“]	Vanessa von Hessert Room Designer, Furniture Maker, Outreach Coordinator

Vanessa von Hessert is a woodworker, a mother and an aspiring documentary filmmaker. She enjoys using her woodworking and fabrication skills to execute detailed and unique designs for Blissful Bedrooms, such as the WWE headboard for Alberto and the wall-hung motorcycle for Juan.

After graduating with a double major from the honors program in Multimedia (computer arts) and Art History at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Vanessa worked as a web designer for Franciscans International, a Human Rights NGO at the United Nations in Geneva Switzerland. Upon her arrival in New York City in 2005 Vanessa worked as an artist’s assistant for the internationally recognized video artist, Kim Sooja, and then as a web and graphic designer at Penguin Publishing.

In the winter of 2008 Vanessa studied fine furniture making at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. She is currently a part-time woodworker with a studio at the 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, mother to Siegfried-the-very-busy-toddler and a member of the core team at Blissful Bedrooms. She hopes to return to school in the fall of 2012 to study Documentary Filmmaking at the graduate level.

Vanessa has a personal understanding of the challenges and goals of interior design for the physically disabled. Her late mother, Donna von Hessert, suffered from Multiple Sclerosis. It is in memory of her late mother that Vanessa donates her time and love to Blissful Bedrooms and all of the very worthy and beautiful bedroom makeover recipients.