Sagrika Saraf — Designing Success Through Inspired Spaces

The library at DPS Badhani in Punjab’s Pathankot wasn't where Sagrika Saraf expected to find her calling. The boarding school and its hostel rules were strict, and as a Science student on the well-trodden path to medical school, she was doing exactly what was expected of a top student from a small-town family everyone knew.

But tucked between the rigid schedules and endless rules, the library became her sanctuary. And there, in stacks of Inside Outside magazines, she found something that made her heart race in a way textbooks never had.

"It was so calming for me to read about different interiors," Sagrika recalls. "That's where it struck me: I did not want to become a doctor anymore.’ That’s how the door to design opened up.

The First Step, Reconsidered
"When I decided I wanted to do interior designing, my relative was the one to motivate me. He runs a glass manufacturing unit and was the only one with the slightest idea about the field I aspired to be in. With our pros and cons list, I ended as one of the top students in my undergraduation."

Soon after, Sagrika took up a role at a Gurgaon-based design firm. Fifteen days later, she left.

"It was repetitive, felt robotic, and I could not see much growth in the near future," she remembers. Returning home nervous and uncertain, she had to figure out how to start from scratch. The biggest lesson? "Never settle for less money and understand your own worth."

In November 2018, a suggestion from her friend Priyanka—to post her work on Instagram—quietly set everything in motion.

Paris, Pandemics, and Pivots
Fast forward to 2019, and Sagrika was living her dream in Paris, pursuing a Masters in Interior Design at Paris College of Art. Her projects reflected a deep commitment to social impact—creating products for children with cerebral palsy, designing spaces for underprivileged communities in Delhi's streets, and developing an extension of home for refugees in Paris.

That project drew the interest of the firm she was collaborating with. Impressed by her model, they verbally agreed to take it forward.

Then COVID-19 hit.

Within two days, Sagrika was back in her hometown and completed her final project online during lockdown, watching her carefully laid plans dissolve into uncertainty.

As the pressure mounted and only the healthcare sector remained operational, she turned inward. Her family owned a healthcare clinic—“to be frank, it was valid,” Sagrika admits. She gave it a try, designing her office and the manager’s cabin. She was bored out of her mind.

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The Conception of ‘Design Diaries’
That boredom became a catalyst. If she couldn't work in design firms or teach in person, she'd create her own path. Using nothing but her phone, free editing software, and that same "boring" office as a makeshift studio, Sagrika started recording.

Her first attempt—a twenty-minute course on Udemy—flopped. But it gave her something more valuable than success: confidence. She'd proven to herself she could create content, and could put herself out there.

When she started posting on Instagram, something unexpected happened. People watched. They got engaged.Then, a distant cousin reached out, seeking advice on her home. Sagrika designed their study room and lobby, and suddenly the equation revealed itself: content leads to trust, trust leads to clients, clients lead to work.

Design Diaries was born. Not from a business plan, but from necessity, creativity, and a smartphone.

Years progressed in gradual growth and in 2024, Sagrika landed a teaching job conducting live classes. "But I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would," she confesses. She couldn't be someone who repeated herself endlessly, no matter how much she loved sharing knowledge.

That's when the pieces fell into place. Content creation offered the best of both worlds. Her formula became clear: content → leads → work → revenue.

Finding Her Niche: Designing Gyms Through Psychology
While Design Diaries handles residential projects, healthcare spaces, retail stores, and offices, it's gym design where Sagrika and her brand truly shine.

"Gym Designing is something that very naturally went great for the firm," she explains. "It's very interesting as a niche because we get to apply our core philosophy—using human behavior as the basis of design."

She's discovered something crucial about gyms that most designers miss: everyone who walks through the door shares one fundamental goal—to be fitter. That common motivation creates a unique design challenge.

Having designed over ten gyms, Sagrika has identified multiple typologies of people running and using these spaces. "The uniqueness is in the typology, not the design style," she emphasizes. "You can call our style 'adaptive.' The gym has to represent the brand, the core values, and the reason for its existence."

Process, the Design Diaries Way
When a client comes to Design Diaries, they're not just hiring someone to pick paint colors. They're entering a comprehensive partnership that covers every detail from layout to final styling.

It starts with a deep-dive meeting. If it's a gym, Sagrika asks: What audience are you catering to? Where is the location? What kind of people will use this space? Should it be a lifestyle gym, a strength-focused facility, or maybe a Zumba-centric studio?

From there, the team creates presentations with layouts, textures, colors, reference images, and sketches. Once elements are finalized, they move to 3D renderings showing how the complete space will look, followed by detailed 2D drawings for every contractor—carpenters, electricians, plumbers.

Then comes the selection day, where Sagrika accompanies clients to choose tiles, wall materials, paints, and every finishing touch. Site visits happen throughout, ensuring execution matches vision.

"We create a space for clients to rely on us at every step," she says. For residential projects, that even extends to styling—what bedding to choose, how to coordinate decor pieces. It's comprehensive, personal, and rooted in trust.

Building Community, Breaking Myths
Design Diaries continues to grow even as a platform for design education.

Drawing from her personal experience with products and materials, she's creating content to build a community where people can trust her recommendations. Not because she's pushing products, but because she's sharing genuine knowledge. "The main idea is to create a safe space where people can come and ask: How do I do this? How do I create this space into something else?" she explains.

Claiming Space in a Male-Dominated Industry
Sagrika refuses to "play the woman card," but she acknowledges a truth about her industry: from masons to carpenters to electricians and plumbers, she works in a male-dominated field.

But rather than fight against the dynamic, she adapted. "I had to change my ways. Even today, sometimes I feel like I have to satisfy someone's ego before telling them they're wrong. I tell them, 'You're generally right, and this is something you've done very well. But this is something we can do better.'"

She's learned to work with teams across the country, often not her own employees, conveying instructions in specific tones and wording to ensure her designs are executed precisely. "I had to build that confidence in myself and become someone who could tell people clearly: I know what I'm doing, and you have to follow this."

Principles for Emerging Designers
After navigating from boarding school libraries to Parisian studios, from family offices to her own thriving business, Sagrika has a few pieces of hard-earned advice for those aspiring to enter the design world:

1. Be Original, But Stay Grounded: Design schools encourage wild imagination and overboard creativity, which is valuable for learning. But in business, you must respect your client's wishes, boundaries, finances, and audience.

2. Know Your Worth From Day 1: "Having a niche, having something you're really good at—that's the only thing that's going to help," Sagrika insists. Your focus and skill matter more than your resume length.

3. Never Work For Free: Your time, expertise, and creativity have value. The moment you give them away, you've set a precedent that devalues your entire profession.

Today, Design Diaries continues to grow, grounded in Sagrika's philosophy that design is fundamentally about understanding human behaviour. From her base in Jammu, she works on projects across India, building a community online while bringing spaces to life offline.

“I don’t design for aesthetics alone; I design for the way life actually unfolds inside a space.” Sagrika says.