Dovecote Manor is a 40 bedroom care home with a specialist dementia unit. The home had recently been redecorated, and many areas and been given ‘faux brick’ wallpaper and large ‘front door’ stickers to give a street appearance.
Whilst this had worked, the manager and team leader knew that there was still something missing and had even grander plans for the central hub of the dementia floor.

Through Charlotte Designs work at a sister unit, Dovecote approached us to make the team leaders vision of creating an outside area inside, a reality. Her vision was to take a bland seating area with magnolia walls and sofas and turn it into somewhere that would stimulate the residents and provide them with a pleasant and enjoyable place to be. The flooring was changed and ‘road’ and ‘grass’ were laid. The sofas were replaced with park benches and Charlotte Designs were tasked with turning blank walls into a park. We came up with a design that the home changed to reflect the wishes of the residents and staff and then a week of painting began. The mural depicts formal gardens, lake, playground, an avenue of trees, walls with wisteria and ivy growing up them and even a working clock. All this was finished off with painted planters, dogs, birds trees, lamp posts and at the request of the residents, a hedgehog.

The end result was an amazing transformation. “Your art work is brill and has brightened up the living space for our residents. And made the ideas that were in my head become real. The residents love it, the staff love it and our visitors love it what more could we ask for !!”  Said Team Leader Nicola Jackson. Staff report a big increase in the use of the area, a reduction in aggression and an increase in sociability.
A huge testament to the vision of the staff and a great testimonial for murals.