Interior Design Ideas for 55+ Homeowners
Remember decorating your first home? Way back when you didn’t know how high paintings should hang or how many throw pillows is one too many. Those days are long gone, and you’ve probably been through a few styles and trends over the years. We have some design tips for your golden years that look great and offer functionality, too.
Shed Some Light on Your Space
Great lighting doesn’t just elevate your design, it also saves you from eyestrain and is part of a safe and comfortable home. Having a variety of different types of lighting in each room is a game changer. Incorporating these three types of lighting in each space adds to your home’s aesthetic appeal and its functionality: ambient (or accent), task, and general.
Ambient, or accent, lighting offers just enough light to not force your eyes to adjust. This kind of lighting includes undershelf lighting – either in the kitchen or on bookshelves, backlighting for your TV, small accent lamps, and lights designed to showcase décor. Using ambient lighting while you’re relaxing with a movie gives you enough light to move around without having to turn on a brighter light.
Task lighting is great for reading or working on a project. These are small, but bright lights you turn on for their specific use so you can have the very brightest light right where you need it without lighting up the whole room.
General lighting is just the main light you turn on in any room. If you have just one, central overhead light in a larger space it’s a good idea to consider adding some floor lamps or putting in additional overhead lighting to make sure the whole space is illuminated.
Adding smart home elements to control your lighting is also a great idea. This allows you to turn lights on or off with voice commands as well as from your phone even if you’re away from home.
Multi-functional Rooms and Open Layouts
Having a home large enough for kids and grandkids to visit is wonderful, but it leaves you with space you’re not using daily. It’s time to rethink how you design those spaces to get the most benefit from them. More space to spread out also means you can open up your home’s layout without sacrificing any of your furniture.
Create secondary uses for unused bedrooms so they are functional guest rooms when you need them to be, but useful to you the rest of the time. It just takes a little rearranging to have a home office, sewing or craft room, sitting or reading room that can easily be used as guest rooms when you need them to be. For example: if you want to maximize your space, you can replace traditional beds with convertible sofas or Murphy beds.
As you shift some furniture around keep ease of movement in mind. More space to walk around means fewer trip hazards. Now that you have the space to yourself use it all!
Golden Home Management is here to make aging in place seamless and easy on you.Our monthly maintenance plan is just $99 a month. It includes one hour of handyman services as well as a dedicated home coordinator to make sure you home works for you now and in the future. We worry about the details so you don’t have to.