The Habitat House to Home Project :  Working with Habitat for Humanity Philly and Harcum College to change lives through the impact of design. Click here to see complete article in Philly.com!

The House to Home Project (“The Project”) is based on the belief that the physical environment in which people live, impact the way they see themselves and their futures. Providing a way to connect the Interior Design community to Habitat for Humanity to create comfortably furnished, functionally designed interior living spaces for new Habitat homeowners seems like a natural partnership. The Projects' mission is to provide the design, furnishings, soft good and accessories to families in transition to a new home.

The pilot program, conceived by Ellen Farber, and initially created as a way for Harcum College Interior Design students to add a community service component to their curriculum, to introduce students to a real-world design experience, and to use their developing skills for a meaningful purpose. It also provided a way for the students to learn about the Habitat program and mission through presentations, a hard hat site visits to homes under construction as well as a visit to the ReStore, which sells donated furniture to support the Habitat core mission. The students and teachers also attended the annual Habitat fundraising luncheon.

The process began when Habitat social services matched Latasha Raynor with the project as she was moving into her new home within a few months time and was excited about the opportunity to work with designers to help her with ideas and assist in furnishing her space.  Representatives from Habitat accompanied Latasha to Harcum to meet the Harcum design students and to present an overview of Habitat. The students were provided with the architectural drawings of the home to understand the dimensions and details of the space before meeting Latasha, so they were prepared with questions for Latasha to learn about her family, design requirements, as well as learn more about her color and style preferences.

The class was broken up into four teams and set out to create the vision for her new home. The students presented their design concepts to Latasha on a subsequent visit to the school, showing floor plans, renderings, furniture and finish recommendations, along with a realistic design budget to complete the space.  Latasha selected winning plans for each room, which inspired the actual purchases for her new home. The designs were brought to life by a combination of in-store and online purchases, including the Habitat Restore, providing Latasha the flexibility to select the furniture and accessories that allowed her to make the place her own, working with Ellen each step of the way.

The longer-term goal of the program is to duplicate these efforts and allow other area interior design programs and interior designers to work along with Habitat as well as other organizations that would benefit from these services. We will be reviewing the program and implementation process, as well as seeking partnerships with designers, schools, and suppliers that can donate services and furnishings to grow the program. A successful future begins at home, so this program can hopefully show the importance of design and the positive impact that it has on people’s lives.  Click HERE for more info. 

Rebuilding Together: Making homes healthier, safer and more comfortable for seniors. Giving back to a family who gave so much to their community. 

We were pleased to partner with Rebuilding Together Miami Dade to complete the interior furnishings for the Collier family home. RTMD preserves homeownership and revitalizes neighborhoods by providing critical home repairs free of charge for those in need, serving low-income, elderly, veterans and disabled homeowners, allowing them to live safely, independently and with dignity. Rebuilding Together worked with the Collier family initially to create an accessible bathroom, and later returned to make the entire home not only accessible for Brady Collier, who had lost his vision, and was unable to keep up with home improvements. It takes a village, and Rebuilding Togethers' volunteer groups helped were able to renovate this house a make it a new home for generations to come. 

Habitat for Humanity Restore: Helping Habitat design and merchandise The Restore to enhance the shopping experience and improve sales. Click Here to see the article in Phila.com