GRIEF IN DESIGN
Residential Project | Senior Capstone
SketchUp | Enscape | AutoCAD
Individual Project | Spring 2026
PROJECT BREIF
My capstone project, the Grief Home, is a thoughtfully designed environment created to support individuals and families navigating the grieving process through intentional interior design and emotional wellness principles. The project explores how the built environment can influence healing, comfort, and reflection by incorporating color theory into each space to evoke specific emotional responses. Through the integration of color psychology, spatial planning, and sensory design, the Grief Home demonstrates how interior environments can become active participants in the healing journey, transforming spaces into places of comfort, resilience, and hope.
“Women often experience and express grief differently due to social expectations, caregiving roles, and emotional relationship within family and community structures.”
Design Goals:
Reframes wardrobe spaces as therapeutic environments
Uses material storytelling (vintage textiles, heirloom references)
Incorporates thrifting-inspired reuse (repurposed furniture, sustainable design)
Supports slow routines: dressing, walking, reflection
Design Focused around the grieving process
Use color theory to map the grieving process throughout the space
Blue: Reflects melancholy, calm, and the slow process of finding stability and peace
Yellow: Symbolizes moments of joy, gratitude, or memories that bring comfort amidst the sadness
objects and materials carry emotional and memory value
thrifted and repurposed elements can bring narrative depth to spaces
Purple: associated with the transformation of grief, spiritual connection & emotion healing
Green: Emerging hope, growth, and function, stabilizing grief
