In 2007, I was honored to be asked to do a bedroom makeover for an 11 year old recovering leukemia patient named Marcus. This project was done in conjunction with the Jimmy Fund of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Homegoods, who provided all the material goods. I posted about this when it originally aired, but was never able to link to the video. I was trying to organize my office today and ran across the DVD I'd received of the show. Technology has come a long way and I was finally able to create a clip from the DVD of the show, which I wanted to share. The video is pretty self-explanatory.
Of course, the story is about the little boy and the good works of the Jimmy Fund and Homegoods and less about me and the end result of the decorating. But, I was very happy with the outcome and more importantly, so was Marcus.
This is the before - typical little boys room.
I met with Marcus and his mom and we discussed the program, what he wanted and needed in the space. There was basically no actual budget for the project, aside from what Homegoods was providing, so painting, etc was out. At Homegoods I think I filled four or five carts. They were really so generous, it was basically carte blanche. The day of the shoot, we literally had about 2 hours to actually makeover the room. Marcus' mom had cleaned up the room considerably from between when he and I met and the filming, which made the set up so much easier. My friend and colleague Sharon Fisher of Come to Order! Professional Organizing Services came with me to lend a much needed hand! In addition to adding decorative touches, we also organized his closet and sneaker collection.
And the after:
In the end, I didn't have time to really document the project, but wanted to point out a few key elements that seemed to work really well. I added the fur pillow at the last minute, thinking he might hate it. But it was one of the first things he noticed. I reused a bedspread that they had because it was cute and sports themed, but added new pillows covered in red and blue flannel sheeting, new drapery (actually, these were fabric shower curtains as I recall) and new rods. I loved the red bedside table and stainless steel lamp. It's hard to see, but in the lower right corner is a black leather ottoman that had a reversible tray table top for drinks and snacks. The gorilla is also sitting on a black leather ottoman. I really wanted this room to grow with him - to celebrate that fact that he would grow up. On a side note, we also bought a few cute things for his little sister's room as well, just so she wouldn't feel left out.
There were lots of other little details which went by so quickly on air. For instance, I bought shadowbox frames and put in color photos of the Fenway Park and Foxboro Stadium and included some of his sports figurines and bobble heads as sort of little dioramas. There was a "locker" for his sneaker collection and a bed in the corner for the family cat.
Anyway, as I said, I was very honored to have been asked to participate in this project. While I'm not exactly a tv natural (we all felt a little silly having to do the fake entrance and introductions) the outcome was everything I hoped it would be.
If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please
email me. Thanks!
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