This month, we’re celebrating 10 years of making hospitals better places for everyone who uses them, but did you know that Grosvenor Interiors originally designed homes rather than hospitals?

When Colin, our Managing Director, found himself spending long periods of time in hospital with his son, he couldn’t help noticing that his surroundings were often pretty poor and in dire need of some love. Wards were uninspiring, walls bare and the clinical environments in general weren’t promoting wellbeing for patients or supporting the people who were there with their loved ones at the time they needed it the most.

With his focus shifted, he got busy transforming hospital environments from dull and dated to bright and brilliant.

Now, for over a decade, we’ve been working with both hospitals and charities to turn uninspiring wards into uplifting spaces for patients to get better and get back to feeling like people again. Our experience has seen us take on projects of all sizes, creating better wards for patients of all ages. We’ve worked with a countless number of charities including Thomas Cook Children’s Charity, Butterfly Thyroid Trust and Teenage Cancer Trust (to name just a few!) in hospitals up and down the country.

Spaces where young patients can be young people

One of our favourite transformations, the Teenage Cancer Trust unit in Leicester, recently celebrated its five-year anniversary. We’re proud to say that over the course of those five years, it’s helped countless numbers of young patients who are going through some of the most difficult times in their lives. From the very start of the project, we knew we needed to move as far away from the hospital stereotypes as possible. Using a vibrant colour scheme; contemporary, comfortable furniture and entertaining additions including a jukebox and widescreen TV, we were able to create an age-appropriate space for young patients.

By having this space to spend time in, young patients are able to concentrate on being young people again. This in itself can be a welcome distraction from being an inpatient and all that comes with it, even if only for a short while. More than that though, a positive environment can promote positive treatment outcomes and there isn’t much of a bigger win than that.

‘Thanks to our involvement with Grosvenor Interiors and gifts from our generous supporters, Leicester Hospitals Charity has had a significant impact on patient environment within the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. Several key areas inside our Hospitals have been given a ‘facelift’ with the use of colour, design and bespoke furniture. We have formed a good working relationship with Grosvenor who have created quality branding and themes we are proud of and more importantly, have made a huge difference to our patients’ stay and well-being.’?

Debbie Alderstein, Leicester Hospitals Charity

Looking forward to the future

Since we’ve been working with hospitals, technology has advanced and has allowed us to begin looking at making healthcare environments better than ever before. New, innovative products such as LED skylights has opened us up to even more ways to transform wards, waiting areas and treatment rooms and create positive places that promote health and wellbeing; for patients who need to stay in hospital for a long period of time, bringing the outside in can have a hugely positive effect on their mental wellbeing which, in turn, can help them respond more positively to their treatments.

We’ve always understood how important a positive environment can be in patients’ recovery but there’s now a growing body of research supporting the idea too. We’re excited to see the recognition that hospital environments are now receiving when it comes to their impact on patient recovery and our hope is that we can continue to transform lives through transforming wards over the next 10 years and beyond.

To celebrate a decade of better hospital design, we’re going to be helping make more hospitals better by giving away some WallGlamour! In fact, we’re celebrating 10 years so we plan to give away 10 WallGlamour installations to 10 deserving hospitals to use to transform their ward, waiting area or wherever else is in need of a bit of brightening up. To find out more and to be in with a chance of winning, make sure you’ve either liked our page on Facebook or followed us on Twitter or Instagram where we’ll be revealing more details soon.