Does Ariana Designs work on aging-in-place projects?

Yes. We specialize in designing spaces that accommodate changing mobility needs without sacrificing beauty. Our team works with clients across the Seattle and Eastside area to create homes that support aging in place with dignity and style. Call (425) 679-2463 to discuss your project.

Portfolio · Seattle, Washington

Beauty Without Barriers: An Aging-in-Place Bath

Q: Can a bathroom be both wheelchair-accessible and beautifully designed?

Yes. We design ADA-compliant bathrooms where safety features like grab bars, barrier-free showers, and accessible vanities are integrated into the aesthetic. In this Seattle project, grab bars are woven into the tile pattern and the entire space reads as luxury design, not clinical accommodation.

Q: What is a wet room bathroom design?

A wet room eliminates barriers between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. The entire floor is waterproofed and slopes to a drain, allowing wheelchair access and walk-in convenience. We used this approach in our aging-in-place redesign to create a seamless, safe, and beautiful space.

Bathroom Design
Residential
Accessibility
Wet Room

A couple who built decades of memories in a nearly 100-year-old Seattle home asked us to make staying possible — without making the bathroom feel like a hospital.

The husband’s mobility was declining. A wheelchair was on the horizon. The existing bathroom — narrow doorways, a tall-walled tub, a traditional fixture layout — wasn’t going to work. Selling and downsizing was the obvious option. The clients didn’t want the obvious option.

So we redesigned the bathroom to meet ADA standards without surrendering a single design decision to clinical convention. Every accessibility feature was treated as a design problem to solve beautifully, not a compromise to apologize for.

Curbless wet-room shower — Aging in Place bath, Ariana Designs, Seattle

Walk-in shower with integrated grab bars — Ariana Designs

Wall-mounted vanity with accessible clearance — Ariana Designs

Designed for Universal Access

The scope was a full wet-room conversion: removing the tub entirely, sloping the floor to a central drain, widening the doorway to ADA clearance, and integrating grab bars as deliberate design elements rather than clinical add-ons.

The Mediterranean palette wasn’t decorative — it was the clients’ visual language. They had spent years travelling through Spain and Italy, and the project was as much about honoring that history as it was about accommodating the next phase of their life in this home.

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Full wheelchair access, dual showerheads, and grab bars integrated into the tile pattern — Seattle, Washington.

The Challenge

Accessibility Without the Clinical

The existing bathroom was never designed for accessibility. Doorways were too narrow for a wheelchair. The layout centered around a traditional bathtub that created barriers to safe, independent movement. In a home approaching its centennial, every wall and threshold told a story — but none of them told a story of universal design.

Our job was to honor the architecture, accommodate the wheelchair, and refuse the institutional aesthetic that most accessible bathrooms default to.

Bathroom designed for both beauty and accessibility — Ariana Designs

Bathroom detail — Mediterranean elements

“Accessible design should never feel clinical. This project was about preserving dignity, independence, and beauty in the same space.”

Our Design Approach

Material Continuity, Mediterranean Inspired

We removed the bathtub entirely and converted the bathroom into a continuous wet area — barrier-free and wheelchair-accessible from entry to shower. The entire floor slopes to a central drain, allowing freedom of movement throughout the space.

Hand-painted ceramic tile with intricate patterns referenced the couple’s travels through Spain and Italy. Warm terracotta tones and wrought-iron-inspired hardware honored their Mediterranean aesthetic without becoming pastiche.

Grab bars were integrated into the tile pattern as decorative elements. The vanity was wall-mounted at accessible height with lever-handle fixtures. Every safety feature became a design feature.

Location

Seattle, Washington

Project Size

60 sq ft

Project Type

Aging-in-Place Renovation

Scope

Full wet-room conversion, ADA-compliant

Style

Mediterranean-inspired, hand-painted ceramic

Key Features

Curbless roll-in shower, widened doorways, integrated grab bars

Common Questions

Frequently Asked

Can a bathroom be both wheelchair-accessible and beautifully designed? +

Yes — that’s the entire premise of this project. Accessibility features like grab bars, curbless showers, and widened doorways can all be integrated as design elements rather than clinical add-ons. The result reads as a thoughtful bathroom that happens to be ADA-compliant, not an institutional space.

What is a wet room bathroom design? +

A wet room treats the entire bathroom as a single waterproofed zone. The floor slopes to a central drain, there’s no shower curb or enclosure, and water is free to fall anywhere. For aging-in-place clients, it’s the most accessible configuration possible — a wheelchair can roll directly into the shower without any threshold to navigate.

Does Ariana Designs work on aging-in-place bathroom projects? +

Yes. We’ve designed multiple ADA-compliant and aging-in-place bathrooms across the Greater Seattle area. We coordinate directly with general contractors, accessibility consultants, and occupational therapists when the project warrants it.

How do you approach a nearly 100-year-old home with modern accessibility needs? +

We map the existing architecture first — what stays, what shifts, what gets reconciled. The goal is always that the renovation reads as though it was always part of the home. In a century-old house, that means honoring the proportions, the millwork language, and the material vocabulary the home was originally built with.

What materials work best in a curbless wet-room conversion? +

Slip-resistant tile with a smaller format and tighter grout grid is non-negotiable for the floor — the texture provides traction and the grout adds slip resistance. For walls, we favor large-format tile or hand-painted ceramic that minimizes seams. All grout and substrates must be rated for continuous water exposure.