A combined room with a kitchen is no longer a rarity in our country. This method of interior decoration of apartments and houses is justified in small rooms, since it allows you to expand the space and make it more functional. Designers successfully use it in rather spacious rooms, creating interesting and stylish interiors.
Every housewife dreams of a big kitchen, because in a tiny room, which our kitchens are often not only inconvenient to cook, but it is also impossible to gather with your relatives or friends at the dinner table. In this case, the redevelopment of the apartment becomes the only chance to change the living conditions for the better. But many homeowners who have already thought about reconstructing their housing are interested in: “Is it possible to combine a kitchen with a room and how to do it right?” We will try to answer these questions in this article.
Redevelopment
Apartment owners need to know that any dismantling of walls must be agreed upon and authorized by the relevant authorities. If the walls are not load-bearing (not part of the frame of the house), then permission is easy to obtain. Initially, a draft change (layout) should be prepared. Combining the kitchen and the room is possible only after its coordination in the relevant structures. You will receive permission to perform work. The finished room will need to be commissioned.
Conditions for combining rooms
The issue of combining rooms often confronts residents of small-sized Khrushchev. These houses have two types of partitions. If you are lucky and there is no load-bearing wall in your apartment, then the new layout is quite real. This option is not possible in panel houses, because the wall that separates the room and the kitchen is a load-bearing one. It can be removed only partially, creating a decorative opening, but without fail with supporting supports.
It is forbidden to combine a room with a kitchen if a gas stove is installed in it. According to safety standards, it should be separated from the living room. If you really want to say goodbye to your tiny kitchen, then you have to replace the stove with an electric one. This will require another coordination - with the gas service, as well as the installation of an electric cable of sufficient power.
Kitchen combined with a room in Khrushchev
If you have never been to such houses, then it is difficult for you to imagine how small the kitchens are in them, as well as the bathrooms and hallways. In a tiny space of about six square meters, you need to try to place a lot of necessary things, and even cook food here. The task is very difficult, sometimes even designers are tormented with the design of such a room.
For this reason, many owners of Khrushchev make repairs, combining a room with a kitchen. And I must say that usually the result of the reconstruction does not disappoint anyone. The expanded kitchen allows you to get rid of claustrophobia in this small room and create some kind of illusion of space, although the area of the two rooms, of course, remains the same.
Zoning
After the demolition of the wall between the rooms, a large free space forms - a studio apartment. It's time to choose the style of this room and perform all the finishing work in accordance with it. Surely you are interested in how to make a beautiful room combined with a kitchen. And not in vain: it is more difficult to do than it might seem at first glance.
Although you got rid of the walls, it is necessary that each section of the combined space has a specific function - you should relax in the living room, receive guests, and prepare food in the kitchen. These zones must be correctly distinguished and at the same time separated from each other. For this, designers recommend using several methods.
Miscellaneous materials
The design of the kitchen, combined with a small room, involves the creation of a common space in which separate accents are used for zoning. The kitchen area can be distinguished by applying finishing materials for the floor, ceiling and walls. They can be different in quality, texture, pattern, a combination of wallpaper in the living room with tile in the kitchen is allowed; a combination of a variety of floor coverings.
The carpet and floor tiles or porcelain tiles in the kitchen look interesting in the living room. The separation of zones looks original with the help of varnished decorative wooden wide skirting boards, which are located on the ceiling and wall, repeating the boundaries of the removed wall. The color of the skirting board should be repeated in the coloring of the headset.
Lighting
This is a good and proven zoning method. In this case, central lighting (chandelier) is mounted in the living room, floor lamps and sconces in the recreation area, table lamps in the working area. And for the kitchen, spotlights are more suitable.
Kitchen combined with a corridor and a room
We have already said that nowadays it is already difficult for anyone to surprise a dining room or living room combined with a kitchen, dressing room or bathroom. Many owners go further: combining a kitchen with a corridor and a room should be recognized as an innovative idea. And it doesn’t matter at all what makes the designer or homeowner combine these rooms - a small apartment area or just a daring idea. It is important that as a result the room is functional and comfortable.
The advantage of this solution, of course, is the same coveted space that is achieved after the removal of the walls. In a large kitchen, a bright and spacious room, even with a minimal area of the apartment, you can breathe easily and freely.
Partitions
As you understand, a combined room with a kitchen and a corridor, like no other room, needs zoning. In this case, it is advisable to use sliding partitions, which will be relevant during cooking or meeting guests. Such designs are simple: most often they consist of guides on the ceiling and on the floor along which the partitions move. They can be made from any materials. Experts consider the most practical:
- plastic;
- glass;
- wood;
- metal.
Today, partitions are popular in which fabric is stretched on a solid frame. They look very stylish and add uniqueness to the interior. True, they are undesirable to use in the kitchen area, since the fabric absorbs all the smells, and the evaporation will leave ugly stains on the fabric after some time.
Features of combination
Combining the kitchen with the hallway and the room, you need to carefully consider how to protect the apartment from dirt, because there is an entrance outside the door, sometimes not very clean. Make sure that most of the dirt remains behind the threshold. To do this, use special grilles and high-quality rugs.
Effective in this case, and "warm floor". This system will help to quickly dry wet tracks, and households will not carry the dirt brought from the street into the apartment. This is important, as carpets with a pile absorb moisture and do not allow to achieve the desired cleanliness. For the hallway-kitchen, tiles are most suitable, but as an option you can consider a moisture-resistant laminate.
In order not to be saturated with odors in the corridor, it is necessary to take care of good ventilation. A powerful range hood should be installed in the kitchen. In addition, the hallway must be equipped with cabinets, the doors of which are closed very tightly, the same applies to shoe shelves.
The interior of the kitchen combined with the corridor
To design such a room, designers recommend two methods:
- unification of space in a single color and decoration materials;
- zoning of the premises using materials of different textures and colors.
The first option does not require much effort. The kitchen and the corridor involve the use of modern wear-resistant materials with good resistance to changes in humidity and temperature. For the floor, it is better to choose tile or natural stone, although other materials can be used (for example, linoleum, waterproof laminate). But the main principle in this case is the hygiene of the coating.
For walls, you can also use tiles, although many consider this material too cold, so you can take moisture-resistant washable wallpapers that can withstand the aggressive environment of this room.
Color scheme
There are practically no restrictions on this issue. It is better to give preference to light pastel tones that visually expand the room. At the same time, in such shades that mask pollution (beige, gray), you can designate the zones that are most affected: areas at the front door, around the sink, near the stove. The rest of the room can be designed as brightly as your imagination allows.
What should be the lighting?
Lighting often plays a decisive role in dividing the space into room, hall and kitchen. We will not discuss the lighting of the room now, since we talked about it above, and we will consider the rest of the rooms. In the kitchen area, you can and should use brighter light, for example, fluorescent lamps, which give a bright white glow. It is more advisable to leave the usual softer yellow light in the corridor. Such a simple way will allow you to feel the boundaries of spaces.
In the corridor with the help of lamps it is necessary to highlight the area of the hanger and the mirror. This will additionally help to make the room visually more spacious. The kitchen will need additional lighting at the dining table and in the working area. Using these seemingly simple methods of combining and separating, you can achieve excellent results.
Advantages and disadvantages of combining rooms
Anyone who decides to combine a kitchen with a room needs to carefully weigh the pros and cons of such a decision. We invite you to familiarize yourself with them.
Advantages:
- the ability to zone the space and move the dining area from the kitchen to a more comfortable place;
- the use of any interior style and the creation of individual design;
- high illumination and visual expansion of the room.
Approaching this issue with all responsibility, it is necessary to evaluate not only the advantages of this method, but also its shortcomings:
- the smell of cooked food will spread throughout the room even with a powerful extract;
- the combined space deprives household members of a place for privacy, therefore this method is more suitable for families of two to three people;
- in such a room, due to the specifics of the interior, it will be necessary to clean up much more often, and in the whole room.