Brave Petaluma teen gets dreamy room fit for a star

When 15-year-old Brinkley Woodward returned from vacation this summer, it was as if elves in the night had gone to work on her bedroom.

Her baby blue childhood room, in the back of her family’s house in the rural Two Rock area of Petaluma, had been turned into a sophisticated soft pink dream with a whiff of Hollywood glam and sparkle.

Her twin beds were replaced with a double bed for a growing girl to stretch out. A lighted vanity with a cushy backless stool occupies one corner for hair and makeup preparation. A plush white throw rug invites a girl to sink her bare toes in ultra softness.

The transformation from a space for a little girl to one for a young lady came compliments of Tama Bell and her design associates and supporters. They collaborated over the course of a couple of days to make Brinkley’s room, a place where she has spent so much of her young life living with and recovering from multiple health issues and surgeries, into a dreamy domain just right for a girl now entering high school.

Brinkley — named for the great anchorman David Brinkley by mom Jenny Nunes, who majored in broadcasting in college — was born with Verheij syndrome, an extraordinarily rare chromosome mutation of the PUF 60 gene. One of only 16 people in the world diagnosed with the disorder, Brinkley has bravely persevered since birth through multiple corrective and lifesaving surgeries and intellectual disabilities, beating the odds by a huge margin. She wasn’t expected to live past the age of 1.

But the teen has a strong sense of humor and zest for life. She just returned from Hawaii, where she got to swim with dolphins. She’s a huge sports fan. The Giants, Warriors and Patriots are her teams. She loves video games, plays soccer when able and has tickets to an upcoming concert of teen pop star Billie Eilish.

Recognizing how important environment can be to physical, mental and emotional health, Bell launched The Love List, a charitable branch of her Sebastopol-based design business. Once a year, she gifts bedroom makeovers to children overcoming difficult situations. Brinkley’s room was Bell’s third Love List project. And while Bell and her design associate, daughter Lauren Bell, worked with Brinkley to devise a scheme to suit her needs and tastes, the result is a room with some great design ideas that would delight almost any girl.

The focal point of the bedroom is an art photo of a palm tree-lined drive at sunset, emblematic of Hollywood, that sets the stage for a young star. The theme is fitting.

“My mom calls me Brinkle little star sometimes,” said the teen, a petite 4 feet 11 inches with platinum and rainbow-dyed hair and a flair for the dramatic.

“I can lounge all day, baby. I’m a star,” she said, draping herself over her cream-colored quilted bedspread.

One of the coolest features is a bulletin board reaching from nearly the floor to the ceiling that Bell had custom made to contain all of Brinkley’s souvenirs, cards, favorite photos, fan picks and bits of ephemera.

“I feel like you guys have built her a dream board, and she’s just looking out from today,” said Nunes, who has been fighting for her daughter’s survival since her birth.

Brinkley was born with an extra thumb, a first hint that something was wrong. But it would take nine frustrating years before a chromosomal test Nunes insisted on and paid for out of pocket convinced specialists there was a root cause to her child’s many health crises. Nunes said every major organ in Brinkley’s body has been affected in some way. The teen spent the first three years of her life at Stanford Hospital and keeps a Mason jarred filled with hospital bracelets, souvenirs of each surgery.

Her most recent procedure was back surgery to correct scoliosis in March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. This summer she has been particularly energetic and able to take trips to Hawaii and Oregon with her dad, who lives in Manteca.

Brinkley loves her new room, from the soft surfaces to the pink curtains with jazzy peach tassels that help keep the room dark to allow a girl to get her beauty sleep.

But for Nunes, the makeover proved to be surprisingly emotional. The old room, with its clutter of toys and years of accumulation, held bittersweet memories.

“Not everybody realizes about a room like yours, in your circumstances, is that it’s also your hospital room sometimes and your recovery area,” she reminded her daughter. “It was school for awhile when you needed to be in bed all the time. The multifunction of the room has always been important. But there’s an emotional and sometimes traumatic component that goes with it. I loved the idea of Tama and Lauren and the team coming in and kind of giving it a clean slate. It’s totally new. New color and new memories to be made.”

The walls are the palest of pinks. Lauren Bell repurposed an Ikea side table to place in the room. The bed is also from Ikea and is captain’s style, with drawers underneath to hold clothing and keep clutter contained.

Re-purposing materials and rearranging furniture are smart design tricks to keep costs down. The designers kept the white armoires that already were in the room. But the big pieces had been separated among the beds. They pushed them together along an opposite wall, for a cleaner look that also makes the room feel bigger.

“Brinkley’s faced a lot in her life. It’s been an extraordinary life, and what we focused her on in our home is that quality of life,” Nunes said.

A bright new bedroom is big part of keeping a positive outlook. It’s actually the second room makeover for the courageous teen. Early last year another nonprofit, Rooms for Hope in Palo Alto, remade the room Brinkley’s brother, now an adult, once occupied, with the aim of fostering social interaction and play for Brinkley, who has autism. The room has a big couch and a comfy gaming chair, along with shrines to her favorite sports teams and players.

Nunes said having an uplifting space is so important for kids like Brinkley who have had to face far more than their share of health challenges.

“It can sometimes feel very lonely in our circumstances,” she said.

The Bells were inspired to launch The Love List after hearing about a designer in Southern California who designed rooms for children with serious medical issues.

Tama Bell said that struck a cord and gave them the idea to do something similar for children in the Bay Area. They did their first room in 2018 for Annabelle, a 2-year-old with a seizure disorder caused by cortical dysplasia, an abnormal organization and development of brain cells.

The Bells enlist help and donations from contractors, tradespeople, suppliers and the public through social media to pull off the makeovers. Brinkley’s is valued at about $5,000.

“We work with the family to come up with a design plan that speaks to the needs of the child. We believe that the spaces that we spend time in matter. They can nurture us and help us feel good,” Tama Bell said.

The Love List is open for nominations. Anyone may suggest a worthy child with serious health or physical issues to the team at Tama Bell Design. Donations are also welcome.

“I love it. It’s relaxing and calming, and I like the minimal nature of the design, ” Nunes said of Brinkley’s swanky new space. “It’s like she’s getting away.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. OnTwitter @megmcconahey.