What to do if your hallway is half the sizeliving room? To demolish the wall or leave it? In today's article, we will consider this issue from all sides and give comprehensive advice on finding a solution. If the theater begins with a coat rack, and not with a stage, then the house, undoubtedly, begins with , and not with . Let's be honest, the hallway is by no means the main place in the house, but, undoubtedly, one of the most visited in it, and the organization of space should be thought out no less carefully. Here we kiss each other goodbye and greet each other in the evening after a hard day, start a tour of the home for guests and store essentials, be it an umbrella or keys. Adjacent to the front door, the hallway serves as a buffer zone between the public space and the private territory, is the "starting point" to the rest of the house and, as a rule, is separated by a wall or doors. This is a classic layout option, but time goes by, and now owners of small-sized housing, guided not only by an aesthetic but also a practical approach to interior design, increasingly resort to combining several spaces into one. For example, by eliminating the partition between the front corridor and the living room, we get a space that is visually enlarged several times, but no longer has a clear demarcation. Any "operative" intervention and redevelopment do not pass without a trace, they have their advantages and disadvantages. Having heard the professional recommendations of architects Natalia Guseva and Inga Azhgirey, we have collected 10 tips on how to make the process of "merging" two areas competently, so that you do not have to build walls again. 1. Furniture After completely dismantling the walls, doorways and all sorts of obstacles on the way to the living room, each of the combined zones should still perform its immediate function. Having decided that the room has now become larger, you should not fit the maximum amount of furniture into the main room of the house, crossing the conventional boundaries with the hallway. Incorrect arrangement of furniture can play a cruel joke on you when you stumble over the sofa from the threshold or walk in street shoes to the other end of the living room for keys. Everything should be in its place. Leave a vertical or wall hanger in the hallway, replace a bulky chest of drawers with a built-in storage system.
Natalia Guseva, architect:— Often in small studio apartments you want to save on the hallway space, limiting yourself to just one built-in wardrobe for outerwear, which can be beautifully placed somewhere in the corner. If it matches the color and style of the furniture in the living room, it will harmoniously fit into the overall space. facebook.com/kvarta.eco Inga Azhgirey, designer: — First, you should generally understand why you need to combine the hallway and living room. Do you want to see who is coming or going while in the living room? Do you need a full or partial unification? If you do combine, you should immediately decide what the partitions will be and their functionality. You can divide the rooms with a full-height wardrobe with mezzanines (not very deep, but with a solid storage capacity). It will become a link between the two rooms, and the depth of the wardrobe can be used on both sides of the hallway and living room. You can separate the rooms with a low (1.5 m) shelving unit or chest of drawers, this will provide additional storage options. facebook.com/inga.azhgirei 2. Wall color When combining spaces, do not use one solid color in the room. The lack of color transition from one zone to another, paradoxically, can visually reduce the area of the rooms - in this case, there will be either one large hallway or a medium-sized living room. Use similar shades, smoothly pouring the front corridor into the room, avoiding too much of a contrast: this can be textured plaster, wallpaper pattern, or a difference in shades.
Inga Azhgirey, designer:— In combined spaces, I would not recommend too sharp color transitions between zones, otherwise there will be a feeling of a small, suddenly “glued” hallway. It can be the same color of the walls as in the living room, or close, but with a different texture, or, on the contrary, smooth. I am for the unity of style. facebook.com/inga.azhgirei 3. Decor In the case of “merging” such spaces as a hallway and a living room, the use of decor has a dual function: decorating the room and zoning. A half-meter vase or floor sculpture, a series of photographs or pictures on the wall will be an excellent, discreet way to delimit the entrance to the home and the recreation area.
Inga Azhgirey, designer:— It will be enough to add one interesting, unusual element to the hallway design to mark the room, give it individuality and independence, but at the same time not separate it (in style) from other rooms. This can be a mirror in a bold unusual frame or bright upholstery of a pouf. In general, the hallway is the place that we see when we enter the house after a busy day, and where our journey from home begins. Bring there what makes you happy. Maybe it will be a key holder with a photo of your family, decorative “lucky” baubles from your child on the mirror, or maybe it will be a painted decorative frieze on the wall, made by newlyweds who recently moved in. facebook.com/inga.azhgirei 4. Lighting Skillfully placed can not only add coziness and spaciousness to the home - different lighting fixtures are widely used for zoning individual functional parts within one room, not to mention the space united from several rooms. The central lighting of the living room and a number of auxiliary lamps, sconces, and various types of lighting can successfully contrast with spotlights on the ceiling or hanging lamps on long mounts in the hallway. The position and direction of the light flow will do their job, visually separating one zone from another.
5.Floors Most often, when crossing the threshold of a home, we first look under our feet, intuitively making sure it is safe, and then we glance around the rest of the room. The use of contrasting color solutions and materials for the floor is perhaps the easiest and most direct way to clearly delimit the area for changing from street shoes to home shoes. Due to our urban realities and the not entirely satisfactory sanitary condition of the streets, it is not customary for us to wear shoes at home - the hallway serves as a kind of filter. It is an "apartment" extension of the street with all the ensuing consequences in the form of dirt, moisture and dust, so the use of a more durable and easy-to-clean flooring should definitely be used in this area. A smooth transition to the living room can be achieved through a smoother and less textured material: laminated or cork flooring, natural wood, varnished parquet.
Natalia Guseva, architect:— One of the problems of combining the hallway with the living room is dirt from the street (especially in bad weather), which will also penetrate into the living room and create a sloppy look. To prevent this from happening, you need to "zone" the "patch" where you will take off your shoes and outerwear with materials that are easy to clean: tiles, natural stone or mosaics. This zoning solution can also be supported on the walls, finishing them in this place with easy-to-clean materials in the style of the living room interior. facebook.com/kvarta.eco Inga Azhgirey, designer: — As for the floor, a little "hooliganism" is quite appropriate here — unusual texture, color, interesting layout of porcelain stoneware is just as appropriate as a covering close in color or texture to the main floor covering. But an unusual floor in a small area is more interesting! However, do not forget - if you want to make a green floor, then let a green scarf or green mini-pendant lamps hang on a hanger. facebook.com/inga.azhgirei 6. Ceiling Along with the approach to using different materials for the floor, do not forget about what is above our heads - the ceiling. A slight change in the ceiling level in the hallway and living room visually and without clutter zones the space. This approach to delimiting functional zones is clearly visible both from the threshold and directly from the room. Another option is to use popular technologies for decorating the "roof": stretch and suspended ceilings, decorative beams, textured surface coating.
7.Partitions When talking about partitions, we do not mean newly erected brick walls or thresholds, but sliding or decorative structures that conditionally create a “presence effect”, but do not prevent the penetration of light and do not “eat up” the volume. Today, there are many ready-made options for such interior “dividers”, which can easily be optimized for a specific space. But by turning on your imagination, you can do without additional manufacturing and installation of these structures. A beautiful wooden screen, slightly covering part of the entrance to the living room, a loose curtain and even such lighting elements as lamps on a long wire, can be an excellent option for a conditional partition.
8.Corners, supports, passages No one forces you to "burn bridges" without leaving even a hint that there was once a separate passage or wall between the hallway and the room. When dismantling the wall dividing the rooms, leave a part in the form of a small support, which can serve as a functional surface for a storage system or a mirror: on the one hand, nothing hinders free movement, on the other - the hallway is formally separated from the living room. The same story with passages and corners. If the layout of your home has angular shapes, make one of the corners that leads to the living room more expressive by moving it forward a few tens of centimeters.
9.Built-in storage system Designers and architects say: use space wisely. Well, if you use it, then use it. In this case, proven storage systems in the form of through shelving and floor structures come into play. By placing a shelving unit near a wall or, on the contrary, installing it as a visual center on the border between rooms, you automatically acquire additional storage space for small essentials within reach when leaving the house. At the same time, such a shelving unit or cabinet acts as a convincing interior partition, freeing you from bulky furniture in the hallway.
Inga Azhgirey, designer:— The main problem of many apartments is in very small hallways. Here, an individual approach is needed, and you also need to take into account the interests and needs of the family. What storage or use element can you not imagine the hallway without? You do not need to try to squeeze everything into a small room, it is better to make the main, but necessary storage place for you (this can be a decorative hanger for outerwear or a shoe rack, an ottoman over a shelf for small items), and store the rest in other places. facebook.com/inga.azhgirei 10. Entrance door When decorating the interior of a room where the hallway is combined with the living room, do not forget about the design of the entrance door. It is the front door that will be the visual point that, in the case of merging two spaces, you will see constantly while in the room. Avoid too bright color schemes, because sooner or later a flashy element can get boring or, even worse, start to irritate. But at the same time, you shouldn’t use colors that match the overall style of the interior, otherwise you risk simply not finding a solution – but seriously, the hallway can visually lose its main distinguishing feature.
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Living room combined with anteroom: how to equip and zonify
