following which she was employed as a Visual Merchandiser/ Retails Designer at Odel.
Thereafter Dilini joined Westgate International, one of the leading interior designing companies in Sri Lanka, to which she is very grateful for sharpening her mind in detailing of all design aspects and where Dilini got an insight about conceptualising, designing, and implementing. With the professional exposure Dilini received there for one and half years, she started her own Interior Designing Company under Chandraratne Consultancy Services (Pvt) ltd, a family business organisation. During this period Dilini graduated from the Northumbria University in the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Interior Designing, adding once more a promising qualification to her portfolio.
Since then Dilini has built up her professional signa- ture in the field as a leading interior designer who merges modernism in Interior Designing and have accumulated an interesting & diverse client base. Extending her expertise to the likeminded, she has also been privileged enough to provide internships to many students from AOD and other similar institutes during the past few years.
Dilini does not consider Interior designing as a mere exercise of decorating an interior space. Combining her professional learnings from her diploma and degree, excelled by her wide exposure to modern and historical architecture and material through her constant travelling to different parts of world, she conspires to conjoin the client’s requirement with utmost end result that appease the clients necessity. However Dilini does not hesitate suggesting the appropriate when necessary, thereby providing the client with what exactly costumes with her or his intentions.
Dilini has worked with some of the leading corporate sector brands, gaining the maximum exposure in the field required to further enhance her knowledge and skills. She has had the opportunity to successfully execute various projects in all categories of designing such as retailing (Slender, Seasons Exclusive, Urban Living, Mallika Hemachandra Jewellers , Lakmedura, etc) , health care (Sinha Hospital Ratnapura etc), corporate (Union Assurance re-branding, Ceylon Tobacco, Mega Life Sciences, Softlogic etc), hospitality (VJ Business Hotel, Fuga night club, Machang pub, Havelock sport pub, Roots), exhibition stalls (Robiallac, Lions) residential – local and international (apartments and houses). Her latest project, the refurbishment of the ACBT campus was a great opportunity for her to try her expertise in serving the education sector, once more adding a new field to her portfolio. She could be recognized as one of the few interior designers in Sri Lanka who has applied the expertise in such an array of fields ranging from residence to corporate.
Professional experience has been a very interesting & rewarding learning curve for her since graduating. For the past 8 years of her continuation in this field she has gathered experience in the complete project cycle of interior designing, from materials to post analysis of a design. Gaining experience in project management of both commercial and residential schemes had been extremely useful for the development of her career as well. On the invitation of a leading TV channel, Dilini has been enlightening the public on certain aspects of INTERIOR DESIGN and on the demand of the majority, she is now in the process of initiating a course for those who are interested in learning about the basic elements and principles of Interior Design which one can make use of in their daily lives. The course will provide an opportunity to those who cannot spend extensive time and effort on a professional course to accumulate basic understanding on interior designing.
Becoming a professional interior designer is a rigorous process, and one that requires dedication and commitment from the time one is a student. It takes perseverance to be a professional in any field. According to Dilini no one is never late in pursuing ones career path provided strong will and effort and she believes the key to becoming a recognized professional interior designer is this. Interior Designing is not only mix and matching of curtains and furniture as many see it. It is a combination of science and art Dilini concludes in order to provide her clients the most unique of designs.