I am Sandaru Siriwardhana. I studied at Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo. As I was passionate in doing sports, I played basketball and represented school team. Also I did scouting during my school days. I was the school deputy house captain. In 2011, I did my A/L’s first shy in Bio Science stream and couldn’t succeed in it. I didn’t give up as my desire was to become a doctor. In the second time also my dream faded away.
When I was thinking about what to do in life next I started doing the Civil Draughtsman Diploma in Ceylon German Tech and while doing that I wanted to become an interior designer. Then I did a degree in Interior Design and Architecture in a private university. When doing the degree, I faced lot of hardships.
Most of the time my father was sick and hospitalized when I was having exams and design crits at the university. I even thought of giving up on my degree to take care of my father as my father is my entire world. But during these hard times my lecturers and my friends helped me a lot. Even though my father was sick he always motivated and encouraged me to go forward in life. So I was determined not to give up on my degree and my dreams at any moment in life. There were days that I didn’t sleep. I used to go to the hospital to see my father before and after going to the university. After coming home, I did my assignments until dawn. There were times I couldn’t bear up everything other than crying but at these difficult times I converted my weaknesses to strengths. Sometimes I failed my exams as I had no time to study but no matter how many failures I had, I never gave up. My family was always there for me being a pillar of strength and never let me down at these hard moments. We shared our tears together.
I did my first project as a partial requirement to complete my degree. After the degree, I worked at three famous interior design firms in Sri Lanka. One day I thought of starting my own business. At the start of my business many people told me there’s no point in doing business rather asked me to do a job instead. I realized that there’s no hard fast rule stating that the skills and knowledge that we gained through the learning process need be applied only for our job roles. Why won’t we think of applying them in our day today experiences. I always wanted to do something mine, my own business rather than working for someone else’s dreams. One day, I uploaded a post in Facebook sharing 3D designs of one my freelance projects. After seeing these designs, I got a project from one of the famous tea plantation company in Sri Lanka. I started my business by the name of L & S Design Studio with this project and it was my first design and build project.
Sometimes when I wanted to find materials for my work, I was walking to each and every wood mills and that’s how I select the best materials and to do my designed furniture. Sometimes when I wanted to show the materials for customers I used to carry all materials and travel through bus. Somedays When the furniture need to be delivered to the sites, I went in the same lorry that furniture was taken. For each and every project I worked so hard and tried to give the maximum. Almost after 1 year of starting L & S Design Studio, I created a good name for my company. At the age of 28, I am an entrepreneur and the Co-Founder of L & S Design Studio today. Today I am very happy looking back at my journey. When we complete one project we get more projects from the clients in Sri Lanka as well as from the clients in overseas today. I believe that’s all because of the hard work that we do. Today there are almost 10,000 followers who are following L & S Design Studio Page.
And I must say my husband, Lakshan Preshita is a remarkable pillar of strength in my journey. He gave all the support he could and in the present we are working together to achieve the goal of our company. I thank each and every one who supported me in my hard times and are supporting me every day even by a word. I am who I am today is because of my parents. I always wanted to look after my father and give him all the comforts and happiness with the success of my business, but unfortunately he left me 1 year ago at an unexpected moment. I know he will always look at me and be happy seeing me for whom I am today.
I won my life with lot of challenges in life. If you have the strength and determination there’s nothing impossible. Never fear to take risks in life. Always try to create a name for yourself through hard work. Last but not least there’s nothing impossible in life if you have the courage.
Sandaru Siriwardhana,
BA in Interior Architecture
Co- Founder & Interior Designer
L&S Design Studio
