Most Russians inherited from “stagnant times” disproportionate, rectangular, narrow rooms, more reminiscent of solid corridors than a full-fledged room for arranging personal space.
Narrow room
Narrow roomcreatesa lot of difficulties in terms of interior design. Creating a cozy room, no matter how you rearrange the minimum set of furniture, is quite difficult, but, nevertheless, there is always a way out.
Redistribution of space
One of the simplest and quick ways transformation of narrow rooms can be considered the division of one large space into a couple of smaller ones, using plasterboard partitions. The partition itself will not take up much space, and the resulting premises will acquire a more or less regular square-section configuration, especially if it is possible to increase their area by demolishing other walls.
Changing the space with decorative elements
The modern construction industry, the latest materials, paints and original design solutions from specialists can radically change spaces narrow room and without the construction of partitions. It has long been known that light, color, well-chosen accessories and furniture can change a space beyond recognition. So, for example, a small bright folding sofa placed across a narrow room zones the space, dividing it into two work areas:
- By disassembling the sofa, you get a full-fledged bedroom;
- By assembling it and placing a couple of small wicker chairs and a small glass coffee table, you turn the intimate sleeping area into a cozy living room;
- Behind the back of the sofa, you can easily set up an office or study area for a student by placing a chest of drawers or a regular desk against the back.
In addition, a high bookcase, an openwork bookcase, one of the double-sided fireplaces, or even an LCD TV on the bedside table can serve as a room divider. Now it’s worth paying attention to how you can change the space with the help of light and colors.
Play of color and light in a narrow room
Attention should be paid to the fact that color palette, correctly selected in each specific case, can visually expand the space. You can’t do without bold design solutions here. So, for example, the walls of which are painted light, bright or pastel colors, will look more voluminous. Some interior designers use this method: the transverse wall of a narrow room is covered with wallpaper with a geometric pattern located horizontally, and on the longitudinal walls, on the contrary, wallpaper with a vertical pattern is pasted. The main thing here is to choose wallpaper with a similar, same type of pattern, then the unity of the space will be preserved and the appearance of an expanded room will be created.
You can use a very popular design technique - a game of contrasts. But here it is important not to “overdo it” when choosing colors, otherwise instead cozy interior The result may be a tasteless, eye-catching room.
Experienced designers in such cases use a combination of dark and light tones of paint. Most often, transverse walls are painted with dark colors, and longitudinal walls, respectively, with light colors. Sometimes gradient painting of walls is used. This is when one is more dark color smoothly transitions into a light range of the same shade, or vice versa, a contrasting one. So, from red you can go to pink or cream, warm lilac will look good with a transition to cold blue or cold pale yellow or golden color.
Trying to transform a narrow room, use the “play of light”. Properly directed rays can expand it, but the direction must be strictly horizontal. Interestingly, light strips located under the ceiling and directed vertically raise the ceiling and create the impression that the room is slightly higher than it actually is. We hope that with the help of our tips you will be able to make your room more comfortable and beautiful.
Narrow room - photo
Designers often jokingly call a narrow room a “carriage.” Of course, everyone dreams of spacious apartments with room to roam. Reality presents us with surprises in the form of small narrow rooms without the possibility of redevelopment or demolition of walls. Don't despair! Useful Tricks will help make the room more harmonious and spacious (at least visually)!
The main secrets of narrow room design
1. Colors and textures
Make friends with light shades - beige, gray, lavender, white, light blue. They can be used to paint long walls, and make short ones more saturated and bright. Horizontal patterns (especially stripes) look great on a short accent wall - they visually make the room wider. Partially, such decor can “run into” the adjacent wall.
Interesting! The ceiling can be made darker than the walls - it will also slightly adjust the boundaries of the room. Transverse dark ones look very stylish wooden beams on a light background!
Avoid large drawings! Focus on unusual textures: artificial stone, 3D panels, Venetian plaster! In most cases, dark floors are “contraindicated” for narrow rooms; choose light flooring too!
2. Perspective
Your task is to visually distance the walls from each other. Paintings and photo wallpapers with perspective are perfect for these purposes. The best choice is city or natural landscapes. For the window, you can also choose curtains with 3D prints - they not only look beautiful, but also create the illusion of space.
3. Mirrors and shiny surfaces
The design of a narrow room is not complete without glossy textures. If it is not possible to hang a large mirror on the entire wall, you can use mirror and glass inserts and shelves. A glossy ceiling and lacquered furniture will also give the desired effect.
4. Niches
They can be done on both short and long walls. They neutralize the tunnel effect and make the room more comfortable. Niches near the sofa, TV, and headboard look great!
5. Space zoning
You probably already realized that stationary partitions and ceiling cabinets can completely disfigure the space. To zone a narrow room, it is better to use podiums, contrasting flooring and mobile screens and partitions. It’s convenient to partition the living room by placing a sofa, a couple of armchairs or a transparent shelving unit across the room!
6. Play of light and lighting
A room with a lot of light always seems more spacious than a dark and uncomfortable “car”. It's better to do without heavy curtains and curtains. Roller and Roman blinds, light tulle, blinds - best choice for narrow spaces. Artificial lighting should also be multi-level: the main light source (chandelier, lamp), spotlights, sconces. You can run an LED strip along the perimeter of the ceiling - it creates a special “floating” effect and visually expands the boundaries of the room.
7. Bright accessories
Bright pillows, large vases or plants are pops of color that enliven a space. But there shouldn't be too many of them! The abundance of figurines, photographs and souvenirs only clutters the room!
8. Unusually shaped furniture
A standard rectangular sofa looks ordinary and boring. Choose original furniture. Hanging chairs, frameless poufs, round beds! They not only look interesting, but also visually make the room wider due to the lack of sharp corners! By the way, transformable furniture is also very relevant!
9. Built-in structures
Practical and help save space. For example, if you place cabinets and shelves around the headboard, you will get a spacious niche for storage and visually expand the space.
Advice! Use a window sill - it can serve as a seating area and storage area.
10. Asymmetry
The chandelier does not have to be clearly in the center of the ceiling, and the TV does not have to be two steps away from the sofa. The typical layout of furniture in a narrow room ruins everything. Use the walls and ceiling more actively, and there should be a minimum of objects on the floor! A floor lamp can be replaced with a stylish built-in lamp, and a bulky chest of drawers can be replaced with lightweight shelves on the wall!
How to arrange furniture correctly in a narrow room?
A sofa or wardrobe can be placed against a short wall - this way you can visually give the room a square shape. Other pieces of furniture can be arranged in the letter P or G. Try to avoid massive furniture: large corner sofa appropriate in square room, but not indoors, where every centimeter of width is valuable. Place the table, chair, ottomans, banquettes at an angle! It's unusual and beautiful!
Important! Don't try to outsmart yourself! If you arrange your furniture in a zigzag pattern, it will be unusual, but also extremely impractical. You risk earning yourself a lot of bruises and abrasions by avoiding obstacles!
Storage places - niches, open shelves, consoles, podiums. But the Soviet “wall” along a long wall is not the best solution!
Experiment and don’t be afraid to create a space “for yourself”, then the room will look individual, and not a faceless hotel room!
In modern apartments there are often rooms that have a narrow area with many aspects and nuances. Owners whose living room has a small area need to properly plan the arrangement of furniture and interior items so that the living room has visually more space and does not create the appearance of a tunnel.
Which color should I choose?
You can choose a variety of designs for a narrow area, helping to bring any designer’s decision to life and make the room not only cozy, but also spacious to the maximum. First of all, for a small room you should choose light colors for the wall covering and the same furniture.
This color will help expand the indoor area and add light. To create home comfort you can use pale orange or yellow colors, and also with a shade of yellow you can choose a carpet or lamps.
When choosing bright colors the furniture should not be bulky with a small glass coffee table. Furniture can be chosen taking into account bright design items. In a living room with narrow walls, the ends can be decorated in bright colors, and the walls in.
Dark colors, like, not recommended for a small living room. Painting or pasting photo wallpaper with a landscape will help you decorate the ends of the walls. For a narrow living room, curtains or blinds in dark shades are suitable.
Colors for a living room with a narrow area can only be pastel or light colors - they will give proportionality to the perimeter. You can create accents by combining bright shades with darker ones. You can glue plain ones with a weak, inconspicuous pattern.
You can expand the living room with the help of stickers glued against each other light wallpaper. By dividing a room into sections and wallpapering it in different colors, you can expand the space and add sophistication to the design. It is important to remember that dark shades narrow the area, while light shades visually expand and lengthen it.
Large patterns on the walls also make a room appear smaller, while a smaller pattern is perfect for rooms with a narrow area. Large format patterns are applied only to wide walls. On walls located close to each other, you can apply a discreet pattern in the form of stripes, visually increasing the width of the room.
Furniture and lighting
Adding mirrors at the end of the room will also visually expand it and give it a square shape. Finishing the living room should begin with the ceiling part, having previously leveled and cleaned the surface. After cleaning the ceiling, it is coated with white latex paint. The walls can also contain an ornament or a discreet pattern. The colors should be different from the pieces of furniture and should not have variegated shades or pungent colors.
When creating a design in a narrow living room, they should be excluded, as they give the room elongation, which makes it look like a corridor. Furniture for a narrow room should be low with many shelves or chests of drawers. To free up space, there should be a table in addition to the furniture round shape and a shelf for establishing plasma.
Advice. You should not install too bulky interior parts - everything should be light, unobtrusive, harmonious.
For example, instead of heavy armchairs you can put airy poufs, instead of a bright colorful picture on the wall - neutral painting, instead of a massive coffee table - a neat glass table. The shelves should also be light.
It should have an intense light source for general lighting, installed strictly in the middle of the room. You can add brightness to a living room with a narrow perimeter using an LED strip with a dimmer built into the circle of the cornices, which will allow you to change the brightness of the glow at any time. Hanging pendants will help diversify the living room interior small size multi-colored sconces that rotate around their axis to illuminate any area of the room.
Furniture arrangement
It will help to expand the room and make it unusual design solution, in which they use the arrangement of a sofa and armchairs in the middle of the room with a preliminary division into sections. This arrangement will free up the passage along the walls and visually give it width. Also effective solution there will be furniture installed along one wall of the room.
Ideal for a narrow area is a small armchair and a sofa or two armchairs with a table.
Important. To prevent a narrow living room from looking like a tunnel, you should not place all the furniture along the wall.
You can fill the remaining space by installing a zigzag shelf with a niche for the TV. The other wall of the room can be decorated with glass shelves or shelves with a composition in the form of an ekibana.
When planning an apartment, the question often arises of how to properly organize the design of a narrow room. The main problem What you encounter along the way is a constrained, narrow space. These restrictions require a skillful approach to arranging furniture, while maintaining the required functionality of the room. The methods described in the article will allow you to competently arrange your sleeping space, while maintaining a maximum of free square meters.
A narrow bedroom is special case, often requiring extraordinary solutions
Bed - main subject furniture in the bedroom. No couches or sofas can replace a full double bed
If you stick to certain layout techniques interior decoration, you will be able to smooth out the inconveniences that a long, narrow room implies.
- Wall decoration. In order to visually expand the bedroom, long walls are finished with light materials. But short ones, on the contrary, stand out in bright shades.
- Usage functional furniture. For example, take a folding sofa. After a night's sleep, simply remove the folding part.
- Application of niches. Ideal option for a narrow room with short walls. This method allows you to hide a sleeping area, as well as organize cabinets and shelves in convenient niches. Make the most of your free space.
- Horizontal and vertical stripes. With the correct arrangement of these interior elements, you can create the effect of a regular square, or simply visually expand the space.
- Patterns. Affect visual perception bedroom sizes. Keep this in mind when purchasing wallpaper. Smooth lines on light paper can add squaring.
- Proper lighting will also increase the size of the bedroom. Install as many light sources as possible.
- Window textiles are selected depending on the intensity natural light from the street. If the windows of the room face south, then the sun will shine brightly here for a long time, and if it is located north, it will be the opposite. Choose the density of the curtain fabric based on this condition.
Cold light is not needed in the bedroom; give preference to lamps with soft diffused light
A narrow bed will leave space on the sides for a passage and bedside tables
If the room is intended for a married couple, you will have to install a large double bed. It is best to place it at the end of the bedroom, right next to the window. In this case, if the width allows, the bed can be turned with its side towards the window. If this is not possible, then you will have to install it with the headboard facing the window opening.
Bed close to the window in a very narrow room
If the room is so narrow that it is impossible to choose a standard bed, you can purchase a mattress and make a wooden podium for it
When choosing sleeping place, give preference to products with free space under the bed. Drawers for bed linen or clothes. Also consider purchasing with ready-made shelves.
Use minimum quantity furniture - only everything you need
You can zone a room using a podium. And if you make it as tall as in the photo, it will house a full-fledged storage system
If there is no sofa in the bedroom, then the TV can be hung from the ceiling using a special mount. The only disadvantage of this solution is the presence of unsightly hanging wires. Therefore, plan the wiring long before you begin finishing the walls and ceiling. In this case, it can be hidden under plaster or hanging panels.
It is better not to separate a room with one window with closets and high partitions.
In an elongated bedroom, furniture is placed alternately. It would be rational to place a written or dressing table, you can place a bed in the center, and a closet against the opposite wall
You should not clutter the interior of a narrow room with multi-level plasterboard wall structures. You can arrange the ceiling with this option. But it is better to leave the walls smooth and even. This solution will further expand the space.
Bright room in the style of Scandinavian minimalism
Bright children's room with striped bedspreads
Bright bedroom in a rustic style
It is better to keep heating pipes out of sight by installing them in the wall or floor. The fewer unnecessary elements you see, the larger the narrow room will seem.
Expanding the space
The design of a long narrow room needs to be given a square outline. It is much more comfortable to be in a bedroom of the right size. To do this, you need to equip the bedroom, namely short walls, with horizontal elements of interior decoration. They use wall wallpapers with designs, patterns and patterns. Opening a shelf is also suitable.
A striped path is a simple way to visually expand a narrow room
Wallpaper with vertical stripes will “raise” the ceiling
Long walls are decorated with wallpaper with natural landscapes and photographs of big cities. The main idea here is to use as much of the available wall space as possible. A drawing of decent size will visually reduce the length of the wall.
The widespread use of light shades of color has a great effect on the depth of perception of the room. Eliminate the desire to create a bright accent. It will attract a lot of attention, but you will lose in size.
A combination of contrasting shades will visually enlarge a small bedroom
Important. Glossy surfaces must be present in the finish flooring, walls, ceilings, as well as interior furniture. The reflective effect will greatly expand the room. Together with clean, light colors, the interior of a long narrow room will have a winning position.
White combination brick wall with smooth, dark-colored surfaces
Flooring
White, beige and other light colors are selected for the floor. The ideal finishing material is laminate, ceramic tiles, linoleum. Parquet is also suitable, but find a board white very difficult. There is a light brown carpet next to the bed. The texture of the carpet is voluminous, similar to the skin of a wild animal.
A light floor covering will make the bedroom interior softer
The room will appear wider if the flooring boards are placed along the smaller side
Skirting boards must delineate the boundaries of the floor. Therefore, purchase products made from natural wood coated with varnish. Choose a color so that it matches one of the elements of the interior decoration. Furniture is perfect.
Walls
The decoration of short walls must be done in bright tones of color. Will fit well plain wallpaper or glass wallpaper, which can later be repainted. This way the interior design will not become boring over time. The window opening must be curtained. To do this, select Roman or roller blinds(read more about choosing curtains in our article), since the head of the bed does not allow the use of long fabrics (for example, Italian, Austrian).
Large mirrors contribute to the visual increase in space
Mirror surfaces should be placed on long walls
Long walls are decorated with light, faded wallpaper color ranges. In addition, the widespread use of mirrors will successfully transform the room. Consider organizing one wall entirely of glass panels. Select panels of a certain format, thanks to which it will be possible to organize a relief pattern.
Photo wallpaper with perspective will make the room wider
The combination of wallpaper of the same color, but with a different print looks interesting.
When placing a bed near a long wall, organize wall space soft upholstery. Additionally, attach sofa buttons to create a drawstring.
Ceiling
Ceiling space small room can be arranged on two levels. It is not necessary to make a standard rectangle around the perimeter. This arrangement will create certain frames that are completely unnecessary here. Instead, organize the ceiling into two different halves. Use smooth lines. An interesting option there will be an arrangement of three components. At the same time middle part the bedroom ceiling will be marked by a certain “depression”, which can be painted in a different color from the rest.
White bedroom ceiling vault oriental style with the most necessary interior items
The ceiling with a 3D effect looks original
Lighting the ceiling space will give the interior lightness and airiness. A soft glow LED strip is installed in the level junction. Point light sources are installed along the edge of the transition, as well as throughout the entire ceiling space.
Video on how to visually enlarge a room with curtains
In old houses, Soviet-era buildings, there are often long, awkward rooms in which it is difficult to arrange the usual set of furniture. Many owners of such a layout find it difficult to choose a style, color, and proper distribution of space. Experts are confident that even such a non-standard room can be transformed and created a stylish interior.
The first thing that owners of narrow rooms in an apartment think about is what is the best way to decorate the walls? After all, standard finishing techniques are not applicable in this case. In order to visually increase the space without resorting to redevelopment, it is necessary to use two main techniques:
- Reduce the length of the walls.
- Emphasize short walls.
To do this, large parts are not painted with bright colors, and smaller parts are covered with richly colored wallpaper or photo wallpaper. To a long room.
seemed a little smaller, it can be covered with wallpaper with a vertical pattern. For example, if a narrow room is a bedroom, then it is recommended to cover the wall at the head of the bed with wallpaper with oblong stripes, and paint the remaining surfaces in one of the shades of the pastel palette. We see the idea of what the design could be for the length of a narrow room in the photo.
Doors and floors in non-standard rooms
If the doorway is located on a long wall, then it can be expanded and a doorway one meter wide can be installed. If the doors are located on a narrow part, then the opening should be designed in the form of a beautiful arched structure.
- Parquet board.
- Linoleum covering.
- Tiles with a pattern in the form of rectangles.
But it is not enough to purchase a suitable coating; the installation process itself is important. To visually expand the room, the pattern is laid perpendicular to a wide wall. The same rule applies when placing a carpet: it should be laid wide part against a narrow wall. The floor design is shown in the photo.
How to furnish a long room
To transform a room from rectangular to square, place a cabinet near the narrow part, preferably the same color as the wall. Excellent and at the same time practical solution is to arrange a dressing room in a long narrow room. Thanks to this technique you will create correct form premises, and at the same time get a place to store things.
You should not place furniture in a long narrow room near a large wall. This is a common mistake of many owners of non-standard premises. The best option is to place furniture closer to the corners of a narrow wall. At the same time, the long part can be left free or ottomans can be placed near it. To add space on the long part of the walls, it is recommended to hang a mirror.
- To create a cozy living room in a non-standard room, you need to choose the warmest and brightest corner. Here there are two armchairs or compact sofas at right angles and a coffee table at the top of the resulting angle.
- Opposite the entrance in the corners of the living room we place two identical armchairs. This way we will create a comfortable place for two people to talk.
- A sofa should be placed along the far wall, which will transform the room, making it more square.
- If the width of the room allows, then we place half-turn chairs on the sides of the sofa.
- Don't forget about indoor plants– spreading plants with small leaves will visually expand the room.
Breakdown into zones
If there is a very narrow space, it can be divided into two clear squares using shelving structures and partitions. This solution is quite applicable both for the living room and for children’s rooms. Moreover, in latest version two comfortable zones for playing and sleeping are created. Given option will do and for the bedroom, in which it is necessary to arrange a place for work. In this case, the bed is placed in the far corner, and work area placed near the window.
