One of the newest trends in the design of living quarters has been the unification of certain rooms into single spaces, a vivid example of which can be a kitchen-living room. Correctly arranged kitchen-living room will be a real gift for any hostess – here, without taking your time off from cooking, you can look after children or meet guests. Serving on the table, there is no need to move the dishes from one room to another and also with cleaning. If properly designed, the kitchen combined with the living room will always be visually perceived more spacious and lighter, which can be seen in the photo in our selection.
Kitchen-living room: basic rules of interior design
The design of the living room combined with the kitchen can be quite varied, depending on the imagination of the hosts. However, it is necessary to know some basic principles that cannot be neglected in the arrangement of such premises. First of all, the zoning of the room. This is necessary for a better psychological perception of space and the introduction of harmony by proportional filling. By dividing the area into zones, materials such as different coatings and building materials, adding elevations and partitions in the interior, decorating bar counters and other things are used. An important role is played by the contrast of the interior. The breakdown into zones should be very thoughtful since it will still be a single space.
Another important point is the choice of colors. Kitchen-living room, decorated in typical tones, will not always be the right choice though many like this option. Some interior objects or entire zones can be emphasized with more vivid accentuating shades. We should note some features of the properties of the selected tones. For example, bright cold tones are capable at a visual level to increase space, while the darker ones only narrow it. Green and blue colors are soothing, but yellow and red, which will be endowed with a kitchen-living room will cheer and inspire to new culinary masterpieces. Proceeding from this, the kitchen-living room design can be designed on the principle of “kitchen – brighter and more saturated, and the resting place – less contrast”. In general, the choice of color palette depends on the individuality of the owners.
The design of the living room combined with the kitchen: we choose coatings, decoration and furniture
As mentioned earlier, different coatings are often used for the zoning of the combined premises. Such design can be useful not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also in terms of practicality and convenience. For example, the design of a living room combined with a kitchen can contain elements such as tiles in the kitchen area and laminate in the living room. Tiles will be the most convenient option as it is easy to wash in case of any contamination and the laminate in the living room will give a rich look and comfort which can also be supplemented with rugs. Also for the territory of the hall are suitable such coatings as carpet and parquet. You can resort to the use in both areas of the laminate or linoleum, which vary greatly in texture and color.
The ceiling is also included in the design of the kitchen-living room. This contributes to the visual separation of territories. Here, suspended structures of different contours are used: straight, arched, curved and others. Moreover, different levels may differ in color, pattern, texture and other characteristics.
The decoration of walls in a room where the kitchen combined with the living room can also have its own unique design. It can be wallpaper of the same color, but having a different pattern, a combination of wallpaper and painted walls, decorative plaster and wall panels, as well as other solutions. The basic principle is harmony in their combination.
Furniture, which will be filled with kitchen-living room, should be practical (resistant to moisture and steam) and comfortable, in harmony with the overall conceived design of the room.
To select the necessary equipment in the kitchen, you need to determine how much it will be used. If the house does not make a lot of cooking, it is necessary to limit the most necessary appliances, and if the hostess is a real cook, then the technique should be enough. The only obligatory element, included in any design of the kitchen-living room, is the hood. Its installation is considered unconditional, since, without a dense partitions, the rest area can quickly be saturated with the smell of food prepared on the stove.
Living room kitchen design: photo with zoning
Earlier in the article it was already mentioned that the design of the kitchen-living room can accommodate such elements as zoning with the help of coatings, walls and ceilings, a color palette. This all refers to the so-called “visual zoning”. There is another way of dividing the space – “actual division”, when the partitions, transparent planes, screens, podiums and steps, and furniture go into the course. Partitions are partial, stationary and mobile. Partial partitions serves for some “camouflage” to hide the cooking area. The stationary partition, divided by the kitchen-living room, should not exceed more than half the size of the wall. A very good option for a real separation of the zones of the kitchen-hall is a glass partition. It tightly protects the territory of the living room from the odor of cooking food and, at the same time, visually leaves the space united. Such an element of separation of zones, like a step separating the kitchen area must be allocated to avoid falling and traumatizing. The design of zoning kitchen-living room furniture includes the presence of elements such as a bar counter (a tall narrow table), a shelf with transparent shelves and so on.
Kitchen Living Room Design in a Private House
In the projects of private houses, the kitchen-living room is much more common than in the apartments. One of the reasons for this is the owner’s ability to plan ahead in advance, allocate the necessary space and think over the location of the windows for better lighting of such a room. A good option would be a kitchen, combined with a living room, with access to a terrace, a photo of the design of which is presented in the article. In this case, you can install the overall doors of the glass structure, near which the living room area will be placed. The advantage of this design is that you can enjoy the surrounding scenery, look after children frolicking in the fresh air, as well as this additional airing. In addition, the terrace itself serves as a continuation of the recreation area, if you install the necessary furniture on it. Another plus that the design of the living room combined with the kitchen in a private house can have is the availability of a staircase (if there are several floors in the house). Here, it would be advisable to place the cooking zone in the circular volume space, and the free space below it can be used to store kitchen utensils. Also a ladder can separate the recreation area from the kitchen.
There are some features of the design of private houses built of wood. Such rooms require good lighting. They can be decorated in such styles as “country” in the white-brown palette, “chalet” using the wall texture from the calibrated log, “eco-style”, where only natural materials are used. The design of the kitchen of the living room in a private house looks spectacular, decorated in the style of a medieval castle using materials such as stone and wood – the room should be spacious enough. In other respects, it can be said, all the above described principles of design are preserved. It is enough to apply imagination, and the kitchen-living room in the house can become the most favorite place for all family members.
