10 SMALL BUSINESSES

10 DESIGNERS

10 MAKEOVERS

10 DAYS

MAIN ST MAKEOVER

The Sierra Club 109 E. Grand River Ave.

I'm Anne Woiwode, the state director for the Sierra Club in Michigan.

We're an organization that's devoted to protecting the Earth and leaving a better future for our children.

The Sierra Club is a nonprofit organization.

So they had tons of hand-me-downs and leftovers and bits and pieces.

Folks looking around the office will see we don't use our space very well.

We're looking forward to working with a designer on what we need to do to make it more efficient.

The concept was very much to unify visually the whole place.

So it represents more who they are, and also to organize them better.

PLANNING THE MAKEOVER November 2007

- Hello.

- Welcome back.

- This is Jay.

- Hi.

He's going to do the engineering part of this.

My name is Jay. I'm in Lansing to give the Sierra Club a makeover.

You wrote us a letter explaining who you are and what you need.

As a nonprofit organization they're used to receiving pieces of furniture piecemeal. They each had specific needs.

But we had to convey that this was an entire makeover.

So it wasn't donating furniture here and there.

When I read this, I felt you're happy with what you have but here we want another chair, or here we would need another piece.

And we could do that but it would continue looking like donated pieces.

So for a makeover I would prefer us to redo totally a room or two or three.

As far as the budget allows us.

I think they were frustrated at times, but we persuaded them to start with the first room and make it more representative.

Look better.

Instead of just putting other chairs around this table for a little more harmony and a more natural feeling I suggest a solid birch wood table.

Then I thought some big paper lamps that could be a sculptural thing.

A little bit whimsical.

It could also be a lighting source for the space.

So well over our heads.

Way up there. Filling that empty space.

I would like to continue that textile thing in the window.

Make it more ... a little bit more inviting and homey.

Just because you're working it doesn't mean there shouldn't be beauty.

That was the vanity part. Then we go into function.

You'll go deeper into that. You're not committing to anything now.

That was all I had. This is a concept that would transfer as far as we can afford.

We'll have a lot of discussions as to what we need as an office.

My management style is a consensus-building style.

They have to live with decisions as well.

So many people are involved in the decision-making process so we had to deal with that and ensure their needs were addressed.

We're constantly consumed with tomorrow's challenge.

So this is a great opportunity for us to take that step back with people who look at it from a functional and design standpoint.

That's the most exciting part of what we've heard today.

THE MAKEOVER January 2008

Hey. How are you doing? This is Anne's dog.

They needed a more natural look and help with organizational needs.

Their meeting table was a fixed size, so we got a Norden dining table.

It's an 8 - 10 person table with a leaf.

If there aren't many people there, they could use the smaller table and expand it for a members' meeting.

That does extend with the leaf. It's a very nice table.

- Can I put the chairs around it?

- Sure.

That's why I didn't do it. I could tell you were dying to do it.

It's an Eliot herringbone chair, and it's an IKEA-specific thing.

It's pressed bamboo in a herringbone design.

- Is this the most exciting part?

- Oh, yeah.

We're an environmental organization so having the natural-looking furniture is definitely going to be a huge part and of huge importance.

I'm excited about getting the green in here. Not a lot of green.

But enough to make a difference with the chairs and cushions.

Those types of things. And these women are great.

It's good to work with great people, so I'm really excited.

Ta-da.

- I saw this. It's on the front page.

- Your chair's being built. The Eliot.

- No posing whatsoever.

- No.

Brian the electrician is taking care of our electrical work on the ceiling.

For the regular lights.

We added some big rice lamps on the floor and from the ceiling.

With energy-saving bulbs, of course. In this way more light gets transferred into the rest of the space.

It's great. It's beautiful. It adds something to the space.

Before

After

Now on to Amanda's desk and the temp's desk.

Cabinets in birch finish, a birch desk and the temp's desk next to it.

In the front we gave them the same desk styles. All in different sizes.

But all in birch finish, so it brings symmetry and a natural look.

- Then on to the director's room.

- I have the largest office.

But I'm terrible in terms of my storage and organization.

We set up her organizational needs as well as a new desk.

We wanted them all to have similar desks to unify the place visually from office to office.

We had the desks built, and it's coming along well.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

When it came to wall space, I wanted to give it a personal touch.

We used their own calendars.

They have rip-outs from prior years' calendars.

- We're going to do a theme.

- Beautiful.

They're in our birch frames with a 3 x 3 design.

I wanted to space them evenly. There's 10 inches between them.

It gives a clean look in presentation. When you do numbers it's easy to get things off-center. So it's good to use even numbers.

It's good we just did six.

Jay is very calm, very diplomatic. Very professional.

I had full confidence in him taking care of this process.

He followed it to a T. and he added things I hadn't thought of.

Like a recycling station. Recycling at the Sierra Club.

- They had something before, right?

- Yes, a different structure.

It was just boxes, and it was kind of organized but I gave them Sortera bins, and I did vinyl lettering on them.

I used Gorm to organize them in a symmetrical pattern.

It's recycling, but it's beautiful.

Before

After

You've done a great job. I'm so happy.

I'm ecstatic about the result. Every day I drive by and take pictures.

So I'm just as psyched as anyone walking down the street would be.

People will feel more homey, and it will look more organized. Great.

Every business I see, I see a totality, and I'm so happy with the crispness and the freshness. It's still very low-key.

It very much echoes what the Sierra Club is about.

When I see it, it just feels very "them". That makes me happy.

IKEA BUSINESS A better life at work