Decorate a nursing home room to create a comfortable, cheerful space. Most nursing home rooms are very small with very little space to add personal items. The rooms usually come furnished with a hospital style bed, nightstand, armoire and a bulletin board. Often the room is shared with another resident so space is limited. Before you begin decorating, find out the rules and regulations for the facility.
Choose a decorating theme or color for the room. If the room is painted, match the color of the room and any fixed wall decoration to your theme. In the above nursing home room the walls were painted a pink tone with a rose pattern on the wallpaper.
Select bedding that will brighten the room. Cheerful flowers, animal prints or interesting shapes will create an appealing theme for the room. The standard hospital bed will fit a twin comforter. Choose bedding that is easy to place on the bed.
A small recliner or easy chair fits nicely in the corner between the nightstand and the wall as shown above. Keep a small blanket to use as a throw on the back of the chair or a lap blanket for a wheelchair.
The nightstand should hold a few items such as a cheerful basket of flowers or pictures, a clock, kleenx box, water and phone. Choose a clock that has large digital display with a cd player, radio or ipod. This allows music to come on at set times or some relaxing music to listen to while resting in bed. Select music that is enjoyable to the resident such as country, classical or old time favorites. A few favorites are “You Are My Sunshine” or “Goodnight Irene.”
Most nursing homes do not allow live plants and flowers due to the allergens and mold that they produce. Select a silk floral or a silk plant that can be set on the window sill or a shelf. Place some greenery along the top of the armoire to add some softness to the room.
Create a collage of family pictures to hang on the wall or to set on a shelf. Some homes do not allow anything hung on the walls. If that is the case, create a collage of pictures as shown that will easily fit on the night stand and not take up too much space. Put together a simple photo album of favorite memories in a drawer or on a shelf. A digital photo frame is a nice touch that takes up little space but adds many memories. There are digital photo frames that you can send pictures to from the internet.
Use the wall space to display family photos, favorite pieces of art, a calendar and a bulletin board. Decorate the bulletin board with some inspirational sayings or favorite pictures and greeting cards. Create an about me page for the staff to read. Include such things as what type of work they did, favorite hobbies, favorite color, pets and interesting things about their past. This will give the staff and visitors ideas for conversation with the resident.
Place a small television in the room that will fit the space allowed. Attach a VCR or DVD player. Select some old but favorite movies and shows to keep on hand for watching such as “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Sound of Music” or the Lawrence Welk Show. For those who have trouble working a remote choose a simple remote that just has an on-off, volume and channel changer.
Tips
- Most Nursing Homes do not allow you change the window treatments.
- Place a name tag on all the items that you place in the room.
- Change the bedding with the seasons to add a new look and holiday atmosphere to the room.
Adult diapers are used by many seniors. If getting out to a store is a challenge for your loved one have a supply of adult diapers delivered on a monthly basis. Usually the cost will be lower than your local store and you will never run out of something that you need.
