Emily's Room

It's time for the reveal! Over the weekend my interior design club teamed up with an organization called Special Spaces, which designs dream bedrooms for terminally ill kids. Our client was Emily, a 10 year-old with leukemia. Her treatment is completely done in July, so this bedroom will be a fresh start for her as she gets back to normal. (She actually gave an amazing speech on Saturday about how she has a lot of bad memories associated with her old room, and how happy this new one makes her. Cue the tears.)

Anyway, let's take a look at Emily's cool new space! My friend Stephanie and I were the team leads for this room, but the whole process was very collaborative. We think it turned out great! The walls were already that pretty shade of purple, so we just left it alone and added an accent of stripes on the left. She said she wanted a princess canopy, so our faculty advisor made one:

We gave her all new furniture (bed, dresser, desk, and chair) and framed some of her Make-A-Wish photos. All of us loved the pouf by the closet and wondered if we should get matching ones for our own houses:

Her room was tight, about 9'x10', but we managed to get her everything she asked for. We specifically chose a daybed that had huge drawers underneath for extra storage:

The walls look pink-ish here, but they're really purple.

Emily chose a song to represent her fight with cancer, "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. She painted this to document her journey, from her diagnosis in April 2011 to her end of treatment in July of this year.

Again, pretend the walls aren't pink here. Silly iPhone.

This whole family was amazing. We met with them several times over the last few weeks, and they always talked about how they try not to be sad, but instead focus on celebrating milestones. Saturday was actually her two-year anniversary of being diagnosed, and they said our timing was perfect because they wanted to celebrate how far she had come. (I think I have something in my eye...)

I want to show you one last detail. Emily said she liked polka dots, so we put some little circular mirrors over by her closet. She loved it:

We also worked on a music room Emily shares with her sister. The other two club officers spearheaded this design, and chose lime green since that was Emily's other favorite color, as well as the color she chose for her cancer fundraiser:

The lyrics along the top of the wall are from "The Climb."

And isn't this the perfect wallpaper for a 10 year-old and an 8 year-old? It's such a happy space.

This was such a rewarding experience, and Emily was so happy with what we did. She kept wandering away from the group to go hang out in her room. It was adorable. I definitely plan on staying involved with Special Spaces. If you know a terminally ill child would love a new bedroom, you can find a list of all the current chapters right here. The group is always looking for volunteers, and if your area doesn't have a chapter, you can apply to start one yourself.

So what do you think about Emily's cool purple bedroom?