Mission Makeover - Re-purposed, Re-made and Re-used

I love our local mission and I love decorating.   So when the opportunity came to help with decorating the gathering room at our local women's shelter, I was super excited!  I told the volunteer coordinator I was her gal.  I teamed up with a great girlfriend, Ange, and we got to work on gathering ideas via Pintrest.  The goal was for the room to be a relaxing retreat for the women and children that stay at the mission.  The original room was a plain, plain, plain.  A hod-podge of misfit donated items.  A vision formed with a budget of $1,000.  Aside -- this donation was simply placed in the hand of the missions volunteer coordinator on the morning she announced the project to JOY in the morning, our ladies Bible study at church.  Love, love God's timely provision!  Ange and I created three zones for the designs with a clean pallet of tans, gray blues and olive green.

Gathering Zone
This space is used for a Bible study each night.  Any where from 15 to 20 women gathering to study God's word.  Before the space was cluttered with over-sized tables and a large sectional.  This was replaced with two futons and a long free-standing desk.   We covered the futons and pillows in washable fabics and pest-resistant protective covers.  By placeing a large desk on the opposite wall we were really able to open up the space.  Space for kids to play, space for more chair during Bible study, and now even space for ladies to do workout DVD's.  A large new, donated TV was mounted over the desk.   A couple of the ladies from our Bible study did the sewing for the futon covers and pillows.  The desk took some extra time to install but it did get installed.  The picture below is pre-install.

Children's Zone
This was a small 4 ft by 5 ft corner of the room.  A new play kitchen was donated - hello those things are hard to put together.   We chose to put a cubical storage shelf for books and toys.  A small table with stool allows for children to have a space to play and work.  

Working Zone
Many of the ladies are looking for jobs and so need a place to fill out papers.  There is also a recovery program that some of the ladies enroll in which requires homework.  The floating desk and pub table allow for ladies to get work done but the areas don't take up a lot of space.  Wanting to use the space effectively, we had a long desk, 10 ft., costume built for the space.  The top is covered with laminate making it more durable for all the use it receives. This was our most expensive piece for the room but well worth it.  In fact the builder goes to our church and donated his time so we only paid for the materials.  If you have priced custom pieces you know what a huge blessing this was.  Painting an accent wall in the alcove perfectly defines the space.  New floating shelves allow for books and materials to be out of reach from children.  To the left of the picture, we created a message board for the ladies to use. 

Just Some thoughts - 

2 Corinthians 5:17
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 

Many of the decor pieces for this room were re-purposed.  The lamps, side table and chairs where all from Goodwill.  A little paint new, fabrics and TLC and they are beautiful new pieces.  Isn't this the same process that Christ take us through.  Our lives feel discarded and no longer useful and Christ transforms us by His Spirit.  This is the journey that the women at the mission are under-going.  They are women just like you and me but they have come to a place of need.  God is taking them and re-making for His glory. The old is now NEW!

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. 

This project took a team of ladies all with different gifts and all with a willing heart to serve.  I loved this.  I did not have the ability or time to do everything, but with each women playing their unique roll the whole project was a success.  Christ has a good work for us to do for we are each His good work to a needy world. 


For me this project is at the heart of decorating.  To decorate actually means to add honor.  We took a space that had no visual honor and made it into a space where each women and child feels honored. 

I talked to a couple of the gals they other day and they shared how wonderful it is to have a relaxing, beautiful space.  They have a space that feels more like home.