#HumansOfHalkin: Meet Jumana Shamma, Interior Designer

April 4, 2019

Every week we shine the spotlight on the people who make us great: our #humansofhalkin.

“Where do I begin? I was born in Italy to Kurdish parents who had been pushed out of Iraq by Saddam Hussein. Their story is incredible, they have lived in Iran and Syria. My father was educated in Romania and then lived in the Lebanon before moving to Italy.

It makes growing up in Greenwich seem a little tame in comparison but Charlton is my home. My parents never got the chance to have a formal education so it’s the one thing they wanted for me.

One of my earliest memories is my father getting me to read twenty five words from the Oxford Dictionary every day in the hope I would become a Doctor. But I never really enjoyed the sciences. In fact, I can remember the day I decided to become a designer.

Somehow I got my hands on a VHS of Frank Lloyd Wright talking about his incredible cantilevered ‘Falling Water’ house and something inside my head went ‘ping!’. ‘That’s it!’ I’ve never looked back. It’s my passion and it consumes my life whether I’m at work or not.

My husband and I are now looking for a home to design. Finally, a nest that we can call our own and then one day I’m going to sit down in it and read all of the architectural books I’ve collected over the years and paint. Bliss.

– Jumana Shamma, Interior Designer at @halkinoffices.

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