02 Apr Person with disability compliant bathroom

Our brief was to create a person with disability compliant bathroom that didn’t look like something out of a nursing home – and here’s how we did it!

The vanity was a key component of the design:

We wanted to be able to accommodate the owners if they needed to sit at the basin either in a wheel chair or on a push walkers seat.

I met with the clients to measure legroom and reach for the basin mixer. I then set about finding a semi-recessed basin that would protrude from the vanity unit to enable more room underneath. Once found I ordered it and had a trial fit on site to confirm access with the owners and check reach.

With these measurements I then sat down with my cabinetmaker to work out how to build the unit and more importantly to ensure it looked right.

The plan shows what we came up with. This plan then goes to the production team as well as the stone masons for the Caesar Stone top.

Did it work?

We were able to convert the existing bathroom and separate toilet into one large bathroom with a walk in shower with no ledges or lips to step over, a custom made vanity unit that allows access via a wheel chair and an easy to access toilet with privacy wall and acid etched privacy screen on top.

The large mirror over the vanity gives a sense of even more space as well as reflecting light and the view through the windows overlooking the valley below.

A heated towel rail and telescoping vanity mirror are added little luxuries.

Colour was introduced with a glass mosaic tile to the privacy wall and tied in with the same tile used in the shampoo nook and a line under the vanity mirror.

We had to widen the existing doorway into the bathroom to allow for wheel chair access. The existing doors throughout the house were custom made in the late 70’s and unable to be copied.

So, our joinery workshop was able to use the 2 doors that came out of the old bathroom and separate toilet, cut them up and join them together to make the larger door required. The result is seamless!

Great thinking outside the box from the ProBuilder team on site and we achieved person with disability compliant bathroom that looked great!