Heart Homes: Help Others through Furniture Donations

I have been an interior designer for more than a dozen years on Chicago's north shore.  After working on so many beautiful homes over the years, I began to feel a very strong pull to help give back to those in need of housing and furnishings. I imagined how beneficial it would be to have gently used furnishings go directly to the economically disadvantaged.  

So, in 2008, I established a program called Heart Homes and set to work finding a partner to help execute my goals and realize my vision. I thankfully found that partnership with Designs for Dignity, a not-for-profit that provides pro bono interior design services to other area nonprofits to create interiors that reflect dignity, respect and comfort for the individuals they serve.

Heart Homes Initiative of Designs for Dignity - our not-for-profit initiative provides a way to help homeowners donate gently used furnishings - they no longer need in their own homes - to individuals in great need in the Chicago area. 

We are taking on several ambitious and important residential projects for the coming year that will directly benefit underprivileged and at-risk individuals by furnishing the homes where they live.  However, to fully execute these projects we are in need of furniture donations. 

These projects include:
Boys Hope/Girls Hope of Illinois (BHGH) 
Sarah's Circle Chicago
Family Matters Chicago

Before

After

The above pictures are examples of how Heart Homes helped Gilda's Club. Gilda’s Club provides counseling services for men, women and children and their families who have been touched by cancer. 

If you would like to donate any used furniture, please email Diane Falanga at spacedefined@yahoo.com or Jennifer Sobecki at jsobecki@designsfordignity.org or call 773-293-3259. 

If you would like to learn more about Designs for Dignity and the Heart Homes Initiative, please visit http://www.designsfordignity.org/ and click on the Heart Homes Initiative tab.

Diane Falanga is the owner of Space Defined Interior Design and is the founder of the Heart Homes Initative of Designs for Dignity. She is also the author of P.S. I Hate It Here Kids' Letters from Camp, publication date May 1, 2010.