IRIS Redesigners and Stagers Makeover Homeless Shelter Apartments

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!