A living room with an office in one room is not uncommon in conditions of a shortage of free square meters. When organizing a work space in the living room, you need to plan everything in advance. It is not always possible to create the correct interior of a room that has to perform several functions at once. Every little thing, every detail is important here. However, you should not be afraid of change. If you competently approach the solution of this issue, you can get a very interesting and comfortable interior in which all family members, and even guests, will comfortably exist.
Advantages and disadvantages
Before taking on the alteration of perhaps the most important room in the apartment, all the advantages and disadvantages of this reorganization should be identified. Let's consider all the possible benefits first:
- Lots of light. The living room is usually the largest and lightest room in the apartment. Adequate lighting is essential for any job.
- No need to reclaim a room from someone. The living room, by definition, is a common room, that is, it does not belong solely to any of the inhabitants of the living space. This means that you will not need to ask permission, ask someone to give you this place. And you can calmly go about your business, without distracting anyone and without disturbing the household.
- The ability to update the design. When re-equipping the space of a room, the most unexpected ideas may arise, when embodied, you can completely transform the room, and it will become the brightest and most original place in the apartment.
- Saving space. It often happens that a private room is too small to provide space for any activity. And there is no opportunity to occupy another room due to the lack of free meters.
- The ability to do several things at the same time. You can do your job and at the same time socialize with the rest of the family or watch TV as long as it doesn't distract you from your activity.
However, the idea of combining a hall and a work area is not without its drawbacks:
- Because the room is primarily a reception room and a gathering place for all family members, these factors can be distracting and make it difficult for you to focus on work. Extraneous conversations, loud TV sound - all this distracts attention and can affect the quality of your actions.
- Inconvenience for the rest of the tenants. If your activity is associated with the presence of extraneous noise, they can interfere with those who will be at the same time with you in the room.
- The workplace should always be in perfect order, so every time you finish work, you will be required to carry out a complete cleaning of the room. If you work with papers, then you need to clean them up every time so that someone does not accidentally brush them off the table or put a cup of tea on them (after all, many people like to eat in front of the TV).
If you are sewing, other than picking up garbage on the floor, be sure to carefully hide all dangerous items such as scissors or needles so that children or someone else does not inadvertently grab them.
A place for a working area
If you have firmly decided to settle down with your work in the living room, you need to determine how to properly make the zoning of the room. There are several most common options for how to best equip a place to work:
- Balcony. If from the living room there is an exit to the loggia or at least to the balcony (albeit small), this will allow you to get an additional room for work. If the project of the apartment allows, then the wall between the room and the loggia can be demolished, thus increasing the space, and instead of the wall, install a plasterboard partition with a niche for storing things, papers and other items you need for work. Often, a window block is inserted in the wall between the loggia and the room. It can also be dismantled without touching the lower part of the wall - it can be conveniently adjusted under the table.
- Niche … This can be the perfect place to work. The niche is easiest to separate from the rest of the space. And the lack of daylight can be compensated for with additional built-in lamps. Moreover, they can be mounted not only in the ceiling, but also in the walls along the entire perimeter of the niche.
- Angle. Most often, the space in the corner is empty as too inconvenient to put something significant there. But for a desktop, the angle is fine. Such accommodation is often chosen by mothers who have to combine work and babysitting. For this option, furniture on wheels is suitable, so that it is more convenient to get up from the table.
- Near the window … This option has several undeniable advantages. First, you can use the windowsill as a table. If necessary, it can be increased to the desired width. And secondly, the workplace will be sufficiently lit. Alternatively, you can place the table between two windows. Then the light will come evenly from both sides.
Living room zoning
If none of the standard solutions suits you, there is only one thing left - zoning the space. The simplest thing is to divide the room into zones for work and rest using lighting. This can be a table lamp, wall sconces near the table, or recessed ceiling lights. If this is a computer desk with shelves for office equipment, you can run an LED strip around the perimeter. Such lighting will look very original and make the living room stylish and modern.
In addition, in the living room, you can make a multi-level ceiling and place built-in lamps, for example, above the sofa and above the work desk.
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Experts recommend planning combined rooms in such a way that so that the person sitting at the workplace has his back to the main area. This is necessary so that he can concentrate. Ideally, it is desirable to separate the two functional areas with a partition. It can be either solid, which is the remainder of a wall, or made artificially from various materials, or a light type of portable screen or curtain.
The latter are very convenient in that, if necessary, they can be removed and the integrity of the room restored. The division of space into zones can also be done with the help of pieces of furniture. This can be a wardrobe, a stylish slide, part of a wall, or a rack with niches. This option is good because it completely hides the sitting person from prying eyes.
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Sometimes there are rooms of non-standard shapes - for example, pentagonal ones, or with all kinds of niches, in which you can also organize an isolated space for work. They can be equipped with additional storage space. However, the second option is not devoid of some inconveniences - during work you will rest your gaze on a blank wall, and the lack of natural light will force you to spend money on additional light sources.
Also, zoning of the room can be done on an additional elevation. This kind of a kind of pedestal is often obtained if a loggia or balcony is connected to the base of the room. In this case, there is often a need for additional floor insulation.
A great idea is to zone the room with finishing materials.… This can be the highlight of the entire interior. To implement such an idea, you can use not only various wallpapers, but also various materials for decoration. For example, if the main part of the living room is covered with paper wallpaper, then the part that will be the working area can be finished with plastic panels, decorative plaster, or just wallpaper with a different texture.
At the same time, it is important to maintain a single style: the materials should be in harmony with each other either in color, or in subject matter, or in texture.
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Furniture
The interior of any room, and especially a multi-tasking space, is determined by the furniture setting. For the guest and relaxation area, it is standard: this is a set of upholstered furniture, the size of which depends on the availability of free space, and various options for a table: coffee, serving, dining, transformer - there can be many options, and most often a cabinet for audio and video equipment. As for the business space, difficulties can arise here.
Depending on the type of activity, furniture may be needed very different. If the work of an intellectual plan is carried out mainly on a computer, in this case you need a comfortable chair and a light table.
Since the age of bulky monitors is a thing of the past, and light laptops and compact monoblocks have replaced them, it is often enough to just have a small table and an outlet nearby to charge the battery. And for storing documents, disks, stationery and other things, you can hang a small shelf.
If you are engaged in some kind of creative business, and you need, for example, a sewing or knitting machine for work, then a comfortable sitting place is also important here. Only in this case it should not be a soft chair, but a chair with a backrest adjustable in height. You should also consider a storage system for working materials - yarn, threads, fabric, and so on. This can be a shelving unit with glass doors or a chest of drawers.
They, if necessary, can act as a delimiter of space. Whatever the furniture, it is desirable that it does not look like a foreign body, but is in harmony with the environment. For example, if a TV stand and a coffee table are made in the same color scheme, then the desktop must also be matched. Especially if the workspace is not protected by any partitions.
In order not to clutter up the room with unnecessary furniture, you can use an existing one in your work - for example, a dining table, if there is one, or a TV console. For the same purposes, you can pick up transformer furniture. Today's stores are ready to offer customers a variety of options: a folding table or chair, a retractable tabletop, and even a table that turns into a sleeping place.
Closed floor cabinets will weigh down a small space. Therefore, it is worth using the space on the walls - hanging open shelves for books and papers. However, a sense of proportion is important, and there should not be too many shelves, otherwise they will visually “eat up” the space.
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Color spectrum
Some designers advise to design the rest room, combined with the study, in a single color scheme so that it looks like a finished project. Other decorators, on the other hand, recommend highlighting and emphasizing different areas with different colors. Which of the options you prefer is up to you. As for the recommended colors in which to arrange the work space, a lot depends on what type of activity you are doing.
All muted tones are considered universal colors.: neutral white, moderate blue, calm beige, light gray, pale yellow, and also the color of young green. Eyes will get tired quickly from too bright colors. In addition, they distract from the working spirit.
If your soul asks for a holiday, and halftones are not for you, you can dilute them with small bright blotches. In addition, you can "please" the eye by choosing bright upholstery for an armchair or chair.
See below for more details.