Content
- 1 Define a strategy
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2 Ideas for visually increasing the area
- 2.1 Wall decoration
- 2.2 Ceiling finishes
- 2.3 Floor covering
- 2.4 Optimal lighting
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3 How to properly equip the interior
- 3.1 Furniture transformation
- 3.2 Refrigerator in a small kitchen
- 3.3 Table and chairs
- 3.4 Kitchen decor
- 4 Combining with another room
- 5 Conclusion
This kitchen, with its very compact size, does not look cramped. How to achieve this effect - there are ready-made solutions!
The perception of a room depends not so much on square meters as on its design. The topic of our article is the design of a small kitchen with your own hands, where it will be nice to sit down with a cup of aromatic coffee and cook a delicious dinner. Moreover, these design ideas can be realized without the help of professionals.
Define a strategy
So, given: a standard Khrushchev or Brezhnevka kitchen with an area of 6-7, at best 8 meters. How to make it more spacious? Start with a strategy - outline the main solutions.
The minimalism style balances the abundance of furniture and a small space: clear lines, the absence of unnecessary decor items.
- Increase the area visually, using design techniques (described in detail below). The visual perception of the volume of the room depends on the decoration of the kitchen, the choice of tones of the walls, furniture and the ceiling. The visible size of the kitchen depends on how the kitchen is illuminated as much as the amount of furniture. The first point in the list of solutions is the correct choice of colors and types of coatings.
- Don't clutter up the space. The clutter of the room turns a small kitchen into a kind of closet. Think about how you can make and position a homemade table and work surface, which chairs to choose and which cabinets to hang on the walls. A small kitchen will become noticeably more spacious if you free it from unnecessary things.
- Increase the areaif possible. The design of a kitchen in a small apartment assumes only the first two options, while in a house of a larger area you can really expand the room by combining rooms.
Read also our article on kitchen design in Khrushchev.
Ideas for visually increasing the area
The bright kitchen with contrasting glossy black countertops looks bright and spacious.
Interior stylists always use color effects when solving problems in small spaces.
Basic rules for registration:
- Light walls with a dark ceiling make any room visually more voluminous and lower.
- A light ceiling with a dark wall material - on the contrary, turns the room into a kind of narrow corridor.
- The combination of light walls and light ceiling increases both the visual volume and the height of the room.
Wall decoration
Photomurals with perspective easily cope with the task of effectively expanding any room.
- Bright hues. Change the color of the walls to a dim light and neutral. Muted tones are the most appropriate. They not only visually enlarge the room, but also look stylish.
- Monotony: in a small room it is better not to experiment, but to arrange all 4 walls in one tone. The apron at the working area is no exception: it may have a different texture, but the color is the same as the walls.
- Wallpaper glue only washable and with medium-sized images or a perspective that expands the boundaries of the room (pictured above).
- Tile - with a small pattern, or textured monochromatic (with a dressing pattern).
- Mirrors: A mirror with a thickness of at least five millimeters is used as an apron - just for safety reasons. Thinner glass is easy to break by accidentally hitting it with a saucepan or plate. For wall mounting, a thick glass fastener is used, which goes through pre-drilled holes.
A mirrored apron is a skillful imitation of the absence of a wall.
Important! The mirror is drilled with a drill on the tile at minimum speed. It is placed on a flat and hard surface with the amalgam facing up; the drill is periodically wetted with water. This insures the mirror against damage, because uneven heating can create a crack.
Design solutions for a small kitchen often use another perception feature. The area of the room is visually assessed by two horizontal surfaces - the floor and the ceiling.
Ceiling finishes
A glossy white finish will create the illusion of a high ceiling.
A glossy ceiling of any type (stretch ceiling, papered or made of PVC wall panels) will make the kitchen look taller. A soft reflection overhead produces the effect of depth to the ceiling.
Mirror fragments will raise the ceiling.
- Mirrored. The material (cassettes) is mounted on a special frame in the form of a panel. This creates a mirrored composition - a striking element of the interior and a winning design for small kitchens.
The reflective surface of the stretch ceiling creates the illusion of a large room.
- Tension material is an impractical solution for the kitchen. From the installation, the ceiling will become lower. The canvas deteriorates from high temperatures and mechanical stress. But if the room is high, then the glossy seamless film will significantly increase the kitchen space.
- Colored the ceiling is the most popular option. You can simply paint the plastered surface with glossy white paint.
Floor covering
Small square kitchen design: light floor with diagonal tiles or rhombuses.
- Diagonal masonry. A diagonally tiled surface will expand the space.
- Laminate lengthen the room in stripes.
- Light floor color - the best design of small kitchens that does not hide the area.
Optimal lighting
Install lots of ceiling lights.
Lighting also affects perception. The brighter the kitchen, the more voluminous it will look. However, local light (from one source - chandeliers) will not give the effect of expanding the area. Hence the practical consequence: in addition to the central pendant device, the design of a small kitchen of 7 sq m should include zone lighting - spotlights above the stove and the work surface.
Do not forget about the importance of natural light - transparent and light curtains let it through as much as possible.
The small kitchen seems spacious due to the abundance of light.
Increase the space with lighting:
- chandelier in the center of the kitchen ceiling;
- spotlights around the perimeter;
- natural light: transparent window masking or even lack of it.
How to properly equip the interior
A white kitchen wall looks boring with a light wood-like countertop.
The priority for surfaces is gloss and mirrors. Mirrors and glass on furniture doors will expand the room many times over. The result is hard to overestimate: the design of the small kitchen, which includes a mirrored surface of the cabinets and a reflective apron underneath, makes it appear twice as spacious.
Due to the abundance of mirrored surfaces and glass, it is difficult to guess the true dimensions of the kitchen.
If you are making a kitchen set yourself, the simplest way to attach mirrors to cabinet doors is an aluminum corner sill frame.
For those who like bright colors, headsets with reflective coating and white elements.
You can't get away from kitchen utensils: even if the area of the rest of the apartment allows you to store pots, flour and cereals in one of the rooms, constant movement during the cooking process is inconvenient for the hostess at home.
It is better to make not only the upper, but also the lower cabinets with a depth of no more than 40 centimeters. Yes, the countertop of the work surface will protrude forward, but the visual perception of the kitchen will change. And the passage is cleared with such narrow furniture.
Order a corner kitchen set:
- It is roomy enough and makes space opposite - for a dining table.
- Corner placement is rational: T-shirt - in the corner, refrigerator and hob - on opposite sides of it. Thus, the working triangle rule is respected.
- The angle is maximally used thanks to the special configuration of furniture: these cabinets and cabinets are easy to open and use.
Here rounded shapes without sharp corners will be preferable.
Read also an article on small kitchen design.
Furniture transformation
The design of the small square kitchen, typical of the Khrushchevs, is ill-suited to standard furniture. Lots of cabinets only add to the feeling of tightness. What are the alternatives? Let's take a look at the main ways to save space.
Variants of placement of cabinets and pedestals:
Furniture with legs does not shorten the floor area.
- The curbstones are raised above the floor. Legs, although impractical, are more advantageous in terms of visible floor area than floor-length furniture.
- We do not attach it to the ceiling.The top row of cabinets should not be raised too close to the ceiling: the viewer should see the entire ceiling area without any obstacles.
- Lack of wall cabinets. Option - cabinets only under the work surface - relevant if there is no idea to build it under the worktop a small refrigerator or washing machine (they will take up a lot of space, and it will remain for kitchen utensils too few).
Light walls without hanging cabinets, combined with bright lighting, make the kitchen very spacious.
If you are not ready for the radical elimination of the upper row of cabinets, leave one by the refrigerator and hang a shelf next to the stove for the appliances and spices necessary for cooking.
- Dryer instead of cabinet. Instead of a cupboard (which is usually located above the sink), purchase an openwork chrome plate dryer. A small amount of dishes sitting above the work surface will not spoil the appearance of the room. And the gain in space will be obvious.
- Table top in place of the window sill. Acceptable kitchen design: for a small kitchen, the window sill is transformed into a table or cabinet. So the space by the window is used to the maximum.
Use the area by the window.
Refrigerator in a small kitchen
Are you sure that a refrigerator is absolutely essential in the kitchen? Yes, going to the room for groceries is a few extra steps. But maybe these steps are not too high a price for an unloaded kitchen?
If the refrigerator still remains in the kitchen, consider a few subtleties:
- White color it is used so often precisely because it makes any room visually larger, does not clutter it up.
- Mirror refrigerator in this sense it is even more advantageous. But its surface will have to be wiped very often: all touches will leave traces.
- Small model will fit under the work surface.
Diagram: how to build a refrigerator under a long tabletop
It is better that the door of a free-standing unit opens towards the wall closest to the refrigerator - otherwise an open door will become an insurmountable obstacle for anyone who tries to move around the kitchen at the same time with you.
Table and chairs
Transparent furniture is an original option for a small kitchen.
Small kitchen designs usually solve the problem of dining table placement by making it as compact and inconspicuous as possible.
- Plexiglas chairs, transparent as a whole, except for the metal frame, visually do not clutter up the kitchen.
- Folding furniture. Another useful idea is folding chairs or compact stools that can be assembled into one another if necessary. Even very inexpensive plastic stools, collected in a pile and tucked into a corner, look much better here than luxurious chairs that prevent you from walking through the room.
A folding table is a godsend for a small area.
- Table on two legs. One side of the tabletop is attached directly to the wall, the other rests on one or two legs. The table can comfortably accommodate two people, at the same time, it practically does not clutter up the premises.
- Bar counter instead of the dining table. Convenient purchase - bar counter. It is versatile in a small room: you can have lunch and use it as a work surface.
The bar counter at the windowsill will replace the dining table here.
- Window sill table. The design of a small kitchen with a window, whose windowsill has been turned into a dining table, is another solution to the problem of free space. Alas, it is not possible to have lunch with the whole family here, but to have breakfast in comfort is quite. And a large dining table can be taken out into the living room, because serving ready-made meals from the kitchen is not a problem.
Kitchen decor
Lightweight hinged shelves save space, and “weightless” blinds and a minimum of decor samples do not overload a small kitchen.
Decor and kitchen design for a small kitchen are just laconic design details. An abundance of small accessories will bring chaos and narrow the boundaries of the room.
- Curtains: light, airy, without a large print. Samples are suitable both up to half of the window and into the floor (the window is so much larger). Lambrequins are inappropriate here - they clutter up.
- Jalousie: with narrow vertical stripes.
- Roman blinds very handy: go up, free the windowsill.
Small kitchen designs with Roman shades are practical and fashionable decoration.
Combining with another room
You can simply expand the entrance and build an arch instead of a door.
Kitchen design - for a small kitchen is always only a half measure. Whatever Bulgakov's Bassoon says about the fourth dimension, it is not humanly possible from a small make a large room, using only the shape of furniture and visual perception as tools viewer.
Features of typical layouts Soviet-built houses:
- In Khrushchevs, the kitchen is separated from the room only by a thin partition - half a brick or reinforced concrete slab on embedded parts in the floor and ceiling. We can observe the same picture in the majority of small families. The wall is not load-bearing - its dismantling is absolutely safe.
Important! Any redevelopment requires agreement with the BTI and drawing up a project.
Option to combine a kitchen with a room.
- Newer houses often have a 2 to 4 square meter pantry adjacent to the kitchen - ideal for a built-in refrigerator.
Should you combine a kitchen with a single room? Let's weigh the advantages of a separate kitchen and a combined one.
Benefits of a separate kitchen:
- When two or three people live together with different sleep and work schedules, the kitchen (isolated room) will give the opportunity to work on a laptop at night or watch a movie when the rest of the family lay down sleep.
- Late guests can move to the kitchen without disturbing the child's sleep.
- Smells during cooking do not spread through the rooms.
The advantages of a kitchen studio:
- The visual perception of a studio apartment and a small one-room Khrushchev is strikingly different. In the first case, we have a rather spacious modern apartment. In the second - alas, there are only two overgrown closets, united by a door.
- In one large room, large-sized furniture will fit much more conveniently and aesthetically than in two small ones. You don't have to walk around the furniture when going from one corner to another.
- It is worth combining a room with a kitchen - and we have a relatively spacious room in front of us, which can be divided into functional zones.
The photo shows an ordinary Khrushchev building after redevelopment.
The decision is definitely up to you. Such an apartment issue as redevelopment is a very laborious event.
Conclusion
The design of a small kitchen in an apartment may vary depending on the project budget and aesthetic owner preferences, however, the basic concepts presented in this article will remain common to all solutions. Check out the video now: a visual design project will tell you new ideas.
Kitchen design in brezhnevka - read our informative article here.