I wouldnt do this without your bosses permission, temporary or not. There may be a reason for the color that it is now. You are working with people with mental health, and too much color (fun for you) could cause an adverse reaction to some patients.

What about a soothing or cheerful removable wallpaper? Supposedly they make good peel-and-stick varieties these days, although I haven't tried any.

And I agree with cat_ky; I would talk about this with your boss beforehand.

washable paint will have a different outcome than permanent wall paint, mainly due to the opacity and texture. if you all settle on a color, you might have a really difficult time matching it.

just have a few sample size cans of wall paint mixed, and paint big pieces of cardboard for giant swatches to tape to the wall.

How about giant white boards?

Yes to soothing paint on the walls. No to being sneaky or exposing other patients to possibly troubling images.

Why not suggest an art therapy class for the patients? That way, each person could make something under the guidance of a mental health professional. Watercolor on paper, acrylic on canvas, clay, modeling clay, etc.

Defacing an employers property is a good reason to be dismissed. Put in a work order to paint the wall.

I do agree with posters who have encouraged you to seek your employer’s permission before taking action. That being said, I applaud your desire to make your patients more comfortable. The person I love most in the world has a severe mental disability and it gives me great comfort to hear from people like you who genuinely care about the comfort and happiness of their patients. I wish you all the best.

Yeah... Unfortunately sarcasm isn't the best of choice sometimes on an online forum. "Going rogue" and just leaving paint lying around was never a serious consideration. I like my job too much to risk it like that. If I do end up doing something that will end up getting me fired, it won't be over paint.

ANYWAY, we already have a regular group that engages in artistic endeavours (I run it actually) We do painting, crafts, sculpting, writing, singing... basically any form of creative expression people show interest in. We even had a regular knitting group for a little while. I've been working here for over five years, and it is exceedingly rare (i.e. can count on two fingers) that anything not "family friendly" has been created by the people I serve. If someone was determined to mark the walls with something people would object to, I feel they would do so whether or not there was an official activity. The people I serve are mostly kind to a fault, and are generally respectful to one another. So I'm not concerned about anything they create being disruptive to their temporary community.

As for sticking to soothing colours and themes, most of the people I serve are woefully understimulated. It's much harder to motivate yourself to engage in any sort of positive or therapeutic activity when the visual environment is bland and lifeless, and when you can see furniture in disrepair, and live in a space that gets dirty very quickly despite a hardworking and devoted cleaning staff.

Recovery requires creative thinking; for people to change longstanding habits and patterns of thought. Living in a bland environment inhibits creative thought, and drains motivation. I work with people who have been circulating in the system for a long time, and have been falsely taught to expect very little out of life. Part of our mission here is to restore hope and help people to realise that their life has a future. That they are to be respected and valued. That change is possible and they can create change toward the life that they want for themselves but have been taught that they shouldn't expect. I'd like them to have the power to shape their environment to suit what they want for themselves; to be empowered to create their own space.

When I said I was going to be somewhat sneaky, I didn't mean I'd do it without telling anyone I was planning it; I meant more that I wanted to avoid what I'd expect if I asked to paint the walls interesting colours. I would expect that request would lead to having to approach our policy review committee, that there would need to be a literature review, and many many meetings to discuss. A process that could take years, not to mention taking up valuable time and resources in a system that sometimes spends way too much time on minutia (mostly people here are well intentioned, but some of the stuff that ends up being handled at the VP level is just, well, stupid...
It causes everyone's eyes to roll, including the VPs'). And because of this level of process, there's a high likelihood that my boss would simply say no because we BOTH know that process would be a waste of resources. I'd much rather be able to propose an option or three to my boss that can empower her to make a decision without it requiring a change of policy or procedure. If you have ideas on how to help make it happen, I'd love to hear it!

Why not just hang up a bulletin board or cork squares and display their artwork? I know it sounds a bit elementary schoolish, but it would brighten up the space and give pride to your patients.