The Contract Furniture Trendsetter
In the world of ho-hum furniture for health care and facility furniture, things are heating up. The baby boomers are hitting the health care market en masse for both acute and extended care services. As the country’s largest consumer-base, the fifty-plus crowd are not just consumers of health care services, they are also decision-makers for respite care for their aging parents. While cost is a primary driver of choices of health care facilities of all types, aesthetics plays a huge role in the decision process.
Trends in Healthcare Design: Meeting Consumer Expectations
So what do decision makers want to see when they are choosing where to spend their healthcare dollars?
- Most often they want to see style and design that feels like it came off the screen of a home make-over show.
- While there is still a demand for health care facilities to have a home-like, comfortable look, often the facilities that look like they jumped off the page of a design magazine win the dollars.
- Judging from commercial design trends, health care consumers want their doctors, outpatient clinics, treatment centers, and senior living facilities to look cutting-edge and on trend.
Healthcare furniture really sets the stage for the look of a facility.
- Durable furniture that answers the call for good design has become easily accessible in today’s contract furniture market.
- The most popular design trend for healthcare and related facilities is rich, saturated, earthy colors with subtle patterns and stripes.
- Monochromatic color schemes are popular for small to mid-sized care facilities with complementing patterns randomly assigned to chairs, love seats, sofas and ottomans.
- Pops of bold, bright colors add visual interest and make a space feel fashion-forward and lively.
Creating Comfortable Patient Spaces
Patient rooms have morphed from sterile and mundane to comfortable and well-appointed.
- While still very practical in function, bedrooms have taken on elements of residential design and reflect a modern desire to marry form and function through pieces like rolling dresses in rich wood tones that can be easily moved to meet a consumer’s preference; adjustable hospital beds with wood grain head and footboards that give the look of a hotel; and upholstered chairs offer firm seating that eases patients from sit to stand.
Balancing Trends with Functionality
When planning the interior design of any facility that will be tasked with appealing to consumers for their health care dollars, it is important to balance current trends with the right level of function.
- Making care easy and effective for consumers and staff the highest priority.
- Creating a space that offers the right look with the right function (at the right budget) is doable when you partner with the right contract furniture specialists who have experience with the type of clients you serve everyday.
Conclusion
By embracing the latest trends in contract furniture design and partnering with the right specialists, healthcare facilities can create inviting spaces that resonate with consumers while prioritizing functionality and efficiency.
Topics: Health Care Furniture, Interior Design Advice of Group Living Facilities, durable furniture, Contract Furniture