Good morning Hadley Court readers, this is Lynda Quintero - Davids guest blogging on Hadley Court today about the Dallas based non-profit, Dwell with Dignity. Coming up this Sunday, the founder and VP of Dwell with Dignity, Lisa and Kim, will be presenting at the Design Bloggers Conference in Atlanta. Leslie, since she’ll be attending this conference, asked me to write about the wonderful work Lisa and Kim are doing and how they’re now expanding into Atlanta, with other cities slated soon!
If you don’t know of them yet, Dwell with Dignity is dedicated to helping families escape poverty and homelessness through volunteering design time, monetary & household good donations to turn their dwellings into beautiful homes to help them get back on their feet through nurturing, functional and inspired surroundings. One of the first public appearances of the Dwell with Dignity organization was on the Nate Berkus Show in the summer of 2011.
Since then, this Dallas based charitable organization has been creating inspiring homes with the labor of dedicated volunteers along with the generosity of dedicated donors, rapidly helping to change people’s lives, one household at a time. See more of their projects, here. This short video can give you a peek into the good Dwell with Dignity does…click on the picture below to watch the before and after of how Dallas Market Center, along with many volunteers, partnered with Dwell with Dignity to help this one family.
Dwell with Dignity’s belief is: “If we can change a person’s surroundings, we can change their outlook on life. Exposing children (especially) to a nurturing home environment, that includes good design and art, can inspire a standard of living that will carry-over to future generations. Exposing parents to this same environment will allow them to see the positive impact it has on their family; inspiring them to maintain a standard of living they can be proud of and thrive in.”
Meet The Founder, Lisa
Lisa Robison - Founder & President of Dwell with Dignity
Kim Turner - VP & Director of Dwell with Dignity
Dwell with Dignity was founded by Dallas interior designer, Lisa Robison, who was looking for a way to give back to her community - shortly thereafter she was joined by VP & Director Kim Turner and they’ve been a team ever since. Lisa’s strong belief that good design improves one’s quality of life resulted in the incorporation of this non-profit foundation in April of 2009. Kim is credited with building awareness of Dwell with Dignity throughout the design community - which has resulted in amazing support from luxury brands such as Neiman Marcus, Duxiana, Peacock Alley, {recently featured here on Hadley Court in our buying guide to luxury linens } . A few more of the brands that donate to Dwell with Dignity are below.
Speaking of Peacock Alley ‘s support for Dwell with Dignity - Peacock Alley will be hosting a “Wrap Party” this Sunday from 2:30 - 5:30 pm in honor of Dwell with Dignity wrapping up their first ATLANTA home installation and first installation outside of the Dallas Market! Bravo!! What a wonderful way to kick off the Design Bloggers Conference this year!
Congratulations Dwell with Dignity!
If you’re in Atlanta, this is an event not to be missed - Celebrate the First Dwell with Dignity Project in Atlanta and learn how to get involved with our next one!
A huge component of building awareness and fundraising for the Dwell with Dignity foundation has come from their bi-annual pop-up shop event they host called Thrift Studio - but don’t let the term ‘thrift’ fool you. Each Thrift Studio event includes a cast of fabulous Dallas designers who design and install vignettes accumulated at the DWD warehouse, along with items the designers have donated from their own inventory. All items are on sale during the three-week event, allowing Dwell with Dignity to raise funds for items needed to help families escape poverty and homelessness with the design time they give back to the community.
The Dwell with Dignity Thrift Studio event celebrates both design and philanthropy. Through your support and generosity, they are able to make an impact on Dallas communities - and they’re evolving to grow additional community chapters, their first outside of Dallas being Atlanta. This Spring’s Thrift Studio design dream team features some of the best designers and tastemakers from Dallas, including:
Jan Showers
Sarah Pickard
Robert Allen Design
Julio Quinones
Culp Associates
Tompkins Lloyd Interiors
David Sutherland Showroom
SWOON, the Studio
Mecox
This Spring’s Honorary Chair is Ronda Rice Carman. Ronda is founder of the lifestyle blog, All The Best Blog | A Passport to Stylish Living along with being the author of Designers at Home: Personal Reflections on Stylish Living (Rizzoli 2013), a contributing writer for Huffington Post, New York Social Diary, a reviewer for the prestigious Mr. & Mrs. Smith Hotel Collections, and a frequent speaker on the topic of design and social media. A Texan by birth, Ronda divides her time between the United Kingdom, Houston and the window seat of an airplane.
The Thrift Studio Event will be open to the public April 11 - May 10, Tues - Sat, 10am - 5:30 pm, with a Preview Party event hosted on Thursday, April 10, with VIP access starting at 6 pm. If you live close to Dallas and would like to buy tickets, please click here. The Thrift Studio will be located at:
International on Turtle Creek Design Center
150 Turtle Creek Blvd. Suite 204
Dallas Texas
Dwell with Dignity is also partially underwritten by the Dallas Market Center - which is also a sponsor of the Design Bloggers Conference this year.
Last October, Dwell with Dignity launched a new addition to their Thrift Studio concept: The Thrift Studio - Art Studio. A donation of an original piece of art will enable DWD to increase their fund raising ability to reach their mission, and for artists who donate, it will enable you to expose your work to the Dallas designers and tastemakers. All entries must be received by Friday, March 21 to be eligible for designer vignette consideration. For additional information and inquiries, please visit Art Auction - Thrift Studio by clicking here.
Below is a peek at just two of the gorgeous vignettes designers were able to create for last Spring’s Thrift Studio Event - all created from donated items, and sold to raise funds for Dwell with Dignity.
For more information about Dwell with Dignity, including becoming a volunteer plus donating new or gently used homegoods based on their required needs, please visit their website at DwellWithDignity.org, where you can also become a member of their community with your donation. You can also join them on their Facebook page, or even follow some of their project boards created by Kim Turner on Pinterest
Personally, I’m a believer in Dwell with Dignity’s cause. For the past three years, I’ve been watching them grow, helping spread their word through social media, and hoping for other chapters to open outside the Dallas area so I can volunteer. With Dwell now branching out to the Atlanta area, it looks like this just may be happening soon - And all the more why I was honored to guest blog about them today for you on Hadley Court.
Thank you,
Guest Contributor
Lynda Quintero-Davids
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I invite you to please subscribe to Leslie’s blog by clicking here, and to follow her on Pinterest, G+, Facebook and Twitter by clicking here, here, here and here.
If you’d like to follow along with the Design Bloggers Conference live, on Twitter, please follow the hashtag: #DBC2014
If you’d like to follow Dwell with Dignity on Twitter, click: http://twitter.com/DwellwthDignity [ no "i" in > with ]
What a great post!! You beat me to it.
I met both of these talented, delightful women at the #SneakPeek and was just so impressed with how much they have done with Dwell with Dignity. It was a real honor to hear them speak and share their inspiring stories with us.