East Oxford Community Centre Transformation #25Project

Over the past few weeks I've had the hard task of whittling down all of the nominations from across the globe for the #25Project! Going through each nomination (all 300+!) has been such an eye opener, there are so many deserving and incredible community spaces all across the world, so choosing just 25 was one of the hardest things I've had to do. From Scotland to Mongolia the scope of nominations blew me away, so I want to thank each and every one of you who entered your local space. I will be announcing the 25 spaces very soon, but I wanted to share with you how this all began and my local space that inspired it all.

The East Oxford Community Centre has been the beating heart of my neighbourhood for the past 40 years. My family, my incredible team here at Annie Sloan HQ and I have all used it's space in one way or another, from toddler sing alongs, volunteering at the drop in kitchen for refugees, to the famous open mic night. I have always loved the building but knew it needed a little help here and there, so my team and I got stuck in giving the front room a transformation! I knew that I not only wanted to get the community involved but also run workshops too, as I wanted to make sure that the community had the biggest hand in helping transform their space. We ran workshops in upholstering, curtain and cushion making, painting, printing, stencilling and dyeing, and then we had two long days of painting everything and anything! I think the photos below show just how much hard work and fun everyone had along the way!

Volunteers and the local community all chipping in, painting and creating!

I chose cool colours for the walls, such as Aubusson and Versailles, and warmer colours like Barcelona Orange and Primer Red on smaller pieces like the piano and cushions. 

We painted the piano, that was kindly donated by a local church, Barcelona Orange and Duck Egg Blue, and teamed it with a stool painted Provence. 

I loved the beautiful patina of the exposed brickwork, so we chose a soft tone to make the brickwork the star! 

Pillows and cushions dyed stencilled and stamped in my colours 

The chairs were all painted and upholstered by the local community, stacked up and ready to go! 

A shot of the final transformation, with new curtains and cushions, pianos and tables all in place!  

If you want to have a look at how it all came about, watch this little video all about the transformation!

I had so much fun transforming this space, I cannot wait to start transforming the 25 spaces across the world, with the help of my wonderful Stockists over the next year! Keep a look out on my Facebook and Instagram for the chosen 25, coming very, very soon! 

Yours, Annie