Creating an Elderly-friendly Living Space: An Interior Designing Guide

Designing a home that accommodates the needs and preferences of elderly people is very crucial when we work towards their happy living. This can involve making major to very minor modifications to a home and make it much safer cum accessible. There are many soft aspects to this process and we at home durables are beginning by listing a few major points here:

Safety and accessibility: Safety is the top most priority when we visualise a home for senior citizens. It is very often that we get to hear about elders falling in bathroom and suffering major accidental injuries. Life is hardly the same after any major mishaps in sunset years. Falling due to low lights in certain areas of the home or uneven surfaces is a very unfortunate yet common. It is important to we make sure that homes are customised properly to be friendly. Some important points are:

• Having attached bathrooms with non-slip flooring to avoid falls
• No uneven flooring or other tripping hazards
• Easy to use door handles across the premises and grab bars in toilets for support
• Having wide open doorways that a wheelchair or walker can pass easily
• Having elevator or ramps for easily climb up-down

Easy on maintenance: A home that is easy on maintenance eases away cumbersome daily routines and supports a better living. One can easily make this happen by making very small changes such as:

• Have a low maintenance flooring that is easy to swipe and clean
• Easy to use kitchens and utility areas with clear workspace
• Modular cabinets and wardrobes so that elders don’t have to climb-up or insert themselves for accessing necessary belongings    

Socialisation and comfort: Spending quality time with family, friends and neighbours is a great uplifting for all of us and it is more so for our elders. Having more time for it is a luxury that we hardly get during our active professional career. But life does award us with it during retirement years. To make most of it, below are a few basic point to keep in mind:

• Home should be provided with spaces such as a comfortable living room and outdoor balconies.
• Provision basic facilities for socialization, meditation, yoga and other physical activities  
• Set up a library and enable it with audio, videos facilities

Knowing the preferences of elders and their caregivers is very crucial in the process. After all, one must understand that designing a home that adds to the life of our elders is a very soft subject and ability to relate/visualize is the key.

This is our first article in the series of “Elderly-friendly Living Space”. We are working on our next write up and would highlight the uses of home automation in the initiative.