How can we create the best possible surroundings for the elderly to live and enjoy their later years? This seems to be the core question behind the Wentworth Grange care home in the North of England. Here, the word 'care' takes on a great variety of meanings. Essential things like accommodation, nutrition and nursing services have been given a high level of attention, all combining to offer an ideal type of experience for this period of our lives. Wentworth Grange's insightful interpretation of care is visible in the architecture, the garden and the interiors, even in the staff uniforms, demonstrating sensitivity and understanding of the degree to which our physical environment plays a role in our everyday wellbeing.
Interior design expertise
For a recent makeover at the location, BoConcept was engaged to assist with the transformation, providing not only furniture but interior design expertise. What started out as a simple request related to the interiors for one lounge area, developed into a more complete commission that included the reception area, the restaurant, the outdoor terrace along with the hallways and small seating areas.
"We got involved around the start of this new updated phase of Wentworth Grange", explains Emma Dickinson, Business and Trade Manager at BoConcept Business North East & Yorkshire." Jeff Lee, the owner, already had plans underway for a new extension to the restaurant and had got in touch to discuss the lounge area upstairs. We initially spoke on the phone and then I visited Wentworth to look at the spaces further. Since then, it’s kind of snowballed with us helping them with further rooms and transformations."
A fusion of different spaces
The setting of the care home is idyllic, the epitome of romantic Victorian countryside scenography. The facility is centred around the original Victorian house which was on the site when the Lee family took the place over in the 1980s. They sank all they had –in terms of both finance and energy– into the creation of their high-end nursing home, something very much in demand during that time, though equally rare. They built onto the house, merging the new with the original classical architecture, and thus able to offer all the modern and contemporary conveniences needed for providing the best of care and service to its future residents. Owner Jeff Lee was just 13 years old when his parents decided to take on this challenge, and now he is the head of the house – managing the operation, on-call 24/7 and ready to take care of any type of question or task, day or night.
For this new transformation, Lee wanted a fusion of some different inviting places: a home, a lovely restaurant, a fine hotel. "We care about the nice things in life, which is more important than ever when you’re in your golden years. We do not wish this place to resemble a nursing home, which is why I always turn down suppliers of nursing homes. We wish to offer our residents something different that can lift their spirits in every possible way, with an abundance of natural light, openness, fine decor and contemporary finishing. We went for something contemporary that is as good to look at as it is to relax in," says Lee. "The furnishings from BoConcept caught my eye because they are thoughtfully designed and very comfortable with fresh and bold colours. And in BoConcept we found not only a supplier but a partner who really cared."
Luxurious and homely
Wentworth Grange is fitted out like a hotel for the elderly, with all the nursing support directly on hand yet not the first thing you notice. "The brief we received was to create something that felt luxurious and homely, not a care home with a hospital feeling," says Dickinson, who visited the location on several occasions to get a sense of how the spaces were being used and what exactly was required. Besides their private rooms, the residents spend a great part of their time socialising in the common areas and therefore they were at the forefront of the plans for change: remaking beautiful spaces to talk, eat good food, play board games, welcome family, host visitors or simply relax.
"Restyling a care home is not necessarily a standard request at BoConcept yet a very meaningful one," says Dickinson, who believes this is a field with a potential for more design thinking: "The world is changing and I think there is an urge for people to stay within a space that they feel safe and happy in, even if they don’t need 24-hour care. At BoConcept, we have such a vast collection of commercial and healthcare options, I don’t see why we couldn’t work with other spaces like this trying to achieve a more design-led interior."
