Care Home Murals: 16 Science Backed Decor Ideas

There are many challenges – for many people – in long term care facilities, including the residents, their families, staff and management. It may sound far fetched to think that care home murals can help…but they do.

Below, you’ll find 16 science backed ways that our care home murals can help alleviate stress, anxiety and workload (yes, we said it!).

These decor ideas are ideal for:

• Dementia Care Facilities
• Nursing Homes
• Assisted Living Care Homes
• Memory Care Facilities
• Senior Living Facilities
• Alzheimer’s Facilities
• Hospitals

Webinar: Dementia Friendly Wall Murals

If you prefer to watch videos over reading blog posts, you can find more information about our care home murals in this webinar. Or simply keep scrolling for all the photos, research and decorating ideas using our commercial wallpaper murals below!

Wayfinding Wall Murals to Help Navigate Corridors

An article by medicine encyclopedia, medicine.jrank.org, states, “In surveys, many nursing assistants say that they routinely do not have enough time to complete their basic tasks.”

Helping wandering residents who easily get lost in a large nursing home with winding corridors can take so much time away from other essential work. Using wayfinding wall murals, as a way to help residents navigate, can save many hours of unnecessary work so that your staff can focus on other important tasks.

“Remember to place the wayfinding wallpaper at important intersections, like at the end of a hallway that leads to the dining room or activities room, for example,” says owner of About Murals, Adrienne.

Generally, people navigating along a route remember landmarks that are located at decision points better than those located elsewhere along the route (Ageing and dementia-friendly design, Jan M. Wiener & Francesca Pazzaglia).

Wayfinding Wallpaper: Know What Floor You’re On

For a larger care home with several floors, wayfinding wallpaper is even more important.

Imagine how confused some Alzheimer’s patients might feel after leaving dinner to go to bed on another floor – and every floor looks the same when the elevator doors open. The sun has gone down, they’re tired, worn out and the confusion (and aggravation) sets in.

By creating themes on each floor, you help residents easily recognize where they are.

Some theme ideas to differentiate your nursing home floors are:

• COUNTRIES: Canada, USA, England, Japan, Australia
• LANDMARKS: CN Tower (Toronto), Big Ben (London), Eiffel Tower (Paris), Niagara Falls (Niagara)
• NATURE: Forest, Ocean, Garden, Mountain
• COLOUR: Blue (Beach), Yellow (Daffodil Garden), Red (Autumn Forest); you can complement the care home murals with matching paint for a cohesive corridor

Door Murals for Dementia Units: Help Them Find Their Bedroom

In a sea of similar beige doors, it can be hard for dementia patients to find their bedroom in a nursing home hallway. That’s where door wallpaper can help.

We custom print door murals for dementia units so that each door has its own unique colour and design. They look like a real front door, but it’s an optical illusion. This fake door wallpaper helps memory care patients easily recognize and find their bedroom.

But BEWARE of vinyl door wraps out there! PVC and vinyl products can spew toxic VOCs and other harmful chemical in the air that can affect residents and staff. In a report by the CDC, they warn one of the health effects of vinyl:

“Chronic exposure [to vinyl] can cause permanent liver injury and liver cancer, neurologic or behavioral symptoms…”

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Your staff is already overworked – avoid more neurological and behavioral issues with your residents created by peel and stick door decals.

We only sell non-toxic wallpaper. It’s commercial grade, durable, washable, scratch resistant and scuff-proof – so perfect for high traffic areas like doors. It’s the best decorating idea for your nursing home doors.

Hidden Door Wallpaper to Discourage Wandering

Contrary to colourful, accentuating door murals, hidden door wallpaper discourages Alzheimer’s patients from wandering into unsafe rooms or escaping from their memory care center altogether.

These dementia unit door murals are designed to camouflage the door. They’re an exit diversion – making it look like a bookcase, stone wall or some other faux barrier that keeps residents safely inside.

“One benefit of the wall mural was that it may have allowed the residents to experience a sense of control. That is, by disguising the doorway, residents did not need constant redirection from personnel for testing the doors. The control is obtained when the residents wander up the hall and decide, without intervention, to turn around and return to the day area where personnel and other residents are generally congregated.”

Robert Wrublowsky, Design Guide for Long Term Care Homes, Page 74, Section 149

Another tip to discourage wandering through an exit door: black mats or black vinyl floor stickers can look like a dangerous hole to some Alzheimer and dementia patients. They generally avoid stepping onto darker sections of flooring in fear of falling in.

This can also be used as a tool to help avoid wandering – simply create a dark section of flooring in front of your hidden door wallpaper to work double duty.

Memory Care Bathroom Wallpaper to Reduce “Accidents”

Messy bathroom “accidents” happen. For memory care residents, it’s distressing and embarrassing. For staff, its extra work. While incontinence can’t be helped, easily finding the washroom – in time – can be helped.

In a labyrinth of doors and corridors, help your residents easily find the washroom by adding a memory care mural outside of the facilities.

Our bathroom wall murals are perfect for dementia units (inside and outside the washroom) because they are:

• Washable with water or hydrogen peroxide
• Mold and mildew proof for high humidity rooms

Care Home Murals for Peaceful (Non-Agitated) Residents

Agitated and aggressive residents are dangerous to staff, other patients and themselves.

Does getting out in nature help residents? Yes!

A journal article in The Gerontologist states that, “Residents with dementia who spent more time participating in activities outdoors, exhibited improved sleep efficiency and sleep duration, as well as less verbal agitation than residents who participated in similar activities indoors.”

BUT what can you do if you have no garden at your facility? Or in the dead of winter when slipping hazards and frigid weather are a danger to patients?

Enter biophilic design and our care home murals!

“What is biophilic design? Pictures of nature, plants, mountains, and outdoor landscapes have the same mental effect on well-being as being outdoors in real natural environments.”

Ways Biophilic Design Promotes Human Health and Well-being, Jennifer Whitehead, ID Program Director, Clinical Instructor, University of Central Arkansas

Reduce stress and anxiety with our biophilic forest, garden, beach or mountain murals to enhance staff and resident’s feelings of well-being.

Nursing Home Wallpaper for Bathrooms: Less Aggressive Residents at Bathing Times

One article in The Gerontologist states, “Staff observed that 41% of residents became physically or verbally aggressive at least one fourth of the time during bathing.”

The bathroom is another area you can use nursing home wallpaper with a calming biophilic design, like these beachy sunset scenes, to keep residents feeling more at peace. It creates a spa like atmosphere that residents and staff will appreciate.

“Effort should be made to make bathing a relaxing experience through the use of room finishes e.g. murals.”

Design Guide for Long Term Care Homes, Robert Wrublowsky, Page 91, Specification 4

Our bathroom wall murals are ideal for humid rooms, as they absorb and then release moisture.

Care Home Wallpaper To Reduce Guilt and Feelings of Abandonment

Nobody wants to live in a cold, sterile environment – including residents and the families who love them.

When you decorate with care home wallpaper, it warms the space and makes it feel more homey. When a resident first moves in, take them for a tea in the dining room (surrounded by a delicious bakery mural like above) and allow them to take in the beauty of their new home. Then take them to their bedroom. Residents will feel more comfortable in their new surroundings and their families will know you care.

Welcoming, cheerful nursing home wall murals can do two things:

• Alleviate some of the children’s guilt over placing their parent in a center for long term care, since they can see you care.
• Diminish some feelings of abandonment the residents may be feeling, since their new home feels homey – not like an institution.

Nursing Home Murals: Familiar Landscapes Evoke Memories

Care Home Wall Murals: Familiar Neighbourhoods Feel Like Home

Another way to make dementia residents feel more at home and less confused is to add photo wallpaper of familiar areas of your local neighbourhood.

One example is this photo mural of Place Royale in Quebec, installed in a nearby memory care facility in Quebec. The easily recognizable street makes residents feel comfortable and at ease.

Where can you get photos of your local neighbourhood to print into your own custom care home wall mural? We work with:

• Local photographers who can capture key neighbourhoods.
• Local governments with photos of their city.
• Postcards of your city that are scanned using our unique process creating a crisp, clear wall covering.

Dementia Friendly Wallpaper for Reminiscence Therapy

Turn a vintage photo of your local neighbourhood into a dementia friendly wallpaper to help with reminiscence therapy.

What is RT and how can it help your residents?

“[Reminiscence Therapy]…aims to evoke memories, stimulate mental activity and improve well-being. Reminiscence is often assisted by props such as…photos. RT helps older people with depression. It may be suitable for people with dementia both because depression is common in dementia and because people with dementia typically have a better memory for the distant past than for recent events.”

“Reminiscence Therapy for Dementia”, National Library of Medicine

We can collaborate with local historic societies, newspapers or museums to turn their vintage photos or film negatives into a photo mural to help your dementia patients.

Nursing Home Wall Art to Promote Socialization

Murals for Memory Care Dining Room: Stimulate Appetites

One of the easiest ways to create satisfied families, is knowing their parent is eating well in your residential care home. There are many aspects to consider around dining, and just one is decor that stimulates resident’s appetites.

“The effect of reduced size dining rooms, bright and welcoming colours, and other residential features (sideboards, paintings, objets d’art…) has been evaluated. Food intake significantly increased with the environmental changes alone.”

Nutrition and Dementia: A Review of Available Research, Alzheimer’s Disease International, Page 60

The colour red has been shown to stimulate appetite, so match red plates on your tables to a mural like our French Cafe Wallaper. Its red checkered table and lush outdoor scenery full of hanging vines both relax and stimulate residents.

Care Home Wall Art to Stimulate Activity

Not only do the bright, vibrant colours in care home wall art stimulate the brain, but the murals themselves can be used to stimulate activity.

For example, workers can ask resident’s, “how many oranges roofs can you find on the houses?” Or, “where do you think this photograph was taken?”

Red and orange colours are more stimulating, while green and blue colours are more relaxing.

Lobby Wallpaper as your Warm Welcome

When families are considering different care homes for their loved one, it’s important to stand apart from your competition. First impressions count!

A lobby wallpaper at your entrance, breaking down your mission statement or values statement, speaks volumes about who you are and what you stand for.

And since these lobby wall murals are custom designed just for your facility, you can involve your staff, residents and their families in the design process. Ask what symbols, words or colours they think of when they think of your care home.

For example, the staff of the facility above thought that a heart with words (in French) like welcome, respect, confidence and compassion represented their home.

Streetscape Wallpaper Creates Village Feel

It’s important to cluster amenities like the hair salon, pharmacy, doctor’s office and gift shop so they are easily accessible to residents, staff and family. Creating a streetscape with faux storefronts makes “outings” a joy.

We offer realistic brick, stone and wood wallpaper that makes up the facade of the village, while custom streetscape wallpaper with store names add a uniqueness to your facility.

Shop Murals

We’ve curated our most popular care home murals, based on popularity, size and science, so you can easily shop the best designs for your facility.