Decorating a wheelchair?

[jenni_bird]

The last time we went to Disney we rented a wheelchair every day for my mother. This year we have decided that we are going to bring one from home. Does anyone have any ideas on how to decorate it for disney? Thanks in advance!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[joanchris]

It's not specifically Disney decorations, but we decorate my daughter's wheelchair with battery operated Christmas lights, people think it's really great (at Christmas time anyhow!)

 

[lanejudy]

Maybe you could make a seat cushion or cover from Disney-themed fabric. Are you simply trying to easily identify it, or really want to go all-out decorated? You could tie a scarf on the handle.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[jenni_bird]

Maybe you could make a seat cushion or cover from Disney-themed fabric. Are you simply trying to easily identify it, or really want to go all-out decorated? You could tie a scarf on the handle.

Enjoy your vacation!

We were wanting to identify it easily as well as make it look awesome!! Thanks for the tips

 

[lizzyb5280]

Will you have small kids with you? Last time we went, my daughter loved to take the free stickers they sometimes give out and plaster them all over the back of my backrest. (2+ years later, they're mostly still there; I don't have the heart to remove them!)

 

[PatsMom]

My daughter used fabric paint and white material to make a sign for the back of my seat. It is a picture of the Evil Queen from Snow White - my favorite character. It has our last name on it in "Disney" script. She really did an awesome job - I am lucky to have such talent in the house. Many have admired my sign.

The chair has been through two trips now. I am hoping to retire it before my May trip but that will depend on how chemo goes. So far I have had to use it for a broken foot and a trip taken 10 days after a total abdominal hysterectomy! May will be the next chemo trip.

I have seen chairs with Christmas lights that look awesome at night. If I end up having to use it for our November trip, I am going to look into that for MVMCP. I have also seen one with stars that glow in the dark clipped on to the wheels. That was pretty cool too.

It does help to identify your chair. I think if you have one that insurance or medicare paid for, it is an Invacare! I see lots of them and that is what mine is too. So it does get to be kind of like finding your stroller, especially at a ride like the Safari with a separate wheelchair boarding area.

 

[50surgeries2012]

My power chair has some Disney themed items on it. Mostly just stickers on the back of my headrest, and backrest. I also have rear bike lights that flash, and are red. One is attached to the crossbar that is attached to the push handles on the back, and the other one is attached to my left footrest. I have Disney-themed fabric attached to the headrest, and backrest.

With my upcoming trip in April to Disneyland. I was thinking of sewing a Disney themed piece of fabric over my seat cushion. Not sure what to do with the backrest because it's one of those tension-adjustable ones. I'm sad that I won't be able to take my power chair on this trip because my friend who is taking my husband and me is renting a mid-size car. So, I'll have to take my manual wheelchair. Renting a power wheelchair either from the parks, or off-site is out of my budget this time.

 

[mom3girls2000]

The last time we went to Disney we rented a wheelchair every day for my mother. This year we have decided that we are going to bring one from home. Does anyone have any ideas on how to decorate it for disney? Thanks in advance!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

I second the battery-operated lights. I have snowflakes for my scooter for December and January, and tiny red lights for February.

I also have a flag I got at Disney on Ice, it's the flag from Tangled, with the yellow sun on a purple background, I'm trying to figure out how to attach it.

 

[SixUnderSix]

I'm really wanting to decorate my son's wheelchair for his MAW trip. He'll be 3 in July so he's at the perfect age for it. I've been trying to look online and have decided, I'm probably just going to have to be creative and come up with something myself. I know part of what I'll be doing is creating and decorating spoke guards. His chair is a bright green with black on it so I'm trying to think of something I could do that would kind of go with his chair.....

 

[rewardsinlife]

To the PP , Jimminy Crickett is green! Might be easier to go with a mostly green character?

To the OP, there are some neat decorations out there...but the most personal ones are of course the ones of do yourself!

Here are some examples though...the following link will show you some cool lights for wheels:
http://www.monkeylectric.com/m232_bike_light/

Or a little bit of a cheaper version where you can create your own design...
http://www.safetylightsandsignals.c...-lights.aspx?gclid=CKWFuu6i6bUCFe4-MgoduVUAsg

Finally this last one gives a bunch of different websites and different additions you can add for different occasions..and different weather!
http://www.gettingbackup.org/resources/products/wheelchair-extras/

Hope this helps! If you are truly on a budget- weaving different colored ribbon through the spokes or clipping on baseball cards to the wheels works well too and adds a little flare!

 

[zumbergc]

I made a slip cover to go over the back of the ecv out of felt.
The ecv back of the rentals from walker, are easy to make the slip cover, because its just a simple pillow case type cover.

Then I have a Disney embroidery machine, and I made disney squares (with a different character on them, in a contrasting color. Then fabric glued them onto the felt slip cover. If you can sew. Using felt is easy because it doesn't fray and fairly sturdy.

You could also get the disney iron ons, or are they called appliques? Like at joann fabric - don't forget the 40% off coupons in the paper, or get their app and get digital coupons.

Then use a fabric glue and glue them onto some felt. Making the embroidary designs with my simple machine took a long time, but I have used it multiple times.
I even made something for my stroller so that it is easy to recognize.

However in the warm months the felt doesn't keep you cool if it touches your back. If it looks like rain I take it off in the morning or I fold it up and it get put away if I'm out.

Just remember to bring along whatever your planning to fasten the sign or creative thing you make. Then if it is or isn't water proof depending on the season you might want to make sure it can be removed, and stored so the hard work doesn't get ruined.

It does make finding things easier in the sea of ecvs

 

[SixUnderSix]

To the PP , Jimminy Crickett is green! Might be easier to go with a mostly green character?

Oh my gosh, I have been thinking of something - I was kind of thinking Rex from Toy Story but I'm so glad you mentioned Jimminy Crickett - I'm going to see what I can think up using him as the character - thank you!!!

 

[KPeveler]

The haunted mansion is also green and black. Also add white and purple details and you get buzz lightyear

 

[SixUnderSix]

The haunted mansion is also green and black. Also add white and purple details and you get buzz lightyear

I'd love to do Buzz - he's only 2 1/2 and doesn't know the haunted mansion so we probably won't do that until he's older. I'm the least creative person in the world so I'm getting a head start ;-)

 

[SueM in MN]

This picture shows some lights that we put on my daughter's wheelchair. They were made for bicycles and consist of a very thin flexible colored plastic fiberoptic tube and a fairly small battery pack.
We wove the tubing thru the spokes of her wheels and attached the battery pack to a spoke on each wheel with Velcro and black electrical tape.
We used rechargeable batteries.

The lights come in various colors - we got aqua blue for one side and fuschia for the other.
I think these are the ones we bought:
http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Wire-Feet-Long-Blue/dp/B0041H2X7Q/ref=pd_sbs_hg_1

My daughter has glow in the dark stars on her wheel spokes also and she has a sort of decal thing of Tinkerbell on the back of her seat.
I've seen glow in the dark stickers, like these with Buzz Lightyear that might work
http://www.amazon.com/Glow-The-Dark...3139117&sr=8-10&keywords=Decal+buzz+Lightyear

 

[SueM in MN]

Noticed that picture was a little dark - it was quite dark when I took it.
I just got a new app on my phone that allows you to lighten pictures, so here is the lightened version.

You can see her seat cover a bit better too. She has a Jay Deep Contour seat, which I have made different covers or. When she was little, we had a lot of prints. Now that she is older, we use solids knit type things. A lot are either swimsuit material or dance costume material.
I know some people have used fleece - I have seen Buzz Lightyear fleece material.

 

[I Love Pluto]

My wheelchair has 2 simple frogs on it. Didn't do Disney because so many others do, & it doesn't really personalize your chair. Find something that you like OTHER THAN DISNEY. Use that theme for your wheelchair or scooter. It will certainly stick out in a crowd of chairs - when they notice frogs or bunny rabbits. Mickey has been done before. Save the Mickey decos for at home!


I LOVE the lights on yor daughter's wheelchair, Sue!

 

[SueM in MN]

My wheelchair has 2 simple frogs on it. Didn't do Disney because so many others do, & it doesn't really personalize your chair. Find something that you like OTHER THAN DISNEY. Use that theme for your wheelchair or scooter. It will certainly stick out in a crowd of chairs - when they notice frogs or bunny rabbits. Mickey has been done before. Save the Mickey decos for at home!


I LOVE the lights on yor daughter's wheelchair, Sue!

Thanks.
They worked out quite well. She had some solar powered Christmas tree type lights before in purple. Those were nice, but kind of a pain to put on and off - plus we had to make sure the solar collector was where it could collect sun.