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 Janee
From empty to cozy—watch as Janee’s house becomes a warm, welcoming home! Janee is such a bright light, a wonderful woman and mother who has confronted significant challenges. Experiencing homelessness and facing a premature delivery of her youngest son, she found herself in a difficult situation. During her time at the NICU, she accessed essential services that allowed her to secure an apartment for her family. While having a place to live was a significant step forward, the new house lacked the comforts that transform a space into a true home. With her busy schedule and frequent trips to the NICU, Janee needed support to create a nurturing environment for her family.
Thanks to Design with a Heart and New Life Furniture Bank, we had the privilege to design several vibrant spaces that brought warmth and a sense that this home was meant for them- from the Super Hero themed kids room to the beautiful bedroom for Janee that can feel like a retreat. Partnering with NLFB and our dear friends Beau and Barbie Presnell of The Rug Gallery, along with Phil Beckman of Drapery Stitch, we were delighted to help Janee and her beautiful family settle into a space that truly reflects their spirit. This project has been a heartfelt journey, turning a house into a cozy sanctuary filled with love and care.
Party in the House Design Challenge 2024
Party in the House 2024 was a wonderful event last Friday night at Memorial Hall! We had a fantastic turnout supporting New Life Furniture Bank’s mission to furnish 2,500 homes in need in Cincinnati!!! Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this event successful! Special thank you to Aaron Powell at Ardhadi Decor for giving his time and talents to upholster our NLFB transformation piece!
“We’re overwhelmed with gratitude by the unforgettable night that was Party In The House 2024. Thanks to the incredible support of our guests, sponsors designers and volunteers, we raised well over $90,000 to bring hope and comfort to families in need. Here are a few highlights:
• 300 friends, family members, volunteers, and champion designers joined us to celebrate and support our mission.
• 20 dramatic furniture transformations brought new life to cherished pieces.
• A powerful story of personal transformation moved us all, reminding us of the true impact of our mission.
• Music, food, and connection filled the night with joy.
• An awe-inspiring $20,000 was raised during our live program donation moment.
Thank you for being a part of this journey. Together, we’re creating brighter futures and turning houses into homes for those in need.” -New Life Furniture Bank
Meet Hope
Hope is a young mother of three young children under 3, who finds comfort in their newly furnished and welcoming home. The apartment was practically empty when we arrived and the family only had a small amount of bedding on the floor. Having housing and furnishings allows Faith to focus on her education for a career in culinary arts and further gives real hope and stability for her children.
This was such a beautiful and powerful experience for our team to be a part of making a home for this wonderful little family! It was an absolute honor and blessing to see them come back into their home and know that they have a safe and beautiful place to call their own. We are so grateful to New Life Furniture Bank for giving us the opportunity and to everyone who contributed donations and hard work to make it happen! Such an incredible organization— We can’t say enough about the good they do in our community.
Fill-a-Truck at Winding Lane Studios
Winding Lane Interiors hosted a “Fill-A-Truck” event for New Life Furniture Bank! We also welcomed the neighborhood to come in and tour our new beautiful design studio, have a snack, and learn more about the amazing work that NLFB does in our community! Many kind people dropped off gently used furniture and household items to donate! Thanks to everyone who came out and helped fill the New Life Furniture Bank truck at our studio Open House! We were so happy to meet so many new neighbors and friends who came by the studio to help such a wonderful organization! Can’t wait till next time!!! Please consider donating your gently used items to help real people have a welcoming home everyone deserves. New Life Furniture Bank will even pick up from your home!
Party in the House Design Challenge 2023
We were honored to be chosen to participate in the 2023 Design Challenge, as part of the New Life Furniture Bank’s annual Party in the House Fundraiser! The challenge was to select furniture pieces from the furniture bank and give them a “Colorful New Life”. We selected a beautiful vintage bench and had it professionally reupholstered in a classic but jazzy blue and white pattern in Winding Lane’s signature style. The bench was then auctioned at the event, which raised over $1,000 for New Life Furniture Bank. With the talents of 20 fabulous talented designers participating it is one of NLFB’s largest fundraisers of the year! 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.
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.”
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.
