Today we will look at a real-life example of howyou can arrange a living room on 14.6 square meters. The author of this project, designer Yekaterina Kokoulina, gave advice on inexpensive alteration of small living rooms and outlined the budget for such repair. If the corridor is considered the "face" of the apartment, then the living room is its "heart". An active life always takes place here - noisy gatherings, meetings with friends and family, evening movie screenings. When decorating this room, it is necessary to properly organize the space so that nothing interferes with a good rest. Designer Ekaterina Kokoulina told us and showed us how to do this. Ekaterina Kokoulina, designer A graduate of NARHI with a degree in environmental design. Member of the Union of Designers of Russia. Creative Director at R.V.K.DESIGN (rvkdesign.ru) - What is the area of this living room? - The footage of the room is 14.6 square meters. It is located in a three-room apartment (panel house), the total area of which is 70 square meters. - What is the amount planned for the implementation of the design project of this room? - About 300,000 rubles. - What influenced the formation of the interior concept and the choice of color solutions? - In standard apartments located in panel high-rise buildings, we often face two problems: low ceilings and insufficient illumination. These factors became key in the formation of the idea and the selection of the color palette. 
- What do you advise the owners of suchliving rooms? - There are several techniques. To make the ceilings appear higher, you should add relief to them. This is easy to do with a short and wide cornice (about 20 centimeters wide). To expand the space and add light, all walls in Europe are painted white. But this technique does not work well for us - due to the peculiarities of the lighting of the apartments, the white turns into gray. Therefore, in a pair to white, we need bright colors. You shouldn't be afraid of them. Autumn, winter and even partially spring lighting in Moscow and most Russian cities can muffle any saturated colors. - What color did you choose? - We chose sky blue, white and several variations of beige (light wood) as well as light gray as fill shades. The accent colors in this interior were sunny yellow and black. 
- Why black?- Black is necessary in order to remove the feeling of dullness. Our eyes are designed so that next to black, white becomes whiter, blue is truly heavenly, and yellow is bright. If we remove black, then the contrast and expressiveness of color will disappear. - What is special about this living room? - We have distributed the colors in such a way that when entering the room, the room seems bright, cheerful, dynamic. But one has only to sit down on the sofa, as a visual transformation takes place - light, calm colors that promote relaxation are revealed to the eyes. In the interior of this living room, we seem to have combined feminine and masculine views on design. 
- What textiles and decor did you use?- On the windows - lined plain blue curtains. Since the choice of such textiles is small, I advise you to first choose the fabric and tint the paint under it. It is much easier to choose a shade of paint for curtains than to look for the necessary light blue options. We decorated the sofa with HOME pillows. Attractive models in the amount of 4 pieces cost us 2,999 rubles. The kit can be bought in the online store happystation.ru. One of the walls was decorated with pictures printed on the principle of photo wallpaper, and the paper was stretched over a wooden stretcher. If you wish, you can decorate the living room with oil paintings. 
- Tell us about the furniture.- The sofa was chosen by a domestic manufacturer - the Moon factory. Its cost starts at 48,200 rubles. We supplemented the interior with an IKEA armchair - the Melby model cost us 11,999 rubles (cover - 1,999 rubles). Near the sofa is a Weimon table of the same Swedish brand (3,999 rubles). It is painted black. As a budget option, a Frost stool from IKEA for 199 rubles, also painted black, is suitable. I recommend acrylic paint or even regular gouache as a coating. The main thing is then to fix the coating with two layers of alkyd varnish. Then you won't even be afraid to spill something on the table. Under the plasma, we will place, for example, a Kratki biofireplace of the DELTA model (12,000 rubles). He brings notes of warmth and comfort to the interior of this living room. Furniture around the TV set from EGGER laminated chipboard (color - oak cremona champagne) and a partition with solid pine glass with a light brushing in a dense white tint will be produced at the furniture factory. 
- How did you select the light sources?- A lot of attention in this room is attracted by the Ray floor lamps from the Flos brand. They are stylish, beautiful, albeit quite expensive - 51 330 rubles for a tall specimen. For a budget option, pick up a floor lamp and a lamp with a black and white shade. For example, a floor lamp on a tripod from the Italian brand Arte Lamp. Such a pleasure will cost about 3,650 rubles apiece. A sconce was installed on the wall, which was ordered from the store svet.modul.ru. They also do not differ in low cost. But if you are not ready to pay a lot of money, make a budget version with your own hands. Use plaster and LEDs for this. 
Decoration Materials:
- Wallpaper. Collection Contemporary Restyled, code 95/6037, Cole & Son, (England) - 5 300 rubles per roll (wallpapermatch.com). You can replace it with a more budget option - the Dimensions collection, code 8106, EcoWallpaper (Sweden) - 2 640 rubles per roll.
- Dulux paint.
- Parquet board on the floor (light oak) - 3 000 rubles per square meter. It can be replaced with laminate, imitating light oak.
- What would you advise our readers?- If the budget is limited, but you liked the interior, then it is important not to give up, but to go step by step towards the intended goal, copying the design as accurately as possible. Yes, you will spend time searching for analogs, making something with your own hands, but you will save money and the result will delight you for a long time. Living room 3D visualizations provided by Ekaterina Kokoulina; ikea.com; artelamp.ru; cole-and-son.com
