Nicholas House: A Project in Atlanta

Giving back to my community has been something that I’ve tried to do more of in the last few years.  Working at home and having more flexible hours lends itself to more opportunities like that and I hope to have more of them.  Last year, I embarked on a room redo at The Lovelady Center with several of my small group friends and it was so rewarding to complete that project.  It was done on a really tight budget (less than$175 to be exact), so click over to see that one which was done almost entirely with yardsale finds.

Since moving back to my hometown of Marietta, I have had the fun pleasure of connecting with fellow bloggers in the area and that has been so rewarding.  Last year when I visited NYC and the Nate Show, I met up with Erika Ward, who lives here too and she and her friend, Dayka Robinson,both designers in Atlanta, brainstormed on putting together a design team to makeover homeless shelters in the Atlanta area.

Room Service Atlanta was born and they took on their first project with The Nicholas House, which is near Grant Park.  It’s a shelter for moms, dads, and kids who have no where else to go and they can stay from a few months to a couple of years. This old house really needed fixing up to make it much more comfy and cozy, so with the help of their talented team of volunteer designers, the house underwent a total transformation in 5 days time.  I found out about the project just before the work week started, so I headed down there to assist as I could, painting a few things here and there and getting to know some of the people involved in this very worthy cause.

Really, I just walked around chatting it up a lot, but I did wield a paintbrush on some furniture too. 🙂

Some girls working on the project, I already knew and it was so fun to meet others that I wanted to get to know better.  The blogging community is a generous one and I’m happy to be a part of it!

The Nicholas House sits right across the street from Grant Park.  I grew up going to Grant Park, to the zoo and have not been down in this area in a long time.

The old house has a nice presence about it.

This mural is in the stairway, great for the kids who live here.

The first day of work, there was lots of activity going on.  All the designers getting comfortable in their spaces, lots of furniture painting began.

Most of the rooms looked just like this shot, so instead of showing all of that, just know ahead of time they had to work in tight spaces, with lots of “stuff” around them.  Storage is the number one problem in a home like this.

That’s Sherry  Hart in this pic, slapping some paint on her furniture.  I’ll tell you more about Sherry down below.

One large space down below and the designers chose this flooring to remake the room.  Loved this laminate.  There are so many choices out there these days.

The main lobby area was transformed by Margaret Norcott, who did a fabulous job of enlivening this space with color and fun. 

I loved her use of fabrics and color.  It really made a difference coming inside the house and seeing all these fun colors.

A simple little valance was added to the windows for some joy.

Stripes above the fireplace also add to the space. 

Sweet Lakeitha, who I also met last year in NYC at the Nate Show, had a large room and several friends helping.  I did do some priming of furniture for her and watched as her space transformed into something beautiful too.  I didn’t get to take pics of the Afters, but you can read it all on Lakeitha’s blog to see the final reveal.

Ally, from the blog From the Right Bank, put together this stylish space.  You can read all about her room here.

I loved the simple window shades she put up.

Brand new blog friend, Lori May, (who lives out my way) did a fabulous job in her space too.  Loved the blueberry walls with accents of crisp yellow and orange.

Atlanta decorative painted, Kristin Davis, added her special touch in the room with a hand painted mural in the corner. Isn’t that the cutest?

Extra storage, baskets and containers were added to give these rooms some much needed organization.   I loved Lori’s shade with the stripes of ribbon down the side. She is sharing a tutorial on that soon on her blog.  Loved it!

Baskets on shelves are perfect for keeping a small space in order.

And a closer look at the hand painted mural.  Such a cute touch.

Julie and Anisa, with Milk and Honey Home, put together this stylin’ space.  It’s a large room with many huge bunkbeds, so they made a living area out of one side of the space. They are the brilliant ones who came up with the fun gray flooring that was added to the room.

They repurposed furniture and painted a lot of the older pieces in bright colors to spice it up.   Loved these yellow dressers.

And the gallery wall in the bathroom was just perfect, I loved it.

Another yellow dresser and some pretty artwork to liven up the area.

They have really transformed this room into a liveable place now.

Kimberly Ward put this room together and it looks sunny and cozy.  Cork on the armoire gives the residents something to put messages or pictures on.  Great idea!

A very happy place it is now.

My friend, Angela, with The Painted House, designed this small space for a mom and 2 kids.  It was really cramped with a full size bed and bunkbed, but Angela really hit it out of the park with her space saving ideas for storage and organization, something that was sorely lacking in most of these rooms.

Her restful palette was a feast for the eyes and so much improved this small space, it was just incredible.  I hung out with Angela and my friend, Renae, who was helping her for the week and we had some good times.  I did more talking than helping, but I did try to lend a hand whenever I could.

Angela’s got such a great eye and put it all together so nicely.

She added some storage pieces from Ikea and even thought of a hanging cabinet with mirror, since they all share a bathroom in this house. 

Some of her linens were donated, as well as getting them sewn up.  It was a group effort to pull all of this off.

Angela’s really brilliant idea was putting this Ikea corner cabinet in place, which gave them room to hang clothes and get some of their stuff off the floor.  The Ikea storage boxes with window seat on top was also a space saver and added more needed storage.  This one was genuis!

Dayka Robinsons room came together so beautifully. Go on over and see her pics, they are much better than mine are and really show this room off.

All the elements she pulled together really made a difference in this room too.

More storage and furniture painting were part of the plan.

Those baskets are a great way to go vertical on storage solutions. 

Beautiful Dayka!

I had so much fun meeting new friend, Sherry Hart.  OK, seriously. I want to be Sherry when I grow up. I loved watching her work and in case you missed it, Sherry’s home in Atlanta was featured in the May issue of Better Homes and Gardens.  It was so much fun to open up the magazine and then get to meet Sherry.  She’s a blast and I hope to hang out with her even more and go shopping together! 

You must click over to read Sherry’s post.  I had to really hurry to try and take pics of her space and they were still finishing up as I was snapping away, but you can see how incredibly pretty it all is.  I loved all the colors she used in here to brighten up this otherwise drab space. 

The greens, golds, and a touch of black was so inviting. 

She scoured the city looking for deals to pull this all together and it came out fabulous.

Someone even passed on to her these burlap drapes to cover up a closet that was open.  Much better!

Artwork and new bedding and pillows made such a difference to the feel of this room.

Lots of attention to detail.

Again, I just loved these colors.   Great job, Sherry! 

Erika Ward (one of the masterminds of Room Service Atlanta), who I’ve so enjoyed getting to know, had a suite of rooms to do. This is the only area that was ready for photos and these really do not do it all justice so you have to go on over to Erika’s blog, BluLabel Bungalow to see the whole space.

She added some great color and accessories to the space, as well as painted, organized and added new flooring.  Some of these ladies took on a lot that week!

This is the Before pic of the common area upstairs. I had to show you how it started, so you can really appreciate the Afters.

That red paint was covered over and now the space is light, bright and amazing.  New furniture was brought in, as well as art and accessories added. 

What a fun and enjoyable space it is now.

Lots of details added to make this space much more comfortable for lounging and hanging out.

And check out the  paint treatment on the fireplace.  I just loved this one, done with taping it off.

So, if you ever get a chance to jump into a charitable project like this, I hope you’ll do it!  It’s very rewarding to makeover a space and give the room owners a much needed infusion of organization and happiness just by making over the room.

A room can be ugly or beautiful and I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t choose pretty, given the chance!

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