Last week we heard from Jim Butz of Architecturally Speaking about the importance of Age-in-Place design. This week I’d like to show you how a client incorporated some of these concepts into her bathroom remodel. Her concerns when we began were to be able to live in her condo as long as possible without having to remodel again further down the road.
Here’s the outcome:
In this view you can see a few things:
- The faucet is a single handle “joystick” which makes operation easy for anyone
- The toilet is a “comfort height” toilet
- The flooring is porcelain tile but it has a non-slip grooved finish
- You can’t see it but we added lighting below the vanity for a little added night light effect
- The cabinets and drawers open by touch-latch
Another view:
Here you can see that we utilized:
- A grab bar above the tub, and we added blocking behind the wall for an additional grab bar near the shower handles
- A separate hand-held shower head
- Low-sided tub for easier access
Several months after we finished the project, the client broke her ankle. She was pleased with the improvements we had made as they allowed her to shower more easily during the time she was in a cast. She simply put a small removable shower seat in the tub and used that while hanging her foot out of the tub.
You can see that while we incorporated several principles of A-I-P design, we kept the look from becoming “institutional”.
Does this change your mind about what A-I-P design looks like?