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A Nice Quiet Place
Medieval-themed suite proves the perfect refuge for teen – and a fitting gift from her mother.
When her family moved into a new home about two years ago, Joanie Boehnen’s first priority was creating a refuge for her teenage daughter, Lindz.
Lindz spends a lot of time in her room, but not for the usual reasons. She’s afflicted with postural orthostatic tachycardia, a debilitating neurological condition that can cause extreme lightheadedness and fatigue.
So Joanie wanted something special, something out of the ordinary.
The result was a suite that resembles a medieval castle, decorated with rich plums, filmy fabrics and artwork steeped in that long-ago era.
The look of the room, and the love that went into it, was a last gift of sorts between mother and daughter.
Joanie died in May, not long after the room was finished.
The project created a suite for Lindz and led to a warm relationship with the designer, Cheryl Kling, an owner of Collaborate Design Studio in Deerfield.
“Joanie’s dream was to have this bedroom done for Lindz. She was so happy. It was important to her to have it turn out this way for Lindz,” Kling said.
Daniel Boehnen, a patent attorney, found Kling on the Internet and hired her to work with Joanie because the large new house in Northbrook was his dream, not his wife’s.
“Our whole office became close with Joanie,” Kling said. “We knew no one would do any work for an hour when Joanie came in. She was so much fun.”
Kling thought her own situation as the mother of children with Crohn’s disease helped her forge a bond with Joanie.
About two years ago, Joanie, Lindz and Kling started working on the bedroom and sitting room.
Lindz, now 17, says having the retreat is very important to her – especially when she’s in pain.
“All my nerves start screaming at me,” she said. “Sometimes I just need to be in a nice quiet place.”
But 2006 was a very bad year for the Boehnens.
Everyone in Kling’s office was confused last January when all of a sudden they lost contact with Joanie. When she got back in touch, she said the family had been dealing with her husband’s cancer diagnosis.
Things got worse.
Joanie was diagnosed with cancer in February. The prognosis was good for both Boehnens. But Joanie had a very unusual form of stroke and died in May, explained her husband.
Kling considers Lindz’s suite part of the legacy her mother left the young woman, along with her work for people with her condition. 
Choosing a theme was easy because Lindz collects artwork and books in a medieval, fantasy mode. She even has dragons, a griffin, a gargoyle or two and a few weapons.
“This might have started with my brother,” Lindz said. “His name is Chris. He had medieval weapons mounted in his room. He’s nine years older than me so when he went to college I got them.”
Everyone contributed ideas to the decorating project.
“Lindz was very specific about her colors – purples and reds and plums and gold,” Kling said. “She was at all the meetings on these rooms and got to pick the fabric and bedding.”
Daniel Boehnen’s creative contribution is a swiveling bookcase to make a secret entrance from the bedroom to the sitting room.
Kling came up with a method of hanging filmy, shimmering drapes from the ceiling.
These rich cranberry swaths can be tied around the carved posts of the bed or loosened to create a cozy tent.
“The way the ceiling is cut wouldn’t allow a canopy bed, and we would have lost the ceiling light,” Kling said.
The wine-colored wallpaper is decorated with a gold diamond or trellis pattern, and the ceiling is midnight blue.
“My wife said ‘Cheryl it’s so dark, I’m not so sure,’ but it all came together at the end,” Daniel Boehnen said.
Lindz insisted that the sitting room have a fainting couch.
“It had to be here and it had to be a certain style,” said Kling, showing the purple tufted chaise.
This room with its plum walls is lighter, partially because it has more windows than the bedroom.
Lindz did not get her way with all the decisions. She wanted black woodwork and bookcases.
“We went back and forth between white and black,” Kling said.
“White ties in with the rest of the house,” she said, “and with the dark colors everything would have been lost with the black.”
Lindz’s condition has a combination of symptoms, said her father. Faintness is a big one because the autonomic nervous system does not work to get blood returned from the legs when the patient is standing.
“There were early signs when she was in seventh grade, and by freshman year we knew she was in deep trouble,” Daniel Boehnen said.
“Your initial reaction is the child is lazy or not motivated,” he said." “They look so darn normal."
“When they start to pass out, you have something pretty solid to go on.” 
Lindz also has sleep issues not necessarily related to the syndrome. Her situation makes it very helpful to take high school classes online so she can do the work when she is awake and feeling well, said her father.
The good news for Lindz, who would like a career working with animals, is that more than half of the youngsters afflicted with this syndrome can expect to show great improvement before they are 20, Daniel Boehnen said.
And the special rooms, a warm symbol of her mother’s love, should help Lindz through the tough times.
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