Updating your bathroom not only adds recoupable value to your home but it also improves your quality of life.  A bathroom remodel is an opportunity to have a safe and healthy space that lends pleasure to your daily routines.

The latest trends in Metro St. Louis bathroom remodeling reveal desires for accessible design that creates ease of use and a spa-like serenity that soothes the soul.

A Walk-In Shower with Bench Seating

There are so many wonderful benefits of a walk-in shower that it’s no secret why they’ve become a must-have in master bathrooms. A low-clearance entry makes it accessible to everyone of all ages, and who wouldn’t love the luxury of sitting down while showering with a hand-held shower head? These features create a relaxing experience, add sophisticated beauty to the bathroom and will accommodate walkers or wheelchairs if your abilities change in the future. Click to see how a walk-in shower looks in a master bathroom.

A Touchless Faucet and Soap Dispenser

They have become standard features in public restrooms, and now the designs have been refined for hands-free use in the home. Automatic fixtures are great for both small children and those with decreased hand mobility, and other benefits include less mess to clean up, and (with the faucets) less water used since it only runs when your hands activate it.

A Customized Showering Experience

Imagine waking up in the morning and walking into a shower already running at your perfect temperature. Your shower can become as dependable as an alarm clock with a digital control panel. They are easily programmable so that each user has push button access to their preferred temperature and water pressure. The Kohler model even coordinates music, lighting and steam for the ultimate showering experience.

A Curved Bath Tub

Would you like a bigger tub to fit in an existing space in your bathroom? That option is yours with a curved apron bathtub, which gives you 6” more width at the widest point while fitting into the same footprint. And it’s the perfect match for the curved shower rods which are now so popular.

A Trench Shower Drain

For showers with no entry curb, a trench drain is a must. They serve as the barrier between the wet and dry parts of a walk-in shower without doors, and are ADA-compliant for wheelchairs and walkers. They are also sleek, discreet and blend in with the tile, opening up new design options. Click to see a trench drain in an accessible shower within an apartment room addition.

If you’d like to add any of these exciting new features to your bathroom, work with the bathroom designers and Certified Aging In-Place Specialists at Mosby Building Arts. From floorplans to selections shopping to construction, the deep bench of Mosby experts will help you create the safe and beautiful bathroom you deserve. You can have a satisfying bathroom remodeling experience when you call Mosby at 314.909.1800 or contact them here.

50+ living in your own home is all about independent, barrier-free comfort and function.  It’s a form of accessibility that benefits all the generations of your family and friends who come into your home, which is why it is also known as Universal Design.

Remaining in your home requires thinking about how your life is currently, and what your needs might be for the future.  This is where a Certified Aging In-Place Specialist (CAPS) can assist you with the questions, designs and remodeling you will need to turn your house into a home for a lifetime.

Interior Accessible Design

A St. Louis couple had been in the same home for decades.  They had raised a family there, and their children and grandchildren all lived nearby.  Nearing retirement, they realized that they wanted to stay in their own home within the their community, but wanted to explore how to prepare the house for the years ahead.

Working with a Mosby Building Arts CAPS designer, they reviewed current needs and future concerns and decided to make the master bathroom their first mobility project because this where we tend to first notice changing capabilities.  Standing in the shower, the low height of a toilet bowl or operating the hot and cold taps on the sink becomes a bit more difficult.  There are many functional solutions to all of these issues, but it should also be attractive so that we are inspired by our surroundings.  Or as we say about all our CAPS remodeling projects: “Mobility Is Beautiful!”

To look at this bathroom, you would not immediately know that it’s accessible, but it certainly is.  The His and Hers bathroom vanities have single-lever faucet handles for ease of use, and are separated by a chair-height counter top with open space below.  This can accommodate a chair now or a wheelchair in the future.

The toilet is of taller height than average with a grab bar to the right which makes it easier to access, and comes with a push-button control pad mounted to the bathroom cabinet.

The walk-in shower has a low-clearance threshold, multiple brushed, stainless grab bars, a handheld shower wand and a retractable teak wood bench mounted to the wall.

See more photos of this accessible bathroom project.

All of these accessible master bathroom items can be used now for ease of use and security, and should there be a time when they need these features, having them already in place helps with these changes.  And at all times, it is a beautiful space that is already enhancing their lifestyle.

Exterior Accessible Design

We have a remodeling client that we’ve worked with on previous mobility projects.  She is currently vibrant and active, but is thinking ahead and prefers to be prepared.  We have moved her laundry room from the basement to a new ground floor addition off the garage, and even built new, shallow steps for easier access from the garage to the house (above).

She is also a veteran gardener with a gorgeous backyard, so we came up with designs to make her outdoor living just as accessible as indoors.  We designed and built a new patio with a lightly textured concrete surface for better traction, and a screen porch with a zero-clearance entry from the patio so that a walker or wheelchair.

Her favorite feature is the concrete ramp that takes one from the patio down into the garden.  She already enjoys how convenient the lack of steps is, which highlights how so many of the universal designs just make good sense for everyone who uses them.

See more photos of this project.

Other features that add mobility and beauty to outdoor living include increased lighting, raised flower planters and beds, raised height water spigots and wide sliding or French doors leading out to the area. When done properly, nothing looks out of the ordinary because it looks extraordinary.

Mosby Building Arts has three CAPS team members – including Scott Mosby who was the first national CAPS ambassador – who are certified and experienced at helping you live more comfortably in your home for all your days.  To explore your options for beautiful mobility, call us at 314.909.1800 or contact us here.