Aging in Place Home Design

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Aging in Place Home Design Specialists

At 42º North, we’re proud to be certified aging-in-place specialists (CAPS). Discover more about our aging-in-place home design services and how they help homeowners stay independent for decades to come.

Our Approach to Aging in Place Remodeling

We want to enable you to stay in your own home as you get older and your needs change. Here’s what this key bit of planning for the future looks like regarding the design of the house itself.

Adapting Your Home for Independent Living

One of the core principles of home design that most aging-in-place services follow is keeping your current house as accessible as possible. We do this so you can continue living in your home for as long as possible. While some changes to the home may require more remodeling work than others, we pride ourselves on being able to preserve what you love most about your home while making it safer for everyone.

Floor Plans for Aging in Place

One of the most practical ways we can adapt your home for aging in place is by designing your home so it’s as accessible to use as possible while your needs change. Here are just some of the ways we might adapt the floor plan of your entire home to suit your needs:

Widening doorways and hallways
Adding ramps or installing entrances that are flat to the ground
Adapting your home for full amenities on the ground floor
Installing stair lifts or other accessibility features for multi-floor homes

Aging in Place Bathroom Design

For adults over 65, the majority of serious falls at home occur in the bathroom. In turn, adapting your bathroom’s design and features for aging in place is particularly important for preventing injury and protecting yourself. Aging-in-place bathroom design changes can generally be broken down into a few different parts, corresponding to different parts of your bathroom:

Bathtubs: We’re proud to design bathtub areas for safety with walk-in layouts, along with grab bars, bracing, and more space to safely maneuver within the tub itself.
Showers: In addition to installing shower benches and handheld shower heads, we can also include low- or no-curb shower surrounds, widened doorways, and other features to improve safety and accessibility.
Sinks: Wall-mounted sinks and vanities offer lower-level clearance for people who use mobility aids. Even more, touch- or motion-activated bathroom faucets make the sink easier to use at every age.
Toilets: We frequently recommend higher toilet designs to make sitting and standing more manageable, along with braces and grab bars within reaching distance.
Counters: Lower cabinets on bathroom counters can be challenging to reach with limited mobility, so we typically recommend pull-out drawers for easier access near the sink.
Other features: Additional lighting and occupancy sensors can make it easier to use the bathroom without worrying about not being able to see unexpectedly.

Kitchens for Aging in Place

Much like bathrooms, kitchens are also hotspots for injuries in the home. These are just a few features we can use to adapt this high-traffic area for aging in place:

Installing shorter countertops with rounded corners
Adding no-slip floors, including beautiful hardwood options
Widening doorways and work areas within the kitchen
Designing for automatic shutoff appliances like ovens and stoves.

Our Process for Aging in Place Remodeling

Not sure what to expect when you choose to work with an aging-in-place design specialist from 42º North? Here’s a breakdown of the steps you can expect:

Connect with us

We want to know more about you before we start adapting your home. Expect to sit for a coffee or lunch with us so we can get to know each other and start asking questions about the layout and ergonomics of your current home, and needs you might anticipate having in the future.

Tell us about your needs

Listening is our best skill, even more than redesigning houses. We’ll spend a lot of time asking and learning about your current space, both through our questionnaires and observations as we spend time with you. We also want to hear what you love (and hate) about your home and any other spaces you’ve used in the past—even hotels or other people’s houses.

Give us a tour

Whether you’re having us adapt only part of your home or redoing the entire layout, we want to see how you use the space for ourselves. This gives us a chance to see the ergonomics, spatial relations, and scale of the room in action, while also allowing us to develop possible quality-of-life adjustments that supplement what we’ll do to help you and your family members age in place safely.

Watch us work

We’ll use the latest architectural CAD software to give you an exact visual of what your custom home renovations will look like, down to the textures on the flooring and drapery, the placement of bracing and grab bars, and more.

Make us your construction consultant

We’re not going to drop off the face of the earth after we get final approval on your aging-in-place redesign! Expect us to stick around to make sure this project exceeds your expectations—we’re in it until you’re able to walk in and see the final product for yourself.

Certified Aging in Place Specialists in Michigan

Our team of home designers includes Certified Aging-in-Place Specialists (CAPS). This means that they have received training from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) to help seniors remodel and redesign their homes if they wish to age in place.

We have extensive experience in adapting your house for safety, accessibility, and comfort, so you can live your life in the home you’ve made for yourself. We’ve been working with senior citizens and their families to make their homes more livable with age for years.

What Makes Us Different

We got our start in architectural home design—meaning we can help you make your home accessible and keep it beautiful. However, even though we have decades of experience redesigning all different parts of the home, we care first and foremost about building in your best interest.

Unlike most traditional architects or remodelers, who might sketch right in front of you, we like to provide a little more substance. That’s why we’re more interested in getting to know how you live than using baseless showmanship in our first meetings with you—so we can adapt your home to meet your current and future needs for the years ahead.

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