3 DC-Location Households With Stylish Getting old-in-Area Layout Updates

Outfitting a residence with aging-in-place updates doesn’t have to be a scientific procedure. Below are a few initiatives that establish available style and design isn’t just practical—it can be thrilling, far too.

 

All Obtainable, All Fashion

The proprietors of this 1958 midcentury-­modern household in Chevy Chase preferred it to be their eternally residence, so they enlisted TeassWarren Architects to make it a far better place to age. “We saved the roofline and structure, but for all intents and reasons, it is essentially a new dwelling on the inside of,” states principal Charles Warren, who led the renovation.

Priority one: earning the dwelling much easier to traverse in anticipation of foreseeable future mobility issues. Creating a substantial primary suite on the primary level and expanding the hallways served, as did creating adjustments to the major bathroom. The staff added a zero-threshold shower that enables for wheelchair obtain, opting for a blue subway tile from Tile Bar that continues driving the wooden double vanity, which is a nod to the home’s midcentury roots. And simply because these kinds of curbless moist rooms are a preferred design and style craze, the all round look does not scream “aging in spot.” Other attributes contain an ADA-compliant bathroom and a good shower that can flip on with an application.

Warren stresses that home owners concerned about long run accessibility really don’t need to wait around or established apart a massive spending plan to take anticipatory measures: “Universal style elements like putting in lever handles, which are less difficult to grasp than doorknobs, and including wooden blocking for foreseeable future get bars are fairly reduced-hanging fruit.”

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Going Up

A couple living in a conventional-design residence in Northwest DC’s Kent neighborhood took a whimsical solution to their growing old-in-area additions. The partner has stability concerns, and they’d currently affixed double railings to the stairs, but that was not enough. They needed an elevator, which would enable them move properly involving flooring and lug in groceries and suitcases.

To household the elevator, which necessary a shaft at least 30 feet tall, the crew at InSite Builders & Reworking built a two-tale enlargement at the home’s rear. The addition also accommodates a new entrance hall for the owners’ present suite upstairs and an business office on the principal level.

Interior designer Adele McDonald developed a cheerful workspace with cranberry-­hued household furniture and vibrant crimson partitions painted in Benjamin Moore’s “Drop Lifeless Magnificent.” The walnut desk has place for a wheelchair to sooner or later in good shape beneath it. The canine-loving few took a cue from the vivid business office and outfitted the adjoining elevator in a Spoonflower wallpaper that depicts line drawings of colourful canines. “They have been on the lookout for one thing whimsical and entertaining to usually lighten up a significant, purposeful space,” claims Stephen Gordon, InSite’s president. “You cannot aid but chuckle when you go within for a experience.”

 

From Colonial to Modern

An older Bethesda few cherished their community so significantly, they did not want to leave. The trouble: The hillside assets had a dramatic quality, and its steep driveway turned treacherous come winter season. The 1960s center-corridor Colonial also experienced several exterior and inside ways, with a next-ground key bedroom—not so great for a couple moving into their golden decades. Razing the Colonial created an option to create a present-day-fashion house extra in action with both of those their altering desires and their preferences.

Today, the previous house’s choppy format and modest windows have been replaced by a streamlined house with flooring-to-ceiling windows. (The rear facade is mostly glass.) This new glance serves each style and design and accessibility: The open flooring plan and obvious sightlines—hallmarks of modern design—are fantastic for getting old purchasers, states Kube Architecture principal Janet Bloomberg, who helmed the project. “Aside from actual physical entry remaining much less difficult, the simple fact that you can visually see everything and know what’s occurring in other rooms is valuable as you get more mature,” she says. “[That] can present peace of head.”

Other adjustments incorporated regrading the home at the garage, entryway, and backyard and widening all interior pathways. The group also framed out a closet for a potential elevator and set up automation units so the temperature, stereo, shades, and lights can be managed by using buttons. And Bloomberg placed the owners’ suite on the major amount, reserving the second tale for traveling to young ones and achievable grandchildren.

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This report appears in the March 2023 challenge of Washingtonian.