Mural Design for LTC: A Wall Should Do More Than Look Beautiful

A mural design for LTC earns its place when it helps residents recognize where they are, connect with something meaningful, engage in a purposeful way, or move through the environment with greater independence.

A beautiful wall is not automatically a dementia-friendly wall. In long-term care, imagery becomes part of the resident experience, the staff workflow, and the building’s wayfinding system. It can prompt a conversation: or create a false destination. It can make a household feel familiar: or make a corridor harder to interpret.

The right question is not, “Does the mural look attractive?” Ask instead: What does this wall help a resident understand, remember, feel, or do?

Start with the resident’s experience

LTC homes are shared environments. A mural selected by a visitor, designer, or decision-maker may not carry the same meaning for a resident living with dementia.

A realistic field may appear peaceful to a project team but suggest an inaccessible outdoor destination to a resident. A photographic path may look inviting but create a misleading sense of depth. A painted window may be interpreted as a real opening. A fake shopfront may promise an activity or destination that does not exist.

The Dementia Centre’s position paper on murals makes the evidence gap clear: murals should not automatically be treated as therapeutic or safety interventions. Their value depends on context, individual preference, and how the surrounding environment supports the design.

Visual99 Truth: Familiar imagery is not enough. Familiarity only helps when the image remains clear, honest, and relevant to the people living in the space.

Review every proposed long-term care mural design through a resident-centred lens:

• Does the image support recognition?
• Can the main subject be named or discussed?
• Does the mural help distinguish one household or destination from another?
• Could a dark area be perceived as a hole or barrier?
• Could a path, doorway, window, or deep foreground be misread?
• Does the composition support seated and standing sightlines?
• Can residents avoid the mural if the imagery causes discomfort?

Treat the mural as part of the care environment, not as a decorative afterthought.

Move beyond generic nature imagery

Nature can contribute to a welcoming environment, but generic nature imagery is often used without a clear purpose. Fields, distant vistas, woodland paths, butterflies, and oversized photographic landscapes are common choices because they are assumed to be calming.

That assumption needs more scrutiny.

People living in the same home will have different cultural backgrounds, memories, visual abilities, and responses to imagery. A landscape that feels restorative to one person may feel unfamiliar or confusing to another. A seasonal scene may also conflict with the actual season outside, adding uncertainty rather than orientation.

Nature-inspired imagery can still have a role in dementia-friendly design. Keep it painterly, bounded, and visually controlled. Avoid false depth, dark foregrounds, high-contrast patterns, and compositions that appear walkable. Connect the visual treatment to a real seating area, garden access, conversation program, or resident activity whenever possible.

The City of Toronto’s art resource guide for LTC settings supports using art appreciation and reminiscence as part of daily programming. It also recommends considering places that residents have visited or that hold personal meaning.

That distinction matters. A mural should not pretend to replace the outdoors. It should support a richer experience of the actual space.

Use local neighbourhood and community references

Local-history murals are among the strongest directions for mural design for LTC when the references are selected carefully.

A GTA care home might draw from a neighbourhood street, a historic brick library, a local theatre, a streetcar, a train station, a community centre, or a familiar market. A home in Markham, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, or Toronto may serve residents with connections to very different communities. The strongest reference points will not be identical from one facility to another.

Use recognisable architectural forms and objects in a clear illustrative composition. Keep the mural bounded rather than creating a photographic vista. Place it at a corridor intersection, household entrance, lounge approach, or other meaningful decision point. Pair it with simple signage so the landmark reinforces: not replaces: the information system.

Begin the process with a short discovery workshop. Ask residents, families, recreation staff, PSWs, nurses, and operators:

• Which places come up in conversation?
• Which local landmarks are easily recognised?
• What occupations, cultural traditions, music, sports, or community events shaped residents’ lives?
• Which destinations are difficult to find?
• Which corridors feel indistinguishable?

The answers should shape the visual language.

Reflect the actual history of residents

Resident-history murals move beyond a generic “old-fashioned” theme. They connect the environment to the real lives of the people who live there.

Relevant references may include local manufacturing, farming, railways, immigration stories, military service, schools, music, trades, transportation, gardening, textile work, hospitality, or seasonal community events. A sewing machine, bakery bowl, hockey rink, railway cap, or musical instrument may prompt more meaningful conversation than a generic floral image.

Do not treat reminiscence therapy murals as treatment. A mural may provide a conversation cue or support an activity, but it does not replace clinical programming, occupational therapy, recreation, or person-centred care.

Build the story with the care team. Recreation staff can identify themes that already generate engagement. PSWs and nurses can identify where residents pause, become uncertain, or need repeated redirection. Families can contribute context that would not be visible in a demographic profile.

Keep resident contributions respectful and controlled. Archival photographs, illustrations, short captions, and familiar objects can be integrated into flat sealed panels. Avoid creating a crowded memory wall where every reference competes for attention.

Visual99 Truth: A resident-story wall should make identity visible without turning residents’ lives into a theme park.

Pair the mural with a real destination

A mural becomes more useful when the space behind or beside it offers something real to do.

A calm community graphic can support a built-in bench, a conversation area, a resident art display, a music-listening program, or a seasonal activity. A neighbourhood illustration can establish a social node where family members sit with residents. A resident-history graphic can accompany a recreation table or a flush-mounted display that changes with programming.

Do not build a fake shop, café, laundry room, or garden when the space cannot function as one. A painted destination without a usable destination creates an unfulfilled promise.

Plan the wall and the activity together:

• Provide comfortable seating without narrowing the corridor.
• Add tactile components only when they are durable, cleanable, and appropriate for the resident group.
• Keep interactive elements flush-mounted and tamper-resistant.
• Place activities outside high-traffic routes.
• Coordinate music, objects, and seasonal content with recreation programming.
• Give residents a clear choice to participate or pass by.

A mural is one layer of an environmental system. The system includes furniture, lighting, acoustics, signage, programming, circulation, and staff practice.

Use visual landmarks without weakening wayfinding

Wayfinding murals should help answer a simple question: Where am I now, and what is nearby?

Give each household or zone a distinct but coordinated visual identity. One area might use a local architectural landmark; another might use a transportation reference, cultural symbol, or community story. Keep the visual system consistent in scale, placement, colour logic, and naming.

Place landmarks at decision points, not randomly along every available wall. A signature graphic at a corridor intersection can help residents recognise a zone. Repeating the same graphic across the building weakens its value as a landmark.

Keep essential signage separate and legible. The Ontario Long-Term Care Home Design Manual identifies signage and visual cueing as tools for wayfinding. It also requires recognisable signage or symbols at locations including public washrooms, bedroom entrances, Resident Home Areas, common spaces, lobbies, and staff workstations.

A mural should never compete with fire and life-safety signage, exit signs, nurse call information, washroom identification, or room numbers. Use quiet areas around critical information. Maintain clear sightlines from seated and standing positions.

Control contrast, glare, and visual clutter

Dementia-friendly murals require deliberate visual control. More colour, detail, and realism do not necessarily create more engagement.

Keep compositions clear and bounded. Use a limited number of recognisable subjects. Avoid busy backgrounds, ambiguous shadows, reflective finishes, sharp geometric patterns, and dark areas that may appear to be holes or changes in floor level.

Use matte, low-glare finishes. Coordinate the mural with flooring so the wall does not appear to continue onto the ground. Protect handrails and other critical elements with an approximate 30-point LRV difference from surrounding walls. This contrast supports visibility without turning every environmental element into a visual interruption.

Design for the full corridor, not just the wall. Review the mural beside doors, flooring transitions, lighting fixtures, mobility equipment, handrails, signage, and furniture. A graphic that works in a presentation rendering may become visually noisy when installed in a working care environment.

Involve the care team before final approval

Treat consultation as a design requirement.

Invite residents and families to review themes and references. Ask recreation staff whether the mural can support existing programming. Ask PSWs and nurses whether the graphic could affect daily routines, resident recognition, or corridor supervision. Ask operators and facilities teams about cleaning, repair, and replacement.

Pilot the concept in one zone before applying it throughout a home. Observe whether residents stop, identify the landmark, initiate conversation, locate a destination, or require less explanation. Also document negative responses. Confusion, avoidance, repeated attempts to interact with a false feature, or increased visual distraction are reasons to revise the design.

Avoid unsupported promises about reducing agitation, improving cognition, or preventing exit-seeking. Evaluate the mural in context and review observations with the care team.

Plan materials, installation, and maintenance early

A practical long-term care mural design must meet operational requirements as well as visual ones.

Coordinate the artwork with the Ontario Design Manual’s corridor, handrail, lighting, and signage provisions. Confirm accessibility, fire-code requirements, door hardware, emergency equipment, and facility-specific approvals before fabrication.

Involve the home’s IPAC lead and environmental services team. Wall graphics in resident areas should be smooth, fully adhered, durable, and compatible with the cleaning and disinfection products used in the home. Avoid exposed seams, peeling edges, textured surfaces, and protruding components that collect dust or create hazards.

Review:

• Disinfectant compatibility and cleanability
• Surface preparation and wall condition
• Protection from wheelchairs, walkers, and carts
• Lighting and glare at different times of day
• Seated and standing viewing heights
• Corridor clearance and furniture placement
• Visibility of handrails, doors, alarms, and life-safety signage
• Repair and replacement procedures
• Future changes to resident programming or zone identity

Visual99 approaches environmental graphics for healthcare as part of experiential space design: not mural production alone. The goal is to shape what residents feel, recognise, remember, and can do in a space.

A wall should carry more than an image. It should carry a clear purpose.

For an LTC corridor, memory care unit, or redevelopment project in Toronto and the GTA, begin with a space and experience strategy, review existing Visual99 projects, and identify the moments where residents need greater recognition, orientation, comfort, or opportunity for engagement. Then build the mural around those needs.

Sources and further reading

• Ontario Long-Term Care Home Design Manual, 2015
• Position paper: The use of murals in places where people with dementia live
• City of Toronto art resource guide
• Public Health Ontario long-term care IPAC resources
• Visual99 services