From this article you will learn:
- What is a living room in the modern sense
- How to properly renovate your living room
- What can you come up with to decorate a small living room?
- How to make a spacious living room beautiful and cozy
The most important room in the house is the living room, where all important family events take place. Therefore, its design is given special importance. Among the mass of design ideas, the owners choose those that appeal to them most and are feasible from a material point of view. How to renovate a living room in an apartment or private house so that it is practical and will delight the residents for a long time? You will learn about this from our article.
Purpose of the living room
The very name of the living room speaks of its purpose - a room for receiving guests. But holidays and get-togethers with friends don’t happen so often, but the owners of the house gather in the lounge every day. Therefore, when developing the design of a living room, it is very important not only to give it a prestigious look in order to amaze visitors, but also to create the most comfortable conditions for the residents themselves. Photos in our article or on the Internet will help you decide on the right option for renovating the living room.
- Center of gravity
When developing the design of a living room, it is necessary to highlight a compositional center around which all further furnishings will be arranged.
In the old days, such a supporting unit was the fireplace. It was a point of attraction for the whole family; all the inhabitants gathered around it in the evenings: some with a book, some with handicrafts, and some simply relaxing in the warmth of the fire.
In Moscow, in the conditions of modern life, television has become such a center. It is near it that people usually relax in the evenings after working days. The limited living spaces of our apartments do not allow for a wide choice of means of relaxation in the home environment, so the relaxation area with a TV or home theater must be arranged carefully and with maximum comfort.
It will be interesting to watch a TV in a plasterboard niche. You can also build an original shelving unit and place a screen on its shelf. The surrounding space is filled with shelves with decorative elements.
- Soft seating area
For comfortable viewing of TV shows, it is necessary to equip a sofa area. Corner sofas complete with deep armchairs are best suited for this. Additional comfort and coziness can be achieved through ottomans and several pillows.
When choosing furniture, you need to consider the following factors:
- Aesthetics. The furniture is selected in accordance with the design idea that forms the basis of the living room interior. In this case, the coloristic and stylistic requirements dictated by the design renovation of the living room must be taken into account.
- Comfort. This is the most important criterion, because the main task of the living room is convenience for all family members during relaxation. Therefore, when buying furniture, carefully inspect it and be sure to try it out - how comfortable it is to sit in a chair or lie on the sofa.
- Quality. This is also important, because you don’t want to have to buy new furniture in six months, because the sofa is squashed and worn out and does not fit into the interior of the living room, which is still fresh after renovation.
It is also important to consider the issue of lighting. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the features of the layout. It’s one thing if the living room is a completely independent room, and quite another if it is combined, for example, with a dining room. In this case, the most intense lighting should be located in the area of the dining table.
In any case, there should be several lighting sources. In addition to the main thing, it is necessary to provide local lighting in the form of sconces or floor lamps. The degree and nature of illumination depend on both the design style and the available furniture. If there are stairs and mirrors in the living room, they should also be illuminated.
Furniture and interior items
12 votes
+
Vote for!
—
Vote against!
The living room is always considered the main room in the house. This is where the family most often gathers and receives their guests. Therefore, the renovation of the living room must be approached very responsibly. First of all, the interior of the living room should be functional and comfortable. You can hire builders for this task, or you can renovate the living room yourself, saving half the cost.
Repair planning
When you decide issues related to designing this room, you should start with zoning. In the drawing of the living room, it is necessary to mark areas that are associated with various processes in it: receiving guests, watching TV, doing handicrafts, playing games. For each process you need a special organization of space. It is necessary to correctly place the lighting fixtures, select the right facing materials and arrange the furniture in the optimal way.
Therefore, the next stage of planning is to look at photos of the living room renovation with your own hands and create sketches of the arrangement of furniture on the plan and marking the floor materials on it. Next, you can move on to the electrical system - switches, outlets, and lighting. After solving this issue, you need to start thinking about the decor of the room. At this stage, you need to choose the style and main color of the interior, as well as choose facing materials.
The last part of planning is the stage of selecting decorative elements and details that can make the room cozy. These are paintings, curtains and drapes, painted dishes, rugs and carpets, as well as objects of applied art.
Design styles
Style solutions that are suitable for the living room can be very different, in this situation it all depends on the lifestyle of the owners and their preferences. When thinking over a design option for renovating a living room, it is worth considering the fact that the chosen interior must be adhered to in all elements of the room.
The classic style, which is able to recreate a cozy atmosphere and a real home, is always in demand. This style solution is characterized by an abundance of wood objects, the furniture is distinguished by the presence of large parts, and the colors of the cladding are dark and noble. There are many decorative items - elegant photo frames, figurines and candlesticks, crystal or glass chandeliers.
High-tech is intended for those people who lead a mobile and fast-paced lifestyle. Living room renovation ideas in this case should include high-tech facing materials - alloys and metals, plastic, glass and composites. The image of a living room that is tiled and equipped within the hi-tech style is light, flexible and clean. There is no room for unnecessary details; all elements and interior items carry a functional load.
The interior of a country-style living room is replete with a variety of light-colored items made of wood, similar cladding made of wood or materials that have a similar pattern, folk crafts and wicker furniture. This interior is suitable for raising children and leisurely life.
Living room walls
To avoid getting overwhelmed when choosing a wall finishing method, you need to have a lot of information on how to renovate the living room in your home. You should consider the main types of finishes that deserve attention.
The basis of wall decoration in the living room is their alignment. If the walls are fairly smooth, there is no need to plaster them; you can immediately begin applying putty. To do this, it is necessary to use an environmentally friendly product on a water-dispersed basis. Before directly applying the putty, the walls must be primed.
This improves adhesion to the surface and protects the walls from fungus. Apply putty to the first layer and let dry. To avoid cracks, glue the serpyanka, prime everything again, and then apply a second layer of putty. Remove streaks and uneven surfaces after complete drying using a special fine-mesh grater.
In the photo of the renovation of the living room in apartments, you can see that another common method of finishing the walls in the living room is the use of plasterboard. To properly install drywall sheets, you must follow several rules. Screw screws into the corners of the room in the floor and wall at a distance of 3 centimeters from the wall. Stretch the thread, draw lines with a pencil and attach guides around the entire perimeter. After 40-50 centimeters it is customary to install frame racks.
To decorate the walls in the living room, you need to take standard sheets, which have a size of 1200 by 2500 by 12.5 centimeters. If necessary, sheets of drywall need to be cut. To ensure a smooth surface, you need to constantly monitor the joint of the sheets. Use self-tapping screws for fastening. For the living room, wallpapering remains a relevant solution, which comes in different styles and types: non-woven, exotic, fabric and foil.
Visual techniques
Vertical stripes in the living room on wallpaper can visually reduce the overall volume of the room, while increasing the height of the ceiling. If the ceilings in your room are too high, then you can optically reduce the height of the room by choosing wallpaper with horizontal stripes or gluing a border directly below the ceiling.
The living room will look visually enlarged, in which one wall, which does not contain a door or window, is covered with wallpaper with large patterns. If it is necessary to optically increase the depth of the room when renovating a living room, then cover one wall in this case with plain light wallpaper or wallpaper with a very small pattern that is not noticeable.
Wallpaper with a checkered pattern will help to visually make the ceiling heavier and more massive. Of course, the room will optically decrease in height. When purchasing wallpaper with diamond-shaped images, be sure to take into account that they visually expand the room.
Curtains will help eliminate the shortcomings of door and window openings, widen or lengthen the doors and windows of the living room. For example, to make windows look wider, it is customary to hang draperies and curtains on the sides of the window opening, covering part of the wall on the left and right. If you want to narrow the window, attach the curtains to a cornice that matches the size of the window opening, bringing the length of the curtains almost to the floor.
Ceiling in the living room
It is customary to wash off a whitewashed ceiling with a brush using more water. After drying, putty cracks and various irregularities. When the putty areas have completely hardened, they should be cleaned and painted. Paint the ceiling twice after this. In advanced cases, if the old plaster is peeling off, when renovating a living room with your own hands, it is recommended to completely remove the layer of plaster and then plaster the room again.
Plasterboard suspended ceilings have recently become fashionable. From an aesthetic point of view, such coatings do not cause any complaints and are installed relatively quickly. Galvanized profiles must be attached to the walls around the perimeter of the living room, which act as a supporting frame. It is customary to place them from the old ceiling at the same distance as you plan to install the suspended ceiling.
Then attach longitudinal profiles to the profile and to the ceiling, and then connect them into a single frame using transverse profiles. Sew sheets of drywall onto the frame; they need to be puttied and painted. If you wish, you can build a multi-level ceiling that will decorate any living room. Suspended ceilings allow you to create a unique lighting system from spotlights; they can be placed at different angles to the floor plane.
Living room floor
Decorating the living room also means updating the floor. It takes several days to repair the floor, because it is customary to first remove the old floor covering. If your living room has concrete floors, then a smooth cement screed would be quite appropriate, and you will lay the flooring on it.
If the floor in the living room is wooden, then when renovating the living room, you should check all the boards for strength, strengthen the loose ones, drown all the nail heads, and only then you can lay a rough underlay on which you will lay the decorative floor covering. Thin sheets of chipboard, OSB, and fiberboard can be used as a substrate.
Parquet boards, parquet or laminate are suitable as coverings. Parquet board in the list above is the most expensive type of coating, but it is better to give it preference due to its durability. If you already have a parquet floor in the living room, then it is worth updating it by sanding, and then varnishing it and sealing all the cracks. It is not recommended to use tiles or linoleum in the living room.
Color spectrum
If the living room is small and the whole family gathers in it in the evenings, it is recommended to use light colors: pale green, blue-gray and pearl. This allows you to visually expand the space and move the walls apart. In a large living room, you should use warm colors - rich and pastel tones. When renovating a small living room or a large room, it is necessary to give the room a formal look.
Various interior elements (upholstery, curtains, lamp shades), made in deep and rich colors, using details that reproduce the shine of precious metals (sewing on fabric, gilding, gold threads in tassels and cords on curtains) will create a festive atmosphere in the living room. atmosphere and feeling of luxury. The combination of gold and purple will look especially impressive.
doomsday
The living room is a place where the owners have a good time and chat with friends. When choosing lamps for the living room, you need to remember certain Feng Shui rules. The common four lampshades are considered destruction, which affects the relationships between relatives and those living in the house. If your chandelier has sharp parts, then they can recreate negative energy. The destructive field that formed is at least 3 meters in diameter.
Chandeliers with hanging, round and movable crystals or so-called “droplets” are excellent diffusers of positive energy. The photo of the living room renovation shows how the shades on the chandelier are directed up or down. This does not play a significant role in terms of the formation of positive energy. However, lamps that are directed upwards collect more dust.
Decorative elements
You can choose decorative pillows for the living room interior - on the corners with tassels or edges trimmed with cord, which will support the style of the room. The main condition is to correctly combine the color, pattern and texture of fabrics with the environment and with each other. Pillows of the same color will go well with tablecloths of lighter shades. You can achieve a good effect by placing plain pillows on sofas, chairs and armchairs with contrasting upholstery. You should never be afraid to experiment.
Look at the photo of the living room renovation - the combination of pillows with images on checkered and striped pieces of upholstered furniture will help create a sense of newness for observers and give the room a colorful and original look.
Combine checks, stripes and patterns. If the furniture sets are covered in fabric with an ornament, you can choose checkered or striped pillows. For pillows, choose fabrics with images. Among fabrics with a variety of patterns for pillows, choose those that have a characteristic “furniture” pattern: architectural details and cartouches. Pillows of similar colors will go well with classic stripes on furniture upholstery and with wallpaper of a similar pattern.
When choosing curtains, you need to take into account the pattern on the wallpaper. In a living room, in which the walls are covered with simple wallpaper without images or painted with plain paint, you can use fabric with a pattern for draperies and curtains, and it is desirable that the fabric pattern or background matches the color of the walls in the living room, is the same color as them, but slightly different shade. For rooms in which wall coverings have images, it is customary to use predominantly smooth or finely patterned fabric.
Carpets can visually increase the size of a room. From the photo of the renovation of a small living room, you can see that carpeting or large rugs would be appropriate in this room. They are able to visually increase the size of the room, especially if their pattern is uniform and small. Small rugs are usually placed near the sofa, armchair and table. It is unsightly and unpleasant for the eyes to lay carpets on a corner or diagonally. It is better to place them parallel to the walls in the room. Bright and colorful rugs will look good in a living room with smooth walls.
Various paintings look good in the living room. It is best to hang a work of art in the brightest place in the room and not devalue it by the proximity of the painting to other pieces of decoration. Paintings look impressive on smooth walls. If the walls in this room are covered with wallpaper with a picture, then the picture should have a fairly wide frame. Remember that there should not be a lot of paintings in the living room.
Now you understand that renovations in the living room, as in other rooms, must begin with planning in order to think through everything down to the smallest detail. There are many options for renovating your living room. But there are uniform rules that are common to all premises of this type.
Features of the living room renovation
Old-style apartments are characterized by small areas. Of course, you can do a redevelopment, but, in addition to the high cost and the need to coordinate such a solution, it still will not add many square meters. Therefore, in general, apartment owners in old buildings prefer to do budget renovations and make do with what they have. This is where various solutions come to the rescue, allowing you to visually expand the space.
Living rooms tend to have lots of natural light, which is not the case with hallways. But if suddenly little sun penetrates, then it is worth considering the option of installing a second window.
To create an attractive and comfortable interior, it is important to properly organize the space and provide lighting. But given the limited space of standard apartments, only a professional can create something interesting. One unusual idea for renovating a living room is enough, and your home will sparkle in a completely new way.
Zoning
In general, zoning does not have to be tied to the renovation of the living room. This can be done at any time. But along with the renovation, you can select zones more rationally, and they can be designed in accordance with a single design concept. If you are renovating a small living room that is elongated in length, then it is better to highlight the zones with plasterboard arches. This way you can save the area and adjust the space, getting rid of constriction.
If there is enough space and sufficient illumination (it’s good if there are two windows), then a guest sleeping area can be installed on the wall opposite the entrance under the window. A similar solution can be implemented when renovating a room of 18 square meters. m. The living room (photo below) also has a full-fledged recreation area.
Recommended articles on this topic:
- Children's room design
- Bedroom interior
- How to make an apartment cozy
If there are two opposite windows in the room, you can place a work area near one of them, partially blocking it if it faces south or southwest. This way there will be enough light, and you can hide from the extra heat in the summer. In clear weather, the lighting in the room will not be affected, but in cloudy weather you still cannot do without electric lighting.
Even in a large living room, it makes sense to allocate no more than four zones. Otherwise, the entire space will turn out to be unnecessarily cluttered. It should also be taken into account that zones in the same room should be such that their functions do not conflict with each other.
It is very convenient to divide a room into zones using furniture - this is the simplest and most organic technique, because furniture is the natural filling of the room. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to use bulky objects; it is quite enough to place a sofa or a bar counter. Drywall racks and flat aquariums are also used as dividers.
False partitions, arches, and ceiling decoration will also help to delimit the space. You can also zone a room using various decorative structures, screens, and curtains. If you stick different wallpaper in each zone during renovation, then this will also help differentiate the living room.
1. Redecoration in the living room
Redecorating the living room in an apartment involves minor changes in design that do not affect the design of the room. Typically, as part of such renovations, the finishing and filling of the interior are changed in such a way as to update the decoration without special costs.
When redecorating a living room, the following work is performed:
|
When deciding exactly how much repair work to carry out, it is necessary to focus on the wear and tear of the finish. When the surfaces are generally in satisfactory condition, you can simply renew the coating. If the old finish has become completely unusable, cracked, then it will have to be completely removed and, most likely, then major repairs will not be possible.
2. Major renovation in the living room
That is, only after analyzing the condition of a particular room can a conclusion be made about the need for major repairs. As part of the cosmetic renovation of the living room, you can simply rearrange the furniture and move areas. This will already allow you to significantly update the appearance of the apartment, introduce fresh elements into it, and therefore get positive emotions and new impressions.
If there is a task to radically change the appearance of the room during the renovation, then you will need to do the following:
- combine the balcony with the living room;
- remodel the apartment;
- install, demolish, or move partitions.
When performing such work, it is necessary to remember that they can only be carried out after the corresponding project has been approved by the housing inspection.
A major renovation of the living room involves the following work:
|
Before starting any repair work, you need to think it through carefully and draw up a plan. It is important to take a responsible approach to electrical wiring repairs. It will definitely need to be done if the previous work was carried out more than 10 years ago. Otherwise, there is a high probability of a short circuit and associated damage to property.
Before repairs, you will need to inspect the wiring and draw up network diagrams. After the electrical wiring has been repaired, the surfaces can be finished.
What to use to decorate the interior of a living room 18 meters
The interior of a living room of 18 meters in a two-room apartment is a combination of all elements. To create a harmonious composition, you will need to equally take into account the decoration of the walls and ceiling, the design of furniture, the appearance of curtains, and the design of small accessories.
But since when decorating in any style and color the designer has to deal with a limited area, then decorating a living room of 18 square meters. m is determined by some general recommendations:
- a simple interior, as in the next photo, or a complex one, when the living room is combined with a study, requires zoning . This is a prerequisite for a small room, since only a rigid structure visually turns it into a spacious one;
- 18 sq. m. The living room can be expanded by combining it with a balcony, bay window or hall . Even if you replace the interior wall with a thin partition, you can increase the area. Unfortunately, this option cannot be considered a budget option;
- interior of a room of 18 sq. m. It is preferable to decorate it in a modern style , since both the central symmetry inherent in classical styles and the abundance of furniture will turn a small living room into a cramped nook.
The photo shows the modern interior of a room of 18 square meters. m.
- if you choose a classic style, you can use the same technique as in the photo . Living rooms with an area of 18 m can be decorated in the Baroque style, but at the same time the space is organized as required by the modern concept: a minimum of furniture and the creation of zones;
- Eighteen meters of living room in a two-room apartment should be furnished with multifunctional furniture . Folding sofas, transformable chairs, retractable surfaces and even tables or beds, hidden for the time being in wardrobes, allow you to turn the room into a bedroom or two offices at any time;
- To decorate a small room, we use textured, but not voluminous, finishing - plaster, paint, wallpaper . But to create structure even on a low ceiling or uneven wall, you need to use plasterboard structures. We create pseudo niches and columns in order to structure the room.
The photo shows the bright interior of a living room of 18 square meters.
m. Design options for a living room of 18 square meters. m. are actually very diverse. It is only important to choose the right finish and arrange the furniture.
Where to start renovating the living room at home
Before starting any repair work, it is worth freeing the room as much as possible from the furnishings and old cladding. This is the only way you can accurately assess the potential of the living room; nothing will interfere with your design.
Of course, at this stage you should already decide exactly how much repair work needs to be done. Either it will just be updating the wallpaper as part of a cosmetic renovation, or you are planning to redesign everything, expand the kitchen at the expense of the loggia, demolish the partition to the living room and completely change the coverings.
If you are facing a major renovation, you will need to free up the living room as much as possible:
- Take out the whole situation.
- Remove existing wallpaper from the walls.
- Remove lighting fixtures and existing ceiling coverings.
- Remove the floor covering.
- Clear the living room of construction debris.
After all the cladding has been removed and the various structures have been dismantled, you will see the true dimensions of the room and be able to understand what the architectural features of the building are. This will make it much easier for you to decide on the renovation plan, as well as the design concept for the living room.
Choosing a style for renovating a living room
The style solution when renovating a living room in an apartment is chosen based on the budget that the owners have planned. There are styles that allow you to create an interior for little money. On the contrary, some areas require the use of exclusively expensive natural materials: rare wood species, exclusive furniture with expensive upholstery, designer accessories.
Classic styles
The classic style is easiest to implement in a room with a large area and high ceilings. Assess your resources before embarking on a classic-style living room renovation. Photo examples of interiors will serve as a guide to what should happen in the end.
Within the classical style, independent trends can be distinguished.
- English classicism
- Roman classics
It is distinguished by elegant severity. The walls are decorated with two types of materials: the lower part is finished with wooden panels, and the upper part is finished with heavy wallpaper, for which embossing and striped print are desirable.
Ceiling surfaces are painted; it is also possible to decorate them with false beams. The floor is covered with wooden boards or parquet. Small woolen carpets are used. The furniture is made from expensive mahogany wood. The interior necessarily includes chests of drawers and tea tables.
One of the mandatory attributes of the classic style is the fireplace, which becomes the compositional center of the room. If it is not possible to equip a natural fireplace, then you can make an imitation.
Curtains should be thick, multi-layered, with rich drapery; lambrequins are welcome. The color of the textile is matched to the wallpaper. A classic interior requires expensive accessories: candlesticks and candelabra, bronze watches, wide rich picture frames.
This style is characterized by luxury and proportionality, and is dominated by white and gold colors. The materials used are necessarily expensive, including polished marble.
The floor should be stone, sometimes mosaic, the walls should be finished with textured plaster, which is painted with patterns or frescoes. The ceiling is decorated with stucco and painting.
Columns are used to zone the space. There are niches in the walls in which decorative elements or lighting fixtures can be placed. The furniture should be massive and expensive. Textiles are also chosen to be heavy and of luxurious quality.
Living room interior 18 meters: choosing a style for decoration
The living room is decorated in the same style as the entire home. However, this is where the chosen concept should be displayed most clearly.
For rooms with a small area, modern styles are preferable, since they require a small amount of furniture and the possibility of grouping. Difficulties usually arise with designs in classic or rustic styles.
The photo shows the interior design of the living room.
- In the classic style, the interior is formed according to the principle of central symmetry; the guest area should be located in the middle part of the living room, and the center of the ceiling should be indicated by a chandelier. Secondary zones are located on both sides of the guest room and can only be illuminated by additional lamps.
The photo shows a classic living room design of 18 square meters.
m. This option can only be implemented in a long narrow room. In this case, in a square one you will have to do without zoning. The concept of Baroque or Renaissance assumes the same design.
- Rustic styles - Provence or Mediterranean - are more free . In such cases, asymmetrical zoning is allowed. Moreover, mobile screens and even curtains can be used here as a separator.
- A minimalist living room requires the most modest furnishings, but also the most daring layout . You can group a sofa, shelves and tables in any order, creating a work area, a guest room, and a children’s room of any configuration. However, such freedom requires structural decoration of the walls: a pair of mirrors, shelves, 2 panels of a contrasting color, plasterboard niches.
- High-tech differs not so much in design principles as in the type of furniture . Curvilinear configuration of objects, round tables, and a lot of glass in furniture are allowed.
- Perfect for a small Scandinavian style living room . Zoning and grouping are done in the same way as in minimalism; The decoration of the walls and ceiling here is completely uniform by default, and the absence of curtains on the windows makes the room more spacious. But unlike room decoration, the most colorful textiles are used, and decorative fragments on the walls can be truly multi-colored.
- Loft, in principle, prohibits the placement of furniture along the wall . The only exception in a small room would be a wardrobe, although it is undesirable. The simplicity of finishing the walls and ceiling makes design development easier.
The photo shows the renovation of the living room in the apartment.
- Eco style is very attractive for urban living . Its color scheme is quite sparse, but green wall panels or just indoor plants on the bookcase and shelves make the simplest room cozier. The option is not budget-friendly, since only natural materials are used for decoration.
Materials for renovating a living room
In modern apartments, the largest room is the living room, but even this, as a rule, is modest in size. Developing the design and renovating living rooms of 17 sq. m, for example, you should strive to make the space as spacious as possible.
Ceiling
In standard apartments, especially older ones, the ceiling height is low. In this case, you should not make hanging structures, because they will eat up part of the space. For small rooms, it is better to use the first point of the possible finishing methods proposed below:
- Lime whitewash or paint. The ceiling is leveled, after which lime or water-based paint can be used as a finishing coat. In addition, this ceiling is moisture resistant and can even be washed. Traditionally, ceilings are made light, but it does not have to be white. You can use vanilla or cream color paint. The main thing is that the ceiling is lighter than the walls.
- Wallpaper. Vinyl or non-woven wallpaper is used to cover the ceiling. Their advantages are that they are easy to glue, they can hide small surface defects, and they are easy to care for. And also a good option is paintable wallpaper. The difficulty when using wallpaper is that it is quite difficult to glue it to the ceiling; you cannot do it without an assistant.
- Stretch ceiling. For a small room, the most suitable option is a glossy canvas. It will reflect light, making the room appear visually larger. It is impossible to install such a coating yourself, so you will have to look for professionals. Spotlights installed around the perimeter of the room will visually expand the room; in this case, there will be no need for a central lamp.
- Suspended structures. Such systems are very practical and effective. For their arrangement, sheets of plasterboard are used, possibly in combination with tension fabric. There are also modular designs that are assembled from separate blocks - slats, cassettes or gratings. But this option is best used in industrial premises; it is not suitable for residential premises.
Walls
Light colors for wall decoration will visually enlarge a small room. A good option would be: pearl, apricot, peach, soft pink, light yellow, sand, blue.
Consider the characteristics of materials when renovating a room. In the living room, the design concept should provide maximum space.
- Dye. The use of paint for wall decoration provides a large field for your imagination. In addition, the material will be quite inexpensive. But we must take into account that the walls must be well leveled before painting - and this is a definite disadvantage.
- Wallpaper. To decorate the walls of the living room, you can use several types of wallpaper: non-woven, vinyl, textile and glass wallpaper. All of them have good performance characteristics, are moisture resistant, and can be washed. Liquid wallpaper, which is applied like putty, is also suitable for the living room.
- Decorative plaster. This material has undoubted advantages: it is moisture resistant and tolerates ultraviolet rays well. In addition, it does not contain harmful substances, is environmentally friendly, and provides the opportunity to create artistic designs on the walls. The disadvantages include the labor-intensive process of applying plaster. The surface needs preliminary preparation: it is first leveled, dried, primed, and only then can the mixture be applied.
- Decorative rock. Using this material you can create an exceptional, unique design for your living room. The wall surface, finished with stone, looks very beautiful. A significant disadvantage of this material is its high price. But if your budget allows such expenses, then you should use natural stone when renovating the living room, you will get a luxurious interior.
Recommendation: if you have chosen a light tone for your living room, then paint one of the walls in a dark color, saturated with bright colors, or cover it with photo wallpaper.
Living room floor
Modern flooring materials are manufactured in such a way that they are easy to install yourself. The following materials are used to cover the floor when renovating a living room:
- Laminate. This is an affordable material that comes in a variety of textures and colors. Laminate has good performance characteristics and lasts quite a long time. Before laying the slats, a substrate is laid on the base of the floor. The lamellas have locking connections that allow them to be installed simply and securely.
- Linoleum. This coating is popular because it is cheap and easy to maintain. Laying linoleum does not require any special skills; it is simply laid on a previously prepared and leveled surface.
- Carpet. A soft and cozy surface that is pleasant to walk on bare feet, but requires significant effort to maintain.
- Parquet. Expensive natural material, it requires special care, and it is easy to damage.
- Cork covering. Eco-friendly material with good heat and sound insulation properties. Cork coating is soft, warm, pleasant to the touch, wear-resistant, but nevertheless, aggressive methods cannot be used for cleaning.
- Self-leveling floors. Have become widespread recently. By following the technology, you can create a perfectly smooth surface. Unusual effects are achieved using 3D technology. This type of floor can last for many years. The installation technology is quite complex and does not allow any deviations, so it is better to seek the help of specialists.
Working with Surfaces
To make your living room look modern and beautiful after renovation, it is necessary not to overload it with furniture and decorative items, so that it does not turn into a storage room for many unnecessary things. With the help of your imagination and with the right approach to design, even a small room can be made warm and comfortable, with its own character and individual features.
Photos are enlarged, click!
If your living room does not have very high ceilings and does not have a large number of square meters, using certain shades in the decoration will help expand the space. The color of the ceiling should be several tones lighter than the floor and walls. You can install suspended ceilings in the living room; ceilings with a glossy texture are especially suitable - the gloss will reflect light and highlight the advantages of any room.
When it comes to lighting, placing the main lighting fixture in the center of the room is not the right choice. A massive chandelier is not suitable for lighting a living room; it is best to install spotlights on the ceiling, complementing them with wall sconces hung along the perimeter of the walls.
It is best to decorate the walls It is preferable to choose monochromatic coverings, and, on the contrary, to avoid large tacky patterns that can visually make the room smaller. To prevent the main room from looking boring, you can cover one of the walls with wallpaper in a bright shade or paint it with bright paint. This way you will be able to enliven the room and add a bright accent.
For the flooring in the living room, light colors are suitable, for example, with imitation of natural wood. As for pieces of furniture, it is not recommended to place a large number of them. A soft set, a coffee table and several shelves or racks will be enough. Transformable furniture is best suited for a living room - a folding dining table or a folding sofa.
Photos are enlarged, click!
When decorating your living room with furniture and accessories, try to leave free space near the window openings so as not to deprive the room of natural light sources.
It is best to hang curtains and drapes on windows made of light, lightweight materials that freely transmit light. The room will also seem wider and more spacious if you use original wall mirrors or other surfaces that reflect light in the decoration.