Subtleties of the layout of a 2-room "Khrushchev"

The massive housing construction of the Soviet era has left us a legacy of small apartments, divided into small rooms for members of large families, with a small kitchen, hallway and miniature bathroom. Many continue to live in such apartments, scolding the inconvenient layout, and some dare to modernize their living space and bring it closer to modern requirements.

Most of the standard European apartments are small in size and yet have functional planning and stylish design. Japan has surpassed all other countries in architectural terms, masterfully placing everything necessary for a family's life in a minimal area. And in Hong Kong, due to the high cost of housing, the area of ​​the apartment is minimized, and every centimeter is endowed with utilitarian functions. Let's try to figure out how much it is possible to translate it into our "Khrushchevs".

Two types of structural materials for five-story buildings are widespread in Russia: brick and panel houses. We note right away that the residents of brick houses are more fortunate, such walls lend themselves better to modernization, brickwork is easy to carefully disassemble, and the freed bricks can be used for internal repair work or the construction of a wall in another place.

Residents of panel apartments for radical redevelopment or even demolition of one wall may need to attract special equipment to break unnecessary partitions. However, for interior partitions in such houses, a material such as gypsum was often used. A gypsum wall can be easily sawed off to the desired size with a regular hacksaw, and you can be 100% sure that this wall is not load-bearing.

It is the peculiarity of apartment designs that is the main condition for the modernization of premises.

Having conceived a redevelopment, it is necessary to purchase a floor plan of your house in the architecture department of your area, where all load-bearing and non-load-bearing structures are indicated. If you yourself do not have knowledge in this matter, then you need to consult with specialists. Otherwise, your renovation may compromise the safety of the building as a whole.

To avoid this, we follow the mandatory rules:

• The supporting structures must not be weakened: make them thinner, cut openings in them, arrange arches without strengthening with channels.
• Sewer drains should be located only in the bathroom, bathroom and kitchen, in the place of the common riser of the house. The gas pipe must not be moved categorically on its own.

• It is unacceptable to change the size and number of window openings, special permissions are needed here, since this changes the external facade of the entire multi-storey building. An exception is the window openings that open onto the balcony, here it is a little easier to obtain permission.
• All proposed changes are applied to the drawing and agreed with the district architect, with electricians and with the gas service. It takes a lot of time, requires expenses for registration, but without these approvals, redevelopment cannot be started.

So, we have a floor plan of the house, and on it we found our apartment. We will explore the possibilities for modernization. Our two-room "Khrushchev" has a standard footage from 30 ("lorry") to 43 square meters. m. total area.The rooms are usually adjoining. A bathroom and a bathroom are combined into one room. Corridor no more than 3 sq. m, there is a door to the kitchen, a large room and a bathroom. Balcony or loggia available if it is not the first floor.

The adjoining rooms are located in the "tram" type: a door leads from the hall into a narrow and long room. Here it is convenient to extend the corridor at the expense of a large room, leave the narrow room unchanged, and place a wardrobe at the end of the corridor. Thus, we get two small isolated rooms for adult family members and children.

The second type of layout: the rooms are located one after another, the hall is a checkpoint, between the kitchen and the hall the corridor is replaced by a niche. There is already a combination of functional areas, and, unambiguously, the wall between the kitchen and the adjoining room, in which the niche is located, is not load-bearing. Here you can apply the following reconstruction methods: demolish part of the wall between the kitchen and the hall, combining these two zones, and leave the partition separating the front door. So the space of the apartment will be more comfortable and intimate.

A more radical way - the entire wall between the kitchen, hall, hallway is demolished, the plumbing block remains intact. Modern minimalism in room design relies precisely on such completely open spaces. And finally, the opposite solution for isolating a room. The niche is completed to a full-fledged wall, an ordinary doorway is made and an isolated corridor, kitchen, hall is obtained. This option is preferable for families with children, where you need to satisfy the needs of several households with different sleep and wakefulness patterns.

The third type is a 2-room corner apartment, the peculiarity of corner apartments is that one of the rooms has two windows. This, on the one hand, makes it difficult to arrange furniture, and on the other, it expands the possibilities for stylish design space. If there are no obstacles from the supporting structures, then from this room you can make two small bedrooms or a bedroom and an office, a bedroom and a nursery. And to combine the hall into a single space with a kitchen and a hallway, where the whole family can gather.

Today, in the design of apartments, a fashionable trend is the presence of a single space without main walls, but with functional zoning with the help of furniture, transforming systems and finishing materials.

The dimensions of Khrushchev's "kopeck piece", of course, will not allow creating a luxurious interior in the Empire style, but this is not required in a small apartment. It is better to focus on modern minimalist styles - Scandinavian, hi-tech, Mediterranean. In these interiors, maximum spaciousness is combined with simple utilitarian furniture of comfortable laconic forms, which will free up space.

When choosing a modernization option, one should take into account the needs of household members, whether it will be comfortable for them to sleep and relax in one large room, and learn lessons, and receive guests. It may be better to leave isolated rooms. If the method of combining is chosen, then there are certain methods in decoration that you need to know.

Sliding doors are very popular for spatial zoning of "vests". They can isolate the bedroom or kitchen area as needed. The design of doors in one room should be made in the same style, right up to the front door. if it is also included in the common space. It is better if they are of the same color as the walls, because several doors in one room can split the overall panorama of the interior.

It is better to install cabinets in the whole wall with sliding doors, this will save space. It is preferable to choose a light finish or to match the color of the wallpaper, this will visually enlarge the room, the design of doors and facades of cabinet furniture should be in harmony with each other.A dark color should be used for structural elements, it organizes the space well.

For walls and ceilings, it is better to choose white, beige or rich olive, pink, blue tones. A large pattern on the wallpaper or ceiling is best used in accentuated places, to indicate a certain area, for example, above the dining table. It is not necessary to paste over all the walls with wallpaper with large ornaments. This will visually reduce the scale of the room.

Glossy surfaces of furniture or ceilings will visually expand the space. A multi-level ceiling, with a combination of glossy and matte surfaces at different levels, is also one of the ways to separate one zone from another.

Arches and racks are traditionally used to delimit a room. A beautifully and stylishly designed shelving unit will not only separate the working area from the living room, but will also become an artistic accent of the room.

In the finishing of the floor, different materials are used to designate a certain zone, for example, they combine tiles and parquet, stone and tiles. They also make a split-level floor to separate the bedroom from the living room or the kitchen from the hall.

For small apartments, designers have created a wide selection of transforming furniture. A bed with an extra pull-out berth saves space.

The most common redevelopment option is to combine the kitchen and the hall. A small kitchen allows you to place a compact kitchen set and a bar counter that will separate the living room from the cooking area. The bar counter is equipped with several seats for eating. The split-level ceiling visually divides the zones. An accent wall with a large pattern indicates the placement of the living room.

When the wall between the kitchen and the adjoining room is demolished, it becomes possible to design interestingly two windows and a wall between them. The use of various decorative finishes gives depth and visually increases the area. At the same time, you need to ensure that the palette of finishing materials is mutually harmonious in color and texture.

The free layout of the apartment still requires the creation of intimate areas. Such a zone is a bedroom, in order to give it privacy, they design niches, arches or install shelves. At the same time, color and different ceiling finishes are used for zoning. The living room area is decorated in one color, and the bedroom area is a companion color and is separated by a contrasting rack.

Modern finishing materials are relatively inexpensive to include a balcony in the area of ​​a room or kitchen. For this, work is carried out to insulate the perimeter of the balcony. Heating batteries are installed, a warm floor is made and a study is placed in the balcony niche.

Creating a small dining area on the balcony will add space to a small living room or kitchen.

The selection of curtains in such transforming spaces becomes very important. The colors of textiles must be matched to the upholstery of upholstered furniture and the color of the wallpaper so that the room does not break up into separate segments. It is worth paying attention to the color of the furniture in harmony with the ornament on the curtains.

Thus, even the outdated Khrushchev kopeck piece can be turned into comfortable modern apartments.

How to make the correct redevelopment of a 2-room "Khrushchev", see the next video.