About Us
It’s never been more exciting to be part of the solution and create real social impact.
This is your call to join the circular economy – are you with us?
Our homes have a huge impact on our mental health and wellbeing. Living in poor quality housing without proper flooring, curtains or furniture has a devastating impact on people’s self esteem – and yet most social housing is given to families completely bare. These might be houses, but they’re not homes.
Women and children who are rehoused in empty flats after leaving abusive relationships find themselves plunged into poverty at the most vulnerable time in their lives. Families already struggling to make ends meet cannot stretch their shrinking household budgets to afford basic items like beds, sofas or curtains.
That’s where we come in. Furnishing Futures takes furniture and homewares donated by the interiors industry and our incredible supporters and creates healing homes that support women and children’s wellbeing and raise self esteem. We support families by creating beautiful homes, designed well.
Restoring dignity, giving hope
We use trauma-informed design to create spaces that nurture and uplift women and children who have experienced domestic abuse or are living with the impact of poverty. We work with them to decide how their homes are decorated – something that’s incredibly important when your choices have been taken away from you in so many ways. From sofas to saucers, pictures to pans, we furnish homes with everything a family needs to be safe and comfortable – all at no cost to the people we support. We’re driven by our values to respect, empower and support families through the power of good design.
More love, less landfill
At the same time, we help brands in their journey to become more socially minded and sustainable, enabling them to donate stock that could otherwise end up in landfill – from photoshoots and ex-display items to unwanted goods returned by customers. By working together, we support a circular economy that benefits the environment as well as families in need.
Our founder
Emily Wheeler is a registered social worker with more than fifteen years’ experience in frontline social work. She is also a trained interior designer and a respected interiors writer and stylist who’s written for The Sunday Times Style, Stella, Ideal Home, Red, Guardian Weekend, The Simple Things, Homes & Antiques, Elle Decoration, Grazia, 25 Beautiful Homes and many others, and she is the author of Creative Living London (Thames & Hudson).
About Emily
As a social worker, Emily worked with hundreds of women and children experiencing domestic abuse, adversity and multiple disadvantages, supporting them to create safer and more comfortable lives for their families. All too often, these families were rehoused in cold, empty flats with no beds, chairs, curtains, or even an oven.
Emily realised she could combine her social work skills with her passion for sustainable interiors. Furnishing Futures was founded from Emily’s kitchen in 2019 as an innovative solution to the two unsustainable problems of furniture poverty and interiors industry waste.
News
Sep 27, 2022
Press: Country & Town House Magazine
Aug 30, 2022
Press: The Independent Happy List 2022
Aug 26, 2022