Creating a safe and stylish home for seniors can often be challenging. While you need furnishings and setups put in place to keep your loved ones safe, you also want to make it a stylish home that they can enjoy for many more years to come.
Getting the balance right is important, which is why you should approach your home decor with careful consideration. With that being said, here’s an ultimate guide to creating a safe and stylish home for seniors.
Install handrails inside and out
For ease of stepping into the home or out of the bath, handrails can be incredibly helpful. They provide assistance that some senior folk might not have realized was needed until recently. It’s very much the case that we are as young as we feel but our bodies will often feel differently about that outlook.
Installing handrails on walls in the bathroom to having a ramp and rail setup for entry and exits is helpful to mitigate the risks of trips and falls as you get older. It also enables the senior person to live in their home independently for longer because they’ve adapted the property to suit them as they age.
Look into fall detection devices
Talking of trips and falls, we want to be cautious about how our senior family members are navigating the home as safely as possible. While we can put in a lot of preventative measures such as non-slip mats and stair lifts, there will always be dangers present.
Therefore, it’s important to look at the option of seniors fall detection devices where possible. There are many options to choose from so the one you pick might depend on what needs the senior person has.
However, they can be a great aid for getting help to them fast, whether they’ve had a fall or they feel like they’re in danger and need emergency assistance.
Have easy-to-reach storage solutions and appliances
As we get older, we often struggle to bend down or reach up for things around the home. That’s why it’s good to adapt the home in order to make living easier, rather than more difficult.
Easy-to-reach storage solutions through kitchen modifications is useful because a lot of time is spent in making food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. With storage that’s easier to reach, it eliminates the need for any excessive stretching or bending.
Consider how you can adapt the appliances around the home too. This could be to install lever-style faucets instead of ones you need to twist left or right to switch off. Appliances that are more accessible to control, will certainly help to make navigating the spaces easier.
Invest in new beds and seating
To help with the challenge that often comes with getting out of bed in the morning or sitting up from a low-level couch, it’s a good thing to look at the current situation with the beds and seating that they have.
A lot of beds will likely be higher than normal, especially when you add the mattress and anything else on top of the mattress. The height can make it difficult for your loved ones to get off and on the bed safely. That’s why it’s worth replacing any high beds with a lower one, or one that doesn’t go much up from the ground.
When it comes to seating, you can get armchairs in particular that are remote-operated to help them stand up, rather than needing to push themselves off to get up.
Replace carpets with non-slip flooring and secure loose rugs
To help create a safe space that’s also stylish, consider replacing any carpets with the best non-slip flooring available. This is a great way to ensure no one is going to fumble or trip over loose carpeting.
Rugs need to be secured properly to the ground, especially as they can cause tripping hazards as a result. If you want to avoid the problem altogether, just remove the rug.
Improve lighting around low-lit areas
In every home, there’s likely to be a space that’s low-lit and this is often the staircase. That’s where you want to put in preventative measures that will mitigate the risk of any falls. Improving the lighting around places like this, whether you add in wall lights or put removable lights at the bottom and top of the staircase to guide them up and down in the night.
A senior’s home can still look and feel stylish but have that level of security and safety needed for them to stay healthy.
