The living room is the central room in the house or apartment. This is not only a room for receiving guests or holding cozy family evenings. First of all, the living room is the hallmark of the house, a space that reflects the mood of the household, their interests and hobbies.
When arranging a hall, it is important to preserve the focus points of interests of its residents, while multiplying the functional values of the room. It should become the most comfortable and at the same time cozy in the house.
To create the desired interior, while not losing its main value, you need to carefully understand the features of the living room layout, depending on its size, the number of windows, the presence of adjacent rooms and other indicators. Based on this data, the designer finds the lightest and darkest points within the space, determines how to place functional areas, enhance lighting or visually change its irregular geometry.
Features
It is important to remember that the living room of a modern person is a room in which he finds himself after a working day. Loaded with chores, traffic jams, and many other problems, getting home, he desperately wants to spend the evening in peace and quiet. That is why the living room plays such an important role in a person's life. First of all, it is a place of rest, replenishment of strength, a kind of buffer in which you can tune in to the desired mood.
The main constructive distinguishing feature of the living room is its versatility. Usually small in size, it must solve many problems while remaining comfortable for all family members. It is important to arrange furniture in such a way that all household members find a place and occupation in this room without distracting each other., but at the same time staying in sight. This gives the family a unique opportunity to spend time together without affecting their personal space.
The plan of the hall should be thought out to the smallest details, whether the redevelopment is taking place in the "Khrushchev", "Brezhnev", in the country or in a private house.
Space planning rules
Regardless of the size of the room, it must meet several important requirements:
Be light. Sunlight gives a person a sense of peace and tranquility, which is why it is so important to fill the living room with natural sunlight. This can be easily done by freeing the window space from dark curtains, as well as an abundance of flowers on the windowsill. The feeling of emptiness and the reflection of light from the surface of the windowsill will instantly increase the illumination throughout the room
In addition, you should pay attention to the glossy surfaces of the ceiling and light tones of the walls - a room with such a combination will literally be filled with light even on a not sunny day.
It should be easy to navigate… The location of the furniture must be determined in such a way that each element can be easily approached without hooking anything around. The optimal distance between two pieces of furniture is 50 cm, and for a passage along the center line of the room - at least 90 centimeters. It is worthwhile to think over the routes of movement around the room in advance, and arrange the furniture in such a way that it does not interfere with the passage to another zone
Interior details and accessories should not overload the eye… It is unlikely that after coming home after work, someone wants to sit on the couch and look at the décor and accessories found everywhere. The abundance of complex shapes loads the eye, creating a feeling of fatigue and discomfort. And in order for a person to feel light and comfortable in the room, it is worth building the interior with symmetrical lines
The correct proportions relax the eye, making the space visually light and airy. The gaze literally "slides" over them, giving the effect of relaxation and a sense of peace.
Breading for 18 sq. m and 16 m2 is not much different. If the room is trapezoidal, then it is better to place the furniture along the wall. The same rule applies to a narrow room.
Zoning
The design project of the living room directly depends on the available characteristics of the room - its area, daylight, ceiling heights, niches, arches, and so on. Based on these data, the issue of the need to connect a kitchen, a corridor or a balcony to the living room, as well as the number of functional areas, is being decided.
Most often, the living room has an area of 16-20 sq. m and has a standard set of functions:
- rest zone;
- place to watch TV;
- place for receiving guests;
- extra bed;
- dining room;
- study.
Based on the identified wishes, the general outlines of the layout of the room are built, which must be taken into account, including the interests of all family members.
A common seating area is a large sofa and two armchairs, or two small sofas and an armchair, between which there is a coffee table. This arrangement is considered the most successful, because it follows the rule of comfortable communication - for him, a person needs to be located at a distance of at least a meter from the interlocutor, while it is desirable to see with the peripheral vision of all the participants in the conversation.
On average, this zone has a size of 9-10 square meters. m, which means it can be easily set up in a standard living room of any apartment.
The dining area in the living room is usually represented by the presence of a high-backed table and chairs. This part of the room can be the border between the kitchen and the living room, if the rooms are combined, or, if there is free space, it can be a full-fledged recreation and reception area.
In large rooms, it is important to visually separate it from the common space so that eating together becomes a special ritual that will not be disturbed by extraneous elements.
The office is most often represented in the living room as a table with a laptop, but a small console against the wall or in a niche by the window looks most advantageous if a balcony joins the room. Not only the console itself, but also a rack for books or documents will organically fit into such a place.
Many women doing needlework, due to the lack of free space in the apartment, move their workshops to the living room. So that the hobby does not occupy the entire living space, it is also possible to provide for it an option with an attached balcony or part of a room with a transforming cabinet that can fit a sewing machine, a table, as well as many drawers and shelves for all sorts of little things.
If there is a child in the family, it is important to set aside a separate area for playing with him. It can be a small carpet and a low horizontal rack, which, among other things, will act as additional seating. Such designs carry several functions - inside them you can store baskets with toys and board games, and put bright pillows on the surface, which are comfortable to sit on.
It is important for a child to feel like a full-fledged part of the family, and in a living room of any size he needs to equip his own corner.
The TV viewing area is often the TV itself and its stand. Designers propose to free up free space by hanging the TV on the wall, and fill the space below with a horizontal rack for movie discs and a game console. Lovers of watching movies together will appreciate the arrangement opposite the main sofa of the home theater. In this case, it is necessary to arrange upholstered furniture in such a way that it is convenient to watch the film from anywhere in the room, without changing the comfortable position of the body.
A living room worthy of a rack or glass shelves with collectibles or trophies brought from various trips. They will not only decorate the common space, adding color accents, but also tell a lot about the life of the family, their hobbies and entertainment.
There are many techniques for arranging active work areas in rooms of different shapes and sizes.
Small living rooms, the area of which does not exceed 15 - 17 meters, should look freer than large rooms. To do this, light walls and glossy ceilings are made in them, and the floor is covered with light laminate or parquet, which is combined with parquet from an adjacent room or corridor. The window in a room 3 by 5 meters should be as free as possible and open to the eyes, so that the view behind it can become part of the interior.
These techniques will visually expand the boundaries of the room, creating the effect of flowing space.
It is important not to overload a small space with things. - to store them, you can equip a closet against a wall with a depth of only forty centimeters and a height of no more than a meter. The facade of such a rack should not distract attention. Thus, all important things will find a worthy storage place, and the horizontal line of the cabinet will make the room visually wider.
Large living rooms, with an area of 19 to 30 square meters, are much easier to give in to organic zoning, in which one resting place smoothly passes into another, without entering into conflict with it. Partitions can be installed in them, visually separating one zone from another, but at the same time it is desirable that they are not bulky and static - racks, vegetable elements or filament curtains do the best with this function.
The ideal option for the shape of the living room is a square - it is easier to create an ergonomic space in it, in which a person will be as comfortable as possible. However, not all living rooms meet this requirement. Often, especially in typical houses, this is a rectangular room with a small window on the wall opposite to the door. An adjoining balcony will be a wonderful find in such a room - it is easy to attach it to the common space, while receiving a panoramic window.
Irregular living rooms are less common: for example, in houses with semicircular walls, it is usually trapezoidal in shape, which is a real headache for designers. However, there are no unsolvable problems here either. Irregular shapes of space can be successfully beaten with the help of decorative elements, mirrors or textured surfaces, by integrating storage cabinets into the corners or creating an area for sports or dancing in them. This alteration is not difficult.
Design ideas
Every year, interior designers change the direction of decorating the space inside the living room, you should not try to keep up with each of these ideas. Once having correctly decorated the room, having arranged the furniture ergonomically, adding light and depth, the interior can only occasionally be supplemented with interesting artistic accents within the overall color scheme.
In order to "revive" the familiar image of the room, you can add a carpet with a bright print, a mirror in a beautiful frame, a false fireplace or several new pillows on the sofa.
A noteworthy idea for making a room new is to decorate one of its walls with a different color. Regardless of whether it is painted with textured paint or pasted over with wallpaper, such a portal can be changed once a season, bringing a new mood and a feeling of renewal to the entire interior into the room.
Beautiful examples in the interior
In a narrow living room, it is better to place furniture along the walls. Thus, you will have more free space.
The large hall can be divided into separate zones. This solution is very popular today.
Panoramic windows in the living room with two entrances look beautiful. They are suitable for both large and small rooms.
It is important to remember that any changes in the main room of the house should organically fit into its overall design, be suitable for all family members and be in harmony with the mood of the household. It is this formula that is fundamental when building an individual living room interior.
For more tips and tricks on how to properly zone your living room, see the next video.