blvd. | givers
Kelley Vieregg created this winning design for last year’s Furnished. Again this year, 10 interior designers will create vignettes for the nonprofit Furnish For Good’s annual fundraiser.
Noble design TEN CHARLOTTE INTERIOR DESIGNERS CREATE DREAMY SPACES TO HELP FURNISH FOR GOOD SERVE THOSE IN NEED.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DUSTIN PECK
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by Michelle Boudin
aria Lindsay was homeless for 10 years before finally getting a place of her own last year. She moved in with her two children but didn’t have any money left over for furniture. That’s when she was introduced to Furnish For Good, a Charlotte nonprofit that provides gently used home furnishings for people in need. “I was overwhelmed with everything they offered,” Lindsay says. “They gave me a checklist of everything they thought I might need — beds, kitchen table, dishes. I broke into tears — it was the boost I needed to get back on my feet. My daughter kept saying, ‘I have my own bed, I have my own bed!’” Furnish For Good is set up like a showroom — clients can wander through and choose what they like best. “We reuse quality furniture and work with people transitioning out of homelessness and poverty and help to transform their lives by empowering them,” explains co-founder Priscilla Chapman. Chapman, Mary Beth Hollett and Lesley Faulkner started Furnish
For Good in October 2019, initially taking over the fifth floor of a Morningstar Storage facility near uptown and transforming the 4,000-square-foot space into a showroom. They were brought together by Kathy Izard, a champion for the Charlotte homeless community who challenged the women to find a more dignified way to help people transition into home ownership. The volunteer-run organization has grown so much, the showroom now takes up several floors, and the women are currently searching for a new home, hoping to find a space with at least 10,000 square feet. Furnish For Good partners with 15 agencies in Charlotte, including Roof Above and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, with a waitlist of a dozen more groups that want to work with them. Clients pay a small fee, typically about $200 for a family of four, to select furniture and household goods for their homes. Leaders of the nonprofit saw the need skyrocket during the pandemic and are bracing for what they anticipate will be an even bigger need in the year ahead. southparkmagazine.com | 43
