Universal Design Features
Ten Universal Design Features that Make Big Impact
While Universal Design is a beautiful theory, the concept really shines in its implementation in homes. This is where theory meets your daily life and can make an impact that is felt across generations and throughout the community. There are countless ways to implement the ideas represented by Universal Design, but here are a few of our favorites that make a big impact.
Let’s take you on a Behind the Walls tour.
Seamless Home Entries & Wide Doorways
All of our doorways and hallways are wider. This increases comfort and adds access for a variety of people and tasks. While many homes have “for show” front entry stairs, all our homes have at least one no-stair entry. This is often from the garage and porches. When considering entrance into your home, consider how you and your guests will be using the home. Most front doors go un used, but most backyards are entertaining havens and most enter your home through the garage or courtyard. When there are no steps, many guests and homeowners won’t notice. That is what makes this accessibility feature seamless, but what makes it priceless is the fact that anyone you wish to invite over can enter your home without additional supports. This can be a huge positive for so many of our community, including those in wheelchairs, walkers, using strollers. It is also great for moving furniture, taking deliveries, walking dogs. Honestly, it’s a great convenience feature for your whole family, and anyone coming to your home for any reason.
Beneath your Feet: This is what the elevator pit looks like, beneath the cart and flooring. It is concrete and designed to hold the weight and pressure of the motion.
Above your Head: Behind the drywall in the ceiling, there is spray foam insulation and can light boxes. This ensures effecient heating and cooling year round.
Effortless Elevator Access
Elevators allow for access to the entire home, even when spread across multiple floors. All our homes have the ability to have elevators added at the time of construction or at a later date. Planning during construction for an elevator saves tens of thousands later if you chose to add an elevator to your home. Stacking closets, and adding a pit and blocking, is one way to plan ahead, even if you aren’t wanting to install an elevator now. Elevators are great, not only for access for homeowners and users, but also for moving stacks or books, holiday décor, or other things that would cause hazards or inconvenience by moving via stairs. While Ranch style homes may be the gold standard for accessible living, often multiple stories are desired or needed for style or space. Allowing for less foundation, and a smaller footprint, multistory homes are able to use their investment inside and outside the home, and installing or planning for an elevator maintains the ability to keep the entire home accessible over time.
Feature: Elevator. This is how the shaft of the elevator looks behind the walls. Notice the blocking that holds the weight of the cart. This space can be made into stacked closets, to plan for a future elevator install, if desired.
Flush Thresholds Transitions on Flooring
Flush transitions create a smooth, trip-free experience of your home. When you transition from room to room, and inside to outside without any stairs and without any bumps or thresholds, your home feels all connected. You may not always notice this feature, but if you’ve ever tripped on a threshold or hit your toe, you’ll love never knowing what it’s like to do that again. Seamless features are wonderful in adding a sense of luxury and support within your home. Not only are these transitions safer, but they are also more beautiful as they don’t draw attention to a seam or boring detail like moving from hardwood flooring to tile flooring. We utilize flush transitions wherever possible.
Feature: Barrier Free Shower. Notice the blocking (extra horizontal wood installed) all around the shower stall and walls of the bathroom. These allow for sturdy future installs into the wall, from additional bath hardware to grab bars. The little foam barrier in front of the drain is present for inspections and will be removed prior to tile and grout. The pan used here is a patented single unit, gently sloped towards the drain for maximum efficiency and comfort.
Spacious Bathrooms and Thoughtful Showers
Bathrooms are often the first things people think about when they think about accessibility in residential homes. And, for good reason. Bathrooms are often where the highest number of accidents occur due to lack of thought in design. Slippery surfaces and close quarters are often the issues, but with Universal Design principles in mind your bathroom can be both safe and a gorgeous sanctuary. With barrier free showers, there is no tripping hazard. With grab bar blocking, there is planning for future stability. Added space around the commode and access to power both allow for devices, as well as bidets and other futuristic design elements for comfort and luxury. Heated flooring can increase both health benefits and joy when using your primary bathroom every day. Cabinets can also be designed for your lifestyle, and the future, with access planned for all your grooming and daily gadgets and tools. Even placement of robe hooks and towels can increase the luxury feeling of access.
Making an Entrance: This is how a custom glass door is framed in to prepare for the install towards the end of the build.
Under your Feet: This is how the framing beneath stairs looks. Note the air return being prepped and the wiring in the walls.
Well Appointed Kitchens & Task Areas
The kitchen is the heart of your home, and all your task areas are where you get things done in life. Whether you need unique lighting to be sure to see the details of your work, or you simply need space to move around. Universal Design guides us to leave room for our full motions, and have a variety of ergonomic options. Utilizing ovens and microwaves that are UD, where hot doors opening from above or with French doors, reduce back strain and minimize opportunities for burns.
Introducing multiple levels of cooking and prep spaces for seated or standing work, allows for you to change your position and increase blood circulation as well as focus, while also allowing for family members to join in as they are able and comfortable. Leaving wider walkways and areas around stoves and refrigerators allows for more than one person to cook or prep, as well as more room for brining in groceries and entertaining. Theses same principles can be applied to hobby rooms, sewing areas, woodworking, and unique Inclusive Design elements.
Room to Expand Your Electric Needs
Whether planning for a generator to keep your home powered in storms, or adding smart cars stations, it’s important to remember that adding room to grow your electrical footprint will make your life more flexible to tech changes and life’s expanding preferences over time. Maxing out your options at the start, sets yourself up for limitations in the future. Plan to evolve and to explore, plan to have more room in your electrical panels and maintain the ability to adapt and add hobbies as life shows you more possibilities over time.
Making an Entrance: This is how a custom glass door is framed in to prepare for the install towards the end of the build.
Making a View: This is how windows look during insulation. Notice the steel support beam holding the weight to protect the glass.
Behind the Cabinets: This image shows the kitchen during framing. Notice the hood vent and electrical ready for lighting.
Future Proofing Blocking
Blocking is the process of adding material behind your walls and in your ceiling that allow support for heavy or weight-bearing elements such as grab bars, heavy chandeliers, floating shelves, and hanging tools. By making more options down the road possible, you make your life that much easier to adapt to change and to accept yourself and those you love over a lifetime. Imagine being able to install needed grab bars, elevators, even extra shelving or Hoya lifts, future heavy chandeliers or fans, wall mounted TVs or Smart Home features, all without any renovation. Imagine knowing when your home was built, you were loved and taken care of in the design phase, your team planning for the unimaginable and the wonderful all at the same time.
Planned Lighting & Smart Home Integration
Once, smart homes were limited to smart lighting. We are now living in an era where there is constant innovation when it comes to smart home features, from security to electric blinds and timed lighting, the scope of smart home coverage is limitless. Planning your can light locations and to have a variety of lighting sources can add to the usability and comfort of your home, even with our “smart” add-ons. However, smart cars, electrical panel management, and hubs are all becoming more common as well. When it comes to future proofing your home, be sure to include low voltage wiring for full smart home support, even if you aren’t planning on having these features now, will help create a seamless process at any point when smart features are desired. Some smart home devices can work wirelessly, but wired features are more reliable and can absorb changes in brands more easily than wireless. All smart features can allow for Universal Design and accessible designs, both for peace of mind and comfort.
Easier Access Switches and Door Levers
Imagine flipping a light switch on while you’re carrying luggage, gently with your elbow. Imagine flipping on the lights in the dark of your laundry room without looking, while you’re focused on sorting and need to see a color better. Imagine opening your bedroom door with a single finger. Even without strictly “smart home” features, the mechanical switches and door mechanisms in your home can go a long way towards making simple daily tasks as easy and comfortable as possible, allowing you to live fully without thinking about them. That is why we use decora switches throughout our homes, and door levers on all our doors. That is, of course, unless high design desires a different approach for bespoke areas. The goal always remains: celebrate your life, the things you love doing, and making the rest fade into the backdrop.
Vaulted Ceiling: A family room with a vaulted ceiling in framing looks like this, complete with blocking ready for beams and a fireplace insert prepped.
Keeping Upkeep Easy
When designing your forever home, it is important to consider the ongoing upkeep tasks that you’ll be doing, or you’ll have done in your home. This includes vacuuming, changing filters, maintaining comfortable temperatures and humidity, dusting, changing bulbs. Things we consider for upkeep with Universal Design in mind are: low to the ground returns and HVAC unit filters. As well as Central Vac systems, with retractable hoses and centrally located toe-kicks in areas you’d likely want to sweep. We also advocate for raised receptacles, for ease of plugging in tools and traditional vacuums as needed. We also advocate for high chandeliers to have lowering mechanisms installed, to have the fixture lowered at the push of a button for changing bulbs. All of these features avoid use of ladders, reaching, or repetitive movements that can introduce risks over time in your home. If you have unique ongoing maintenance elements in your home, this would be considered with Inclusive Design to create a system designed just for you. An example of this would be a heated boat-specific hose bib and drains for washing your boat in your courtyard. The goal is to make ongoing tasks as simple and pleasurable as possible over time.
Cozy Corner: Here we see a corner of windows, complete with insulation for a quiet reading spot.
The Impact of Universal Design Features, Now and Across Generations
All of these conveniences are delightful across a lifetime, but are so deeply noticed and appreciated during any unexpected or expected time of life where anything being more convenient can mean the difference between staying at home or going to hospital or needing care. If something as simple as a light switch or some behind-the-walls blocking can make that big of a difference, we are all for it. We are the advocates for you, your needs now, and always. It is our goal to make dreams come true, while also changing lives. If you have a story about how our design work has changed your life, we’d love to hear it. Those are always our favorite calls, celebrating together what a difference thoughtful, legacy-minded design can make from the simple to the epic.