Features and ideas for separating the kitchen and living room

In modern apartment buildings, you can often find such a layout of apartments in which the kitchen is combined with the living room into one room.

Any layout has its pros and cons, it all depends on what specific functions are assigned to it. Someone is uncomfortable in a small and dark room, while someone prefers that each family member has his own, albeit a tiny corner. Combining a kitchen and living room has certain advantages over a classic interior.

• The space of both the living room and the kitchen becomes larger and brighter. It is easier to accommodate a large family or invited guests in such a large room. In such a room, you can install a large table and more seating.
• The hostess or host who is busy preparing food can continue to communicate with guests or relatives, listen to music or watch a program that is on the TV located in the hall. This saves additional money that would have been spent on installing a second kitchen TV.
• In a separate kitchen, it is much more difficult to organize a dining area in which the whole family and incoming guests would feel free and comfortable. Moreover, if you organize such a zone in a separate living room, then there will be practically no place to rest in it.

Most often, these advantages outweigh the possible disadvantages that arise when connecting the kitchen and living room.

• Nothing traps food odors from the cooking area to the relaxation area. If milk has escaped on the stove or the meat is burnt, then this smell will be felt in almost the entire apartment for a long time. In addition, it will be absorbed into the upholstery of upholstered furniture and curtains hanging on the windows of the living area.
• In the hall, you will hear the clink of dishes and the noise of household appliances, which can bring tangible discomfort to the residents. If, in addition to the combined living room, the apartment has separate sleeping places, then this minus will practically not be felt, and if there is only one room, then it will play an important role.

Of course, the significance of these shortcomings for each person may be different. For some, a large space is more important and a little noise is less important, while others cannot be quietly in a room that smells of cooking food.

Even if you really want to remove the wall separating the kitchen from another room, it is not necessary to do it in the newly purchased apartment. There are several types of premises in which such a layout will look appropriate and at the same time be functional.

• In large apartments, in which, in addition to the living room itself, there are several bedrooms for all household members. If you combine a kitchen with a living room in an ordinary two-room apartment, in which a family of two adults and one or more children lives, then either parents or children will not get their own room. The inability to retire for many people is fraught with severe discomfort and even stress.
• One-room studios... In such apartments, separating the kitchen into an independent room is almost impossible due to the very modest size of the entire room.

• Apartment with a large kitchen and a small living room... Most often, this layout can be observed in old houses, regardless of the number of rooms. The modern kitchen is equipped with many useful and at the same time compact equipment, so it does not require as much space as before. At the same time, the average family increasingly consists of 2-3 people who do not need such a large room for eating, but they would like to expand the recreation area. In this case, redevelopment of the apartment is justified and often simply necessary.

You should sensibly evaluate the volume of rooms and the internal layout of your own apartment before starting to prepare for the renovation. If possible, visit friends or relatives who have already organized such a combination in their house or apartment and evaluate the convenience of the design. You can read online reviews of satisfied and not so owners to decide on the final decision.

Even if the wall between the kitchen and living room has been dismantled, and the two rooms are now connected into one, it is best to delimit the cooking area from the rest of the room. This will give the interior a more modern and complete look, and in addition, the restriction can be in the form of various shelves or pieces of furniture that are not only beautiful, but also carry certain functions.

One of the classic techniques for dividing the kitchen and living room is the bar counter. It can be mounted as an independent piece of furniture, or it can be a continuation of the wall. It is necessary to plan a rack made from a part of a wall that previously divided rooms at the stage of planning a renovation.

Zoning of various zones in a room can be accomplished by raising individual parts of the floor to a height of 15-20 cm or even higher. So, a seating or cooking area can be located on a small podium when the rest of the room has a normal floor level.

From parts of the wall, you can mount a massive arch that separates the kitchen from the dining room or living room. In addition, such an arch can be placed closer or further than the demolished wall, in order to, respectively, reduce or increase the cooking area.

Instead of a real wall, you can make a thin partition that covers part of the kitchen area. It can be made of wood, glass and even thick paper. Such Japanese-style paper partitions look especially good, when the rest of the interior of the room also has an oriental bias. You can hang a small curtain made of thick fabric or long beads to separate the living room from the dining room. In a large room, such a fabric woven from LED filaments will look beautiful. At any moment, an ordinary partition turns into a real festive garland.

In order to zone a room, it is not always necessary to completely rebuild a room or erect various partitions. Sometimes, just different wall or floor finishes are enough to separate the sleeping area from the kitchen. In addition, color separation will help to cope with this task.

Whichever option the owners of the apartment choose, the main thing is the quality of the repair done and the convenience of all residents. Home should remain the place to which you want to return.

The kitchen studio project is in the next video.