Interior Decorating students bring fresh vision to Kerr Street Mission's common space

When second-year Interior Decorating students Gabriela Giron and María Cano were given the opportunity to redesign the common area at Kerr Street Mission, an Oakville, Ont. non-profit with longstanding ties to the local community, they couldn’t help but say yes.

Located a stone’s throw away from Sheridan’s Trafalgar Road Campus, Kerr Street Mission provides support and services for low-income and at-risk families and youth in Oakville, including summer programs, community meals and a neighbourhood care network.

“It’s a great environment, and we love what they’re doing,” Cano explained. “We wanted them to have this really nice space where they felt like it’s their own.”

Giron and Cano were asked to take on the project because of their ability to work independently, says Aseel Khalil, Program Coordinator and Professor in the Interior Decorating Program, adding that while all her students were strong and capable candidates, she was confident that the two women would represent the program, and Sheridan, well.“Since this (project) happened during the school year, I was especially mindful of choosing students who could take it on without it affecting their school workload,” explained Khalil. “Gabriela and María were the natural choices.” 

Beginning with their first client meeting in winter 2023, the students' primary task was to redesign new sound-dampening panels in Kerr Street Mission’s multi-purpose common area.

Along with ensuring design ideas were aesthetically pleasing and fit within Kerr Street Mission’s cozy, family-based atmosphere, the project’s main goals were to enhance the room’s acoustics, foster community interaction and complement the space’s existing lighting fixtures.

According to Kerr Street Mission Project Manager Callum McGeorge, who reached out to Sheridan with the idea to collaborate on the redesign in fall 2023, the non-profit wanted to create a space where individuals and families could feel both comfortable and supported.

“It’s (the common area) probably the ‘life and soul’ of our organization,” says McGeorge. “It’s a multi-use space and heavily trafficked. It’s a dining hall area, where we serve five-to-six meals a week, and also where we have our Kids Club programs and other youth programs as well. We just wanted to make it a place that people could come in and just really enjoy the space.”

To guide their design process, Giron and Cano adhered to three fundamental design principles that they’d learned from their two-year program at Sheridan: flexibility, organic appeal and sustainability. They understood the importance of a multi-purpose space that could serve various functions, and they aimed to create a durable and efficient environment that could adapt to the diverse needs of the Kerr Street Mission community. 

In the dining space, for example, the panels were spaced out to maintain an open atmosphere, while in the children’s activity area, they were placed closer together to manage noise levels effectively. This careful consideration of sound dynamics ensured that the space could accommodate both lively gatherings and quieter moments of reflection.

“Our final product looks better than anything we could have envisioned.”

– Kerr Street Mission project manager Callum McGeorge

Along with their design work, Giron and Cano, who both graduated from Sheridan in April 2024, coordinated site visits, organized client meetings, created design presentations and pitched their ideas — skills and experiences that are crucial in the professional design world.

The students also produced 3D renderings of their proposed redesign, allowing the Kerr Street Mission team to visualize the potential changes in real time.

This, Cano says, added an extra boost of educational value to the project.

“My mindset: is if you do it, you learn it. Doing it on-site and visiting with Callum (McGeorge), it was really nice to be in that environment. We were working on this project before we graduated, so it gave us a sense of what life was going to be like professionally, working in the field, making a presentation and knowing how to talk to the clients.”

On August 16, 2024, Kerr Street Mission officially unveiled their new common area redesign at an Inauguration Ceremony featuring staff, clients and donors such as the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which fully funded the project.

Giron, representing Sheridan, was there as well.

“It was amazing to implement all of our knowledge learned at Sheridan, but at the same time be able to see the end result,” said Giron. “We felt so grateful because we could see the whole result and that everything went well.”

Through their innovative design work, the two former Sheridan students have not only enhanced the physical space of the Kerr Street Mission but have also strengthened the bonds within the community, according to McGeorge.

“Seeing the changes come to life is pretty cool,” says McGeorge. “Clients will come in for lunch or be waiting in the market, and there’s comments about how nice the place looks. Our final product looks better than anything we could have envisioned.”

Learn more about Sheridan’s Interior Decorating program.

— Pictured in group photo are (from left) Sheridan Interior Decorating graduate Gabriela Giron, Oakville MPP Stephen Crawford, Kerr Street Mission project manager Callum McGeorge and Kerr Street Mission executive assistant Daniel Arruda