Yesterday’s Cancer Chronicle was mostly a &^%$$#fest over the cancer decor in oncology and there’s also the awful decor of the infusion center. Raucous Indignation was nice enough to do a photo walk through of all his oncology work spaces, giving me a chance to see what other oncologists do when it comes to decor. I have to say, for the most part, this is much better than what I get to stare at every two weeks.
The waiting room. Okay, the pictures are fine, if on the bland side. Oh, do I ever recognize those chair colours! No, bad. That awful beige makes the blue look horrible. Black would make the blue pop, and nothing wrong with basic black, goes with everything. In the case of cancer decor, beige is the death colour, not black. Or, a tonal shift could make all the difference. Shade the blue more aqua, and replace the beige with a pale yellow. Right there, you have warmth and light without being obnoxious. And the walls, no, bad walls!
The lav. The painting is lovely, but it would probably be better if it were in front of patients, rather than behind. Cancer patients often have to spend much too long of a time in a lav, so having something to stare at is good.
Beautiful paintings! The carpet? No! There’s that godawful beige and icky brown again. There’s nothing wrong with beautiful, life affirming colours on the floor. You could get a nice multi-colour blue to go with the paintings.
Nice. I don’t worry about exam rooms, there’s always stuff you poke around in.
Very nice! I’m crazy about the photos, those are so fabulous! That sort of thing should be everywhere. The walls – no! Even eggshell white would be an improvement, but I’d go with a pale yellow. The blue chairs are okay, not wild about them, but those um, beige-green ones? Ick, no. Your visitor chairs are nice enough, why not go with blue and black chairs? Again, the black would make the blue pop, and would tie in with the visitor chairs. The curtains are quite nice. And I know this isn’t you, but hospital standard – the floors. Oh, awful.
The triptych is fantastic, beautiful in every way. Those walls, though…
This strikes me as pretty nice, and especially compared to what Caine looks at. Part of the appeal for me is I really like the color blue, and it seems others do too. I can see Caine’s point though: beige is just really… I don’t know. I guess I don’t have a lot of good associations with beige. I guess it can be OK in certain situations. Anyway I would describe the overall effect as soothing.
Isn’t it interesting that children’s spaces are usually much more cheerful. All of us started out as children and probably still find some of that color and contrast really appealing. Another thing I find really appealing is something alive: plants, or maybe an aquarium (although yeah, you need to have someone skilled enough to care for it and maintain it weekly). There is one in my dentist’s office and it’s awesome.
Yes, I’m all for plants, plants everywhere! Aquariums are nice too, if someone can be bothered. Those might not be ideal for oncology spaces, seeing as they are little bacteria factories (I was into fishkeeping for years on end), but plants, yes.
Someone looked at the institutional decor and said, fuck that for a joke. Well done.
Hi! Sorry I was away. I was on call this weekend and couldn’t chime in. We have a few plants. But yeah, aquariums are kinda just aquatic poop factories. Not recommended decor. The floors are all linoleum. I don’t think we had much input on those. I agree the the photo should be on the other side on the toilet, but I think something is already there? The green infusion chairs look more green than beige to me under the florescent lights, but I wonder if that’s because I don’t see those colors very well or because my phone didn’t render them with true fidelity. The windows in the infusion suite look out onto a wooded area. My office doesn’t have a window; the patients need them more than I. The triptych is the only piece I picked out for the office; it’s neatly covering the three electrical panels for the office suite. Our current space is much much better than the old office.