Zoning of a one-room apartment: rules and techniques

Recommendation points

• What room can be zoned?
• General concepts of room zoning
• About zone assignments
• Basic ways to win extra space
• Electrical and lighting
• The main rules for organizing space

Do you dream of a bedroom and a living room at the same time, but there is only one room in the apartment? There is no reason to despair: if the size of the room is large enough, now he will tell you how you can organize the space inside so that there is a place to sleep, and a corner for meeting friends, and a play area for children..

What room can be zoned?

In our review, we will not consider examples of studio apartments, this is a completely different topic. Therefore, it is worthwhile to immediately agree: we are talking about zoning one single room, taking into account that it is separated from the cooking area, while the internal space is distributed with the expectation of comfortable living.

The easiest way to understand if your room can be effectively zoned is as follows:

1. Draw a scale plan of the room on A4 sheet, mark the location of the windows and doors.
2. Cut out pieces of paper, the size of which, on the same scale as the plan, corresponds to the dimensions of the furniture and interior items that you intend to place.
3. Move the sheets and try to organize the space in the most convenient way so that the distance between objects is as large as possible.

It is reasonable to use this method both immediately and after reading the article, taking into account the recommendations presented..

General concepts of room zoning

There are two types of division of rooms into zones:

• purely visual, when individual areas are highlighted with individual finishing or with the help of light.
• functional, when the space is dissected by any partition.

There are two types of partitions – semi-capital and conventional. The latter include curtains, curtains, screens, movable partitions. Examples of semi-capital partitions are a frame wall, a cabinet or a rack from floor to ceiling, in a word – everything that is firmly fixed and does not change its position after installation.

A separate category of zoning means is made up of objects such as upholstered furniture or, for example, a podium, which is more of a visual technique, but at the same time changes the organization and shape of the room.

About zone assignments

Bedroom and living room or bedroom and nursery? You have to choose, because, alas, it is impossible to fit everything into 30 m2 at the same time. Based on the current situation: how many tenants are in the apartment, what are their requirements for comfort and privacy, who gets up and goes to bed at what time. Decide on the need to organize a workplace or install a personal computer in the apartment.

The sleeping area almost always has a standard layout: a double bed, opposite which a TV is fixed to the wall, a wide tabletop instead of a window sill, a wardrobe or a corner pencil case, if there is enough space – also a bedside table or two tables. If there is enough space for the bedroom, a small work area and an additional closet can huddle in it..

The living room usually has a full TV area with a soft sofa, preferably a corner type, and a coffee table. If the location of the door does not allow this, the TV can be mounted on the ceiling bracket. In the living room there may be a workplace – a writing or computer table up to 1.5 m wide..

Basic ways to win extra space

When zoning a one-room apartment, you need to try to organize a sleeping place as ascetically as possible, but with an acceptable level of shyness for yourself. By reducing the size of the bedroom, you are sacrificing almost nothing, because most of the time spent in it is spent sleeping. At the same time, extra centimeters for the living room or nursery will give additional freedom, because there will be much more variations for arranging furniture and household utensils.

The living space should be separated from the kitchen by a door, for which the most advantageous place is between the kitchen and the hallway. So you can win space not only visually, but also in reality, if you expand the entrance opening and arrange it in the form of a portal with a curtain.

Discard functional drywall partitions with niches and shelves. It is difficult to care for them, and the ratio of useful space to occupied area is depressing. Pay attention to shelves and cabinets: they greatly increase the usable area, while the insert in the center of the shelves of opaque glass will provide a complete visual separation of the space.

Many designers advise using mirrors to expand the space. The idea is good only at first glance: mirrors need constant care, they are easy to break, moreover, with an unsuccessful arrangement, numerous reflections of objects and lighting devices can literally drive you crazy. But the concept itself certainly has a right to life: the use of mirror inserts, the installation of one wide mirror, the installation of a glossy stretch ceiling or reflective inclined panels in the upper part of the walls really contribute to the visual expansion of the room..

The best thing you can afford to separate the sleeping area is a frosted glass partition. With a minimum thickness, it will almost not take up the useful area, but at the same time it will create a feeling of isolation from the events taking place nearby. Most importantly, frosted glass will not limit the luminous flux during the day, but at night you will not see anything behind it at all, if there is a light source from the side of the beholder.

You will win a huge amount of free space if you store most of your items in your wardrobe, especially since rmnt.ru offers a range of practical solutions to choose from on how to organize storage of items in your wardrobe. In almost any hallway, you can take a corner or a whole wall to organize a wardrobe or a separate room with shelves there. They will fit more things than ordinary furniture, because the whole space is available inside from floor to ceiling.

If there is an exit to the loggia from the room, it is highly recommended to attach it by performing high-quality insulation and decoration. On the loggia, you can place a desk, a simulator, storage cabinets or organize a small recreation area.

Electrical and lighting

In order for the use of the divided rooms to be convenient, you will have to intervene in the apartment wiring in order to install additional sockets and light sources. It is obligatory to have sockets at the working (3-4 in a row) and television (2-3 in a row) zones. A pair of outlets for charging mobile devices should be placed near the sofa in the living room or behind it, as well as at each bedside table, for more details about the placement of outlets, our site told in a separate article. Additionally, at floor level, you can mount 1-2 sockets for a vacuum cleaner or iron, it is also advisable to plan in advance an electric point at the place of installation of the air conditioner.

If the installation of additional outlets is purely functional, then various lighting techniques will emphasize the zoning and ensure the convenience of being in each zone, regardless of the presence of people in others..

It is obligatory to install the main lighting in each part of the room, which is at least partially separated by a stationary partition. For this purpose, “lightboxes” are excellent, which practically do not protrude above the ceiling plane, but at the same time give a rich and uniform light.

Secondly, decorative lighting is arranged. Depending on the intricacies of the style of the interior and the “wishes” of the owners, it can be spotlights, a light cord in the cavities of two-level ceilings, various lamps in niches and the upper slope of the window. Naturally, the main and decorative circuit are connected to different switches.

The third circuit is spot lighting. This includes sconces at each berth or floor lamps on pedestals, a table lamp, TV zone lighting and special lighting contours that are designed to emphasize zoning. Examples of the latter are light fixtures inside portals and openings, in a bar, above an aquarium, a light strip along the edge of the podium, or a figure of a suspended ceiling above the workplace, illuminated by spotlights or cut-in lighting fixtures. For this lighting circuit, you need to use either box switches, such as rope switches on the sconces, or mount stationary switches in the immediate vicinity of the light source.

The main rules for organizing space

It is customary to move the sleeping area deeper into the room closer to the window. The workplace can be separated from the bed by a simple formal partition that will only cut off the light from the monitor or table lamp. The separation between the sleeping and guest / children’s areas is best done with semi-capital partitions..

At the same time, you should not cut the room in two with a plasterboard partition, even if with transparent cells and a portal. Let there be a short frame partition on one side, a translucent rack on the other, and a sliding panel installed in the middle part.

Installing a bedroom on the podium will diversify the interior, make the resting place more comfortable and give a lot of pleasant emotions. Drawers for bed linen and clothes can be placed in the riser area.

Do not get too carried away with relief elements on the walls. A pair of columns or 2-3 niches would be fine, but any drywall tricks almost inevitably steal more space than they provide in return. Embossed internal architecture is appropriate to use only if the arrangement of the elements visually echoes the zones and their boundaries. So, it is better to place the niche of the television zone in the ledge formed by the plasterboard structure, not to collect the false wall from corner to corner.

Design the arrangement of furniture, walkways and partitions so that access to various parts of the rooms is open only when needed. So, it makes no sense to place a wardrobe near the aisle, it is better to move it to a corner. At the same time, the opening to the sleeping area should not allow a casual guest to see things scattered on the bed..

If the sleeping area is separated by a plasterboard partition, the latter does not have to reach the ceiling. A 1.4-1.6 m high parapet will give more natural light deep into the apartment, fully satisfy the requirements for visual isolation of the bedroom, and most importantly – it will allow to combine air volumes, which is very important when sleeping and just staying in a room without ventilation.

By far the best helpers in zoning and planning are their tenants. Only they know the true daily routine and personal preferences, the degree of need for light and the limitations of intimate space. The main thing is to remember that the situation in a divided one-room apartment should not be pretentious. Stationary partitions should perform their function without declaring themselves in any way, and the selected furniture should contain as many things as possible with a modest appearance.