One-room apartment: repair with your own hands

Young people and couples most often buy one-room apartments. New housing, bought on the secondary market – it does not matter. Before you move in, it is supposed to make a one-room apartment repair. Only the concept is very stretchable and can mean both a simple re-laying of wallpaper, and re-planning. Several results of repair of different degrees of “severity” will demonstrate in the article. They are quite different, in style and purpose, but all about remodeling 1-bedroom apartments. Looking at the photos, some ideas you can apply in your own practice.

General principles and techniques

One-room apartments are usually not characterized by large areas. Residences of old construction – in Khrushchevki – are about 30 square meters. m, but in new buildings is a little more: it can be 40 square meters and more. In any case, you have to carefully consider the layout and furniture arrangement: every centimeter counts.

Where to start the repair of one-room? It is necessary to draw a plan with dimensions, and in scale. Then you need to look at what can be improved.

Moving the door closer to the load-bearing wall

First of all, pay attention to the location of the doors. In old layouts, they were often made in the middle of the wall. This is very uneconomical from the point of view of space utilization: too large an area goes into the “dead” zone. We walk around in it, and there is no way to put anything in it. It is much more convenient to move the doors closer to one of the walls. Which one – you choose. And this is a remodeling, not a redevelopment, but it is necessary to register it.

Combining the bathroom

The biggest misfortune of small-sized housing – very small bathrooms. In old houses, they are just tiny. In them there is not even a possibility to put a washing machine. Since the rest of the premises are not happy with the space, you have to arrange rearrangements to find a place. Therefore, conceiving the repair of a one-room apartment, very often tear down the partition between the bathroom and toilet. They are definitely not load-bearing, so there are no problems with coordination. Just this decision alone can give the necessary centimeters.

The second thing that is often undertaken – replace the bathroom with a shower cabin. This solution is not acceptable for everyone, but the space becomes a little more. You can put a ready-made shower cabin or make it yourself from brick, tile, kicking out the wall in half a brick or putting a folding door. How to make a shower cabin yourself read here.

Demolition of storerooms

In most layouts there are pantries. But their location is often so unfortunate that it is better without them. But the freed up space can be occupied by appliances or make in this place a dressing room, a built-in closet. Let them take up the same amount of space, but their functionality is much wider.

Combining rooms with a balcony

Since today there are new insulators that allow for a small thickness to achieve a high degree of thermal insulation, it has become possible to combine rooms with balconies or loggias. Insulate well not only the walls, but also the ceiling and floor. And it is not unreasonable to make floor heating: it is difficult to move the batteries (project, approval), but to lay a heating cable – it is possible and relatively easy. The project for such heating is not required.

When combining rooms with a balcony, note that you can remove only the part that was under the window. Those walls that from the floor to the ceiling are strictly forbidden to touch. Such remodeling you will never legalize: these are external load-bearing walls and they are responsible for the integrity of the building.

How to equip the balcony or loggia read here.

Studio apartment

Another solution, popular among young people: demolition of almost all partitions. Only the bathroom and toilet remain isolated. All other walls are removed. It turns out to be a so-called studio apartment. From the usual one-room apartment with an area of a little more than 30 meters with this type of repair can make quite a decent room. Minuses in such a decision is: the kitchen is practically united with the rest of the premises and food odors will spread throughout the apartment. Therefore, there should be a powerful extractor hood in it. This solves the problem.

This option can be modified – make the walls beveled, etc. Just remember that you can expand the area of bathrooms and kitchens only at the expense of technical rooms. Since in this case it happens at the expense of the hallway, there are no problems. But in this area will have to make a reinforced waterproofing: several layers will be required for sure. Be prepared for the fact that this will be spelled out in the project of harmonization.

Some ideas for the repair of a one-room apartment you will find in the video. Real object, filmed before the repair, then – the main stages and already “after”.

Sequence of actions

Having determined what you want to do in your one-room apartment during the repair, you can submit the project for approval. This is not a quick matter. In the meantime, get busy calculating materials and their purchase. The advice is as follows: keep a separate notebook or file – whoever is used to. For each type of work allocate a separate page, where you write everything that on this occasion it is necessary to do. First, all the work that is necessary, then – in detail all the required materials. And down to nails, anchors, screws (with dimensions), tape and other little things that run into untold numbers.

Having finished the development of each type of work, make a general list of materials: summarize the amount. Then you can search for places of purchase. Something can be found on the Internet, something in stores. Little things are often taken without looking, but more or less large purchases prefer to make by visiting stores. And that’s right: the quality of the picture can not determine. Therefore, first call around, check prices, then go to the addresses, look and feel. And do not hesitate to ask questions. While you gather all the materials, the documents will be ready.

This is when the actual work begins. Do repairs in the apartment yourself or hire a brigade – this question everyone decides for himself. If you hire different people for different types of work, you need careful control during the entire process, because having done their “piece” of work they will disappear. Those masters who will come after them, will nod at the fact that their predecessors did everything … wrong.

It is impossible to give clear instructions on what to do and what to do for what: too different work can be, but in general the order is as follows:

• Dismantling/installation of partitions.
• Modernization of engineering systems (ventilation, plumbing) and electrical wiring (installation of electrical panel, wiring to the rooms through junction boxes).
• Replacement of windows.
• Leveling of walls, ceiling, plastering.
• Installation of heating system.
• Pouring / flooring.
• Installation of doors.
• Finishing works.
• Arrangement of furniture

If some works are not needed, they are simply omitted. But if a major repair is planned, then all of them are necessary, especially in old apartments.

Repair of a one-room apartment: interior design

If the repair is going in an already settled apartment, you are unequivocally bound to the items that you already have. Some of them will be replaced, but most of them, as a rule, remain. Since the rooms are already furnished, you can visualize quite clearly where you can put new things/appliances, and when you look at them in a store or in a photo, you can determine quite accurately how well they will “fit” into the existing space and furnishings.

When planning an interior in a new building, everything is more complicated and simpler. Simpler – you start from scratch and no old things. You can choose the style, color, texture, without being tied to the existing elements. But the room is still unfamiliar, and it is difficult to imagine how this or that thing will look. In this case will help design programs that allow you to present projects in volume. Just drawing a plan is not enough: not everything that looks good on a piece of paper will also look good in volume. Often there are other situations: what looked bad on a sheet of paper, in volume turns out to be a boon. Therefore, first develop a plan on a sheet of paper, and then transferred to the volume image. Only immediately with dimensions, otherwise it is a waste of time.

At this stage, keep track of the little things. In what direction the door opens, what size it is, and how convenient it will be. And this applies not only to doors – front and interior, but also doors in closets and cabinets. In this case, do not forget about the passageways: to be able to normally pass the place should be 70-80 cm, but better a little more. Further we will be based on specific examples.

From a one-room 32-meter apartment to make a two-room apartment

In a typical Khrushchevka apartment with an area of 32 meters, a repair was made, during which a separate bedroom was allocated. And the remodeling is minimal. The partition separating the corridor is removed (rather, just a door), the side wall is continued, with its help partitioned off a part of the living room, turning it into a bedroom.

Just pay attention: the apartment is corner. There are two windows in the room. This made it possible to get two full-fledged, albeit small rooms.

When developing the interior, which you want to see after the repair in your one-room apartment, rely on your daily actions.

Let’s start at the door. Here you’ve walked in. You need somewhere to put your bags, sit down, take off your shoes, hang your clothes. Place all of this in the hallway. The first thing is the closet. In this case, he took a place opposite the door. In the photo – the hallway in this apartment, looking from the kitchen. To make the room more light and voluminous, the door in the closet opposite the kitchen is made mirrored. It reflects light, illuminating the daytime better than lamps.

If you look from the door, there are two doors to the bedroom and living room on the right, and the kitchen is straight ahead.

Next is the kitchen. When you come in with your bags, you will inevitably find yourself there. It’s like everyone else’s: refrigerator, stove, sink. The refrigerator is to the left of the window. All other appliances – along one wall, with a small “approach” to the side.

That in a small kitchen (a little more than 5 meters) furniture did not seem very massive, hinged cabinets are very light. This is one of the techniques that allows you to expand the space. Read more about kitchen design here.

In the living room along one of the walls placed a sofa. At first we planned a corner one, but we liked it better.

In this small room still fit a coffee table and a cabinet with appliances.

Now for the bedroom. There is a full bed in it, even found a place for a chest of drawers, above which the TV is placed. Between them there is a standard width passage: just 70 cm.

It turned out quite nice and functional. The pictures were taken right after the renovation: many small things are not yet in place, so everything looks a bit formal. The owners (a young couple) have already received guests. In their small living room there were 8 people)))

Renovation in a one-room apartment of 40 meters

Apartment for a young couple, the design was developed by a specialist. The redevelopment was almost not done. The main redesigns touched the bathroom.

The other “advantages” of the layout were played with the help of “design tricks”. The plan of this 1-room apartment after repair looks like this.

In the hallway a small built-in closet is made. It is simply necessary. A small wall is specially put under it.

The most serious front touched the bathroom: instead of a toilet, a technical room was made. Here is a washing machine, boiler, storage systems.

In the bathroom, in order to fit everything necessary on a small area, we gave up the bathtub. It was replaced by a shower box. It turned out to be compact.

The color scheme of the kitchen is very interesting: gray tones with bright pink accents. The unusually shaped table was made to order, as was the kitchen set.

To cabinets do not take up much space, it was decided to occupy only one wall. The refrigerator even fits here. So that the space above it does not “walk”, above it is hung a cabinet. Also note that the overhead cabinets are almost ceiling-high: the upper shelves are used for things that are not often used.

To keep the pink stools from looking too flashy, the wall is covered with photo wallpaper. They harmonize the whole interior.

A lot of interesting solutions in the room. To the right of the entrance there was previously a free space. It is occupied by a wall cabinet in the whole wall. This solved two problems: there is a place to put things, and the room became more square.

The room is divided into two zones with a translucent partition shelf: working and rest. The zoning is emphasized by different wallpaper, as well as the presence of a rug in the recreation zone.