Design Bank uses the principles of regular banking, but with a twist — furniture is the currency.
Design Bank sources free furniture and household items from Freecycle, Freegle and Gumtree. Participants take part in restoration and upcycling workshops, and then buy items using time credits they have earned whilst working on the project.
We work with people who have experienced homelessness, the long term unemployed and vulnerable women to change their circumstances, increase their employability and to boost their self-esteem.
Design Bank is important because we use the skill of interior design and upcyling to give people the chance turn their lives around, to develop their skills, to contribute to a worthwhile project, engage in a meaningful social environment and most importantly, to have hope.
Design Bank changes lives.......
•Reduces social exclusion and engages people with the local community through group learning workshops.
•Supports vulnerable people by learning DIY skills and design tips to create a home worth living in.
•Creates financial inclusion by enabling participants to buy furniture with time credit.
•Cuts waste and carbon emissions by using unwanted furniture.
How it works.....
1. Sign up to one of our workshops and learn a new skill.
2. Each workshop has a time credit value which builds credit in your time bank account.
3. Items for sale will have a monetary and a time price tag.
4. Buy furniture using time credits.
5. Take home and show off your clever, foxy, stellar, crackerjack upcycled item to friends and neighbours.
Design Bank is the brainchild of Petit Miracle Interiors a London-based, registered charity offering interior design training to disadvantaged people.
Our goal is to support people to use interior design as a means to turn their lives around, thus our mission was born — 'Changing Spaces, Changing Lives'
Our aims:
•To encourage participants to explore and understand the process of interior design; to use this skill as a vehicle to improve their own living environment, build confidence, reduce social exclusion and provide opportunities for further training and employment.
•We aim to provide work experience opportunities for successful participants where they turn their skills into practice by providing interior design advice and consultation to newly housed/formerly homeless people.
