Interiors: Access all areas, at home

Good design is just that and should be available to all. In wheelchair-bound Elaine Lennon’s home, style and technology live together harmoniously.

Seven years ago the opera singer and mother-of-one suffered a serious brain injury as a result of the failure to carry out a CT scan that would have shown an abscess in her brain.

She is now confined to a wheelchair requiring 24-hour care. Her seven-year-old daughter Claudia was just weeks old at the time.

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Several court cases later, a settlement was finally reached and some of the monies awarded to her were used to set her up in a home that has been tailored to suit her particular needs.

Lennon, a lover of music, fashion and interiors, needed a home that felt cosy but that also made life easy for her and her carers, says Philippa Buckley, an interior designer at Studio 44, who recalls their first meeting when she was still living in a care facility surrounded by drab decor.

Working with Lennon’s solicitor, Gillian O’ Connor, and Peter Cassidy the project’s architect, a bungalow was found in a mature estate in Kilbarrack, a stone’s throw from local shops and the seafront, with a wide and sun-filled back garden.

The property was extended to give Lennon a spacious ground-floor bedroom, an enormous en suite, and an extremely sunny sunroom. They also created a large kitchen, dining-livingroom with ample room for her and her carers to manoeuvre around each other.

At the push of a button, the Silestone countertops in the kitchen, built by Kube Kitchens, can be raised or lowered to suit the needs of the chef on duty. Through his work on an independent-living project in Ratoath, Edward McNally, Kube Kitchens’s director, gained valuable experience in creating functional spaces suited to all needs and this is reflected in the job executed here. The ovens are at eye-level. The below-counter dishwasher, however, is standard and less accessible to Lennon but she’s quite happy to let her care team look after the washing-up.

Lennon needs round-the-clock care. Kasia Bartulewicz, from the Wheelchair Association and rehabilitation assistant Stephanie Metcalf, hired from Brain Injury Ireland, who comes three days a week to work with her, form only part of her team. They’re of a similar age to Lennon and both are hair and make-up experts who bring those talents into play along with their professional capabilities. They did her hair, make-up and nails for the photograph above.

In the dining area, there is a good sized Calligaris table and sturdy, chrome framed chairs. Adjacent to it is a big leather sofa, a television and a gas fire.

The house has a serious high-tech, automated backend designed by Buckley that can be operated by Lennon from her smartphone or iPad. The wide double-doors, big enough to accommodate all manner of wheelchair, can be opened at the flick of a switch. The blinds and curtains, sourced from Autoblinds, swish closed as the swipe of a screen. The mood lighting is automated and the surround sound system by Sonos feeds music into every room. She likes to tune in to Lyric FM.

In the sunroom there’s a fine big L-shaped sofa where family and friends can sit. Lennon prefers the support offered by the lazy boy-style chair that can kick into a reclining position. The doors on both sides slide back to create a proper outdoor room, and the paved exterior makes it easy for her to get around in her chair. Designed by Green Store, the planting beds are all at seat-level so Elaine can scoot from her chair to the stone border to do a bit of weeding.

The timber on her bed, which has massage and lifting functions, was stained to match the Knowles & Christou dressing table and chair that add a touch of feminine glamour.

The adjoining en suite bathroom is the size of your average double bedroom and features some highly-specialised equipment that Buckley sourced through Churchtown-based Bathroom Boutique.

They designed and custom made the massage bath that has an air drying facility, a device that is also installed in the wetroom-style shower that is big enough to accommodate a wheelchair. The self-cleaning toilet is something every home should have.

“While home to seriously specialist equipment, the house had to look and feel like a home,” Cassidy says, explaining that it cost approximately €1,830 per square metre. That’s more than the average rebuild cost of a detached bungalow in the Dublin area, which is estimated to cost about €1,734 per square metre, according to the Society of Chartered Surveyors. While this price includes all the fixtures recommended by the occupational therapist it doesn’t include the professional fees of the architect and designer.

The value of the well-designed set-up is unquantifiable in terms of giving Lennon room to feel secure and autonomous, Buckley says. It means her daughter, Claudia, can live with her several days a week. She has her own colourful playroom and in her bedroom there is a roll-out bed to accommodate sleepovers. On their first night in the new house Lennon slept on it to be close to her – a luxury most parents take for granted.

As a result of her injury, Lennon’s life changed completely. Considered design and architecture has helped her regain a sense of normality.

“I lost a lot with the brain injury but I now have the freedom to be independent and to be in control. I can play with Claudia and I can crank up the music if I want to. I’m completely happy.”

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