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How to Decorate a Memory Care Room

elderly woman sitting on a couch with her eyes closed

Dementia-friendly design for loved ones living at home or in a memory care residence at a senior living community should be both aesthetic and practical. Creature comforts can help a memory care apartment feel more like home and be more relaxing and inviting for those with memory issues. However, design ideas should also encompass features that make the challenges of living with dementia easier and safer. Keep these memory care decorating ideas in mind to strike the right balance in your loved one’s residence.

Memory Care Decorating Ideas for Every Room

Organization

For someone living with dementia, clutter is confusing to navigate and losing items can be incredibly stressful. Dementia-friendly design should create clear, uncluttered spaces with necessary items highly visible to make it easier for loved ones to see what they need each day. You might also place stickers on cupboards, listing what can be found inside, or replace cupboard doors with clear doors.

Color choices

It’s easier for people with dementia to find what they’re looking for if the items have a solid color and can be placed on a surface with a contrasting color — a light plate on a dark placemat, doors that contrast with the walls around them, and so on. Busy patterns on clothing, carpeting, and countertops create visual confusion and make things harder to see. Too many clashing patterns and visual stimulation can even cause agitation.

Visual stimulation

Good wall hangings evoke positive memories — photos and mementos that help your loved one feel more connected with their past and emphasize that their home is indeed theirs. An attractive memo board to keep important notes, reminders, and photos posted and easily accessible can be a nice touch. The cards and items on the board can be rotated out to keep it fresh and organized.

Floors

Stick to bare hardwood or plain carpeting. If area rugs or mats are needed, use light colored, non-patterned floor covers that are well-secured and non-slip.

Lighting

In all rooms, natural lighting is most desirable. Older people may already have difficulties with their vision, and poorly lit rooms make it harder to see and find what they’re looking for. In places where natural light isn’t possible, table and task lamps (as opposed to harsh ceiling fixtures) can provide soft, even illumination. Shiny or reflective surfaces on floors or tabletops can confuse because they create shadows and glare.

Noise control

Sound is an important part of dementia-friendly design. Background noise can cause undue stress on a person living with dementia. If sound reverberates too much, it can create a disorienting effect that may agitate your loved one. For a more calming effect, try to incorporate noise-absorbing materials and soft furnishings such as carpets and curtains to reduce harsh sounds. On the other hand, utter silence can also be disorienting to people with dementia. Try to have soft, gentle background sounds or music such as a familiar radio station with low music and gentle talking.

 

The All-Important Bedroom

 

Design

People living with dementia need a good night’s sleep. Though the space needs to be practical, this doesn’t mean it can’t be stylish and beautiful. For the bedroom itself, avoid using bright, energetic colors such as orange, red and purple, since these can be overly stimulating to someone with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Stick with calming, softer colors such as pale yellow, blue and brown. If they have to get up during the night, the environment and décor has to be safe enough for them to do so without tripping, falling or becoming disoriented.

Bed

It can be difficult for people with dementia to find or identify their bed. They should be able to see it easily from as many locations as possible, including from the toilet area, so they can see where they need to go and where to return to. The bed itself should be accessible from both sides. Use contrasting sheets and comforters to clearly define the sleeping area for them. Avoid busy patterns. Ideally, choose solid colors for bedding and linens that contrast with the carpet. Raised, rounded edges on a bed frame or round or oval-shaped tables are best for people with dementia. A hospital-style bed can be adjusted, raised and lowered to help them get in and out of bed more safely. It can also be placed at the most convenient height for your loved one.

Furniture

Clothing wardrobes can sometimes be adapted to remain partly open to display only a single day’s clothing. Partially open-fronted drawers help indicate the contents. Chairs should be comfortable and made with rounded timber or padded upholstery in contrasting colors. In general, the design of all furniture should be traditional and recognizable. Design that is minimalist or ultra-modern is likely to be confusing. Night lights or lamps that illuminate when activated by a movement sensor may help a person get around safely. A commode is useful if a person can’t always reach the bathroom. A sensor mat in the bed or body-worn continence device can also help with this.

Mirrors/reflective surfaces

Be aware of mirrors. Any reflective surface can be disruptive to an older person with dementia, causing them to feel frightened or become agitated. Streetlights reflecting on a window at night, for instance, may be interpreted as a stranger looking through the window. To avoid this, it’s best to draw the curtains after dark, and to remove or cover any large, hanging mirrors.

Personalizing the Bedroom

Having personal items in a bedroom — framed photos, hairbrush and comb, a person’s signature perfume bottle, keepsakes that evoke positive memories — will reassure your loved one and help them identify this room as their own. An analog clock set to the right time may be easier and more familiar to read.

Personalizing the Room Entry

Since objects tend to trigger memories for dementia patients, creating a memory box for the outside area leading to the bedroom is a useful, aesthetic way to engage your loved one and to help identify the room itself. These are shadow boxes creatively arranged to contain meaningful, comforting mementos from an individual’s past.

 

Discover Memory Care at Freedom Village

At Freedom Village, we offer an innovative program called Heartfelt CONNECTIONS – A Memory Care Program™ that works to preserve everything that brings meaning to your loved one and your family in a comfortable home-like setting. Our holistic approach to care is here to support your entire family with resources, counseling and more. To learn more about how memory care at Freedom Village can support your loved one, call us at ​616-200-7271, contact us here or use our Community Assistant chat feature.