Our Expert Advice for Designing a Home that Grows With You

When it comes to a full-time home that is planned to be a forever home it is important to think about the future and aging in place. Making small design changes that do not affect the function of a home, but allow it to grow with you and your family over the years will help down the road when your life and needs change.

Step #1: Consider Your Long-Term Goals 

As a designer, it is important to not only look at the client’s current needs for their home but also discuss their long-term goals. If they want it to be their forever home, then there are things to consider when renovating or building that may save time and money in the future avoiding large costly renovations to make a home more accessible later. 

Adding grab bars in the showers and tubs, watching different floor height changes or material changes, overall lighting, and selecting materials that are anti-slip or including roll-out shelves for cabinets for ease of getting to stored items. Many of these items make everyday life easier no matter your age or accessibility needs. After so many years in the interior design industry, we see how simple changes can make the overall quality of life for our clients better which is our goal as designers to achieve.

Step #2: Integrate Functionality into Your Design

When you are designing a new home or renovating your existing home, think about what storage needs you need now and as you grow into your home. Kitchens, pantries, and bathrooms are great places to organize your cabinets with roll-out shelves, cabinets for baking sheets, spices, and pots and pan drawers to make finding all the items you use daily a snap. As you age it is still easy to get to those items without straining to bend over or needing to dig through the cabinets. 

Adding pop-up outlets or power strips under cabinets provides more needed electrical outlets and makes it easy to access them. Under cabinet lighting and toe kick lighting are also great for adding light for different tasks or as a safe guide at night when navigating your home.

Step #3: Invest in Quality Materials 

Investing in quality materials typically saves you money in the future because you are not replacing that product frequently, which could result in higher costs than spending more upfront for a quality product that will last a long time. Higher quality products like furniture can be more durable, the potential to clean and maintain the piece could be better, and the structural integrity of the product can typically hold up longer when used more often or to support different weights and needs with ease. 

Depending on your budget and how you decide to allocate those funds to your design project a good rule of thumb is to look at the needs and functions of the design and determine what is the most important and those more important factors may require more of the budget. Areas that are less important may be the areas to save money and be more conservative with the budget.

When designing a space that can grow with you take into consideration where you are at now and possibly how long you want to stay in your home. Are you young and eventually want kids, but probably will not live there until you retire? Or is it going to be your forever home? Look for the opportunities to plan for the life you want in that space, so it has the chance to grow with you over time. 

We offer services to assist you with determining your needs for now and down the road to make your home live with you through all your stages of life. Reach out to us to help you get started!

Until next time,
Kelly