A Room of Her Own

We were recently asked to co-chair a project for the Alpha House of Tampa. The Alpha House is a facility in South Tampa that houses homeless, expectant mothers and homeless mothers with small children. The facility has 20 "dorm" sized rooms where these mothers and children may spend 4-6 months while the mothers are receiving training and counseling in an effort to help them become independent and get back out into the community.

Here are some pictures of what the rooms currently look like.

As you can see, though clean, the rooms lack any warmth or real comfort. We know how important our surroundings can be to our sense of well-being, and in this case, could contribute to the healing process.

Our project goal is to put together 20 design teams that will each take on the refurbishing of one room. The design teams will then couple with a room "adopter", who will commit to providing necessities for the room such as bed linens, towels, crib set, etc. for one year.These adopters are sometimes individuals, or often service organizations or clubs.

Each team is asked to bring their imagination and expertise to re-imagining the space. I have been lucky enough to enlist the assistance of a local artist who will create a motif of vines and butterflies on one wall (a butterfly is part of the Alpha House logo), and a carpenter who will help with the woodwork and painting necessary.

Though still in the early design stages, here is what our new shell will look like.

We are attempting to make the room warm and cozy, and bring as much comfort and life to it as possible. I am on the search for the right mirror, art piece to go with the mural, window treatment (I'm thinking Roman Shade), ceiling fan and light fixture, then begin working with the adopter to add appropriate accessories to the design.

Though response to the project has been fantastic, we're still on the lookout for designers for 3 or 4 rooms, and we also have rooms available for adopters. Know anyone who might be interested? If so, please send them my way! We're very excited about this opportunity to give back to the community, and the opportunity to use our skills instead of just opening a checkbook. It's been a lot of fun so far, and the fun is just starting.

I'll let you watch progress on the installation when we get started!