Creating furniture that’s both accessible and chic can be a challenge, but that’s exactly what Pottery Barn and Michael Graves Design have done with their inaugural collaboration. The line of bedroom pieces and upholstered armchairs, which launches today, combines Pottery Barn’s breezy California aesthetic with Michael Graves Design’s expertise in accessible design so that style and safety features can coexist.
The beds, nightstands, dressers, and side benches are extensions of Pottery Barn’s most popular bedroom collections. Fans of Sausalito, Farmhouse, and Cayman will recognize their beloved finishes, silhouettes, and decorative details in the collaboration items—but with additional elements that provide support for aging adults and people with disabilities.
Courtesy of Pottery Barn
“What we did was bring these novel functional enhancements to these pieces, but they’re still extensions of these core collections,” explains Rob Van Varick, the chief design officer at Michael Graves Design. “You have three very different options that are going to appeal to a whole range of customers, so it’s really about putting accessibility in the center. You can mix and match, you can get the whole suite, or you can get parts of it.”
All three beds are equipped with integrated armrests and “pull and roll” grips that assist with sitting, standing, and repositioning in bed. “One of the biggest challenges of designing for accessibility is that everyone’s unique,” explains Van Varick. “It’s really about finding those commonalities and solving those big problems. Fall prevention is a big one, which is about helping people with ingress and egress.”
Courtesy of Pottery Barn
Courtesy of Pottery Barn
Built-in storage benches at the foot of the beds are for getting dressed and “furniture surfing,” the act of using furniture as a stabilizer while moving through a room. The collaboration dressers are outfitted with grab rails for these reasons, as well. “We wanted to create a touchpoint on the dresser that really was there for that,” Van Varick says. “It’s really minimal. You don’t really see it, but it’s there. In the consumer-preference testing, everybody loved it.”
The dressers and nightstands have raised edges, too, to prevent objects from rolling off and needing to be retrieved. And they’re adorned with hardware that’s easy to pull and see. “Somebody over 65 needs three times more light to see than someone in their 20s,” shares Van Varick. “If you have a knob that is the same color as the rest of the drawer front, it becomes invisible. Contrast is a big one for us.”
