THE DILEMMA: Carrie, Ray and their young family live in a three-bedroom, semidetached house outside Maidstone, Kent. Their home was already bursting at the seams with the arrival of their daughter Zara, now aged 2. But now Carrie’s elderly mother, Eileen, is due to move in too.

Carrie and Ray want to expand their living space. But with the likelihood of Eileen becoming increasingly frail, and possibly reliant on a wheelchair, they want whatever they build to avoid looking institutional and, as Carrie says, “depressing”.

THE SOLUTION: I couldn’t agree more with Carrie (and the Prince of Wales has said much the same): just when you need to be cheered up, or your bones creak, you are often faced with rooms that have nasty finishes, puce colours, vicious lighting and clumsily styled contraptions. And don’t get me started on hospital “art”, Bart’s being an admirable exception.

Surely, when we are feeling vulnerable, the spaces we inhabit should be even more beautiful and functional? Looking at Carrie and Ray’s home, it is obvious that Eileen’s quarters should be on the ground floor for ease of access. I would recommend extending across the width of the rear elevation, doubling the size of the existing kitchen to create a kitchen diner opening on to the terrace and the delightfully deep garden beyond. The almost equivalent space adjacent would then constitute a wonderfully light private sitting room for Eileen, also opening on to the terrace and garden through French doors.

A new rear entrance should be created at the same time, directly off the driveway, that should be extra wide for a wheelchair and extra tall for style. With the existing dining area now obsolete, this space should be closed off from the existing living room to create Eileen’s bedroom, leading on to an en suite wet room with basin and her private sitting room.

The entrance off the hallway into the existing downstairs loo should then be blocked and an extra-wide entrance with sliding door should be created at the side, accessible from the kitchen between Eileen’s suite of rooms and said loo.

The same rules about materials apply to those who use wheelchairs as to those who do not, so long as flooring is seamless and nonslip. In the kitchen-diner timber is probably out but something like a very contemporary rubber floor would be ideal. In Eileen’s rooms a velvet pile (and so very short) carpet could be laid as long as it is flush with all adjacent surfaces.

If Carrie and Ray are extending at the ground floor I would also recommend that they look into extending directly above too. In doing so they would have the opportunity to create a bedroom for each of their children and, for themselves, an en suite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe. Comfort and style for all.

Do you have an inner dilemma? E-mail property.consumer@thetimes.co.uk

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