Another Great Volunteer Project With Houston Furniture Bank Divas

This weekend was nothing short of amazing and such a great blessing to me! It is hard to explain how giving a little bit of your time and resources can actually be as much of a blessing to the giver as it is to the person receiving the gift.

I joined this amazing group of Designers and Design Students a few months ago, and this is the second project that I have completed with them. And as challenging as it was to finish a room with mostly donated items and definitely on a non-existent budget, the look on the faces of the recipient is always so worth it!

The story of The Houston Furniture Bank began in 1992 by the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County (MHMRA) to serve patients who were transitioning out of mental health facilities. Three years later, the Furniture Bank service was extended to other Harris County non-profit agency clients. By the end of 2003, Houston Furniture Bank had been established as an independent organization serving the Greater Houston Metropolitan area.

In its first two decades the Houston Furniture Bank has received donations of almost a quarter million pieces of furniture which has made it possible to serve over 21,000 families in need. Over 50,000 children have slept in beds rather than on a cold, hard floor, and have been able to be seated at a table to share their meals instead of using discarded cardboard boxes. In total, Houston Furniture Bank has served more than 80,000 individuals since 1992.

.The D.I.V.A.S ( Decorating Interiors – Volunteers At your Service) is one of the programs offered by the Furniture Bank to assist deserving families with making their house a home.

Our most recent project was for a single mom, a former army veteran and her 3 boys. They moved to Houston a few years ago and found themselves homeless after her husband left them. She received some assistance from Catholic Charities to finally get into a home, and she was in desperate need of furniture and just a good old home makeover

About 16 of us embarked on her home on Saturday to give the entire home a makeover. I was assigned to one of the boys bedrooms (11 years old), and is the room I will focus on in this post. After a long day it was hard for anyone to remember to take pictures

All that was useable in the room was a daybed (that was actually moved from another room), a small bookshelf that I ended up using as a nightstand, a desk chair and his keyboard (he is an avid musician)

Here is a peek at the finished room

The Houston Furniture Bank supplied the bookshelves which my partner John and I spray painted. John was assigned one of the other boy’s bedrooms and we worked together on the different pieces.

The curtain panels, lamps, art, bedding and wall shelves were all new pieces which I was able to purchase from my own personal donations and a donation that I received from a lady at my church.

The young occupant of the room is really into music and Legos. He collects rocks and replicas of old cars, so those had to be displayed somehow. The cars were displayed on the wall shelves, and the rocks in a small bookshelf/nightstand

His favorite color is red, so I tried to keep those things in mind when I was decorating.

Here is what the room looked like before (well after we moved the daybed in and a make shift trundle that I devised)

BEFORE

The young man literally cried tears of joy and gratitude when he walked into his room at the big reveal. I received plenty of hugs too!! 🙂

Here is one last picture

I absolutely enjoyed this experience yet again. It was truly a blessing for me being able to use my God-given talent and gift to help brighten someone else’s life.

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And before I close for today, you may have noticed that the Blog has a new look! Thanks to all who have commented that they like the new look! It is still a work in progress as I make small changes to it. In fact I am working on a new header that I designed in Canva, but I may have to go back to the drawing board [sigh].

And one more thing!…….I have changed the name of my online store to Casa Vilora Curated Collections. Several new categories and products have been added, with new products added daily. Check it out to see some amazing pieces at amazing prices! Click here