Interior design
memorabilia, such as vintage record sleeves, dancers, musical instruments and sheet music. The new music mural design was inspired
by my first visit to the care home. I realised Towerview Care was trying to create a music wall. They had randomly placed small black and white cut-out pictures of Elvis, dancing illustrations and music notes on printed A4 paper on the wall. That gave me the idea of developing
their concept by creating a music mural design to stimulate and encourage the memory of music from the gentlemen’s younger days. Towerview Care told me the birth date range of male residents is between 1930-1960. That gave me enough information to create a nostalgic wall design. I later asked Towerview Care about
the reaction to the music wall. They said they spoke to several of their male residents and the consensus is they like it. One resident, Harry, particularly liked it. When asked if he recognised anybody, he answered “That’s Doris Day!” with a huge grin. I understand that Harry loved to look at her picture.
Choosing the right type of wallpaper is vital Creating designs for care homes is only part of the process when working on a project. Choosing suitable wallpaper with the required specs is crucial. Gareth at Switchscene advises me on the best quality wallpaper to use for each project. At Switchscene, all wallpapers are custom printed. With the care home
industry in mind, all wallpapers are durable, easy to clean and can take the day-to-day knocks and spills. Typically for care homes, it is better to use large-width wallpaper with a heavyweight giving the wallpaper more resistance to impacts. All contract wallpapers are over 250gsm. The substrate we mostly use for the care
sector is Fabtex, which is a heavyweight fabric with a small amount of PVC on the face for printing. It has a fine, smooth cloth texture and is waterproof, and comes in 160cm widths that make it suitable for printing in one piece as most care homes corridors have a handrail that splits the wall. That means the wallpaper can be installed horizontally so there are no seams. We use water-based inks that are
cured by UV light after printing. The inks are remarkably durable and scratch and fade-resistant, and can be cleaned with commercial cleaning agents without degradation. Other wallpaper substrates we use for
care homes include fabric-backed vinyl wallpaper. This wallpaper is very durable and waterproof. The wallpaper face is bonded to a non-woven fabric backing that helps to keep the wallpaper rigid during installation. We also use one-piece fabric wallpaper.
Waterproof, hard-wearing and usually polyester-based, this can be one large piece of a fabric wallpaper printed to the size of the wall. It can be installed in one piece easily and quickly by professional decorators with no seams to come loose. It can be up to five metres wide and ten
metres long and over. Most wallpapers contain little or no vinyl, and all wallpapers are fire-rated with a certificate supplied on request after each project.
How we measure the wall space in preparation for a design First, we measure and photograph all walls that require wallpaper. Then we make templates of each wall space noting where any windows, handrails or objects are situated. Each template is sized to the wall space
and includes bleed. The design is created directly onto the template, ensuring that all crucial elements in the design are kept away from any obstructions. The templates are then checked and finally used for printing the wallpaper on a wide format printer.
Installation Most commercial decorators can install contract width vinyl/wallpaper. However, do your background checks. Find out what type of projects the wallpaper installer has worked on before hiring. A good design supported by expert installation makes all the difference to a finished project. When working with interior designers
White Space Living on the new, state-of- the-art Dora Rose care home project in Staffordshire, the brief was to design a nature feature mural for the lobby area inspired by the local area and Cannock Park. We also worked on a map mural of the local area incorporating iconic buildings
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www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • March 2021
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