Guests Feel Welcome in Peaceful, Beautiful Space Designed by Chapel Hill's Own Dana McMahan
Dana McMahan’s business philosophy at The Laughing Turtle in Chapel Hill is to give back to the community—and in her case, in spades. Three years ago, The Laughing Turtle and Dana, the owner, took on the daunting job of decorating the interior of SECU Family House—all 33,000 square feet of it: the equivalent of 12 moderately-sized homes. All told, The Laughing Turtle has donated a minimum of 2,800 design hours, including numerous trips to furniture markets, discussions with a talented array of architects, builders, local craftsmen, and board members, as well as hours of time hoisting bedframes, bedside tables, mirrors, a fish tank and installing everything that became a fixture of the interior of the House. In the end, they have created a welcoming environment that exudes a warmth and the comforts of home to all those who stay at the House.
For Dana, the project was a way for The Laughing Turtle to utilize its craftsmanship, creativity, and business acumen for a project that would serve so many families in need for generations to come. As a decorator, Dana tells us that it was a rare gift for her to work on such a large-scale project with such a profound purpose—and for it to turn out exactly how she had envisioned it would.
As the project progressed, the number one challenge proved to be moving and storage, a significant cost that she and her husband, Esteban, bore. With construction delays, a lack of storage space necessitated a great deal of creative planning and scheduling. Working with a $300,000 decorating budget, she and her team managed to successfully complete the decorating under budget—quite a remarkable feat in these times of rising costs.
When asked what inspired her, Dana doesn’t hesitate to say that it is the people who will be staying at Family House for three nights or for three months who inspired her to create spaces where they could relax, eat, and get a good night’s rest before returning to the hospital to be with their loved ones. Creativity, continuity, functionality, vision, unity, and collaboration are the design words Dana uses repeatedly when speaking of her work for the House. Now that she’s done, she knows that SECU Family House will take on a life of its own, as the spaces The Laughing Turtle decorated evolve over time and families make adaptive use of a space they will begin to define. But, for now, as staff, we witness guests coming “home” and being swept up in a grand and inviting environment, a beautiful interior and exterior that manages to distract them from some of the anxieties and pain of a long day. We are the lucky ones who get to see Dana’s vision come to life in the smiles of grateful guests sharing meals in the large kitchen, eating in the dining room, or sitting around the hearth sharing hopes and fears with new friends.
SECU Family House is forever indebted to Dana McMahan and The Laughing Turtle for enlivening and ennobling this hospitality house for families and friends who will never fully comprehend the thought and care bestowed. Thanks, Dana.