Designing for the Day Your World Shrinks to a Single Room: TenderCare Beds

Recently, I got a phone call from a gentle soul named Gary Owens. He lives in Mississippi, thousands of miles away, and I have never met him. He’s a wood worker, a craftsman, and a caring person. He has devoted himself to bringing comfort and joy to his wife, Gina, and to others like her who are trying to live full lives from the confines of a hospital bed.

Gary has done this by inventing an easy and inexpensive way of turning a drab, institutional hospital bed into a handsome piece of furniture. You have to look carefully at the bed shown above to discover the support bars at the right near the pillows and the controls beneath the foot on the floor. The head and footboards that transform this bed from a medical necessity into a piece of furniture are available in half a dozen types of wood, and run around $500. They slip over the hospital bed’s headboard for an easy installation, as the photos below illustrate.

TenderCare headboard easily slips over the metal headboard of a standard-issue hospital bed

What’s more I liked Gary immensely! I was astonished that he sought me out on the net, and I thought I would do him a good turn by writing about him and his business, TenderCare Beds, in this blog.

Writing about Gary and his wife Gina is in keeping with the reasons that I started writing Living in Comfort and Joy. This blog is as much about the building the architecture of the second half of my life as it is about green building and remodeling our homes so that we can continue to live comfortably in them despite aging and the disabilities that so often come along with it.

As my regular readers know, I started Living in Comfort and Joy in an effort to do well by doing good – by sharing what I have learned about interior design, designing to accommodate disability, and green buildings. I hoped to become known in a new field, and in time, to build my own Comfort and Joy Interior Design business. While the visitor count on this blog (15,808 visits in the seven and a half months since I launched it) indicates that my interior design expertise must be much better known than it was a year ago, I can’t say that it has brought me any interior design clients (yet), or even inquiries about possible jobs. (I would like to go to work marketing a green building, home furnishings or architectural business for the next few years while I continue building my knowledge, skills, and clientele.)

While patience is not among my notable virtues, I’m trying to remember that the economy remains depressed, that even established interior design firms have little work, and that growing a new business takes time. Thus, I have resolved to keep writing this blog for a least a year, casting my bread on the waters in a spirit of generosity to see what washes back to me in the fullness of time.

Which brings me back to Gary Owens, who is not only a craftsman, he’s a good role model for me. He writes:

“My wife Gina and I were married in 1994. In February of 1998, our  lives changed forever, due to an extraordinarily debilitating disease. As in most cases like this, a standard in-home hospital bed is used. From day one, Gina was self-conscious about the institutional look of the bed. She not only had to deal with her illness, but the design of the bed didn’t let her feel at home. She hated it.

“My background is woodworking. To make her feel better, I designed and built her a beautiful headboard for her bed. From that effort, TenderCare Beds was born.”

Those us who are able-bodied (so far), spend one-third of our lives in a bed. On the few occasions when I have had to spend extended stretches in a hospital bed, I have come to loathe my surroundings. I recall feeling profoundly grateful for a small and gracious gesture I received from my mother-in-law during a week I spent in the hospital following a surgery. Reina came into my room with a small vial of Chanel Number 9, which she spritzed on my pillow. Thirty years later, I still remember.

I also remember feeling frustrated and oppressed by my own bedroom during the two months I spent recuperating from pneumonia. At that point in my life, I had hand-me-down furniture that took up too much space in very cluttered room. After spending nearly every waking hour from several months staring at it, I vowed that when I got the chance, I was going to design a bedroom set I liked – and one that would forever banish the clutter created by the extra pillows, hot pads, books and paraphenalia that cluttered my room.

Nicolette’s headboard: When closed, it reclines at a nice angle for reading. It opens to reveal a convenient storage compartment for extra pillows, trays, books, and heating pads.

My bedroom designs are shown at right – the headboard reclines at a nice angle for reading, and opens with a piano hinge at the bottom to reveal a convenient storage well.

I had my headboard created by a woodworker in Los Angeles during the time I lived there, but I have recently sent photos of it to Gary Owens, with the suggestion that my design might incorporate nicely into his transformative designs for hospital beds. (He’s promised to name the new headboard the “Nicolette” headboard if he creates one from my design.)

Having had these recuperative experiences, I can testify that Gary is really onto something important. Beauty, convenience, and comfortable surroundings are important to all of us, but doubly important to those whose bedroom becomes their whole world. That’s the case not only for invalids, but also for many older people whose mobility becomes impaired.

Not long ago, my friend Sonnie, who is now an octagenarian, told me that she spends most of her time in one largish room with a view. Her bed, her desk, and her kitchen are all integrated into this studio room, and she says that she would also like to entertain from that room. I can see numerous ways to make that dream a reality, and I hope to eventually be Sonnie’s designer in that quest.

TenderCare headboards come in multiple colors and woods.

What she’s envisioning is desired by many seniors and many disabled people. Those who have been reading Living in Comfort and Joy for awhile may remember me writing about the Space Planning class I took from Edwin Walters, and how he used reverse psychology to get his mostly young students to learn about the needs of the elderly by hiding articles about this topic in a folder entitled, “Top Secret: Do Not Read”. In that folder were articles that specifically described why good design is so important to those whose world has shrunk to a single room, and instructions to young designers on how to make a single room a place of comfort and joy for an older person.

While many interior designers have little sympathy or personal insight into the needs of the disabled and elderly, I’m happy to say that attitudes are changing. I’m happy to count among my friends multiple people who combine a deep understanding of the physical needs of the disabled and/or elderly, and with their human needs for intellectual stimulation, human connection, and beauty. Designer Wendy Hoechstetter – a former EMT turned interior designer is one. Gary Owens is another. And then, of course, there’s me!

I’m hoping that Gary and I will have the opportunity to collaborate both on some furniture designs and on some room designs, and that in time, I will be able to show you some space plans that I have done for clients whose world has shrunk to a single room. I will let you know how it goes.

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Coming Attractions on My Blog

A silk painting by artist Ellen Brook

When I started this blog, a bit more than six months ago, I wondered if I could find enough topics to enable me to write regularly. I have actually had the opposite problem – too many good ideas! My list of planned posts is almost as long as my movie queue at Netflix!

I thought it might be a good idea to share with you, dear reader, some of my coming attractions, and if you’re especially eager for any of them, you can let me know. So far, the “priority” has been simply to write about whatever topic appeals to me at the moment. But if you have requests, leave me a note and I will be happy to move a post forward in the queue.

Here’s what I’m planning:

1. Daylighting Part 2 – Photos of the experiments with my daylight model and what worked best to brighten my office/dining room
2. A Visit to Plyboo, the makers of beautiful bamboo floors
   
3. An interview with David Bainbridge, a pioneer in building straw bale houses
4. An interview with Ellen Brook, silk painting artist
   
5. An interview with a psychologist Dr. Michael Tompkins, author of Digging Out: Helping Your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding and Compulsive Acquiring
6. An interview with Claire Tompkins, the “Clutter Coach,” a professional organizer, on how to overcome clutter
7. A post on ceramic tile, one of my (very-occasional) series on flooring options
8. A post on travertine, limestone, and marble flooring
   
9. A post on the best locations for and styles of skylights

If you’re particularly eager to read any of these posts, leave me a comment. I will be happy to change the publishing order. And if there’s a particular interior design topic you’d like me to cover, let me know that too. Living in Comfort and Joy is here to make you happy.