Designer Ed Warner Is Onto Creating Stylish Bathrooms for People With Disabilities

Read our conversation with the leader of London studio Fine & Able on how he imagines spaces for diverse body types—and anyone wanting a lifelong home free of "design crimes."

Mar 15, 2022 - 01:17

Designer Ed Warner Is Onto Creating Stylish Bathrooms for People With Disabilities

Read our conversation with the leader of London studio Fine & Able on how he imagines spaces for diverse body types—and anyone wanting a lifelong home free of "design crimes."

Emerald-green herringbone tile adds color to the roll-in shower of British TV presenter Sophie Morgan.

Ed Warner still remembers the words of his school friend James Taylor after Taylor was paralyzed in a diving accident in 2005: "Every morning I wake up and I’m reminded of my condition because of the products around me."

Convinced that there had to be something better than the soulless white plastic equipment that crowded Taylor’s South London home to ostensibly give him a measure of independence, the two eventually combined their sales and marketing (Warner) and finance (Taylor) expertise to create the accessible design firm Motionspot in 2012.

London studio Fine & Able, led by Ed Warner, creates spaces for diverse body types and abilities.
Illustration by Sam Kerr

Since then, the company has become a leader in Britain in the design of accessible products and inclusive spaces. But along the way, one area cried out for particular attention, leading Warner to launch Fine & Able, a division within Motionspot that focuses on home bathrooms.

A wet room for a client of short stature features a lowered, wall-hung toilet.
Photo by Henry Woide, courtesy of Fine & Able

Early on, as Warner explains, many of the bathroom fixtures the firm specified were only incidentally "accessible," not purposely designed that way. But as the business grew, so did the challenge of sourcing a variety of decent, well-designed adaptive products. So the duo began collaborating with some of the world’s largest manufacturers to create their own line of inclusive fittings meant to be as attractive as they are functional.