As you tour a senior living facility, or as you plan a renovation, or new senior living facility, you should ask yourself:  "Would I want my loved one living here?"  or  "Would I want to live here?"

I believe there are elements that need to fall into place, as puzzle pieces, to make a senior living facility safe and inviting.  These "puzzle pieces" or "elements" will be addressed in future updates.  The puzzle pieces (and there are many) will include how to address the residents' changing balance, vision, hearing, and other of their safety issues.

A short comment on elder vision & color perception:  Research shows that aging vision produces changes in color perceptions.  An "elder eye" will see less contrast between colors than a "middle age eye"  If you lighten the light colors, and if you darken the dark colors, the senior residents will be able to distinguish contrast.  As our eyes mature, our lens thicken, they become less transparent, and we see colors differently.  Blues, violets, and blue greens appear darker.  Purple may appear brown.

A short comment on lighting:  To produce good general lighting without glare, an "ambient lighting" source can work wonders.  "Ambient Lighting" is a non direct lighting that gives "general illumination"

An "outdoor feel" to an indoor community Main Street can be achieved with "ambient lighting" and some artistic ability.  The picture shown below takes an interior ceiling in a "Community Main Street" and gives it an outdoor feel.  Note the ambient lighting that shines up into the ceiling space.

The ceiling was painted to reproduce an outdoor sky.  Sherwin Williams SW6793 Bluebell paint was used for the sky.  Clouds were painted, using Sherwin Williams SW 7006 Extra White paint.  Light grey was mixed to shadow & add depth to the clouds.  Note the clouds were painted to "hide" the speakers & smoke detectors.

Using this technique of adding light and a "day light" appearance to the Main Street gives the residents a feel of being outdoors, without the cost of skylights.  Again, this was achieved with "Ambient Lighting" and paint.