Sydney Children's Hospital parents hostel gets a special makeover - Herald Sun

Brooke and Lee Hulsman in the renovated Sydney Children's Hospital parents hostel, and before and after pictures of the renovation. Main picture: Nic Gibson Source: The Daily Telegraph

Brooke Hulsman nurses Lachlan in 2010. Source: Supplied

BROOKE Hulsman has worked on some of TV's best-known renovation shows helping some of the country's neediest families, but her latest project was the most special of all.

The 31-year-old producer recently gave Sydney Children's Hospital parents hostel, which houses mums and dads while their seriously ill children are being treated, a dramatic $100,000 make over.

Ms Hulsman was inspired to undertake the project after three stints at the hostel while her son Lachlan was treated for the congenital heart complication dilated cardiomyopathy, his heart was three times too big for his body.

He passed away from heart failure aged 10 months in August 2011, amazing doctors who predicted he wouldn't survive the week after being diagnosed at 14 days old.

While Lachlan was in the hospital's intensive care unit, Ms Hulsman - who has produced Nine shows Domestic Blitz and Random Acts Of Kindness - vowed to husband Lee, a 38-year-old photographer, that the hostel would be her next challenge.

With the help of Pillars of Strength, a charity for bereaved fathers, and two of her TV colleagues, she spent two and a half months designing, gathering donated furniture and renovating the seven-bedroom, three-bathroom building.

Walls were repainted, carpets replaced, two new kitchens built, storage provided for bathrooms, plasma TVs bought and plastic cutlery switched for the real kind.

"To do that for the hostel was not only for the memory of Lachlan but to thank the hospital for the 10 months that we would never have had with Lachlan," Ms Hulsman said.

"We were so grateful to be given a room at the hostel, but after staying there for a couple of days, it was such a depressing place. That environment wasn't giving you the escape you so desperately needed.

"I want families to go there and be able to get the sleep they need in comfortable beds and go into that ICU and be able to be present and make conscious decisions."

The project, dubbed Renovation Rainbow because Lachlan always had a picture of a rainbow hanging over his bed for luck, also proved unexpectedly cathartic.

"I didn't realise it would do this but it actually brought Lachlan's chapter to a close," Ms Hulsman said.

The hostel is used by 500 families each year who pay a nominal fee to be closer to their children.

Sydney Children's Hospital's Network chief executive Elizabeth Koff said the hospital was "overwhelmed" by the Hulsmans' generosity. "Despite the loss of Lachlan, Brooke and Lee have supported other children and their families," Ms Koff said.