A Home to Heal
As interior designers, we understand the importance of home – the impact your room or a specific space has on your wellbeing and mood. And in the event of a medical crisis, a space that supports your needs and the needs of the entire family is even more important. This has been the foundation of Savvy Giving By Design [SGBD] since 2014 and this spring, SGBD is bringing together 6 San Diego-area designers to amplify the opportunity for impact.
The mission? Room makeovers for 3 families and a total of 9 children throughout San Diego County … all at the same time. This is no small undertaking. These designers are learning about the child and families they are designing for, considering the specific needs of the diagnosis the family is dealing with, seeking to create a space that supports rest and peace, while inspiring creativity, and managing the logistics to ensure it all happens on time.
A Desire to Do More
The Spring It Forward Initiative is a collaboration of 6 San Diego-based interior design firms. We’re partnering with designers who want to give back, and support these children and families at a time where everything feels hard. These designers also understand core requirements of what SGBD does as a part of each room design to better support the child and family during this season.
Each room remodel is the result of an inspired designer and the needs of the child. Each child receives a space that truly captures who they are and aspire to be, along with what they need most in this moment. At the heart of what we do is a focus on trauma-informed design, which includes:
Mitigating causes of infection and allergens by removing carpet where possible and replacing it with solid surface flooring
Removing long drapes that hold dust and replacing with remote control shades that offer light blocking (for midday naps) and personal control (something their lives often lack)
Organic bedding
Being mindful of furniture design and shape, like curved edges for younger children since any cut or bruise can have cascading health implications for compromised immune systems
The inclusion of a comfort area that is child-specific, like a reading nook, video game center, art center, etc.
The Spring It Forward Initiative is a true collaboration, bringing together a coalition of local designers, community givers, corporate sponsors, and most importantly the children and the parents we serve. These local designers are partnering to support three families. Susan Wintersteen, founder of SGBD and creative director at Savvy Interiors is collaborating with Kelsey Roberts of Kindred Design House to design bedroom spaces for 11-year-old Gracie, who was diagnosed with Leukemia, and her two siblings.
“This was an instant YES! It is truly a privilege to be able to give back to these precious families during some of the hardest seasons of their lives.”
Marcia Bryan of Bryan Design Group, and Kara Clark of Kara Nicole Clark Interiors, are working together to design two rooms for 14-year-old Maddy, also diagnosed with Leukemia, and her brother. While they haven’t had the opportunity to connect in person because of Maddy’s compromised immune system during treatment, they have learned so much about her interests, passions, and creative spirit. As she grows into adulthood, she wants a room that captures the full range of her imagination.
And two more designers – Shannon Appel of San Elijo Interiors, and Alyce Lopez of The True House and a SGBD board member – are collaborating on bedroom designs for 15-year-old Nayleen, diagnosed with APXA and Homonymous Hemianopsia, along with her three siblings.
“Someone once said that childhood is the most beautiful of life’s seasons. Except, there should have been an asterisk in that quote, because that doesn’t apply to children struggling with cancer. No child’s cancer story is ever a good one; some are more severe than others, some are just a chapter, and others are a lifetime. It doesn’t matter how the story goes, the fact is no child should ever have a childhood cancer story.”
About SGBD
Each room is custom designed by a professional interior designer to the child’s unique needs to optimize both physical and emotional comfort. Since many of the children we help have compromised immune systems, are adjusting to new wheelchairs, or have other specialized needs, we focus on design details that are not only beautiful but also work with these needs.
We also recognize that everyone in a family suffers at some level from the trauma of a medical diagnosis – what affects one, affects all. At SGBD, we are committed to support the entire family, which includes renovating the bedroom spaces of siblings as well. Siblings are often overlooked, lost, confused, and scared when their brother or sister is sick. They may even be wrestling with conflicting feelings of jealousy (with all attention being focused on their sick sibling) and fear. Making sure that they are included in the redesign process as well lets them know they are valued. And by addressing the needs of all the children in the home, SGBD is improving healing outcomes for the whole family.
Over the past nine years, SGBD and its 11 affiliate chapters have designed and completed healing spaces for more than 150 children nationwide including over 85 children in San Diego. According to long-established studies, access to a comforting space contributes to up to 30% of the healing process (Robert Ulrich, Journal Science, 1984). And we see and hear about the impact of these spaces again and again. Recognizing the link between our completed rooms and the recipient’s mood, behavior, and recovery time, we continue to focus on designs that create healing environments for those who have already experienced so much medical trauma. See the impact first-hand.
The world is absolutely a better place when we work together. And we recognize this is an audacious project and timeline requiring a fundraising effort as bold as our very mission. In order to do the absolute most, we need your support.