How & Why it All Began

My name is Diana Raska-Goecke and I’m the owner of Designs for Living & You, LLC. As a child I would flip through the pages of my grandma’s Harriet Carter catalog looking at all the gadgets one would use in their home to make life a little easier and the next day would be ripping out pictures of the JCPenney catalog putting together a collage of various rooms and stylish items. Add my interests in art and science, mix these all together and you get an Interior Designer + Occupational Therapist who has merged the two careers together to form a design and consulting business that focuses on creating an environment that will fit a person and their family throughout the lifespan while maintaining aesthetically pleasing design. It’s all about function, style & innovation.

As with many things, this didn’t happen overnight. I learned about occupational therapy from a friend while I was attending college for interior design and working part-time as a patient transporter at a local hospital.  After completing my design degree, I was employed as a kitchen and bath designer for seven years, took a 180 degree turn working at a local co-op as a customer service rep/grain accounting associate and while I was working full-time decided to pursue a degree in business. It was during this time, that my grandma transitioned from living independently in her home of 40+ years to a nursing home due to macular degeneration, a debilitating eye disease. Besides my grandma having vision and hearing difficulties, she was independent with her mobility and had good safety awareness. With this in mind, I felt we could have done more to keep her in her home longer but didn’t have the right resources. This is when I started to research occupational therapy in more depth and learned how this career promotes independence and home safety. I decided that even though I may not have been able to help my grandma remain independent in her home, I could help others and provide the resources that were missing in my grandma’s situation years ago.

I started to apply for occupational therapy programs, but felt my interests and background were all over the place and it was an occupational therapy program director for a school that I was applying to that planted the seed and reassured me that I wasn’t all over the place. I was actually in the exact right spot. She reassured me and and made me realize that I could combine all my interests and experiences to form a home modification and design business.  Roughly ten years later, here I am.

“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another.”  1 Peter 4:10 (NLT)

This verse has served as a great reminder for me to step out in faith with the talents I have to serve others and my community and to give me the courage to start my own business. Designs for Living and You, LLC was created to design safe and functional environments that are fit to the person/family while maintaining aesthetically pleasing design. Our focus is on home modifications, universal design, aging in place, kitchen and bath design. We offer many services from a basic home safety consult, kitchen and bath design to specialized design services. Our process will create an environment that fits your unique needs with a style that reflects your personality and a space that you will be proud to call home. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit our website. We look forward to serving you and your family!

My Grandma…

“To the world you may be one person,

but to one person you may be the world”

-Dr Suess