“We want to grow old here. We don’t need help getting around now, but we want to be prepared for when we get there”.

We’re continuing our tour of home features and designs that allow you to age in place comfortably (and beautifully) and to plan proactively for the future.

In the last edition, we covered overall mobility, lighting considerations, the location of the master bedroom, plus the possibility of a home elevator. In this edition, we’ll continue with the Bathroom and Kitchen.

Getting Around

Looking to the future, if you’re going to be using a walker or a wheelchair, the bathroom must be spacious enough both to get around in, and to keep your walking aid out of your way.

Grabbing Hold

An easy item to install today are grab bars, both in and outside the shower. You can use it to hang your wash cloth or bath mat if you don’t need it for maneuverability. Today, there’s no stigma to having grab bars in the shower: it just makes sense. And there are so many beautiful designs of safety bars to choose from today, it seamlessly adds to the esthetic.

When designing a new bathroom, keep in mind that if the placement of the toilet is near a wall, it provides a natural location for a grab bar. If not, there are bars that are designed to swing down when needed and then easily swing back up when not in use. And don’t forget the trick of a clever disguise: one client used a toilet paper holder designed to double as a grab bar.

We get it – safety bars by the toilet doesn’t scream “luxury bathroom”. So, even if you don’t need them today, we can put blocking behind the wall so that you can more easily install them later.

Shower Thoughts

Our favorite aging in place shower design is a zero threshold one – no step to maneuver into the shower, you simply walk (or roll) in. Typically, this shower needs additional space to allow it to be drained correctly. And if installing it in an existing space, the floor structure often needs to be retrofitted for proper drainage.

Another option is a low threshold shower, which does have a low step, but is still better than the typical shower entry. You can’t roll into it, but it’s low enough for easier transfer from wheelchair or walker into the shower.

A big barrier to someone with mobility issues is a cramped kitchen – there’s just not enough room to move around. For your safety, you must be able to back up from the open dishwasher and oven door.

Is An Island Always A Benefit?

While a kitchen island is almost expected in today’s kitchen design, in some cases, if the kitchen is too small to have an island and also retain the required space to move safely around, then an island will be cumbersome rather than helpful.

Often, we’re asked to move the existing island as the space is too tight. Our designs sometimes push it out a couple of feet. It’s often desirable to have the kitchen open to an adjacent space like a dining room.

Cabinetry Choices

There are options in today’s cabinetry to make daily kitchen tasks easy and within reach with less effort. These include lower cabinet shelves that roll out or rotate out. For the upper cabinets there’s lots of new designs with features that help lower the hard to reach higher shelves.

Some new cabinets are convenient and cool – with the touch of a button the whole upper cabinet can lower down. The insides of the cabinet can pull out and come down. That’s something you can often retrofit later if/when you need it.

In the past, you could find faucets that could be controlled with your feet. Now motion-sensored, hands free faucets are common, relatively inexpensive and popular in residential kitchens.

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