I’m always on the look out for beautiful products that can be used for accessible design or aging-in-place.
Manufacturers are making big strides in offering grab bars and plumbing fixtures that are desirable not only for accessible design but for their looks and style.
Here are two new vendors / products I found this year at KBIS 2019.
Grab Bars for safety
This company, Ponte Giulio, specializes in universal design products. They are made in Italy.
Their sleek grab bars can be done in lots of different colors and even patterns like wood grain. Who would have ever thought that a grab bar might become a real design feature in the bathroom?
They have items like small shelves and baskets for bath products that can attach to their grab bars.
As someone who tried to put together something similar to this for my mother’s shower in her assisted living home, I can tell you, this is a much safer product.
My sister and I gave up trying to assemble it. We knew if she ever grabbed it, which is what people do when they start to fall (they grab anything within reach) it would collapse and so would she!
Accessories on a properly installed grab bar, however, would be most useful.
They make beautiful folding shower seats and grab bars. These take up to 350 lbs.
Safety Sinks - Barrier Free Solutions
I also found these handy sinks, below, from VR2 Barrier-Free Solutions out of Scottsdale, Arizona.
They have plenty of legroom for wheelchair access, grips and cutouts for aiding with pulling up to the sink and keeping towels close and a nice flat surface area to keep bath products within reach.
These are all a standard depth of 21 3/4”. The hand sprayer is a good idea for people with limited mobility as it can aid with sink hair washing, etc.
This sink below has an integrated grab bar in the apron front of the sink. It makes it easy to grab and pull up to the sink when in a wheelchair. These sinks can take 330 lbs of weight.
Believe me, this is such a sleek, beautifully effective design.
My mother, who was recently moved to an assisted living facility and has a “barrier free” sink, would LOVE to have something like this.
As it is, there is no place to set even a soap bottle hardly, much less any other products. The towel is hung way out of reach on the wall up by the mirror and there is no grab bar type element to help with maneuvering up to the sink and around it.
Check out their website and see a typical barrier free sink pictured next to theirs. My mother’s is just like the one they have featured.
I’m truly impressed by these products and so happy to have found them so I can share with you.
I’ll be sharing more from KBIS 2019 in upcoming posts this month. Subscribe below to see what else I found for you!