RU interior design senior helps design the Bull Run Warrior Retreat

Senior interior design major Nicole Thomas has been working diligently designing projects for the Senior Interior Design and Fashion Showcase that is at Radford University’s Art Museum this month. Thomas’ designs include a health care environment, a corporate office, a retail store, a grocery store and a sports merchandise shop.

However, her hard work does not stop there. Thomas is also working on design projects for her internship with Serve Our Willing Warriors (SOWW), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide our country’s recovering, ill and injured warriors and their families with a “home away from home” stay at the Bull Run Warrior Retreat. The retreat is an 11,000 square-foot home situated on 44 acres in Thomas’ hometown of Haymarket, Va.

“The goal of the retreat is to provide warriors and their families with a much needed break from the hospital environments where they can reconnect, reflect and renew in a peaceful family home designed and created just for them,” said Thomas.

She discovered the SOWW project from Haymarket’s designer and owner of Creative Elegance Interiors, Paola McDonald.

After contacting the foundation to request a volunteer position, Thomas soon found out that family friends, John and Shirley Dominick, where behind the project, and they offered her the position. Thomas is currently creating and designing 3D renderings for each room of the house, which will include a massage room, fitness room, movie theater room, great room, central living area and six bedrooms among others.

“These renderings will be used to help future visitors, the Haymarket community, and possible donors visualize what the retreat home will eventually look like,” stated Thomas.

Through her work with SOWW, she has gained not only experience but also a new perspective of interior design. “Creating designs that clients truly enjoy and are excited to bring to life is something that I have not yet been able to experience as a student,” stated Thomas, “This internship has most importantly helped me realize how truly rewarding it is to be an interior designer.”

To learn more about SOWW, visit their website www.willingwarriors.org. To learn more about the RU College of Visual and Performing Art’s Department of Interior Design and Fashion, visit www.radford.edu/design.