Dwell with Dignity Thrift Studio & IDS DFW

Dwell with Dignity’s Thrift Studio event is a fundraiser like no other! Thrift Studio is a 30-day pop-up shop created to provide financial viability and fundraising for Dwell with Dignity by selling donated furniture, housewares, accessories and high-end designer finds to the public. Since the concept launched in Dallas in 2011, the event has grown into a highly anticipated and can’t-miss event for DWD supporters, the interior design community and the general public looking for a fabulous deal on home furnishings.

Thrift Studio kicks off with a Preview Party which is a ticketed event where guests can shop the pop-up shop before it opens to the general public. Inside, Thrift Studio shoppers find stunning vignettes created by leading designers, showrooms and retailers featuring donated high-end home decor items sold at significant discounts with 100% of sales benefitting Dwell with Dignity’s mission.

Thrift Studio provides one-third of the operating revenue that allows Dwell with Dignity to change lives through design by bringing good design to those who can afford it the least. In 2016 Dwell with Dignity will complete 22 projects providing fresh starts for 20 families and 2 community partners.

Their approach of one household at a time allows them to be integral to breaking the cycle of poverty. They provide the stability, comfort and pride needed to change the course of the lives of the families they help. See above photos.

They cannot do it without the support of their largest fundraiser, Thrift Studio.

I am incredibly honored to have been chosen as one of the leading designers for this years Thrift Studio event. I am involved in the Dallas IDS chapter (Interior Design Society) and 3 designers were selected to create a vignette in memory of Dot Greenlee. Dot was a member of IDS for years and very loved in the design community. I am honored to work alongside two very talented designers,  Barbara Gilbert and Nicole Arnold for this event.  It has been a wonderful process so far and we are excited about what we have put together for our vignette.

If you are a designer and you are not a part of IDS, you should be! http://www.idsdfw.com/

We are thankful for our sponsors:  Kisabeth Furniture, Nomads Loom and Robert Allen

We would love it if you would come out to this event and support Dwell with Dignity!

SAVE THE DATE; This years thrift studio will take place on April 5th.

    If you would like to see more about Thrift Studio, follow my Instagram and Facebook Page so you can watch the behind the scenes process and get final details once the event gets closer.

Hope the rest of your weekend is fabulous!

Ruthie Staalsen wins Best of Houzz 2017

 

DecRenew Interiors by Ruthie Staalsen is so honored to have been awarded "Best of Houzz" once again this year.

Houzz.com is definitely a growing website with millions of photos of  homes across the world.  Designers and contractors add photos to their galleries and we get to be inspired by them.

I have found this website a  great way for designers to work with clients when trying to determine what their style is.  The client can save photos of their favorite interiors to ideabooks so we can sit down together and identify their wants, needs and desires for their projects.

Check out my design profile http://www.houzz.com/pro/decrenew/__public to see my design galleries as well as our Rave reviews.  Thank you to all my wonderful clients that have written these reviews and have supported me since I started in 2002.

Thank you Houzz.com for this honor.

Colleyville Townhome Master Bedroom

 

This holiday season seems to be the time for master bedroom makeovers.  We have been so busy here at DecRenew Interiors but loving it!

We finished this bedroom a few weeks ago for my client that just moved into a townhome.  We finished her family room a few months ago and she called me back to do her master bedroom.  She wanted it to be simple but beautiful.

BEFORE

All she had in the room was a mattress and a dresser.  Everything else, we provided.

AFTER

The button details on the pillows are my fav.  The blown glass lamps totally rocked the room!

The gray velvet pillow looked a little boring so I added a vintage broach I found at an antique show.

So inviting don't you think?

My team and I spent half a day at her house hanging things and getting it all ready while she was at work.  She couldn't get off in time for us to reveal it to her.  However, she called me when she got home just balling her eyes out because she was so happy that I did exactly what she was wanting. Made my day as you can imagine!  I really try to listen to my clients and make sure I understand what they are wanting.

I'll be posting another home soon where we used what the client had to make her remodeled home shine!

Stay tuned.

Award Winning Home; Punta Barco, Panama

Our family was incredibly blessed to be able to stay in this award winning home during our recent Spring Break trip to Panama City, Panama.  

This home is in Punta Barco about an hour from Panama City. 

 I mentioned in my last post that I'd give you a tour of this incredible indoor/outdoor home.  Here goes.....don't miss the video of the home at the end of this post!

The home won the 2008 single unit International Property Awards in association with CNBC and New York Times.  After staying here for 6 days, I can tell you it's the best in the area!  An architect built the home so that explains a lot.

The house had direct beach access and amazing ocean views with a totally private beach.  My husband and I were absolutely in awe when we first saw the view we were going to look at all week.  It took my breath away!

These were the lounge chairs we enjoyed on the beach.

We came down this long passage way and wondered what was around the next corner.

It was never ending which made us very curious if we were even at the right house.

The home had 3 levels and there was a surprise around every corner.  This is the first indoor/outdoor living room.  The thatch work was absolutely amazing!

This is the second outdoor living space.  I fell in love with the coffee table. 

The dining room was perfect for our big families.  I loved the built in benches throughout the home. 

This table was awesome for lots of people to sit around and its rustic texture was so practical.

We spent tons of time in this little sitting area which had an incredible view.

The stone top coffee table on a tree trunk was an inspiration to me and I immediately had my husband take note :)

These nautical glass floats added such great interest to this patio and the green glass sparkled in the sunshine.

Isn't it cool how they added this conch shell to the railing?  This was my favorite detail in the home!

We spent a lot of time at this table listening to the waves as we ate the wonderful meals the guys cooked for us. 

The guys loved this outdoor grill. We did grilled zucchini one night and when we all sat down to eat and cut into it, we realized it was cucumber.  When you shop in foreign grocery stores, you guess your way around and we guessed wrong on this one.  It looked like a zucchini but it was a cucumber.   Grilled Cucumber is not very tasty I tell you.  We all had a good laugh though. 

I'm crazy, but I  love the feel of bare feet on tile.  It makes me feel like I'm somewhere tropical.

Patio on the lower level, closest to the beach.  Perfect for morning breakfast and coffee.

This old canoe was just resting on these stones as artwork.

This canoe was underneath this beveled glass counter top in the guest house.  Way cool.

Driftwood pieces that the owner had collected on the beach were all over this home and placed in fun and creative places.

I want one of these planters for my patio.

The towel rack in the kitchen is pure perfection.  Behind it is a broken lid and the knob is used as another spot to hang a dish towel.

Fresh flowers and coconuts from the garden.  Fresh coconut is amazing!  So much fun to try it again after all these years.

These wrought iron spheres were in the entryway above the light fixture coves.  Don't you love the way the light makes it such a focal.  The reflection on the ceiling was my favorite.

The niches all had wonderful, old pieces placed inside them.

There were hand carved wooden columns throughout the house.

Architectural pieces tucked away in little corners.  Loved the variety of stones just laying side by side on display for you to admire.

An old broken pot on the wall.

The kids loved the garden and we parents loved that there was a beach shower!

The Guest house and gardens.

Our good friends that live in Panama came to stay with us over a weekend and their family stayed here.

I even got to see a horse rider on the beach which I thought was an extra blessing.   Read my previous post here (Beach houses and life lessons).

Now that you have seen the photo's, how about a video?  My daughter made a video with her flip camera and it gives you a great idea of what I've explained above.  It's a little shaky but hang in there, it's worth it.  I think she did a cute job and she even added tropical music (it's starts to get a little repetitive after a while so get your mute button ready).  The kids loved their bunk room!

Enjoy!

Click here to see video.  Punta Barco Beach House, Panama

Life is good at a beach house!

Visit my website DecRenew Interiors to see before and after photo's of my work.