Designing Barrier-Free Living
Designing the home of your dreams.
What does it mean to have Barrier-Free Living? It means that your home has been designed for individuals with certain physical disabilities or mobility issues, so that they can use your home safety and comfortably.
Designing Barrier-Free Living
This may mean considerations for wheelchairs, walkers or braces, evaluating height and placement of cabinets and other primary features of your home.
Unlike standard home builders, custom-home builders like Victory Homes can work closely with you to design and build a home without barriers. We take the time to listen to you, to get to know how you would like to life, and then our designers and suppliers can facilitate every need.
Accessible Kitchen Designs
The typical kitchen design includes all the usual features: cabinets, appliances, lighting, and storage. They reflect “standards”, such as countertop height, door width, space between the cabinets and the island, etc. And while standard become standards because they are highly common, these particular standards are not appropriate for your family.
Our team at Victory would love to discuss with you options to make your home uniquely yours. Some of the considerations for an accessible kitchen may include:
- Countertop height
- Depth of lower cabinets, or possibly even a floating countertop
- Appliances that allow for easily accessed controls
- Upper cabinets that drop their shelfs down for easy reaching
- Butler pantries versus corner pantries for complete ease of access
Bathroom Designs for Everyone in your Home
Whether planning for an elderly relative to live with you, or for accommodating your immediate need, accessible bathrooms are a very important consideration when designing your new home. Here are some of the common considerations we can review with you:
- Choose comfort-height toilets
- Install full stand up showers with wheelchair or walker access (consider a ramped tile slope in your shower)
- Choose shower hardware that allows for customization of the height of the shower wand and temperature/flow controls
- Expand the bathroom door opening or consider a pocket door with an easy-pull handle
- Consider a floating sink and countertop
Choosing the right new home layout
When considering the design of your home, you may want to consider if you need is best met by multi-storey or bungalow style homes. There are many advantages to both, and our team can design either one with your needs in mind. But if you’re considering a bungalow for your accessible home, you’ll be interested to hear a few of the other perks to owning these homes:
Excellent resale value with a high demand. Whether for senior-friendly, accessibility-friendly, or just a happily downsized home, bungalows are always a great investment.
Bungalows are typically built on larger lots which offer more flexibility for extensions, add-ons, or just more yard creativity.
Open-plan designs of bungalows are bright, spacious and airy. Typically you’ll enjoy plenty of natural light, and avoid the cramped feel that some people experience in a stacked home.
Incorporating Technology
Disability Credit Canada offers a wonderful outline for utilizing technology as a part of developing a barrier-free home:
Use of technology in the home: “The use of technology and automation can create living spaces that are convenient, energy-efficient, minimize the potential for accidents and result in a home that is adaptable to life’s changes. Persons with disabilities want the choice and independence to move throughout their home safely. Technology enables persons with disabilities to carry out activities within their home without assistance. Devices such as switches or voice-controlled devices can assist them in opening/closing doors and windows, lighting, home security, appliances, phones etc. Technology assists in improving the safety, usability and make life easier for people with disabilities”. These technologies allow people with disabilities to:
Be more independent and give you greater control of your home environment;
Make it easier to communicate with family;
Save you time and effort;
Improves your personal safety;
Alerts you to emergencies through audio and visual cues; and
Allows you to monitor your home when you are away”.
Speak to us today if you are looking to develop a barrier-free home. Our experts can help answer all your questions and help you design the home of your dreams.