Real Estate Blog - IRIS Redesigners and Stagers Makeover Homeless Shelter Apartments

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IRIS Redesigners and Stagers Makeover Homeless Shelter Apartments

Shelter House Apt Before Shelter House Apartment After

In the spirit of HGTV's Deserving Design and the popular Extreme Makeover shows, IRIS National Capital Area interior redesigners have completed one and are working on the second of three apartment makeovers for the Patrick Henry Shelter House in Falls Church, Virginia. Shelter House provides temporary emergency housing and support services to homeless families.

See 60 second before and after video of the transformation here:

( http://www.realestateshows.com/383648 )

Jewell Mikula, Executive Director or Shelter House remarks: "I am completely speechless; the IRIS generosity towards our homeless families is amazing." Shelter House's mission is to break the cycle of homelessness by providing crisis intervention, temporary housing, training, counseling, and programs to promote self-sufficiency. The facility is owned by Fairfax County and Shelter House partners with the Department of Family Services to operate it on a daily basis.

Interior redesigners and stagers are known for creative room makeovers using existing furnishings. When these weren't sufficient, they adopted a Green approach and refurbished, repaired and recovered gently used items from those they had gathered that might otherwise contribute to local landfills.

The use of a storage container donated by 1-800- Pack Rats made it possible to accumulate items in advance of the makeovers. Paint, materials and funding were donated by Springfield businesses Jerry's Paints and Fischer's Hardware, American Foam Center in Merrifield and Coverage, Inc-The Insurance Specialists in Chantilly.

If you are a homeowner who is moving and have unwanted, gently used furnishings, consider donating them to a shelter. If you are a stager and are offered these furnishings, consider donating them and your time to make a difference in your community.

For more information on Shelter House, please go to www.shelterhouse.org. Please post here if you would like more information on our project.

Posted by Pam Faulkner-Faulkner House Redesign Stager-Northern VA-Fairfax & Loudoun Co on 04/09/2009 06:27 PM

Comments (15)

iris, redesigner, stager, extreme makeover, deserving design, green design, fairfax county, falls church, virginia, room makeover, homeless

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15 Comments on IRIS Redesigners and Stagers Makeover Homeless Shelter Apartments

APR

Hi Pam. So VERY glad to see you back. Did you think I forgot you? NO WAY!! That idea of using the storage container prior to a makeover is a very efficient one. I look forward to you blogging some more. I personally have missed you.

Hi Gary,

How nice to hear from you-and to be missed. Life changed suddenly last fall when my mother-in-law came to spend her last few months with us. She passed away recently and we are gradually getting back to our old lives.

I have missed being on AR-so many changes!

This project is wonderful and serves not only the families who can move into a warm, welcoming and safe environment, but it is a way to show others how useful things can be repurposed in meaningful ways.

APR

What a wonderful project and a generous spirit you have. It is nice to use our talent for such a good cause, huh? Good job.

Terrylynn,

Thank You! I know you will appreciate how "green" this project is since you are a green stager-recycling old furniture, using up all of our old paints and stains to refurbish, recovering cushions with left over fabrics that we all seem to have and putting old accessories to good use by recombining them with new pieces. Many of us even carpooled to the site! Craigs list and Freecycle are tremendous resources, along with Habitat for Humanty's ReStore.

Good to hear from you!

Thanks for sharing. I think it is so important to give back. Congratulations and your posting here has inspired me and hopefully many others to also give back.

Edgar,

I'm glad it has inspired you. It's also a great way to meet other redesigners and stagers who can be your collaborators instead of your competition.

Pam, very sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. Those times in our life are very difficult. Glad you are back in the swing of things again. You are a real talent.

APR

I agree, what a great idea to use a storage container to collect stuff before the project! A wonderful project to boot!

What a great way to give back to your community. What a wonderful example of how we can share our talent and skills.

Pam I bet that it felt really good to do this! We (RE board service providers) are hoping to get a Habitat for Humanity started in our community. BTW, Welcome back.

This is the second project our group has done and with every project you learn so much-from the circumstances surrounding the particular charity, the interactions between people who might otherwise be competitors, volunteers outside of the group, relationships with business owners and donors and with media reps. It is time consuming and hard, dirty work at times but the outcome and the rewards more than make up for it. I really encourage everyone to find ways to give back to the community in some way, particularly in these times. Charities are finding their contributions are dwindling so even donations of basic necessities like new bath towel sets-maybe those you have used for years for staging and you are ready to change them out-could be put to good use.

1-800-Pack Rats containers have been wonderful to use and have been crucial to the success of the projects.

Gary, thank you for your kind words. Having a project like this to jump into right away is great therapy and a way to make a difference.

APR

Absolutely great turn over. You have brightened the lives of those who live there.

Good to be you back. Being in the sandwiched generation can change our lives around

P.S. I think you have a spelling error in the RES. one is titled Cold and Spare

Maybe you meant Cold and Sparse?

Hope that it's a easy fix

Hi Virginia,

Thanks, it's good to be back. Sounds like you know from experience what life has been like.

Glad you like the finished apartment-hope you'll come back to see the next one which will be revealed tomorrow. Will start working on the next RES tomorrow afternoon. It is such a good feeling to make such a tangible difference in people's lives. Hope, happiness and possibilities are all wrapped up in these surroundings.

Oh, I did mean spare as in meager and scanty, although sparse-not crowded or thinly distributed- would definitely apply to the furnishings, too. Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't thought about that.

APR

Just wanted to give an update. The second apartment is finished and I will post about that soon. The Washington Post will be running an article about it in tomorrow's (April 30th) HOME section. Be sure to check it out!

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