Design with a Heart
At Winding Lane Interiors, we believe EVERYONE is deserving of a beautiful home. That is why we are proud to volunteer our time and services with New Life Furniture Bank’s Design With A Heart program, in which local interior designers volunteer their creative skills and help turn empty houses into stylish homes for families overcoming very difficult circumstances. This act of kindness makes people feel special, loved and cherished in a world that often feels daunting for them. Their newly decorated space can now be a place where they feel joyful and peaceful throughout their day.
Want to help a family furnish a home?
Meet Jennie
Jennie is a recovering addict who has been sober for 26 months and is determined to give her three teenage daughters a fresh start in a new home. We are honored to have been asked to help her design and furnish her home and absolutely loved getting to know her and her daughters. They are thrilled how comfortable and welcoming their new home now feels and are excited about building a future together there.
Meet Michella, Steven & Tank
Michella and Steven sold everything they owned and left a violent neighborhood in Chicago on a Greyhound bus to move to a safer place for their grandson, Tank. A relative gave them money for a hotel room, but they only had enough money for a couple of nights, so they slept on park benches outside. They were homeless for a week, then Samuel Adams Landis, co-founder and executive director of Maslow’s Army met the family and brought them to a shelter called Heart House. Within six weeks, Steven and Michella were able to find jobs and permanent housing.
We connected with New Life Furniture Bank and the charity, Maslow’s Army, to furnish this family’s new home. We made sure to include Tank in the design consultation before shopping for the finishing touches in their home. Tank’s favorite superhero is Spiderman, so we wanted to make sure he had an awesome Spiderman room of his very own! This family felt loved and the final decorating touches in this house made it feel like the safe and welcoming home they were looking for. Their newly designed and furnished space can now be a place where they feel joy and peace throughout their day.
Click here for more information about this story on WCPO.com
Meet Angel & Sally
Angel & Sally had fled very difficult circumstances and arrived in Cincinnati with just the clothes on their backs. Angel was also pregnant with her second baby, which made experiencing homelessness even more difficult. After several months of staying in a temporary shelter, a local non-profit agency was able to help them get into their own apartment.
Dana Saxton, the director of New Life Furniture Bank, reached out to us at Winding Lane Interiors to see if we could help them to design and furnish the families home. We met with Angel and Sally at their new apartment. We asked them the same types of questions we ask our Winding Lane Interiors clients: what is their favorite colors and patterns, how do they want to use the spaces, what are their needs for each room, what are their style preferences were etc. Angel loves bright colors (especially lavender), flowers, and happy cheerful spaces. Sally’s room needed to function as a little girls room for now and soon to be a nursery as well for her little brother who is on the way!
That afternoon we went to New Life Furniture Bank’s warehouse to being selecting furnishings that the family would need. We spent many hours measuring and photographing and determining which pieces would look and function best in their new home. Over the course of the next few days, we finished the designs and went to several stores to purchase additional items (donations from Winding Lane Interiors) that we needed to complete the rooms.
The following week, we loaded our cars and NLFB loaded up their truck, and we arrived at Angel’s apartment. We spent most of the day unloading and hanging and arranging the rooms according to our designs, and when we were finished, we had Angel and Sally come in for the big reveal!
They were thrilled with all of it and so excited to be in their beautifully furnished new home! That night, Julie Anne received the following message from Angel: “I can’t thank you enough for what you have done. I really appreciate it. I love this furniture and how you arranged everything. I feel like you put a lot of love and caring into this. Thank you again.”
Today, New Life Furniture Bank's Executive Director, Dana Saxton, and local interior designer, Julie Anne Baur from...
Posted by New Life Furniture Bank on Monday, June 29, 2020
2021 People’s Choice Award
We were thrilled to be voted the winner of the 2021 People’s Choice in New Life Furniture Bank’s design challenge!!! We had some gorgeous competition from our fellow Cincinnati designers and are so honored to have been chosen!! We took a formally faux-distressed, tired looking coffee table and gave it a fabulous makeover! With blue lacquer on its bamboo-style carved legs and trim and topped with Thibaut’s Sakura blue and white cherry blossom grass cloth paper. This stunning table is now and updated classic with fabulous Asian influences. We like to think its a perfect examples of Winding Lane’s signature style.
2019 Design Challenge
We were honored to be chosen to participate in the 2019 Design Challenge, as part of the 2nd annual Party in the House Fundraiser for New Life Furniture Bank. The challenge was to select furniture pieces from the furniture bank and give them a “new life”. We selected a beautiful vintage credenza and spider chair and had them professionally painted and reupholstered. We showcased these pieces by creating a vignette centered around these pieces in Winding Lane’s signature style. The chair and credenza were then auctioned at the event, which raised over $40,000 for New Life Furniture Bank. This money will help NLFB to continue to furnish homes for local families in need. The goal is to furnish at least 1,000 homes annually.
