How do you brighten up the waiting room?

In some practices the waiting room is a forgotten space. Often not decorated at all, or dull. Full of uncomfortable chairs that make the waiting feel even longer. Yet your waiting room is the first space your patients walk into. The first impression they get of you and of the practice. The waiting room should also work as a filter between all the stress outside and the therapy room. A kind of cooldown zone. You will see that a nice restful practice space pays off during your therapy AND in attracting new patients.

Atmosphere

As said before, we do not advise you to go for the typical waiting room that is cold and chilly. Also do not use those typical waiting room chairs, or the white cheap-looking little tables. And certainly do not paint all the walls plain white. A bit of colour on the wall is really allowed.

You bring atmosphere into your waiting room by seeing it more as “the living space of the practice”. Dress this room the way you would your living room. While keeping in mind of course that a lot of people come and go in the space and that the needs there are different. Do use natural materials such as wood to bring calm into the room.

The chairs you choose for your waiting room strongly determine the room. You put a lot of chairs in a relatively small area. So you could tackle it differently and go for benches instead of chairs. That immediately makes the space softer and more homely. Do bear in mind that the space has to be big enough for this. It must not feel as if you have crammed the whole room full of sofas.

Not convinced? You can also be original by not putting all the same chairs in the waiting room, but using different models. The advantage of this is that you can go for second-hand chairs and only have to spend a small amount. Do watch that you then paint the walls in a neutral colour so that it is not too busy.

IKEA hacks

Not a very big budget to hand? And do you still want to do something quick and simple? Then you should definitely take a look at IKEA hacks for your waiting room.

IKEA hacks are tricks you find on the internet to transform IKEA products and sometimes even give them a completely different purpose. Various sites and Instagram pages are devoted to this phenomenon.

In a list like that, do have a look at number 20.

Mirror

Do you have a small space for your patients to wait in? With a mirror on the wall you make the room look bigger. This way your patients feel less as if they are being crammed together in a small box.

Round organic shapes are the trend at the moment, which makes round mirrors very popular. When choosing a mirror, do watch that the style fits the atmosphere you want to create. So do not take a rustic-looking mirror when you want to go for a sleek industrial look.

Cork on the wall

Ready to make a statement? No, cork on the wall gives a calm atmosphere, but it does give depth to your space. No desire to paint? Then cover your accent wall with cork. It looks just like wood. A nice advantage is that you can hang up drawings, announcements and information.

You can go as far with this as you like yourself. From a whole wall to a few strips.

Plants and flowers

Plants and flowers bring your waiting room to life and lift it into a real place where people like to spend time. It also makes the waiting much more pleasant for the parents of children. They wait in your waiting room once or twice a week after all.

Use different types of plants and use different heights as well. That way you create more depth, which again benefits the atmosphere. Do not turn it into a jungle though. The patients still have to find their way to a chair easily.

You also do not have to go for big plants as standard. A waiting room is often a small space, so working with smaller plants here and there is certainly enough. A small tip: you can also hang them up.

Real plants are preferable to fake ones. No time to look after your plants? Do you find all those plants far too much work? Or do they always die again for unexplained reasons? Then do not always go for the cactus. Yes, a cactus is low-maintenance, but stuffing your whole waiting room with this prickly plant is rather monotonous. Go for dried plants instead. At Bouquet Boho you can always get a nice themed bouquet. Because these plants are dried they last a very long time. And they keep looking fantastic. Do take a look at the Facebook page of Bouquet Boho.