Clare Gaskin Applies Her Talent and Experience For NHS Hero’s Room Makeover

Following our post about Design Havens for Heroes and its work to create havens for NHS front workers, we showcase one of the rooms created by SBID Accredited Interior Designer Clare Gaskin. Clare generously volunteered her time and expertise to the charitable initiative alongside interior stylist Emily Wheeler. Together, they transformed a room in the home of Gigi, a first responder paramedic in South West London. The aim was to transform a completely empty space into an elegant, calm and well-appointed room to act as her haven at the end of a gruelling day working on the NHS frontline.

Gigi was nominated for a haven with huge recognition of the exhausting hours and emotional challenges that she had to face during her frontline work on emergency calls. She dreamed of a Scandi-inspired scheme in neutrals with accents of greens and blues, and desperately needed to make space for a sofa bed to accommodate guests.

Clare and Emily spent a great deal of care understanding the room’s challenges and Gigi’s desires, working out a floor plan, mood boards and sample schemes as for any paying client. The first-floor flat is in a Victorian terrace with narrow doorways and a turn in the staircase which made it challenging to find a sofa bed that could be transported into the flat. In addition to layout and location considerations, Clare and Emily also had to work with select products available by donation from brands supporting the Design Havens for Heroes initiative.

Snug Sofas came to the rescue with a sofa bed design able to be built in situ. Clare selected a green velvet model and she and Emily built the scheme around this,  using a beautiful grass cloth wallcovering on one wall and designing an innovative TV display unit which features sliding artwork to hide a television when not in use. This was achieved by cleverly adapting shelving donated by Neptune. Flooring, accessories, art and made-to-measure curtaining magnify the soothing, biophilic-conscious scheme. The dining area is perfect for entertaining friends.

Clare says: 'When I first saw posts from Design Havens for Heroes I knew I wanted to get involved. It felt like a special initiative to give back and thank one of the many NHS workers who we rely on, but especially so through the pandemic. When I found out that my ‘allocated’ hero was Gigi I asked my friend and fellow Designer Emily (who I first met when we studied at KLC) if she was interested in partnering with me. It has been a huge privilege to spend the last few months contributing to the creation of a special space for Gigi. We were passionate about delivering as much as possible and hoped to create a calm space to return to at the end of a hard and often traumatic day: somewhere which felt personal, a retreat - but with opportunities for entertaining friends and family - something we've all dreamt of so much over the last 18 months or so.'

Emily says: 'Our homes have enormous impact on our wellbeing and our frontline NHS workers have sacrificed so much through the pandemic, they all deserve to have a space they love to come home to. As a first responder paramedic, Gigi is first on the scene in a crisis and her work is intense, fast paced and demanding. She had an empty living room for much of the pandemic because she had recently moved into a new flat, so she had nowhere to sit and decompress after a stressful or traumatic shift. It took longer than we had hoped to complete the install due to Covid and supply chain issues, but it was absolutely worth the wait.  It was incredibly emotional when she saw it for the first time. I think it surpassed all of our expectations, which was wonderful to be part of.'

Photograph credits: Nick Smith

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Design Havens for Heroes is a charity initiative launched by interior designer Francesca Rowan Plowden (pictured) in the spring of this year, designed to bring together an inspiring community of talent from the interior design field.

The aim is to create room makeover “havens” for accredited NHS key workers who have been working on the front line during the Covid-19 crisis, and who will undoubtedly need the benefit of rest and calm in their own homes, after the fall out of dealing with the emotional and physical demands of tackling the pandemic.

Design Havens for Heroes is a collective formed from a broad range of leading interior designers, high profile suppliers, as well as skilled makers and tradesmen such as curtain makers and decorators who are happy to donate their time, skills, experience and products to the cause. From these offers of help, Francesca is working to build teams to work together to create these ‘Havens’ for the frontline NHS heroes. Currently followers to the Instagram account are being encouraged to nominate or tag a deserving NHS worker as the charity team prepare for these collaborative project partnerships with interior designers and supporting brands.

Leading fabric, wallpaper, paint and furniture brands such as Colefax & Fowler, William Yeoward, Designer’s Guild, Matthew Williamson, Tom Dixon, Lewis & Wood, Blithfield, De Gournay, Fromental, The Design Archives, Farrow & Ball, Edward Bulmer Natural Paint, The Little Greene Paint Company, Neptune, Sofa.com, Ventura Design, Pooky Lighting and Matthew Williamson are all on board, as well as smaller niche businesses such as Otto Tiles, Zoe Glencross and Henley Kille Joinery. They will work alongside a growing pool of interior design talent which includes names such as Ben Pentreath, Sophie Patterson, Kate Guinness, Salvesen Graham, Fiona Duke and Julia Alexander, as well as Ambassadors for the charity which include designers Nina Campbell and Gabriella Blackman, interior journalists Kerryn Harper-Cuss and Michelle Ogundehin, style writer Kate Watson-Smyth and a raft of high profile influencers such as Paula Sutton of Hill House Vintage, Sophie Stanbury and Amy Davies Pereira of Little House in London. Using her theatrical contacts, Francesca has also appointed actors Dominic Cooper and Tamzin Outhwaite to help her design a room makeover, with Dame Twiggy Lawson appointed patron of the charity.

The aim is to develop the charity over the next few months so that it can be a source of inspiration for NHS workers for when the crisis is over and bring the interior design community together in a shared cause. “I felt as the crisis unfolded there was something I really wanted to do to help in a creative way and with my background it felt the most helpful thing I could do “explains Francesca. “I have been overwhelmed by the response from suppliers, big and small as well as the interior designers that have come forward to offer their services.” The aim is to develop and consolidate the charity over the next few months so that it can be a source of inspiration for NHS workers going forward.

If you’d like to feature your news or stories with SBID, get in touch to find out more. 

If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here for more information.