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They’re often called aging-in-place features, but things like curbless showers, nonslip flooring and wide walkways and doorways can benefit everyone, no matter their age or ability. “Regardless of aging in place, there is a place for these in day-to-day life, whether it be a teenager on crutches, a family member having had surgery, active kids etc.,” designer Dana Bass says. “It’s not just about aging in place. We’ve got to account for unplanned life emergencies.”
Designer Tammy Battistessa of Ellaire Kitchen & Bath Design agrees. “Whenever possible, I include aging-in-place and universal design features in every project, as I believe many of these features benefit clients of all ages and abilities, in addition to allowing a client to safely remain in their home for a longer period of time,” she says.
Creating a home that can adapt also makes it more sustainable. “Aging in place is a key element to making legacy homes that can evolve over time,” architect Tim Barber says. With all that in mind, we asked more than 50 home design and construction professionals to share the aging-in-place features they always recommend. Here are the 10 that came up again and again.
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“A wood-burning fire pit is the old-school way to go, with crackling wood, the hypnotic smell of smoke and as much heat as you can handle,” Langhorne says. Gas fire pits offer the convenience of just turning a knob to start or adjust the flame and create no ashes, soot or smoke, he says. Unlike wood fire pits, however, they require a gas line or fuel tank.
Portable fire pits can be easily added to most outdoor spaces, coming in many sizes and costing less than a permanent installation. “They’re relatively inexpensive, easy to relocate, require minimal cleanup and have little or no smoke to deal with,” Langhorne says.
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From the softest sage to the deepest forest hue, green is having a big moment in design these days. “Green is a great color for a room because it evokes a sense of calm, balance and renewal,” says Susan McBarnet, a designer in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s often associated with nature, which can help us feel more grounded and less overstimulated.” Take a look at 10 scrumptious green hues Houzz professionals have used on a wide variety of projects and see if any of them are a good match for your home.
1. Suffield Green by Farrow & Ball
Designer Kelsey Haywood of Haywoodmade Interiors had so much confidence in Suffield Green by Farrow & Ball that she drenched this Chicago sunroom in it. The color covers the walls, the trim and the ceiling.
“The way this color plays with the light throughout the day makes it a cheerful and yet very sophisticated green,” Haywood says. “It plays well with neutrals and brass.” The bold move of color drenching paid off. “This is one of my favorite sunrooms that we have done,” Haywood says.
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2. Forest Green by Benjamin Moore
Interior designer Daniella Villamil used a range of beautiful green paint colors throughout this art-filled Las Vegas condo. The luxe deep green on the kitchen cabinets seen here was one to which she’d given the ultimate testing and endorsement — she’d used it in her own home.
“My clients had fallen in love with this color green when they saw photos of my own kitchen,” Villamil says. “They knew they wanted something similar in their own kitchen.” The color complements the palm fronds seen outside the kitchen’s large windows and glass balcony door.
3. Flora by Benjamin Moore
During an extensive remodel completed by Craftsman Design and Renovation, homeowners Claudia Thornton and Brian Halpin chose their own paint colors. A wall of north-facing windows in their Portland, Oregon, kitchen floods the room with indirect natural light and inspired the choice of Benjamin Moore’s Flora for the cabinetry.
“This color reflects the north light that pours into the kitchen and offers such a calm welcome to the space,” Thornton says. “And the kitchen has a big wall of windows facing north, so the colors never have sunshine on them, but lots of light reflected.” Flora also works beautifully with the original architectural details of the 1916 Craftsman home. “The kitchen is the heart of our home,” Thornton says.
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4. Saybrook Sage by Benjamin Moore
These Boston-area homeowners wanted to bring historic character and visual interest into their cookie-cutter 1990s Colonial-style home. Designer Jessica Caccamo of JL Caccamo Design set the tone for the kitchen’s palette with Benjamin Moore’s Saybrook Sage.
“Saybrook Sage is a color we come back to frequently,” she says. “It’s a warm, soft green that can be a chameleon in any room. Here, we paired it with a neutral backsplash that featured natural variation in color and subtle texture for visual interest. We also love the contrast with the dark countertops.”
Saybrook Sage also looks great on walls. In this French country bedroom remodeled by Konrady & Son Construction, the color provides soothing comfort. The sage tone plays beautifully off the wood door and mantel.
5. Olympic Range by Sherwin-Williams
This Seattle remodel incorporated two wide glass walls, so consideration of the light was an important part in choosing the right shade of green for the kitchen. Other factors in the decision were cohesion with the Victorian-era architecture and the rosy glow of the polished fir floors.
“That light reflecting off of bright-colored cabinets might have made the room uncomfortably bright, leading us to explore darker color options,” says Malcom Richardson of Board & Vellum. “That hint of rose [from the flooring] is complemented by greens. With this in mind, we selected a rich jewel green that strengthens the home’s Victorian aesthetic and evokes a natural, serene feeling, linking the kitchen to the garden just outside.”
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6. Green Hydrangea by Benjamin Moore
In the same Victorian-era house seen in the previous photo, interior designer Abbas Rachaman of Board & Vellum knew that continuing the color green into the powder room would help connect the two spaces. However, he was looking to rev it up, and his clients were on board.
“We called this powder room ‘The Jewelbox,’ and we wanted to do something special,” the designer says. “It was all up to what would go with the wallpaper. Because we wanted to do something that was a pop and a surprise, we really leaned into the chartreuse. This color truly makes it such a nice surprise.”
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7. Peale Green by Benjamin Moore
Madison Jackson, lead designer at Lee Kimball, knew her Boston-area clients were excited to do something fun and bold in their game room. A saturated color was just the thing to kick it off.
“Benjamin Moore’s Peale Green felt like it hit the mark of giving the space a presence that drew you in but still felt cozy and not over the top,” Jackson says. “It paired really well with the contrasting saddle leather tones and the more analogous blue-greens in the rug and pillows.”
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8. Mediterranean Teal by Benjamin Moore
Caccamo selected Benjamin Moore’s Mediterranean Teal for this Tucson, Arizona, reading nook. “We were so happy that our client took the leap of faith to paint the entire primary living space this deep blue-green,” she says. “People often think that a darker or saturated color will make the room dark, but it is rarely the case.”
The room gets lots of bright natural Sonoran Desert light. “This color takes a big, cavernous room and makes it feel cozy,” Caccamo says. “It serves as a great backdrop for art, plants and decor.”
9. Yeabridge Green by Farrow & Ball
McBarnet, of Wild Child, specializes in playrooms. When she chose Yeabridge Green by Farrow & Ball for this room, she was thinking of the qualities it would offer not only to the young children who live here, but also to their parents.
“We loved this fresh, clean, midtone green for our clients’ playroom because it brings a sense of calm to the space,” she says. “It helps the whole family feel more grounded without taking away from the energy and fun of the room. In a space that’s all about creativity, movement and play, green provides a soothing backdrop that supports focus and emotional regulation while still feeling fresh and fun.”
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10. Grenadier Pond by Benjamin Moore
In this San Francisco Bay Area home, interior designer Ann Lowengart mixed a lively and bold wallpaper pattern with Benjamin Moore’s Grenadier Pond, a soft and calming green, on the laundry room cabinetry. The result is a pleasing balance.
“This color is energizing and calming at the same time,” the designer says. “It’s a natural sagey green but saturated enough to bring life into this space.”
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2. Mistake: Settling for Inferior Hardware
Good-quality accessories and hardware, such as pullout corner units, drawer dividers, and soft-close runners and door hinges, often get excluded from kitchen designs due to budget constraints. But this can be a false economy in the long run as features such as these can make a big difference to your kitchen, boosting its storage potential and making the space far more pleasant to use.
These features do add to the overall cost of a new kitchen, but they’re worth the extra outlay, particularly if you’re an enthusiastic cook.
Solution: Know your options. Ask your kitchen designer about all the storage and hardware options available so you can make a fully informed choice.
If you don’t specify exactly what you want, you may end up with less than ideal hardware and storage solutions, which can be a missed opportunity — think a setup that consists of more cupboards than drawers, drawers without inserts and no soft-closing hardware. If budget is a concern, focus on those features that you feel will make the most difference to your experience of the kitchen.
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4. Recycled Options
Reusing materials that have proven they can handle difficult conditions — such as stone, concrete and brick —combines resiliency with sustainability. You also can look for composites made from recycled materials. These cut down on waste and reliance on landfills. You’ll often see these materials used for decking and edging as well as other hardscape features. “There are companies that use recycled plastic, such as grocery bags, for fences and benches,” Vogt says. Products made from recycled materials have become much more natural-looking in recent years, and can be lower-maintenance and longer-lasting than natural wood.
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2. Gorgeous Countertops
Counters help define your outdoor kitchen’s style. “Choose a stone [or other material] that ties the whole look together or provides a fun accent,” says Kara Gorski of Landed in Alexandria, Virginia.
Practical considerations. Add plenty of countertop area around the grill. “No matter how small an outdoor kitchen is, it needs to have adequate counter space,” says landscape designer Deborah Gliksman of Urban Oasis Landscape Design in Los Angeles. Douglass recommends leaving enough room for utensils as well as your cooked and uncooked food.
New York-based landscape designer Todd Haiman says you’ll probably need to seal the countertop when it’s installed and then reseal it every few years. “Fats from cooking as well as staining from metals left on top of it can stain it, and the elements can take their toll,” he says.
Finally, make good use of the cabinetry the counters sit on. It’s a prime space for storage as well as other amenities, such as an undercounter refrigerator.
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Jeff True, Hursthouse Landscape Architects and Contractors, Bolingbrook, Illinois
Chicago is known for its brutally cold winters and hot, dry summers. “Just a few hours north and south of here is a very different climate,” says Jeff True.
Turn to native hardwoods. True says that native hardwood trees can handle weather extremes and are often his starting points. These include several maples, such as red maple (Acer rubrum, zones 3 to 9), sugar maple (A. saccharum, zones 3 to 8; shown here), silver maple (A. saccharinum, zones 3 to 9) and Freeman’s maple (A. x. freemanii, zones 5 to 8).
Native white oak (Quercus alba, zones 3 to 9), which is the state tree of Illinois, is also a tried-and-true favorite, as are swamp white oak (Q. bicolor, zones 3 to 8), Chinquapin oak (Q. muehlenbergii, zones 5 to 7) and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata, zones 4 to 8). “I personally love Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus, zones 3 to 8) and hackberry (Celtis occidentalis, zones 2 to 9),” True says.
He adds that the new elm varieties resistant to Dutch elm disease, such as Triumph elm (Ulmus ‘Morton Glossy’, zones 4 to 7), are fast-growing, allowing them to fill in spaces quickly.
8 Reasons to Plant a Great Tree
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4. Historical Preservation
Bringing a fresh look to a historical home’s landscape while still maintaining some original charm means navigating a fine line between past and present.
Challenge: Designer Sara Yant of Twistleaf was tasked with reimagining outdoor spaces in the Historic District of Fredericksburg, Texas, including for a Queen Anne Victorian mansion, a carriage house, a five-unit barn conversion and three 1930s bungalows. “We needed to create a cohesive look that would complement the different architectural styles and prioritize an intuitive circulation between the spaces,” Yant says.
There were some hiccups along the way that impacted the original plan. A long-abandoned and crumbling drainage pipe beneath the mansion’s front yard was a safety risk. Stringent watering restrictions also were implemented for the Texas Hill Country during that time.
Solution: Yant replaced the fencing and gates with period-appropriate designs. She also updated the hardscape using a mix of concrete, bricks and decomposed granite to create paths and relaxing courtyards and retreats. Removing the crumbling pipe allowed her to reinforce the surrounding ground.
She finished the space with a mix of native and adapted plants that complement the architecture of the Queen Anne Victorian home. Black and blue sage and soft leaf yucca provide seasonal interest and attract butterflies and hummingbirds. American beautyberries (Callicarpa americana, USDA zones 6 to 10; find your zone), dwarf palmetto palms (Sabal minor, zones 7 to 10), aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, zones 3 to 9) and inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium, zones 3 to 8) define the restorative green retreat by the bungalows.
“We also reduced the amount of lawn in the original design and replaced several areas [including the space shown here], with Leavenworth’s sedge (Carex leavenworthii, zones 6 to 9) as a water-conscious solution,” Yant says.
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Time-Saving Templates
“Using templates is one of the best time-saving techniques I’ve used in my various businesses over the years,” says contractor Travis Logan of Handyman Rescue Team in Seattle.
“I first started using templates, or scripts, in my early sales career after college,” he says. “By using proven sales scripts and rebuttals, I could quickly and easily replicate the success of those who came before me, since they were fine-tuned and honed over the years through actual customer interactions.
“Now, having templates ready to go eliminates the need to type out individual responses, since we have established wording and scripts for new-customer replies, existing-customer follow-ups and post-project review requests,” Logan says.
“This frees up time to spend on other critical administrative, operational or managerial tasks.”
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“We also look for people that want to learn and grow and who will thrive within a team environment,” he says. “If a team member is a professional communicator and understands that serving each other is how we best serve our clients, they are Hursthouse material.”
Some skills are harder to find than others, True says. “One is a work ethic of truly caring about the desired result. The balance between an extremely high level of creativity, a terrific communicator and a focused determination to excel at the highest level of client service is a rare find.
“On one hand, I feel it’s getting harder to find special people, as there [seem to] be less people entering the industry,” he says. “On the other hand, people are changing companies more often, so [in some ways] it might be a bit easier. If a company doesn’t take good care of its people, they will have a revolving door — and that’s an opportunity for Hursthouse.
“Our average seniority for team members at Hursthouse is now 13 years, with many over 20, 25 and 30 years,” True says. “We try to have our team sing about how great it is to work at Hursthouse.”