Out on the Town: Salvage & Style 2026 Raises $450,000
Author:California Home and DesignOn September 26, Make It Home Bay Area raised an impressive $450,000 at its annual Salvage & Style gala where 25 dreamy tablescapes are brought to life by Bay Area interior designers and Make It Home volunteers. Each worked from a single brief: found and reused, which is at the core of Make it Home’s mission of providing gently used home goods a second life for those in need.
Over 200 guests enjoyed a cocktail reception, seated dinner plus silent and live auctions—with all ticket sales and auction proceeds directly benefitting the organization’s work to furnish complete homes for people moving out of homelessness, domestic violence situations and foster care. “Every dollar from Saturday ends up somewhere specific—a bed for a young person aging out of foster care, a kitchen table for a family starting over,” said Carolyn Flannery, founder and CEO of Make It Home. “We set an ambitious goal, and this community met it. Now we get to do the part we love: deliver.”
The stunning tablescapes were arranged by several of the region’s top interior design talent, featuring themes including a 1970s cocktail-lounge table, a Bahamian island lunch set-up and an autumn harvest spread. Many designers drew directly from Make It Home’s warehouse of donated furnishings, including a set of English Coalport china that anchored one Chinoiserie garden table. Every tablescape was offered at auction, with proceeds going to Make It Home. California Home+Design‘s Editor-in-Chief Lindsey Shook was tasked with selecting the winning design. Jennifer Wundrow Interior Design was honored to receive the Editor’s Choice award, for curating a table that went as far as bringing in its own distinctive seating. Additionally four other designs received noteworthy mentions including, Nureed Saeed, Laura Martin Bovard, Stephanie Waskins Studio, Pezzolo & Co. and an honorable mention among volunteer-designed tables went to Kendall Galli for Retrofête, a 1970s-inspired setting. Here, Wundrow shares more about her table design and what Make it Home means to her.
Photos courtesy of Make it Home Bay Area.
-What was the inspiration for your table design? In years past, I have always designed a more traditional tablescape for this event featuring beautiful china, large fresh floral arrangements—in the way I would set my own table at home. This year was a totally different approach for me. I guess it really started with the announcement of my children’s spring performance of Alice in Wonderland at Marin Ballet. With several tables already inspired by this story in past years, I wanted to take a different approach. The oversized paper flowers were my starting point, inspiring a colorful, garden-like palette and a playful mix of patterns and details throughout the tablescape. I wanted the flowers to feel as though they were growing overhead, creating an immersive, whimsical setting that captured the imagination and wonder of Alice in Wonderland in a way that felt fresh and unexpected, while also allowing everyone at the table to converse.
-Where did you source your items from? Finding the right pieces is one of the most fun parts of designing a table, especially when you can repurpose items you already have. I had the oversized paper flowers from a previous event, and they became the starting point for the entire design. From there, items from Make It Home helped bring the vision to life, beginning with the china pattern and tablecloth fabric that established the palette and set the tone. We then layered in pieces from our own inventory and sourced additional items locally to complete the look. I love the creativity that comes from mixing old and new to create something that feels fresh and unexpected.
-Did your entire team get involved with the design? Not this year! One of my senior designers joined me at Make It Home to pull together the initial palette and key pieces, but once we had that foundation, my imagination took over. From there, the design evolved organically as I played with color, pattern, and all the little details that brought the vision to life.
-With so many charities in the Bay Area, why is Make It Home so important to you? What makes Make It Home so meaningful to me is its mission to give home furnishings a second life. Founder Carolyn Flannery, an interior designer herself, recognized how much waste our industry creates—we see it every day. As we refresh our clients’ homes, perfectly good furniture and furnishings are often discarded, often ending up in landfills. I believe these pieces can serve a greater purpose by helping furnish homes for people in need. I deeply believe in what Make It Home does and am grateful for the opportunity to support its mission in any way I can.
-What do you hope your table design and involvement can do for the design community at large? Our industry has so much to offer beyond creating beautiful spaces, and organizations like Make It Home give us an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in our community. If my table encourages even a few people to rethink waste, repurpose what they already have, or get involved with a cause they believe in, then it has accomplished something beyond its design.
