Taking care of paint specification within a healthcare setting. LABM finds out how Crown Trade’s in-house colour experts helped Saffron Housing Trust devise a bespoke colour scheme for Grays Fair Court in Norfolk.
Paint is a key part of any refurbishment or new-build project within healthcare settings. While considered colour scheming can assist with wayfinding around a building and contribute to creating an environment that benefits the wellbeing of its users, high-performance paints can also help to ensure a healthy and hygienic environment for patients, staff and visitors with minimal ongoing maintenance required.
Saffron Housing Trust’s Grays Fair Court in Norfolk, which comprises 34 ‘housing with support and care’ flats, 20 respite care beds for patients recovering from surgery as well as day care facilities, recently underwent an extensive refurbishment using a bespoke colour scheme, devised for the project by Crown Paints’ in-house colour consultants.
Creating a memorable colour scheme
Colour specification can be used strategically to enhance a healthcare environment and aid mobility around a building for everyone but specifically, for people who are visually impaired or those who suffer with dementia — enabling them to remain independent for longer.
A key part of the brief for the Grays Fair Court refurbishment was to create a space where residents would feel at home and it was clear that paint colour would be central to the success of the project. Crown’s in-house colour experts worked closely with Saffron Housing Trust to devise a colour scheme drawing on bright, bold colours including deep purples, pinks and oranges in different areas — each combined with a complementary neutral shade. The scheme specified different core colours for each corridor and stairwell to assist with wayfinding and help residents who may struggle with navigating their way around the building.
As well as colour coding distinct areas of a building, it’s also important to bear in mind that as the eye ages, colours become duller. Stronger, richer colours are therefore more easily recognised and remembered than duller pastel shades which become difficult to distinguish between so the bold shades specified on this project will help building users to find their way around much easier.
Keeping it hygienically clean
In today’s hygiene conscious world, surfaces need to be ultra clean and this is never more apparent than within a healthcare setting. However, a common problem of regular and rigorous cleaning is that it can wear away the paint finish and leave décor quickly looking tired. Highly durable paints such as Crown Trade’s Clean Extreme Stain Resistant Scrubbable Matt, which was applied to the walls and ceilings of the bedrooms and living areas at Grays Fair Court, are formulated so that they can be repeatedly scrubbed over longer periods without any detriment to the appearance by minimising the amount of paint film that is removed each time.
With a Class 1 rating on the ISO11998 testing method, Clean Extreme is scrub resistant up to 10,000 scrubs, meaning the paint surface will not start to break down — even with a regular and intensive cleaning regime required to keep the building hygienically clean. As well as being easy-to-clean and highly durable it will also resist a variety of common household stains and to retain its ‘just decorated’ look for much longer than a traditional matt.
Even when surfaces look clean, they can be a breeding ground for bacteria. Specifying a paint with in-built anti-bacterial protection such as Crown Trade’s Clean Extreme Anti-Bacterial Scrubbable Matt which inhibits the growth of any bacteria that comes into contact with the surface and prevents bacteria from multiplying, is the ideal way to counter this potential problem. The range utilises silver ion technology to ensure that the anti-bacterial protection can’t be washed off no matter how many times the surface is scrubbed clean.
Safe and secure
The team at Grays Fair Court also used both the company’s Timonox Vinyl Matt and Timonox Scrubbable Matt, which have been formulated for use on new and previously painted wall and ceiling surfaces to provide a Class 0 rating against the surface spread of flames. The scrubbable matt paint offers extra durability as it is scrub resistant, achieving an ISO11998 class 1 rating and is ideal for high traffic communal areas such as hallways, stairwells and fire escape routes.
The high-performance paints selected proved ideal for the project at Grays Fair Court and as they can be tinted to match any RAL shade to match any colour scheme – ensuring there was no need to compromise on form or function.
