FLORISSANT, MO--
It's an absolute certainty as well as a simple truth: We're all getting older.

For Becky Bilyeu, that's proving to be a great opportunity. Bilyeu, owner of Lasting Impressions Home Remodeling Center, based here, has been in the kitchen and bath design industry for 26 years. In her more than a quarter of a century in business, she's seen a lot of changes, and she's not the only one who's grown older and wiser during that time - her clients have, too. With this in mind, she is gradually steering her business toward serving the growing needs of aging Americans.

And it's a big, even exploding, market. People are living longer than ever before, and the aging Baby Boomer generation is larger - with a greater disposable income - than at any other time in history. These aging boomers are staying active far longer than in generations past, and as a result, want to stay in their homes and communities. They are often educated, affluent and quite savvy about what they want in their homes.

Despite this fact, many of their kitchens and baths were designed with younger homeowners in mind, and as a result, are not equipped to address the needs of their now-aging occupants.

Bilyeu wants to change all that: "My goal is to keep my clients at home," she says. "To do that, they need to be safe in their home."

Universal Design
Bilyeu has been studying the principles of Universal Design for the past six years and is incorporating those practices into her entire operation. The trend in barrier-free home design can serve to accommodate home-owners as they age - but she's learned that these designs can be beautiful as well as functional, avoiding the look of a "handicapped accessible" home that used to be the only option for those wanting accessible design.

Universal Design can also be quite profitable, Bilyeu has discovered. After all, with 75 million Baby Boomers heading for their retirement years, designing kitchens and baths that help facilitate aging in place may well be the wave of the future in home design.

The goal of Universal Design, Bilyeu stresses, is to make products and home environments more usable by as many people as possible. In practice, it means installing simple improvements such as pocket doors in bathrooms, using levers on faucets and door handles, lowering light switches and raising outlets. Bilyeu says her training allows her to better serve the needs of mature homeowners, who want their homes to meet their needs as they age - without making their home look like an institution.

Most accidents in the home occur in the shower and tub area, and can be especially dangerous for the elderly, Bilyeu emphasizes. Yet these can frequently be avoided with a little forethought in the design process. Accordingly, Lasting Impressions specializes in safety bars, hand-held showers and specialty seats that help older clients take care of their personal needs.

Bilyeu sells Swanstone products for her safety seats, as well as heavy-duty safety bars by HEWI, made of stainless steel with a powder coating that allows the bars to be color coordinated with the bathroom's decor. HEWI's hand-held shower faucets attached to a safety bar are also proving to be popular.

And Bilyeu's showroom is always evolving and reaching out to new markets. "We have an accessible kitchen that is focused primarily on middle-aged men," she said. "It features a raised counter area and a lower counter area [to maximize convenience]."