AUSTIN, Texas—After being in the same location for 13 years with the building’s owner not keeping up with maintenance, Dr. Laura Miller of Northwest Hills Eye Care located here knew it was time to move locations and purchased a property for her new office.

“I purchased the building at the end of 2016,” Miller said. “The space had been used previously for a mortgage company, so I had to redesign the layout to make it work for me. We completed the build out in early March of this year and moved on March 9 and 10, 2017. It was a crazy move. After being in one spot for 13 years we had to do some severe cleaning out and purging.”

While the move might have been hectic, it provided an opportunity for Dr. Laura to reinvent the look of her practice to better suit her specialization in low vision. She took on the task of designing her new location along with a contractor she’d previously worked with on another project.

“Because I specialize in low vision, I wanted my office to have good contrast and lighting. I have gone to LED lighting in the office (especially in the optical and low vision store portion). The walls also are a light color and the doors are a dark color so that those who are visually impaired will be able to see where the wall ends and a door is when traveling down the hallway. I have a vinyl plank flooring that looks like wood, but is much more durable, as I have many patients that use walkers and wheelchairs.”

She added, “I found many ideas on Pinterest and would take those ideas and try to make them work for my space.” Some of the interesting features in her new location include a Braille statement wall, barn doors in areas that she would want to have a pocket door as well as a mural painted by her associate doctor that mimics a famous mural in Austin that provides a good place for patients to take photos and post to social media.

While moving locations may not been the easiest of tasks, picking up and making the move proved to be worth it for Dr. Laura. “I am so pleased with the end result,” she said. “I feel like it really reflects me. I am glad that I was able to combine a good aesthetic for my normal sighted patients with the high contrast and accessibility that my low vision patients require.”