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“The room’s a funny shape so I didn’t know how to space it out. I’ve got to try to have a lot of storage because I’ve got both the girls, and we’ve got their toys and stuff,” Maria says.

“I’m just not very imaginative so I just didn’t really know what to do. I go round other people’s houses and I see their storage options and I think: ‘That’s cool but I don’t think I could do that.’ So it was about getting everything in that room.”

Design for Amelia’s bedroom in watercolour. Image: Katherine Pooley Ltd

The team of volunteer designers used a trundle bed, which has an extra sleeping space which can be pulled out quickly and easily. 

“The design that Katharine’s team has created gives space,” McCartney says. “It’s beautiful, but it also has a bed that you can just pull out. It means they have a lovely bedroom together without it feeling like they’re just moving things around. It’s been designed in a way to maximise the space.”

Katharine Pooley says that storage is regularly a challenge in family homes. People may be unable to afford items of furniture like wardrobes or drawers, and they may have stored their belongings in bags. Sometimes children have no beds, or the bed they are sleeping in is damaged. Amelia’s room didn’t have curtains before or a desk for the girls to do homework or draw.

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It’s the little touches which make the room so special. Image: Brooke Murphy

Transforming Spaces provides a fresh coat of paint, essential furniture – such as a bed, mattress, wardrobe, desk, chair and storage – as well as soft bedding, curtains or blinds, and personal touches for comfort.

“I think the thing about all of the families that we support, they are families that really don’t have anything, and they don’t have some of the basics,” McCartney says. “They won’t necessarily have the right bed. They certainly won’t have bedding, curtains. They won’t necessarily have lampshades, all the things that you would just assume that surely every child has. I think people often struggle to get their head around the level of poverty in London and what that means for families.”

Pooley’s team and The Childhood Trust consult with the family to create a design inspired by the child’s preferences. There have been Spider-Man bedrooms, outer space bedrooms, and rooms full of flowers and rainbows.

Volunteers working hard to get the room ready in just one day. Image: Brooke Murphy

It works on a referral basis, meaning that the families most in need of support get the help they need. Families are referred to the programme by social services, schools, or other organisations working directly with families.

But with one in three children living in poverty in London, McCartney says they get “more referrals than we could possibly meet demand for”.

“There is so much demand for this kind of programme,” she adds. “It’s managing logistics and what it takes to get it right, because we want to get it right.”

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Katherine Pooley’s team in the bedroom. Image: Brooke Murphy

McCartney says that seeing the excitement on children’s faces after their bedrooms have been redesigned “makes it all worth it”, “all the challenges that come with making something like this happen, getting volunteers together and making sure we’ve got everything ready, working with the families, doing the designs, ordering all of the materials”.

“When you see the kids come and see their bedrooms, it really is transformational. It makes a huge difference. It is life changing,” she says.

For Maria, she feels it will make an enormous difference to her girls’ life and wellbeing.

“It means that the kids have got a nice environment to chill in after school and nursery,” Maria says. “Before, I know they didn’t really enjoy being in there. It wasn’t somewhere that they were excited to play in or bring their friends home to. It will be really nice to see their excitement and joy about their room.”

Find out more about the Transforming Spaces programme and how to refer a family here. Find out how to support the Childhood Trust through the ‘Support Us’ section of the website, with details of how to donate here.

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