What we all marveled at upon completion of this project was how we were to able take a variety of other peoples cast offs and turn them into a pretty wonderful, aesthetically pleasing home for a family to move into.  Each of the families that move into a rental unit at the Anne Ross campus, KEEP everything that they have in their home when they move in.  This enables them to move forward without starting over each time.  Looking around at the items in the home, this mom and her kids have lots of great stuff for now and the future.

We’re excited to share our success with you all.  Please take a moment to look at the finished results and read the comments from our contact at Annie Ross:

“They absolutely loved the house, and were so excited! I wish you could have seen it – the kids didn’t want to leave their bedrooms once they saw them, and the mom kept asking how you guys knew all of their favorite things!  Apparently she loves light green and purple, and was so excited about the living room and kitchen.  The little boy is in a map phase right now, so he was really excited to have one on his wall, and the little girl just walked around smiling for a good half hour after picking out her bed.

They asked me to thank you profusely, and are so excited to have a new home that is so beautiful!”

…and that is why we volunteer

But what does this mean? Is it enough to toss in some furniture and hope for the best? Or are we serving better by giving the same thought to the resident that we would give to our paying homeowners? Taking in the needs they may have physically, the people living in the home together and how they interact together. Possibly using our talents and our design to encourage strengthening the relationships.

We were given not much time to prepare for our first project. In fact, once we had confirmed the relationship between the organization and our chapter, we have four homes coming up in fairly short order!! The first one was the smallest – a two bedroom cottage. The team jumped right to it. Cheryl Belozer, took team lead, Brian Kemnitz handled the organization, set up and execution of the painting, while Susan Adams-Messmer, Sue Lass and John Thompson jumped right in. A wonderful warm neutral paint was selected to warm up the formerly stark white walls. Eventually, all the units will be similarly warmed up with the occasional accent wall thrown in to jazz up individual spaces.

Brian Kemnitz, our wonderful painter

Cheryl and her hubby Martin

John Thompson

Brian hard at work

Sue Lass

Day two of the project was load in and staging day. Again, Cheryl, Sue, Susan and Pam Sandall were on hand to transform the empty (but freshly painted!) shell, into a warm family home to welcome it’s new residents.

Our first project completed was for a mother & daughter. We had the opportunity to meet these two ladies while the painting was going on. The mother was gracious and grateful and the daughter was exuberant and even got to help with a few last minute paint touch ups, which thrilled her! The unit they have moved into is a very small two bedroom cottage – kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a bath. Our “shopping” was pulled completely from donated items, and the end result looked pretty great, especially knowing everything was someone else’s castoffs! See our processes and successes below.

Sue Lass readying moms room

Cheryl & Martin getting the young girls room fluffed.  Note the cute headboard…was plain white – now painted in the girls favorite colors!

Mom’s Room – a little shabby chic

Young girls room

As a final note, these homes have a constant need. If you have household items, decor items or furniture to donate, please contact us. We’ll connect you with this great organization.

Her graceful elegant manner was most enjoyable. It was truly one of the best lectures about design that I have been to in my 23 years in the design business.  As one that has been through much ” Believing the dream, making it happen , being in the right place at the right time” is exactly what it is about.   The hope  to achieve  happiness is the dream for many. Although, there are many  that have not had the chance to fulfill their vision. As creative  business men and women we have the opportunity to bring great joy in creating a warm, inviting home for families to reboot their lives,Having a refreshing environment can be a very healthy and healing. It is a time  to be calm, silent and bring oneself to be able to hear that voice to hear the dream. The stress of trying to care for your family can overwhelm those consumed with the unknown. Helping others to achieve that dream has been something that our local chapter of the Interior Design Society as been diligently preparing to partake.

As an opportunity to help our community, the Portland Chapter of the Interior Design Society will be working with the Annie Ross House to bring our homeless families a nice, warm inviting place to live while they transition back into the work force and back on their feet to provide for their families.  a volunteer group will paint, prepare,decorate.  In an effort to give back to those in need, if you would like to help  support this cause, much needed house ware items, bedding and furnishings are needed You can contact your interior design professional or any member of IDS. Or you can make your donation directly to the Annie Ross House. For more info, Please see their website at

Annie Ross House is an emergency shelter for homeless families with children. It is one of the few shelters in Oregon that allows homeless families to stay together, including mothers and fathers, daughters and sons of all ages.

Over one thousand homeless children and their parents have found safe, clean shelter and help to regain their self-sufficiency at Annie Ross House since it opened in 1986.

More than just a bed, Annie Ross House also helps homeless families with: food boxes and nutrition information, job search and success skills, parenting skills and support, self-esteem and confidence, accessing medical care, and finding permanent housing.

Annie Ross House was named after prominent local philanthropist and community activist Annie Ross Roberts. Born in 1868, daughter of a pioneer Oregon family, Annie Ross worked as one of Milwaukie’s first teachers.

Annie and her husband Thomas Roberts lived on Lake Road — just blocks from where the shelter stands today — until her death in 1958 at the age of 91

Tomorrow, our first volunteer group will start to get a special place ready for a special family.This family will have a chance to rest and get back on their feet.Maybe this period in their life will give them a chance to dream. Maybe the  dream of family will come alive…

Take a chance to help someone believe in their dream. Give  your time or your donations. Please check out the link on the IDS website for more information.

thank you,

john

Membership/Greeting Committee – Pat Starnes & Karen Rickerson – It’s imperative that visitors to the meetings feel included.  Pat wants all of you gregarious types available to meet and greet our guests and members as they arrive at the meetings.  Call or email Pat to be a part of her team.

Philanthropy – Pamela Sandall & Cheryl Belozer – We all want to give back.  Our members are no exception.  Our new Philanthropic partner is The Annie Ross House.  We will have something for everyone, from appreciative receipt of donated items, to hands on design work for their families.  If you’d like to help in any way, please contact Pam.

Vendor Relations – Amy Troute & Brian Kemnitz have taken up the gauntlet with this committee and are setting their sites on building strategic partnerships!  If you’re a vendor and need help connecting, contact either of these two:

First Meeting scheduled:

Thursday May 19th  10 – 12:00.

Forest Heights Design Studio

2061 NW Miller Road Portland

contact:  Pam via email

or call: 503-309-5456

All right gang, we have our work cut out for us!  If you’re a designer and ready to jump right into some serious design efforts, we have FOUR units to ready in the next two months.  WOW.  A lot of work, but I know we can handle it.  Two are vacant now, one comes vacant the end of the month and the last will be ready in a month’s time.   We are not responsible to completely furnish all supplies, but if you have projects that have household supplies, furniture, decor items etc, this would be a great time to procure donations. No doubt we will need lots!

Participation in the design work is limited to our members, and we’ve been given permission to take before and after pictures for use in our portfolios.  Paul Sively, Photography has graciously volunteered to assist with beautiful after photos!

We’re looking forward to seeing you at this meeting.  We’ll need team leads for each unit, so if that’s of interest to you, make sure you’re there!

Attorney and IT Guru Tom Howe of Control Center Computing, Inc. was our Business Strategist for our April meeting.  Knowing how to optimize for search engines so that your website appears in directories and actually attracts new clients is simply a matter of using the right words in the right way.  Search engines, such as google don’t see the pretty pictures.  They see the pretty (or more importantly the focused) words!

If you missed this informative presentation at the last meeting, no worries.  Tom provided us with the following link (great SEO info here!!) complete with the slide presetation and links out to all the great resources!

Not a do-it-yourselfer?  Call Tom directly: 503-200-2933 and he can you set up!

I think it’s safe to say that most people are nervous at the prospect of speaking in front of a crowd.  I, however, get anxious when I have arranged to have a speaker at the IDS meeting!  There is no way to control the content once the speaker picks up the mic.  A large hooked cane is in poor taste, so if they go “south”, we just have to endure it.

At our March 29th meeting, there were three (3) speakers!  If you were there, you know that each of them were wonderfully prepared and delivered useful information in an enjoyable way.  If you missed it, the recap is below and you can check out their websites for more info. Special thanks to Angela (Annie Ross House), Gordon Nelson ( Integra Construction Group) and Donna, Philip & Marshall (Blackstone Edge Studio). We greatly appreciated the generous gift of your time and expertise.

On another note…

Your board of directors met on 3/22 and talked at length about Special Events (among other things) that we could bring to our members.  Our objective is to combine fun plus content. Think Frank LLoyd Wright, think Scavenger Hunt, think Designer Show & Tell.  Stay tuned!

In July, our regularly scheduled meeting will be replaced by a Summer Soire on the terrace at the West End Bldg.  The tentative date will be Fri, July 22, 5:30-8:30pm, for cocktails & appetizers.  We’ll update you as more details are confirmed but pencil this date in your calendars.  A spouse or significant other will  be welcome to join you!

We hope that you will continue to attend monthly meetings and that you find value in the program, especially the guest speakers in our Business Strategies 2011 series.  We also hope that our Design Partners/Venders will take advantage of a display table ($25) or be a featured speaker w/display table ($50 + coffee).  We want to know you because we do business with those we know, like & trust!  Brian Kemnitz, Design Partner Liaison, will be happy to reserve a spot for you!  Contact him at 503-579-3765.

Lastly, we are committed to doubling our current membership by the end of the year.  We may be the best kept secret in the Portland design world, so we ask all of you to be ambassadors-at-large for IDS.  When talking with other designers or venders, please take a moment to invite them to a meeting.

With appreciation,

Judi Jones

Judith Jones Interiors

President 2011-12

At our meeting, we met Angela from The Annie Ross House. This organization works with displaced families to keep them housed, intact as a family unit and transitioning back to a place of independence. We are so pleased they are allowing us to team with them to make a bit of these families homes just a bit brighter! You can read all about the work they do on their website.

For our part, there will many different ways you can get involved; either in the form of donations of your clients furnishings or volunteering your skills as we help ready the properties for their incoming families.

So how can YOU get involved??

• Do you have household items you no longer adore? They need everything you would need to set up a household. These families are in this program as they have almost NOTHING.
• You’ve just outfitted a clients home with new furniture. Would your client love to donate (for a tax-deduction at least) their old furnishings? Often times they’ll realize MORE money back on their taxes than they would have if they opted to consign a piece.
• Are you handy with a paint brush?
• Are you, hmmmmm, a designer with a good eye and a creative spirit?

Our affiliation with the Annie Ross House will give us the ability to do what we love.  As the families transition through the program, many are placed in housing on the campus. When a family leaves for greener pastures, they are able to take with them all the furnishings they’ve been using. This creates a constant need for household goods. One of the roles WE get to fill is to help prepare these homes for their new tenants. We’ll have about a month’s notice to prepare, then about a week to ready the home. The repairs and maintenance will be done. They do get regularly donations from other supporters, so it’s not necessary that we furnish everything.

If you’d like to get involved or just need a little more information to make an informed decision, please email Pamela Sandall.