For many people, the idea of house adaptations brings to mind clinical-looking contraptions that make a home look more like a hospital.

When you see your home as your sanctuary, a place to live in comfort surrounded by your chosen decor, it can feel upsetting or frustrating to have to install mobility and accessibility features that will look ugly and incongruous.

If that sounds like you, don’t worry. The world of house adaptations has moved on significantly, and now you can get things that don’t just fit in with your decor – they elevate it!

House Adaptations With Style

There are so many styles of house adaptations and equipment these days that you’ll be hard-pushed not to find something that looks brilliant in your spaces. 

The Kitchen

For many families, the kitchen is the hub of the home. From cooking and eating to chats over coffee, from welcoming guests to enjoying breakfast in the early hours, this room can get a lot of foot traffic! 

Thankfully, installing modern house adaptations in the kitchen doesn’t mean you end up with something resembling a catering kitchen. Your hub will stay homely.

Worktops

Many kitchen surfaces need to be lowered to be comfortably accessed. Optimising the height of worktops so that they can be reached by wheelchair users promotes independence in the kitchen. 

Rise-and-fall kitchen worktops are a solution that works well for a family household because anyone using the counter can easily adjust it to their preferred height. 

Sinks And Taps

The shallower your sink, the easier it is for the user to reach the bottom of it. This simple house adaptation can make reaching the cutlery and crockery sitting at the bottom of the sink a whole load easier for individuals with limited mobility, especially if the entire sink itself is lowered, too.

Changing taps from the usual twist function to levers, or even installing sensor taps, requires less manual dexterity and can put less strain on weaker wrists. 

The Bathroom

The bathroom is often where people feel most vulnerable as there are many risks, such as slipping or being unable to get up from a seated position.

But who wants a clinical-looking bathroom? Not very relaxing! Here are some brilliant house adaptations you can make to your bathrooms that won’t alter the feel of your home. 

Install A Level-Access Shower

Navigating the edges of baths and shower trays presents a serious trip hazard. Even the movement of stepping in or over can provide discomfort and pain for many people with a reduced range of movement. 

Walk-in or level-access showers sit at floor level, enabling the user to walk or wheel into the showering area as if it were a continuation of the floor itself. You can include a shower seat to offer a seated option when standing for long periods is too taxing, and grab rails for safe bathing, too. 

Level-access showers look like high-end regular showers, appearing sleek and modern compared to the cumbersome white-sided bath or boring boxy shower that you see in most bathrooms. 

Installing A Wet Room

Wet rooms take level-access showers one step further and feature a completely open shower combined with non-slip, waterproof flooring across the whole room. The floor itself is slightly tilted towards a drain outlet to eliminate the risk of pooling water. 

Not only are wet rooms easy to clean, but these house adaptations are incredibly stylish. They can even boost the value of your home. The demand for open-plan living has exploded over recent years, and wet rooms have a luxury, contemporary feel. You can make this room your own by choosing tiles, flooring and accessories that suit your personal taste. 

Raised Or Adjustable Height Toilet

Standard toilets demand a range of movement that can be impossible or highly uncomfortable for many people with limited mobility.  

Installing a toilet that sits at the right height for comfortable use, or one that can be adjusted by the user to suit their own needs, can provide much more freedom and independence in the bathroom.

Stylish Grab Rails

Grab rails provide confidence and stability and are an integral part of adapting any home. In the bathroom, they can be helpful near the bath and the toilet for users who require help getting up and down from seated positions.

But they don’t have to look like hospital equipment.

From wood-effect to stainless steel, and with a huge array of colours and designs to choose from, you’ll be hard-pushed not to find a high-quality grab rail that suits your beautiful bathroom. 

The Bedroom

For many people, this is where minimising the amount of medical-looking equipment is crucial. You want to be able to fully relax in your bedroom. And if you need a bed that looks more clinical than you’d like, the rest of the room can help balance that.

In some situations, you may have needed to convert a living room or other downstairs area for use as a ground-floor bedroom. Though this can feel like an upheaval, you have the opportunity to consciously create a lovely bedroom from scratch that doesn’t feel like a ward! House adaptations can be exciting to plan and execute.

Sufficient Space

The bed is the focus of this room, but making sure there is plenty of space around the bed – and other furniture – is key to a functional room where you can move freely and safely. 

Furniture

Wardrobes and dressers, like kitchen counters, can be a nightmare to access when you’re in a wheelchair or struggle with a wide range of movement. Bringing surfaces down to suitable heights and making sure any cupboards can be reached is integral to this space and gives you creative control over putting together a chic chamber of peace and tranquillity. 

Flooring

Rugs can be a trip hazard, and thick pile carpet is impossible to wheel over. On the flip side, some floors, like varnished wood, can be too slippery.

Choosing new flooring that is non-slip but practical doesn’t limit you; there are hundreds of beautiful options out there to browse, and a change of flooring can really lift a room!

Lighting

Touch lamps, sensor-controlled lights and motorised blinds are all small changes with a big impact. And they look incredible too. 

Dexterity can be a problem for individuals requiring adaptations, and these changes take the stress out of reaching and twisting to operate standard window coverings and bedside lamps. 

A Home Should Feel Like A Home

It’s understandable to be worried when you’re installing house adaptations to improve its accessibility. 

From small changes to larger adaptations and the introduction of specialist equipment, it’s normal to feel wary of changing your property. What if it doesn’t feel like home anymore? 

Don’t panic. House adaptations have come a long way from clinical hospital equipment, and many look like luxury features befitting a boutique hotel!

Are you doing your homework for future house adaptations? Bamboozled by the different types of ramps and various choices of home lifts? Wondering what you should tick off the list first? We’re here to help. Check out our website today.