Hi, I am Fariha
I started this platform to share my journey of transforming my builder grade home into a custom dream home.
Four years and two TV shows later, Pennies for a Fortune has grown into a large community that appreciates good design and the struggles of DIY.
Meet Fariha
Fariha Nasir is a self-taught designer and DIY enthusiast with a passion for crafting spaces that tell stories. Armed with a Fine Art degree in painting and a can-do creative spirit, Fariha launched her blog Pennies for a Fortune in 2019 to document her DIY journey of transforming her Houston, TX, builder grade house into her custom dream home. Since then, it has grown into a robust and loyal community that appreciates good design and the struggles of DIY.
Always rich in color and pattern, Fariha’s design aesthetic—an ode to her rich South Asian heritage—and scrappy DIY know-how caught the eye of producers at Magnolia Network, where season one of her show “Problem Spaces” would eventually premier in 2023. Prior to that, she was the host of four seasons of the show “Dream Room in a Day” on The Design Network. Fariha has also made appearances on The Rachael Ray Show where she shared her DIY expertise, she was selected as one of 20 featured designers for the One Room Challenge in 2021, and her home was featured in the esteemed HGTV magazine in the December 2022 print issue.
As an immigrant from Pakistan, Fariha uses her platform as a space to talk about diversity, inclusion, and representation. While many design-focused accounts are mostly just a collection of pretty pictures, Fariha aims for something more: to be a strong advocate for women empowerment. She hopes to equip women with skills necessary to take charge of their own DIY journeys. Power tools aren’t just for men, after all.
Not just a designer, Fariha is an active, influential member in the design community. She led a session at SXSW in 2022 with The Home Depot and was a speaker at The Haven Conference in 2023, where she also served as an advisory board member. Additionally, she shared her insights on the industry of DIY and design-focused content creators as a speaker at The Achieve Conference in 2023.
Fariha Nasir
Founder & CEO
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Get in touch
Whether you have a design or art related question or just want to chat, feel free to get in touch with me! I’d love to hear from you.