Commercial

Women's Shelter

A volunteer redesign of the shelter's shared bathroom — working within fixed commercial fixtures and accessibility elements, built entirely from donated, thrifted and personally-purchased materials.

The added oak storage cabinet above the toilet with framed inspirational quotes, the existing grab bars kept in place

Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Project type: Design with purpose — a community volunteer project
Scope: A volunteer redesign of the shelter's shared bathroom — working within fixed commercial fixtures and accessibility elements, built entirely from donated, thrifted and personally-purchased materials.

The challenge

As the first Student Liaison for the Arizona Chapter of IFDA, I joined a volunteer design project at a shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence. The brief was simple: choose a space and make it better based on what the people using it actually said they needed. I chose the bathroom, and started by talking with the women who used it. Their requests were practical — storage for toilet paper, room for personal necessities, places to set or hang everyday things. There was no budget; everything was bought personally, thrifted or donated.

Functional requirements

Keep every fixed commercial fixture and accessibility element
Real storage for toilet paper and personal necessities
Practical places to set and hang everyday items
Warmth — an institutional room that feels a little more like home

The approach

Because it was a public, commercial space, the existing fixtures and accessibility elements had to stay — so the design worked around them rather than fighting them. A local showroom I'd built a relationship with as a student donated commercial-grade striped wallcovering. The institutional sheet mirror was kept and framed with architectural casing to give it a more residential presence. Storage went in above the toilet; a thrifted shelf made a place for a purse, jacket, cup and paper towels; IKEA pieces added real toilet-paper storage, a mirror and a small bench. I made the wall pocket and florals from thrifted materials, and inexpensive framed quotes added warmth. It went in over two days, with my husband as my assistant.

What it became

The smallest requests carried the most weight. One resident asked for a place to keep extra personal items — not decoration, a design need — so the cabinet was stocked with necessities. No one asked for a children's area; that came from my instinct as a mother. Since a woman couldn't always leave her child outside the door, a child-height mirror and a small bench gave the little ones a place of their own instead of the floor. When the women came to see it, there was no formal testimonial — just hugs, tears, and shoulders that visibly relaxed as they walked in. They didn't ask for pretty. They asked for practical things that provide dignity in an already undignified situation. The aesthetic reflects a moment in time. The thinking behind it does not.