Shanella's Story
Meet 9 year old Shanella!
Shanella was celebrating the week of her 8th birthday when she began running high fevers that lasted more than a week. With fevers of 104 to 106 she was in and out of the hospital with her family desperate for answers. Finally she was admitted to hospital and with a bone marrow biopsy, she was diagnosed with T Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
When we began designing Shanella’s room we wanted to incorporate some of her favorite things. Olaf is her favorite character and she also loves the ocean. She is also homeschooled, so it was important to incorporate not just a healing space to rest, but an organized area that she can work on her school work.
The closet in Shanella’s room had just one row of hanging space but thanks to our friends at Closet Art we were able to add a lot of storage and organization to her room.
In order to give her full access to the space, we worked with BuckWyllie who created these stunning custom barn doors. Not only are they painted the perfect shade of aqua in a beautiful lacquer finish, but they incorporated full length mirrors (which was on Shanella’s wish list).
We were so thrilled to work with Connective Human on the mural for Shanella’s room. Incorporating her favorite colors with an ocean inspired mermaid scale mural. One of our favorite part of working on these rooms is the big reveal. Seeing Shanella take in her new room makes us so happy to be part of Savvy Giving By Design , and thankful to our team of vendors and sponsors who make each room happen.
Special details were added to the room with Fund-A-Needs sponsored by our Facebook Group supporters. Bedding, ottomans, art and accessories were selected by our design team and donated by our #savvygivers. DesignerInc sent us this fabulous table lamp and Shanella noticed and loved the way the gold details were tied together with the sheets and shelving. (We see a future designer in our midst!!!)
Shanella has gone through months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. “There were times when we felt lucky she was doing so well considering her diagnosis, and times when we are terrified,” say her family. She still has a long road ahead with two more years of projected treatment and we know a new space will be not just a bedroom, but a room to heal.
