Interior Designers Get Innovative to Give Back to Their Community
The mysterious power of giving is one of the most important life lessons of all time. Whether it’s a personal, charitable connection or a way to bring your firm together to serve others while team building, giving back is a virtue that will never get old.
Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
It is by passion designers make a living through their talent, but it is by love that designers are able to make a life by what they are able to give.
In November of 2019, designer Chelle Brookley with Vignette Custom Interiors in Grapevine, Texas put that motto to the test and teamed up with Make-A-Wish North Texas to help grant a thirteen-year-old brain cancer survivor’s wish to have the ultimate gaming room. Alongside the volunteer wish granters, Chelle provided extensive design services and her keen eye for detail to create magic and memories that will warm a family’s heart forever. It’s not just designers who are helpful in granting wishes. Delta Engineers, Architects and Land Surveyors of New York got in on a local child’s wish for a treehouse fully equipped with a wheelchair ramp.
Dwell with Dignity is a Dallas-based nonprofit organization founded by interior designers to help families escape poverty and homelessness through design, one household at a time. Through the labor of dedicated volunteers and generous donors, Dwell with Dignity creates inspiring home interiors to transform lives, inspiring families to maintain a standard of living in which they can thrive.
Nicole Arnold, then president of the IDS Dallas chapter, worked together with the organization to provide a refreshed, comfy home for a single mom and her daughter. “In our business,” Arnold says, “we are dealing with a lot of materialistic goals and that’s the fun of what we do, we have to admit that. But sometimes we can lose sight of how personal, and what the real needs of life and what we do is just all wants and desires. Nothing is wrong with that, but there are true needs out there that need to be addressed. This grounds me back to what is important.” Dwell with Dignity has chapters both in Dallas and Atlanta.
Stories similar to Brookley and Arnold’s are found all across American designers. To find out how your team could create your own stories, check our these other well-known organizations that frequently call on the help of local designers: Habitat for Humanity’s national chapters, Design for a Difference in the US and Canada, Washington DC’s Room to Bloom, or simply check with your local chamber of commerce to see if there are any public projects that your team could assist with. Always remember, the time to give back is always now.