Whats up and completely happy Friday! Ashley right here, of Ashley Fiocco Designs. I’m a LONG-time reader of this weblog, so to be scripting this proper now could be SURREAL. After having my two boys, I left my decade-long profession within the culinary/celeb chef world, to return to highschool with a view to flip my ardour for lovely interiors into the significant profession I now get pleasure from! I’m a 1-woman studio based mostly in Orange County, CA, taking over initiatives with budgets huge and small. It’s essential to me to assist others, no matter earnings, to dwell in areas that make them really feel their finest. Clearly, sustaining my enterprise is a objective, however the advantages of aiding anybody and everybody I can to understand their visions of houses that can carry them pleasure, confidence, and serenity are a lot extra fulfilling to me.
Again in 2021, once I learn this EHD put up in search of volunteers’ assist to take their Really feel-Good MOTOs nationwide with Pen + Serviette, I instantly wished to become involved. Nonetheless, on the time, I used to be dwelling in London with my household (a perk of being married to a professor is all of us get to go on sabbatical!). So I needed to accept submitting an utility and hoping to attach sooner or later… And now, a 12 months and a half later and again in SoCal, I’ve been matched with a household that I’m so grateful to have the ability to assist!
Suzie, a hard-working single mother, and Brett, her teenage son, (not their actual names) are survivors of home violence. As Suzie places it, they’ve “been by means of a storm.” After escaping a horrible scenario a number of years in the past, they’d nowhere to go and ended up homeless. They made their option to OC and now have a roof over their heads. Once I first visited them of their condo to see it and get a really feel for his or her preferences, it was obvious that the area was not excellent in decor or operate. Suzie and Brett have been sleeping on mattresses on the ground. There are not any wired lights in the principle dwelling space or bedrooms, and so they don’t have the assets to purchase lighting, so the condo is sort of darkish. As a designer, this actually struck me—ample lighting is so essential, not only for purely practical causes, but additionally to create an ambiance of heat and coziness. The condo additionally has no curtains and most of the blinds on the home windows are damaged, so even inside you are feeling fairly uncovered. With neighbors and strangers strolling by, in a position to see inside, Suzie talked about how she and her son typically really feel weak. The little furnishings they do have (just some, damaged items) was handed down or discovered on the curb.
Shortly after securing their condo and getting again to work and again on observe, Suzie misplaced her beloved dad, whom she known as her “hero”. A couple of months later, one in every of her closest associates died of most cancers. If issues couldn’t worsen, she then needed to have emergency surgical procedure. This resulted in her shedding her job because the time she wanted off to recuperate couldn’t be permitted by her supervisor.
To place it merely, Suzie and Brett want some assist. Speaking with them, I realized their biggest need is to really feel protected, cozy, and settled – Suzie, understandably, simply desires a HOME for her and her son. She likes browns, darkish blue, pinks, scented candles, and 80s music. She has younger nieces and nephews who typically come over, so their residence must be child-friendly. Brett is on the autism spectrum and feels extra comfy attending highschool nearly in the interim. He wants a correct desk on which to do his homework and the suitable setup in his room to learn and play video video games. As soon as, once I was over, Brett was sitting on the ground of his bed room, making an attempt to do schoolwork in his lap—there was nowhere else non-public to take a seat. Just like many younger males, he’s into anime, sports activities automobiles, and basketball, and likes cherry pink, black, and gold.
With all of this in thoughts, I created these designs that I hope will present the psychological and bodily consolation Suzie and Brett are in search of. Suzie used the phrase “cozy” to explain her excellent residence so many instances, so I actually tried to design areas that can permit them to exhale, to make them really feel like they’re getting a heat, nice hug. In any case they’ve been by means of, they may actually use a hug!
So, right here’s the place you all are available in. Although this dwelling area is being designed on a really tight finances, the prices of furnishing from scratch an primarily empty, 2-bedroom condo are nonetheless vital. We want all the assistance we are able to get! The itemized want lists of reasonably priced furnishings and furnishings at Wayfair, IKEA, and Amazon will be discovered right here, and we’ve a donation hyperlink to attempt to cowl different issues we’ve already bought from Goal and different main retailers, in addition to some higher-quality thrifted objects, ornamental objects, and so forth.
Pen + Serviette and I’ve launched a marketing campaign web page for donations. We’re SO VERY grateful that this web page is being shared with you all on EHD, however we might use your assist in additional spreading the phrase. Please ship the hyperlink round to your communities, your social media networks, and so forth. If any additional funds are raised, they are going to be used for future Pen + Serviette initiatives, which I hope Ashley Fiocco Designs will be part of, too! It’s tremendously satisfying (and enjoyable!) to assist paying shoppers obtain their most popular vibe and desired look of their houses. However to have the ability to accomplish that for individuals who, with out the initiative and experience of the Pen + Serviette group, mixed with the generosity of many others, wouldn’t have this chance—individuals who would nonetheless be sleeping on the ground or, actually, sitting in the dead of night—is an much more great feeling — THE ULTIMATE great feeling! Please, should you can, be part of us and be part of this superb effort, one thing type and loving and simply, mainly, GOOD.
Let’s make MORE GOOD collectively.
You may comply with alongside on the journey right here the place I’ll put up progress made and updates, and we additionally plan to share an after put up, as soon as sufficient of the hoped-for objects have been put in, so you may see the ultimate transformation that (hopefully) you should have additionally performed an element in. I, myself, can’t wait to see it and share it with all of you! Thanks!
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