Working together
Designed 4 Peace sends gently used furniture to homeowners in need
Anel Nieto and her grown daughters found themselves sharing a twin-size trundle daybed and not much else after Hurricane Harvey destroyed everything they owned in their small rental home on the city’s north side.
Like virtually every other home in their neighborhood near Melrose Park, floodwaters crept in, leaving behind ruined furniture and mattresses, soggy carpet and layers of mold.
It takes all three of them working — Wendy Nieto is 23 and Ashley Nieto is 20 — to get by, and there’s never enough money to buy new furniture.
When Houston interior designer LeTricia Wilbanks heard of the Nietos’ plight, she knew the small family would be the next project in her startup charity, Designed 4 Peace.
Wilbanks taps into her clients’ gently used furniture to help others who have nothing.
When her design clients’ new furnishings are installed, there’s often old furniture that needs a new home. Sometimes the clients give it to family or friends, sell it or donate it to thrift stores, but Wilbanks knew there are people who can’t afford even that.
“After the election last year, it was so cantankerous in the country. I was tired of it,” said Wilbanks, who moved here from East Texas with her family in 2002. “I’ve been exposed to Muslim, Jewish, Christian, all of these faiths and cultures here, and I love them all. I wanted to do something collectively that enables all of us to work together
for the good of someone in need.”
The Nietos needed furniture for two bedrooms and things for the living room. Their dining table is metal, so it survived the floodwaters, and they’d put the dining chairs on top, so they avoided damage, too.
Like so many others, Anel Nieto and her daughters expected to wait out the hurricane in their home. As the rain kept falling, their ditches filled and then overflowed. As the water inched toward their home, they knew it was time to leave.
Neighbors in pickup trucks helped the women to safety, and they stayed with a relative.
Days later, though, they returned home to devastation.
In a neighborhood of small, ranch-style homes with carports built in the early 1960s, piles of debris started mounting along every curb.
Waterladen drywall, furniture soaked in contaminated floodwaters, ruined appliances and more all sat waiting to be hauled to landfills.
Their landlord quickly replaced the bottom 4 feet of drywall, repaired damaged ceilings and installed new carpet, but their home, otherwise, was nearly empty.
Anel Nieto and her daughters had no idea what they would do for the rest. They contemplated moving to Dallas, where a friend lives.
Wilbanks, however, knew exactly what to do. She reached out to clients, some of whom, like her, use Anel Nieto’s housekeeping services. Texts came back with photos of chairs, beds, nightstands and more.
She hired two men with a truck — she paid them $750 out of her own pocket — and drove from client to client picking up furniture, then installing it at the Nietos’ home.
The tan leather sofa in the living room came from Wilbanks, whose new, replacement furniture won’t arrive for several weeks. A second sofa and two chairs will go to the next home she fills.
Client Kathy Dimmitt donated a console, TV and master bedroom furniture. Carol Fisher donated the mattress and bed frame for Ashley Nieto’s room. More furniture came from Maura Parro, and Teri Quance donated barstools and draperies.
Michael Rogers, Wilbanks’ go-to guy for installing window treatments, installed hardware donated by Williamson Supply.
A lovely painting that rests over Anel Nieto’s sofa was painted for her by Wilbanks’ friend, Tricia Legg, an artist who owns Cache Chic in Brenham.
The living room now has a leather sofa and two chairs, with accessories finishing off the room.
Ashley Nieto’s bedroom used to be littlegirl pink, way too young for this young woman who works at a financial services company. The walls are now a soft gray that blends with darker gray carpet and draperies. Her bedspread is a mod assemblage of colorful flowers topped with orange decorative pillows.
“When she fixed it up, I was so happy. I definitely needed a change,” Ashley Nieto said.
Designed 4 Peace isn’t yet a formal 501c3 nonprofit but rather an effort that Wilbanks works on when she can and when she learns of someone new in need. She hopes to have another home finished before the end of the year.
With so much of Houston rebuilding after the hurricane, Wilbanks is certain there’s a long list of people needing help. If homeowners or other designers want to help, they can reach her at letricia_wilbanks@hotmail.com.
Better yet, designers can follow her lead and do the same.
“I am trying to start a movement,” Wilbanks said.
“I’ve been exposed to Muslim, Jewish, Christian, all of these faiths and cultures here, and I love them all. I wanted to do something collectively that enables all of us to work together for the good of someone in need.” LeTricia Wilbanks, Designed 4 Peace