Expansion of living space

Speaking about the “living space” of a person, most likely you imagine the room where a person can hide from the aggressive environment of the city, a storm of information, where he can remain himself. This is our home. If we are not satisfied with it, it is worth considering what we can change? Correctly using the secrets of interior design, you can visually expand the space even in a small apartment, hide defects and design bloopers. Of course, having taken up the redevelopment of an apartment, you should take into account the wishes of all family members and link them with real opportunities. At the same time, it is important to proceed from the fact that a modern and high-quality apartment is an apartment that does not subjugate a person, in which it is cozy, comfortable and internally calm.

Conventionally, all premises of the apartment can be divided into guest and private. The first includes the kitchen, dining room and living room, which serve both for receiving guests and for resting the whole family. Hidden from prying eyes are those rooms that conceptually should be isolated: bedroom, nursery, study, bathroom and dressing room. In contrast, the living room and dining room form an open space, limited only by load-bearing walls. They should be spacious and solemn..

The most common way to visually enlarge rooms is to combine them. Openings without doors and arches cut through the load-bearing wall that separates the dining room from the corridor allow you to see the guest part of the apartment from the entrance hall. You can punch openings in the walls, due to which it will be possible to connect several disparate rooms into a single whole. To enhance this effect, the wall between the dining room and the living room can be decorated with glass panels. Thus, there is a feeling that only a light partition separates these rooms. Sometimes it is better to give preference to structures that can quickly and easily transform rooms – from large to small, from bedroom to living room, etc. Screens (wooden, fabric, stained glass, metal, wicker …), sliding accordion doors, partitions made of transparent glass or open glass shelves, colored stained-glass windows are very functional. There are a lot of options.

It is fashionable today to make a partition between the living room and the kitchen – a bar counter. But more complex options are possible from drywall: a built-in false fireplace on the side of the living room, and a niche for a TV from the kitchen. Plasterboard partitions do not need to be brought up to the ceiling. For example, between the hallway and the living room, a dull mirror surface is appropriate to the height of human growth, higher – a shelf for hats open from the side of the hallway or open on both sides – for decorative items (watches, ceramics, wooden, glass or metal figures, etc.).

You can use such an old and trouble-free option like bookshelves. As you know, they can easily fence off a corner for an office, for a playroom (then not only books, but also toys will be on the shelves), for an elderly person’s resting place (houseplants, boxes with a thousand little things, writing utensils and, again, books). A more “fresh” approach is the “shelf” partition between the kitchen workspace and the dining room. Cookbooks, Khokhloma wooden barrels, ceramic spice jars, clay or forged figures, flowers can be placed on it. By the way, the shelves themselves can be glazed on both sides. And you can attract nature – and then an aquarium or terrarium will perform the role of a partition. Pisces are quite appropriate between the bedroom and the study, the hallway and the living room or the living room and the teenager’s room. The transparent “nature” will not only give the interior liveliness, originality, but also open up light access to a room without windows. A “green” screen always looks good – an openwork partition with pots and fresh flowers.

As for other methods of visual enlargement and merging of room spaces, it is worth noting the internal glass partition doors. Other rooms can be seen through them, and the light seems to flow from side to side. Thus, the corridor turns from dark and closed into a light and open part of the apartment. In total, the living room can be increased not only by the corridor, but also by the loggia. So that in the second case the two formed openings are perceived as a single whole, the architects advise to “round” the central column.

A single color scheme of the living room, kitchen and dining room serves to increase the space: the color of the floor and wall tiles should repeat the basic colors of the rest of the rooms. If you want the apartment to look spacious, definitely its main rooms should be done in light and warm colors, white, whitewashed yellow and brown, shades of light wood will do. Such a palette is light, spacious and tends to accumulate light, as it were..

In small apartments, architects advise to abandon the heap of cabinet furniture. Its minimal amount, combined with walls in light colors, creates the illusion of free space. In small rooms, experiments with a mirror are always justified. This is the most mysterious piece of interior, capable of pushing the walls apart, breaking the straightness of the lines, making you forget the real proportions. The effect of lightness is also created by the abundance of glass surfaces of furniture – this visually lightens it and dissolves in the air.

A well-chosen room lighting can serve as a visible increase in space. This is especially true for the living room. There are celebrations, receptions, which means that everything should shine festively. But in the evenings, the family gathers here just to relax, which means that excessive lighting is not required. Hence the traditional lighting solution – a chandelier (central, general light) plus sconces and table lamps (side light) plus a floor lamp (floor). At the same time, such a scheme allows you to zone the room and even decorate it with the help of lighting..

The point light that has come into fashion also emphasizes the details of the interior, separates functional areas, but it is more often used for uniform illumination of large areas. If you are not satisfied with traditional chandeliers and sconces, you can use the so-called perimeter light – a variety of light sources located along the upper perimeter of the room. They can be point or in the form of luminous tubes, open, built into the cornice or hidden behind a decorative panel and directed to the ceiling. The height and size of the room is not a hindrance here. The luminous flux is directed towards the ceiling and, reflected almost completely, illuminates the room. The effect can be enhanced by placing foil or a mirror in the niche. If neither crystal nor mirror fits into the style of the room, give preference to a chandelier with arms “looking” upwards. Instead of a mirror, there is a ceiling, which should be perfectly flat and white..

The main difficulty is moving the kitchen to the living area. Let’s make a reservation right away that this experiment is not for low ceilings, so when applying it, it is worth measuring seven times … Moving kitchen equipment requires hidden wiring of all communications connected to it – water supply, sewerage, electricity. Technically difficult, but feasible. It is proposed to install the kitchen equipment along the long wall, and hide the refrigerator behind a small plasterboard partition across the room. You can put a desktop next to it, which will not interfere with the perception of the room as a single volume.

A corridor separates the guest rooms from the private ones. This is a kind of borderline between public and private life. The peculiarity of the rooms in the private part is that they are maximally isolated from each other. It is good if in the bedroom a small dressing room will also perform a soundproofing function. Sometimes the function of a dressing room can be performed by a hall separating the guest and private parts of the apartment. When redeveloping rooms, it is always tempting to increase the area of ​​rooms by attaching loggias to them. However, such a solution can further lengthen already too narrow rooms. If the bedroom or the nursery is small, spacious wardrobes with mirrored doors are installed. The TV can be hung on the bracket.

If the project allows, then the bathroom can be located between the guest and private areas. You can increase its combining score with the corridor. If one or two people live in the apartment, it is quite acceptable to combine it with a toilet. By sacrificing a bathroom, you will receive in return a quite spacious room. It will fit a bath, double sink, bidet, washing machine. And if you place a shower here, then two people can use the room at the same time. The floor here is, of course, best done “warm” from electrically heated ceramic tiles. Ceilings – stretch, glossy with built-in spot lighting, where the whole bathroom will be reflected like in a mirror. Large mirror planes and transparent glass are able to “enlarge” even the most ordinary room, and this technique is especially successful in the interior of the bathroom. If there is a window opening in it, then it is better to close it with a stained-glass window to dim the daylight. In small bathrooms, light tiles look good. By combining mirrors, glass, marble surfaces and lighting, you can achieve a stunning effect even in the most basic bathrooms. Along the long wall at a level of 80 cm from the floor, a ledge shelf can be provided. Shells, bottles with sea salt and other little things will beautifully fit on it.

Yes, “paradise” is possible in one, separately taken standard apartment. This requires a certain amount of courage, ingenuity and willingness to overcome the stereotype of thinking and some technical difficulties. You will also have to run through the authorities, because any architectural and construction changes must not only be registered, but also allowed for implementation by government departments. It will be much easier for you to achieve what you want with the professionals.