Rocking chairs invite daydreams. That’s where, in the quiet hours holding her infant son, inspiration found realtor Carole Greenzalis. As she was building her family and growing her business, Greenzalis was moved to give back.
“I didn’t want to just be a realtor,” she says. “I wanted to approach it all a bit differently.” A fan of home makeover shows, Greenzalis started scheming about doing something similar.
Connect with the Columbus you don’t know. Subscribe to Columbus Monthly’s weekly Top Reads newsletter.
The result is Project Refresh. In one week, Greenzalis and Sarah Bean, founder of staging and redesign company Altogether Lovely Home, work with a team of 12 small businesses to deliver a free redesigned room—complete with new furniture, paint, and decor—to a deserving Columbus-area family or individual.
For Bean and Greenzalis, Project Refresh also provides the opportunity to bring the talents of their favorite suppliers together. “We have all these terrific vendors on speed dial,” Greenzalis says, adding “Project Refresh allows us to highlight their good work.” Some of them donate their services, and Greenzalis secures cash contributions to make up the rest of the project’s $5000 budget.
This year, Project Refresh restyled the primary bedroom of Cameron and Katie Fontana’s Pickerington home, following Katie’s two-year journey with throat cancer. Cameron, a host on Good Day Columbus, documented Katie’s diagnosis, treatment, and eventual recovery on social media with signature high-energy and positivity. They drew strength knowing that sharing their faith and story online could help others.
With two young children at home, Katie’s treatments brought some difficult days for the family. “There were times when Cameron would have to carry me upstairs and lock the bedroom door behind him” so the kids didn’t have to see what was going on, Katie says.
When selected for Project Refresh, the Fontanas directed the team to their bedroom. “It was horrible,” Katie says, with old carpet, broken blinds and mismatched furniture. “It was the last space we put any thought into.”
As Katie’s sickroom, the bedroom had also been “a very dark, sad space,” says Bean. Now that Katie was well, the Project Refresh team wanted to create a positive space for the next phase of their lives.
Upfront planning allowed the team to work quickly, replacing the Fontana’s carpeting and furniture, reorganizing the closets, and brightening the walls with fresh paint, custom molding, and a gallery of family photos.
Cameron literally jumped for joy when he saw their new bedroom. “Our room is a sanctuary now,” says Katie. “We didn’t know how badly we needed this change.” Bean says that at the reveal “you could just sense their fresh breaths.”
Greenzalis’ dream to improve people’s lives by improving their spaces was always about more than just redecorating. She knew there was power in collective projects but admitted surprise at “just how much joy we received back in the process.”
This story appeared in the July 2026 issue of Columbus Monthly. Subscribe here.
This article originally appeared on Columbus Monthly: Project Refresh Transforms a Cancer Survivor’s Sickroom
Reporting by Amy Bodiker Baskes, Columbus Monthly / Columbus Monthly
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Amy Bodiker Baskes, Columbus Monthly | USA TODAY Network
