What are the advantages of the kitchen living room? Firstly, one large room instead of two small ones gives more space and light. Secondly, there is an opportunity to do several things at once: cook and communicate with guests, look after children, wait until the soup is cooked in a comfortable sofa with a book. Combining the two rooms, we get a spacious, bright and modern space. And the disadvantages? Unless the smell of food, which is successfully eliminated by a good cooker hood.
The main feature in the design of the kitchen-living room is a competent zoning. A few words about zoning in general can be read here. And how to use it in a kitchen-living room, we will consider examples from our portfolio.
Sofa zoning
Leave the furniture around the perimeter of the room in the 20th century. By enclosing each square centimeter of the wall with a sofa or closet, you will lose the design dynamism. To competently separate the living area from the kitchen, you can put a sofa back to the kitchen set in the center of the room. So, sitting on the sofa, you will see only what is relevant to the living room. This method does not violate the same space and leaves a lot of light and airiness in the perception of the room.
Remember the series "Friends"? It used the same technique with the sofa unfolded as in this project: the kitchen is on one wall, the sofa looks at the other. Everyone can do his or her own thing, and everyone will be together.
Opposite the sofa you can place a TV set, which will be clearly visible from the kitchen and at the dining table.
Grouping of furniture by zone
There is a kitchen corner in one corner of the room and a sofa in the other. Such a solution is good for small kitchen-living rooms, where there is no room for partitions, and a sofa in the center would eat a useful area. Different zones are located as far away from each other as possible in these conditions.
In a similar way, but already in the big room there is a kitchen and a living room in the project in the art-decor style. If you have at your disposal a room of non-standard layout, for example, in the form of a letter "G", one of these zones can successfully fit into this very "turn".
Partitions
The classic zoning classics are the installation of a partition wall. It can be a solid wall of plasterboard or bricks. Lighter transparent structures are made of wood, glass or metal. In this project, we have created a combined partition wall in which wooden beams overlap with the wooden dining table, combining the design of the room in style and color.
A solid partition can perform two functions at once if you place storage shelves "inside it". The advantage of such a partition is that it can be of any size and shape, as it is created individually from scratch. Minus - the next time the partition is repaired, it is more difficult to dismantle than simply moving the rack.
Racks
In a small room, the "extra" wall will only take up precious square meters, and the shelving will almost not eat up the space and light. In addition, it is an extra storage space, which is never a lot.
Doors
Sliding doors or mobile partitions do not take up space at all or even fold into the wall. Depending on your mood and needs, you can "close in the kitchen" or combine it with the living area.
Mobile partitions can be made of frosted or transparent glass to let in more light, but still separate the living room from the kitchen if desired.
Bar counter
When a room performs several functions at once, there may be no room for a kitchen table. The bar is a great alternative if the apartment has 1-2 people. It also serves as a partition between the kitchen and living area.
The bar counter is placed not only for reasons of space saving. If a large dining table causes boredom and associations with Soviet dining rooms - the bar counter will be useful. It fits perfectly into modern interiors like a loft or Scandinavia.
If you combine the mood of the bar with the functionality of the dining table with the storage drawers, you get a kitchen island. This solution requires a lot of space and often requires individual design, but it is worth it!
Table
Fans of traditional interior styles can turn the dining table perpendicular to the wall, separating the kitchen from the living room. In this project, the zoning is enhanced by the use of luminaries above the table and the painting in the "relaxation area".
Lighting and decor
Light and decoration can combine or help to separate one zone from another. For example, if you hang one chandelier in the middle of the living room kitchen, there is likely to be a lack of light both there and there. And the lighting for each zone will separate their perception despite the overall design.
In this project, separate zones are emphasized with the help of light and carpets. The luminary is different for each zone, but in a similar geometric design. The carpet is matched to the sofa. Everything echoes each other and creates a single stylish space.