A Sacramento Interior Designer’s Guide to Aging-in-Place and ADUs
As a Sacramento interior decorator, my focus is on universal design, aging-in-place, and the wave of ADUs (accessory dwelling units) going up in Sacramento backyards. California has a lack of housing, but we are lucky as we have many lot sizes that can have an ADU.
A lot of my kitchen-table conversations in Sacramento sound the same right now. A grandson needs somewhere quiet to study, or Grandma needs to be closer to home. People are not interested in selling. The question is usually some version of how to make this house work for the next twenty years. The answer is twofold. The main house has to evolve with the people living in it. And in most Sacramento neighborhoods, the backyard is where an ADU can pick up the slack.
Aging In Place is the Idea That It’s There — You Just Don’t Notice It
Aging-in-place used to be a grab bar bolted into the shower the week after someone falls. My clients and I chat about a series of small design decisions made years before they’re needed: adding small changes to a house so it still feels like a home and not a hospital. Many of my clients don’t notice any of it until the morning you need it, and by then it’s already there.
The work tends to cluster small changes, like single-level living, because our 1950s and 60s ranches were built for it, and our older two-stories almost never were: curbless showers tiled in warm stone instead of clinical white, for example. You don’t notice a flush transition between rooms, but a walker, a wheeled suitcase, or a kid on a scooter all roll across without catching. Doorways at 36 inches make a hallway feel less narrow. There are lever handles on every door, partly because a wrist with arthritis can’t twist a round knob, and partly because lever handles tend to look better anyway.
Lighting is the easy piece. Aging eyes need roughly three times the light a 30-year-old needs to read this page. Our Valley sun means that windows are doing much of the work during the day. I usually layer 2700K to 3000K warm white at three heights in every room: overhead, table and task. Everything is dimmable. Stair nosings get a strip of contrasting tone, so the edge stays visible when the hallway is dim. Motion-sensor night lighting run from the primary bedroom to the bathroom. It’s noticeable when you need it, and comforting when you don’t.
Floors matter, too. Large-format porcelain tiles in wet areas, with a slip rating of R10 or better, look like stone but behave like safety equipment. They do not look any different from other tiles, but as one ages, it’s a big difference. The rugs that read “soft and lived-in” in a magazine are the same rugs that catch a toe in real life. What I do is make every rug in an aging-in-place plan: this helps not only as we age, but also for young children who need a low-profile pad and a flush edge.
What Matters Most: The Kitchen and Bath Decisions
If the remodel budget is tight, the kitchen and primary bath are where these choices pay back the most. In the kitchen, that usually means a 36-inch induction cooktop with auto-shutoff — you can’t start a fire when the cooktop shuts off by itself.
Wall ovens are set at counter height instead of below the knee. Dishwashers and microwaves are in drawers. This helps so that people aren’t bending. I also do pull-out shelving in every base cabinet.
Counter heights vary on purpose. A lower section for seated prep and a standard 36 inches everywhere else.
In the bath, the curbless shower is the big move. How many times do you think, “did I lift my leg up to go into the shower or not?” When you need it however, it is a life changer. I spec a linear drain, a comfort-height toilet, a hand-held shower on a vertical bar, and blocking inside the walls during framing for grab bars nobody has chosen yet. It costs almost nothing while the walls are open to add in a bit more wood, and it means a future grab bar, anchored into solid backing, can go in over an afternoon without anyone tearing into finished tile. Two sheets of plywood now buys twenty years of options later.
ADUs Are a Gift For Sacramento
California’s ADU laws have changed quickly over the last few years, and Sacramento has changed with them.
The conversation I keep having sounds something like this: a parent in their late 70s wants to stay independent, but doesn’t want to be alone every night. Nobody wants to move to a medical facility. The main house has stairs, and the parent is already avoiding the second floor. A detached ADU in the backyard, somewhere between 600 and 1,000 square feet, can solve most of those issues without anyone giving up privacy. The parent has their own front door, their own bathroom, a kitchen, a sunny living room, and a bedroom on the same level as everything else. The kids are 40 feet across the yard.
The same footprint, designed a little differently, is also one of the highest-yield rental units anyone can put on a Sacramento lot when the family doesn’t need it for housing yet. That dual-use case is what makes the economics work right now. Build it for a parent today, then rent it for $2,200 to $2,800 a month. Or, if your kids end up living in the house for a few more years after college, then you have a built-in living area for them. When you are ready in ten years, if the situation changes, eventually sell the property with a permitted second unit attached. Every step of that path holds value.
ADUs Can Be Built to Work for Aging
What about the cost? An ADU built on aging-in-place principles from day one costs the same as one that isn’t. The footprint is small enough that universal design is easy to pull off without compromise. So a curbless entry from the courtyard, or a bathroom sized to take a wheelchair turning radius, does not really add cost. If the first person living there doesn’t need one, that’s OK, but it’s there already and does not take away from the design. A galley kitchen with knee clearance under the sink, so a stool fits when standing does not look bad. It’s just a design choice.
When the lot allows, I orient the ADU so the long wall faces north, with deep eaves on the south and west to keep the worst of summer off the building. I set up cross-ventilation with front-to-back design, so that the Delta breeze can do its job once the sun drops and the temperature falls 20 degrees by 9 p.m. Another low-cost option is a whole-house fan in the ceiling, which pulls cool night air through the unit and pushes the day’s heat up into the attic. An older resident who’s more sensitive to heat, and also on a fixed income, isn’t fighting the building and doesn’t have to worry as much about SMUD bills.
Material choices
I like Sacramento Sage, a muted greenish gray pulled from our native oak canopies, on the cabinets. It reads calm under the valley’s bright light and hides the small scuffs that come with daily living. That, with a lime-wash plaster on accent walls, breathes and softens the acoustics of a small footprint. Warm-toned white oak floors carry some warmth into a space that could otherwise feel utilitarian. The idea here is that none of it looks like senior housing, but all of it works as senior housing.
Sacramento Aging-in-Place and ADU FAQs
Do Aging-In-Place Features Have to Look Bad?
Done well, they disappear into the design. Wider doors, lever hardware, curbless showers and good lighting all are elevated design choices on their own. The trick is integrating them during the remodel, rather than bolting them on after a fall.
What’s the Doorway Width For Aging-in-Place?
36 inches clear is the standard, enough for a wheelchair or walker to pass without scuffing the jamb. Hallways should be 42 inches when you can manage it. In a lot of Sacramento’s older bungalows, that means widening one or two key doors, not the whole house.
Is an ADU Worth It If Nobody In My Family Needs Housing Right Now?
A permitted ADU adds real value at sale, can rent for $2,000+ a month in the meantime, and gives the family a fallback if a parent’s situation changes in five or ten years. It’s the most flexible square footage you can add to a lot here.
How Big Does an ADU Need To Be To Work For an Older Parent?
600 to 800 square feet is the sweet spot. Big enough for a real bedroom, a full bath, a working kitchen and a living area that fits a couch and a couple of chairs, yet small enough to keep construction costs reasonable and the whole thing on one level. Under 500 square feet starts to feel like a hotel room.
What Lighting Works Best for Aging Eyes in a Sacramento Home?
2700K to 3000K warm white, layered at three heights, on dimmers. Skip the 4000K “daylight” bulbs the big-box stores still push. They fight our natural Valley light and make rooms feel clinical. Add motion-sensor night lighting between the bedroom and bathroom at around 5 percent output.
Can I Add Aging-in-Place Features to a Rental?
You can add things like lever-style covers slide over standard round knobs. A low-profile non-slip mat goes inside the shower. Change the light warmth 2700K bulbs swap into any fixture. Adding a small ramp can replace a single threshold. None of it needs landlord approval, and all of it can buy somebody time in a Sacramento rental until the next move.
What is Universal Design, and How is it Different From Aging-in-Place?
Universal design is a broader philosophy. Spaces that work for every age and ability, from a toddler to a grandparent. Aging-in-place is the specific application of those ideas to staying in your own home as you get older.
More from Amy Kunst at DesignedCurated.com.
Amy Kunst is a Sacramento-based interior designer. She trained formally in interior design and holds a Master’s in Communications from Sacramento State, which helps her listen better when a client is trying to describe what they actually want. Amy sits on an NKBA committee and has spent more than a decade on high-end residential projects across Northern California.