How an Interior Designer Finds Their Calling and Achieves Success

Hello! My name is Irina Krapan. I’m an interior designer, space decorator, and in the past — a wedding decorator.

First encounter with Planoplan: love at first sight

One day, after my first wedding season ended, I started looking for a job and came across a vacancy at Leroy Merlin — an in‑store interior designer. At that moment I thought: how cool — creating those inspiration zones inside the store. But… it turned out it wasn’t actually Leroy Merlin, but a contractor — a one‑man show who claimed to be developing the company’s architectural department. In reality, I had to walk around the store selling this person’s construction services and only occasionally draw quick projects in a simple program for clients.

Looking back, that’s when I first met Planoplan. It was 2018, eight years ago. They gave me a quick briefing and left me alone to figure out the program. And at that moment, I felt like I had discovered a whole new world. I didn’t want to let go of it — love at first sight! And here we are, eight years together.

An unexpected twist: how Leroy Merlin saved me from a dishonest employer

Let me get back to the story. My new boss had promised to hire me officially — and kept promising for a whole month. One day I got talking to a Leroy Merlin employee and shared my problem: I came here, full of ideas and creativity, but they’re making me do pointless tasks on the sales floor… They took me to the store’s management and asked me to tell the whole story again. Leroy Merlin is a very loyal, honest company with a strong internal culture. Everyone was shocked, because treating an employee like that is completely against company rules, even for a contractor. They immediately offered me an official job as an in‑store interior designer, developing the store’s design service using Planoplan.

Breaking up with my “boss” was fun — our relationship had soured badly. And, the classic ending: he didn’t want to pay me for the month I had worked.

My career at Leroy Merlin started in the kitchen department. To this day, I probably know every GOST standard for kitchens. It was the best school of life — no university can match the hands‑on experience I gained working with real clients at high speed.

Later, my team at Leroy Merlin and I started actively developing an interior design service for customers inside the store.

First personal projects and unexpected friendships with clients

After a year, I got my own private clients. My first project was a beauty salon. That girl later became a regular client, and together we later created another, larger and more stylish salon.

That same year, I got another interesting client — the owner of a lingerie store. Over time, she also became a regular client: I did an apartment project for her and another store. In the end, both of these girls became my close friends. And none of this would have happened without the very beginning of this story.

I kept working at Leroy Merlin, and on weekends I worked on private projects and took part in construction — I was drawn to the process of creation itself, not just design.

Leaving Leroy Merlin and a new chapter: why I chose freedom

After some time, the store’s working rules changed, and Leroy Merlin stopped working with Planoplan. I don’t know the exact reasons — I was just an in‑house designer. We were forced to work in another program, which was far inferior in terms of functionality and renders. For me, that was the death of creativity.

I worked like that for another year and then decided to leave and go independent. It wasn’t easy: the company was perfect for me in terms of stability and employee care, but I realized I had outgrown that stage of my life.

I actively ran a blog on social media: at first I was afraid to speak on camera and only wrote text, but over time I started appearing in stories, and I was even invited to television a few times to share design tips. Looking back at how I arrived at my first job scared and with no experience, and now I’m invited as an expert — I understand that everything depends on loving what you do, and on how important it is to find what you truly enjoy. My advice: only through trial and error. If you don’t try, you’ll never know.

Winning the Planoplan competition: the dream of being on the loading screen

After going freelance, I gradually grew my client base, projects became more interesting, and my experience with the program kept growing. I took part in a competition from Planoplan. I was really inspired by the prize — having my project featured on the program’s loading screen. For me, that was the best prize: the thought that everyone opening the program would see my work. I tried incredibly hard and poured all my creativity into that project.

At that moment, I was still working my last days at Leroy Merlin. I remember theµcompetition results were supposed to be announced on a workday. My boyfriend came to my workplace, and we watched the other participants’ entries, rated them, kept our own scoreboard, and waited for the announcement. When I saw that my project had won, I was the happiest person! After that, I decided I would take part in every competition — and I pretty much did: later I won several more times with other projects.

Collaboration, teaching, and new horizons

After the competitions, I started getting many questions: how I set up lighting, how I create certain elements, how I frame my views. And one day I got a message from a popular makeover blogger — Kristina. At that time, she already had a huge following, while I had a small blog with my projects. Kristina asked me to create a course on working in Planoplan for her product, because she was inspired by my projects and also used the program. Honestly, at first I thought it was a scam. But I replied — and we started working together. I recorded the course, we launched it successfully, and over time Kristina and I became best friends: we’ve traveled to several countries together and continue to collaborate and create projects as a team.

My projects have even been printed three times in interior design magazines in my city. It’s usually a paid feature, but they wrote to me themselves and asked for my projects! That used to be on my wish list.

At the same time, I created my own online course and launched it successfully. My students, who had never worked in any graphic editor before, created projects like these — just by watching my lessons, without any personal help from me.

My philosophy: the main thing is to listen to your heart

I always dreamed of being useful to my favorite program and creating something together — that’s actually why I’m writing this article right now. It’s another small victory on my path.

I’m still doing what I love. I have a small team, I create small and large projects, and some of them become well‑known places. I adore my work and I’m grateful for my entire journey.

And it all started on that day when they simply left me alone in front of a screen with Planoplan.

I hope my story inspires you. Whatever you are doing right now, you will definitely succeed. The main thing is to listen to your heart and do everything with love.