Personalizing Your Ideal Home for Accessibility

When you choose to custom build a new home in one of our Ideal neighborhoods, some floor plans offer various floor plan options, such as turning a bedroom into a study, or vice versa. However, some floor plans have even more options when you wish to make your home accessible to someone with mobility concerns. 

Accessible floor plans and homes are a perfect option for adults or children who have limited mobility, but it's also a great consideration for someone who is interested in aging in place.

At the Ideal Design Studio, Melody Richardson and her team of designers help customers select every part of their new Ideal home.

“More and more, people are moving their parents in and want them to age in place, or our customers are empty nesters who’ve downsized and have determined this will be their final home until they’re unable to live without assistance,” Melody said.

While Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods can’t certify homes as ADA compliant, our team at the Ideal Design Studio can help you make design decisions that support accessibility and aging in place.

Step 1: It starts with the floor plan 

Before customers ever visit the Ideal Design Studio, they’ll work with a New Home Consultant to choose their homesite, floor plan, and elevation. This is the first step in making accessibility-focused choices.

“Some floor plans are more conducive to accessible living. Our New Home Consultants can work with customers to help them pick the best option,” explained Melody.

Considerations when looking for an accessible homesite and floor plan: 

• Find a homesite without significant inclines to avoid multiple stairs to enter.
• Open-concept floor plans work best because the kitchen is easy to maneuver through and there are fewer narrow hallways.
• Look for plans with bathrooms that are large enough for wheelchair access.

Step 2: The Exterior

When customers come to the Ideal Design Studio for their design consultation, they make all the design and personalization decisions for the house, inside and out.

The first stop is to discuss the Exterior. This is where they choose everything from bricks, to street number styles, to roof shingles. It’s also where some of the most important personalizations for accessibility begin. 

“This is where we’ll determine if there are any steps leading to exterior doors or the front porch, and we’ll change them to ramps, if possible. We’ll also look at the floor plan as a whole and determine if any interior doors can be widened,” Melody said.

Step 3: Electricity

The design team also reviews the floor plan room by room to determine electrical needs. Many customers add extra outlets outside for security systems or holiday lights, but accessibility-minded homeowners often have different priorities.

Examples of accessibility-related electrical choices:

• Interior outlets: Do power outlets need to be moved up to a more convenient height?
• Wiring: Does the customer need various rooms to be wired to support LED flashing-light doorbells for the hearing impaired?  

Step 4: Bathrooms

Bathrooms are one of the most important spaces when thinking about accessibility. 

“In the bathrooms, we’re thinking mainly about two things: access and safety,” Melody said. 

Access:

• Opting for a shower with a zero threshold entry instead of a bath, where possible.
• Converting to handheld or an adjustable-height shower head if needed.
• Modifying the height or design of the bathroom vanity when possible.
• Selecting door handles instead of door knobs in the bathroom and throughout the house.

Safety:

• Ideal can install wall-mounted grab bars.
• Selecting a comfort-height toilet.
• Choosing flooring suited to your needs. (Do you need something smooth for a wheelchair or something with more grip to help prevent falls? 

Step 5: Flooring 

In evidence of just how many times Melody and her team have helped customers customize their new  homes for aging family members, she took us to the flooring section and pulled out three sets of similar-colored wood flooring in laminate hardwood, engineered hardwood, and wood-look tile.

“First, we recommend all solid-surface flooring. Beyond that, we help customers choose based on the type of mobility assistance they anticipate,” Melody explained.

For wheelchairs: Melody recommends wood-look tile. Wheelchairs create more wear and tear on flooring because most of the weight is centered at single points along the bottom of the wheels and isn’t dispersed.

For walkers: Melody recommends as few flooring transitions as possible between rooms to prevent tripping hazards.

Personalizing for accessibility

Melody shared her favorite part of working with customers at the Ideal Design Studio: “As we help them personalize their home, I get to learn the why behind their choices.”

And for our customers whose choices involve accessibility, Melody and her team are here to help.

Whether you need to personalize your new Ideal Home with accessibility in mind or not, you can feel confident that you’re in good hands as soon as you enter the Ideal Design Studio.