Four floors of corridor, a lounge, a dining room and 140 apartments, and every piece has to be recognisable, calm and signed off by the operator

This page is written for the people who buy the art package for an independent-living, assisted-living or retirement community: the operator's facilities or procurement team, the developer building it, the interior designer specifying it, or the art consultant running the programme on their behalf. In the US this buyer is often served by healthcare art consultants who work across hospitals, outpatient clinics and senior living communities, lead with landscapes, botanicals, water scenes and wildlife, and install with wayfinding in mind ¹.

What you are trying to get done is specific. A community of 100 to 200 apartments has several hundred metres of corridor, a residents' lounge, a dining room, an activity room, a reception and often a wellness suite. The corridors take most of the pieces and cause most of the problems: they are narrow, numerous and similar, so the art has to give each floor an identity without buying a different scheme per floor. Subjects have to be recognisable at a glance. Finishes are usually specified without glass. And nothing is ordered until the operator has signed it off, which on a refurbishment can mean three or four people between the designer and the cheque.

Not this page? A hospital or health-system art programme with clinical departments is on Hospitals & healthcare systems; a rental or for-sale residential tower is on Build-to-rent & multifamily; a corridor programme for a hotel is on Corridor series. A single clinic or a dental group is covered lower on this page.

What goes wrong. The corridor budget per position is small, so most suppliers offer a short run of prints repeated every few doors. Residents and visiting families stop noticing them within a week, and on a floor that is 60 metres long the same four images come round three times. The alternative, buying 120 unrelated pieces, breaks the calm the building is trying to keep.

What we do. The catalogue holds 447 works tagged Corridor & Circulation, and 435 of them are vertical, the proportion of a wall between two apartment doors. Instead of repeating one image, we use the Vary route from /custom: you choose one source work per corridor or per floor and we paint a family of related originals off it, so thirty positions read as one series without any two being the same painting. A resident walking the corridor sees the same light, palette and subject family the whole way; a visitor can tell the pieces apart. Every piece is painted at the size you give, for example 81 × 61 cm (32 × 24 in) or 91 × 61 cm (36 × 24 in) for a corridor wall, and the approved sample is the reference the rest of the family is painted against.

Impressionist (92 corridor works) and Textured & Plaster (90) are the deepest corridor styles for this brief; Peaceful (165) and Calming (104) are the corridor moods with the most works. Because nothing is stock, a corridor series ordered at build can be extended at refurbishment from the same source work, at the same size, years later.

What goes wrong. Much of what is sold as calming art is soft abstraction, which reads well in a spa and badly in a care setting: a resident cannot say what it is, and a family member cannot point to it. Suppliers who do hold figurative work often hold it in bright, high-contrast palettes meant for restaurants. Healthcare art consultants advise the other way, towards landscapes, botanicals and water scenes ¹.

What we do. The subjects a senior living designer specifies are the deepest part of the corridor pool. Of the 447 corridor works, 137 are tagged Landscape, 157 Floral & Botanical, 50 Animal & Wildlife and 41 Seascape: garden paths, blossom trees, lily ponds, birch woods, lakes, boats on still water, koi, birds on branches. In style they split between Impressionist (92), where the subject is legible but the brushwork is loose, and Hyperrealism (37), where a persimmon branch or a wave on a pebble beach is painted as it is seen. Across the whole catalogue, Landscape holds 367 works and Floral & Botanical 511, so a subject family can be carried from the corridors into the lounge and the dining room without changing supplier.

Two limits, stated plainly. We do not make claims about memory care or any cognitive or clinical effect of a subject; whether a particular image suits a particular resident group is the operator's and the designer's call, and the progress photos exist so that call is made on the actual painting. And the catalogue images are photographs of works painted before; the piece painted for you is a fresh original and differs in the way hand-painting differs.

What goes wrong. Colour-coded floors are standard in senior living, but the art rarely joins in. Suppliers sell a blue set, a green set and an ochre set of different images, so the floors are colour-coded by accident and the building loses the one series it had. Or the same images go on every floor and only the signage changes.

What we do. Yes, and it is the normal use of the Recolour route: same composition, your palette. Choose one source work, or one Vary family, for the corridors. We paint it for floor 1 in the blue-led palette from your floor scheme, for floor 2 in green, floor 3 in ochre, floor 4 in rose, with the composition unchanged. A resident on the rose floor sees the same garden path as a resident on the blue floor, in their floor's colour, at every position along the corridor. Send us the floor colours as paint codes, fabric cuttings or a scheme board and we match to them; you approve the first piece of each floor from progress photos before the rest of that floor is painted.

One family, four colourways, is one order rather than four schemes, so the whole corridor programme sits inside the volume tier that starts at 10 pieces. Sixteen colour families are indexed in the catalogue if you want to start from the family nearest each floor's scheme rather than from a source work.

To be equally plain about what this is not: the art supports a colour-by-floor scheme; it is not a wayfinding system, and we supply no signage, numbering or hardware with it.

What goes wrong. Framed prints under glass are what most bulk art suppliers ship, and glass is what a care operator's risk assessment wants out of a corridor. Conversely, suppliers who understand the setting often bundle security hangers, cleats and glazing into a fit-out service the operator has already bought elsewhere.

What we do. Canvas is glass-free by nature, and every piece is finished one of three ways, chosen per piece within one order:

For a corridor programme the usual specification is rolled, so the fit-out contractor stretches locally and fixes to whatever hanging system the operator has standardised on; for lounges and dining rooms, frameless stretched or framed, ready to hang at handover.

What we do not claim. We supply no security hangers, anti-tamper fixings, cleats or glazing, and make no claim about them. We hold no fire-retardancy, flame-spread, wipeable-surface or infection-control certification for the canvas; if the operator's specification requires a treatment, it is applied locally and is not something to write against our name. We hold no stock and make no prints, so nothing ships tomorrow; and we publish no prices, so every programme is quoted.

What goes wrong. Art is ordered from a screen image, arrives at practical completion and is seen by the operator for the first time on the wall. If a subject or a colour is wrong for the residents, the choice is to live with it or to reorder late. Most suppliers also quote the whole programme at once, which forces the operator to sign off 150 pieces on a single day.

What we do. Four mechanisms that fit a long chain:

1. A sample with no minimum. Minimum order is 1 piece, so the operator can hold a finished corridor piece in their hands, on their wall, before the programme is committed.
2. Stage-by-stage approval. As each piece or each floor's first piece is painted we send photos or video, and we only continue once you have approved the stage. Colour and subject are corrected on the easel, not on site. The photos can be forwarded down the chain; the approval comes back from whoever holds it.
3. Dates in writing. Send quantity and deadline with the enquiry and the project date is confirmed in writing at quotation; batches can be phased floor by floor to the refurbishment sequence, with the public rooms last if they finish last.
4. Insured delivery, replaced if damaged. Every delivery is fully insured; if a piece arrives damaged it is replaced at no cost. Have the courier note it on the waybill, photograph the piece and the packaging, and send us the photos.

Volume pricing applies from 10 pieces, the quote comes back within 1 business day, and every piece is signed by the artist and travels with a certificate of authenticity for the operator's asset register.

1. Brief. Floor plans or a position count per corridor and room, the floor colour scheme, finish per zone, the handover or reopening date and the delivery address or contractor. Send reference codes from the catalogue if you have them; a wall photo and a palette are enough if you do not.
2. Quote, within 1 business day. Reference codes per position, sizes, finish, the Vary and Recolour routes applied per floor, a lead time, and the project date committed in writing.
3. Sample. One piece, usually a corridor vertical, painted and shipped so the operator approves the subject, palette and finish on a real canvas. Minimum order is 1, so this is simply a one-piece order.
4. Painting, about 1 week per batch. The first piece of each floor's colourway goes to you as progress photos or video; the rest of the floor is painted once that stage is approved.
5. Signature and certificate. The artist signs each piece and a certificate of authenticity travels with it.
6. Transit, 3–7 days. Free, fully insured, by DHL, FedEx or USPS, tracking number sent at dispatch. Batches are usually delivered together; we can ship to the fit-out contractor or to a different country than the buyer if you tell us at order stage.

The single-piece figure is 10–13 days door to door. A four-floor corridor programme with lounge and dining pieces is quoted as a phased schedule rather than as one 10–13 day promise; the dates per batch are the ones in the written quotation. A sample placed in the design stage is the simplest way to take the subject question off the operator's desk before the programme is ordered.

The quote is accurate the first time when the enquiry carries these seven things:

1. Position count by zone: corridor positions per floor, and one line each for reception, lounge, dining room, activity room, wellness suite and any model apartment. A marked floor plan does this in one file.
2. Wall sizes and orientation: for corridors, the wall width between doors and the height available; for lounge and dining walls, the width and what sits below them (a sideboard, a banquette, a handrail).
3. The floor colour scheme: paint codes, fabric cuttings photographed in daylight, or the signage colours, floor by floor, so the Recolour route has a target.
4. Subject preferences and exclusions: for example landscapes and florals only, no figures, no water, or the reverse. This is the operator's call and we follow it.
5. Finish per zone: rolled for the contractor to stretch and mount locally, frameless stretched, or framed in gold, silver, black, white or wood.
6. Dates and sequence: handover or reopening date and, on a refurbishment, the order in which floors close and reopen.
7. Who approves and who receives: the name that signs off progress photos and the delivery address or contractor, with the country.

Reference codes from the catalogue are welcome but not required; a photo of a corridor wall and the floor colours are enough for a first quote. Quotes come back within 1 business day. Use the quote form and choose Developer / property, or name the operator and the community in the message and we will treat it as a senior living programme.

The corridors carry the count; the shared rooms carry the character. Three things a senior living brief asks for beyond the corridors, and where they sit in the catalogue.

• Residents' lounge. A lounge wants a wider, larger piece than a corridor and a subject that gives people something to talk about: a lakeside village, a waterfall, a path through a flower field. Living Room holds 855 works, 226 of them Landscape and 199 tagged Peaceful, with 200 in horizontal or panoramic format. A lounge piece might be painted at 122 × 91 cm (48 × 36 in) or 153 × 102 cm (60 × 40 in), framed in wood or frameless stretched.
• Dining room. Still life and food subjects are the dining-room tradition and read instantly: fruit on a branch, a bouquet on a table, birds beside persimmons. Dining Room holds 337 works, 58 of them Still Life and 185 Floral & Botanical, with 84 horizontal; a Vary family of 10 or 12 at 102 × 76 cm (40 × 30 in) furnishes a dining room without repeating.
• Apartments and model suites. Where the operator furnishes apartments, one small floral or landscape per entrance hall or bedroom is the usual line: Bedroom holds 457 works, 354 of them Peaceful or Calming and 201 Floral & Botanical, at 61 × 51 cm (24 × 20 in) painted by the hundred in one order.
• Wellness suite and activity room. Spa & Wellness holds 365 works, 255 tagged Peaceful, with Textured & Plaster (112) the leading style: low-contrast plaster landscapes and seascapes for a treatment or quiet room.

All of these are painted at whatever size the wall needs and can be carried in the same subject family and floor colour as the corridors.

A private clinic, dental, fertility or aesthetics practice buys the same kind of art as a senior living corridor, in a different way: the owner or the group's facilities manager orders 5 to 30 pieces per site without a designer, wants calm, unambiguous nature subjects for the waiting room and consulting rooms, and wants them ready to hang without glass. Dental trade press gives the same advice: calm natural scenes in soft colours rather than hard-lined, bright modern work ². What differs is order size and the buyer, so the mechanics are these:

• No minimum. Minimum order is 1 piece; a group of three or more practices crosses the volume tier at 10.
• The same set for every site. Choose a reception landscape and consulting-room florals once; the Vary route paints a related version per practice, or the same codes are repeated as painted.
• Ready to hang, no glass. Frameless stretched, or framed in gold, silver, black, white or wood with hanging hooks supplied. Canvas carries no glazing.
• Approve before it ships. Progress photos or video at each stage; the owner signs off from their phone and we only continue once they have.

The deepest pools for a practice are Spa & Wellness (365 works, 255 Peaceful, 184 Calming), Corridor & Circulation (447) and Lobby & Reception for the waiting room (557 works, 137 of them Landscape). Illustrative: a dental group with three practices orders a reception landscape at 122 × 91 cm (48 × 36 in) and seven consulting-room florals at 61 × 51 cm (24 × 20 in) per site, frameless stretched, 24 pieces in total at the volume tier. We make no clinical or infection-control claims for the work; it is calm, nature-led and original.

iHomeArt is the trade channel of Siji Art Hub in Foshan, Guangdong. The painters train inside the hub's exhibition programme, which has run more than 50 exhibitions with professors of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts among the exhibitors, and the hub's collection exceeds 11,000 works. Every piece painted for a community is signed by the artist and ships with a certificate of authenticity, so the asset register can record, per position, the reference code, the size, the colourway, the finish and the certificate.

Because every piece is painted for its order, the register is also the reorder document. A piece damaged in service in year three is painted again from the same code at the same size and colourway; it will be a fresh original, not an identical copy. A second community by the same operator can take the same schedule, with the floor colours shifted, and be quoted from the register without re-briefing. Senior partnered artists' master works, described on /custom, are kept as painted and carry provenance, exhibition history and a photograph with the artist; they suit a reception or a boardroom rather than a corridor programme and are quoted individually.

For the full trade terms, see /trade; for shipping, insurance and what to do if a piece arrives damaged, see /logistics.