When designers decorate a model home, they often shop in showrooms, seeking out the latest styles and colors.
Jennie Korsbon of RCC Interiors shopped at a warehouse filled with secondhand donated furniture.
Why? To raise awareness of Bridging (www.bridging.org), a Bloomington-based nonprofit that provides people in transition with the furniture and housewares they need to set up a household.
Furniture donations are down, a side effect of the weak economy, according to Char Pfeiffer, marketing/special events manager for Bridging, which asked RCC and Boyer Building Co. to collaborate on a Parade of Homes model furnished with items from its warehouse.
Korsbon said she jumped at the chance.
"It's such a fun idea," she said. "My hope is that people will see how nice it can look, pulling together found items."
That's not to say it wasn't a challenge. "The hardest thing was not being able to pick the fabrics," she said. She looked for pieces that weren't too worn and that would complement the home's architectural style, which she described as "updated Tuscan." "There were a lot of midcentury modern [pieces] but they wouldn't fit the house," she said.
Size was another criterion. "I was looking for big -- things that would not be dwarfed in the space," Korsbon said.
