Client projects: Return visit Djupängen

With its warm and welcoming ambience, Djupängen care home has become an inspiring example of how interior design can improve not only the quality of life for residents but also the working environment for staff. Now it’s been up and running for three years, we went back there to see how everything’s working.

Meaningful spaces

When Djupängen was taking shape, Kinnarps and its Next Care® needs analysis provided support, which means starting collaboration at an early stage. This gave stakeholders the opportunity for participation in planning the function and form of the interior design from scratch. Helena Eriksson is unit manager at Djupängen and was involved from the start.

“It was very interesting to be involved in the process and to be able to influence everything from aesthetics to occupational health and safety. We even had the opportunity to design a new functional sofa that we felt we needed.”

Seating for the care home’s assembly space needed to be durable and easy to clean with removable upholstery, without compromising on the look or choice of materials.

“It’s been important to us to avoid that institutional feel. We wanted the apartments and the communal spaces to have the same welcoming feel, and I think we’ve succeeded in that,” she says.

Aesthetics, independence and respect permeate the interiors at Djupängen. And that’s something the staff appreciate as well. It’s not only pleasant but also makes their work easier to know that the residents, for instance, are sitting safely and securely, and are able to manage more tasks independently with the help of smart furniture.

“As this makes their work less physically demanding and reduces the need for care somewhat, they’re able to spend more time on social care instead,” Helena explains.

The colour scheme has been carefully considered and each unit has a specific colour scheme to create as consistent a feel as possible. The spaces are uncluttered and encourage movement. Comfy chairs that are easy to get in and out of are strategically located as resting places in corridors and next to windows. Facilitating physical activity is a win-win for everyone.

“If you have the physical function, we want to maintain it. This not only benefits the individual but also the staff, as it reduces heavy lifting, for example. It also enables our residents to enjoy quality time with visitors, to get out of their apartment, maybe take a nice walk and sit down to admire the view for a while.”

Interior design is crucial to how residents experience the care home, and creating meaningful spaces has been important. For example, a lot of thought has been put into creating a calm and pleasant spa, where you can bathe, get podiatry or visit the hairdresser.

“It’s important for residents to feel that change in surroundings, even within the confines of the care home. Keeping that sense of something pleasant and varied happening in everyday life is valuable.”

Over the past few years, there’s been continual dialogue with Kinnarps and follow-ups have been carried out on what has worked well or less well. Djupängen feels that it’s received the necessary help to ensure that the home continues to respond to emerging needs and the collaboratively developed vision.

When was the last time you felt that the environment made life easier for the residents?

“Last Friday, we had a generational disco in our lovely communal rooms. Younger children were able to come and dance here with our residents. We had popcorn, lemonade, balloons and a disco ball, and when I suddenly saw my three-year-old grandchild patting a balloon back and forth with one of our elderly ladies and saw the sparkle of joy in her eyes, I was deeply touched.”