To create a modern and stylish interior in your home today, it is not at all necessary to use the expensive services of a specialist, because on the vastness of the World Wide Web there is a lot of information on how to choose an apartment design and bring it to life yourself. This requires only the most basic knowledge and skills, as well as a little imagination and imagination. And yet, you should remember the main criteria for choosing an interior, the requirements that need to be taken into account.
Layout
The comfort of its owners’ stay depends on the layout of the room.
This is the main criterion that should not be forgotten. This point is especially relevant for small residential premises, when in conditions of limited space it is necessary to create not only a beautiful, but also a comfortable interior.
As for the layout, there are several types:
- traditional - involves a common living room and bedrooms isolated from each other. In this case, it is desirable that all bedrooms, as well as the bathroom, are located as far as possible from the front door. This type of layout is optimal for large families and large spaces;
- free - when the entire living space is represented by one room without any extra partitions or fences (with the exception of the bathroom). This layout is optimal for small apartments inhabited by 1–2 people. The division into functional zones here is carried out using furniture, color schemes, lighting;
- combined, combining elements of the two options discussed above. As a rule, such rooms combine a living room and a kitchen, and the sleeping areas are isolated.
Advice from an interior design specialist
Home interior design is an art, so it is best to entrust it to professionals with experience and many completed projects. By contacting us, you can get original and elegant solutions in the field of interior design and decoration in various styles. However, there are a few simple recommendations from professionals, the implementation of which will make your home look more beautiful, spacious and comfortable. So, what does a private designer advise?
In pursuit of space, redevelopments are made and walls are broken that separate halls from kitchens, bedrooms from corridors, and even bathrooms from the rest of the apartment. In this regard, in addition to the recommendation to think carefully about the consequences of living in a huge studio apartment, where all the smells and sounds are amazingly mixed, it is necessary to at least somehow divide the space into functional zones. Various floor coverings, lighting, columns, furniture, and light partitions can be used as delimiters.
Columns create a conditional division into zones in the bathroom interior
Another controversial element that home interior design can contain is the podium arrangement, which was quite popular a few years ago. When deciding on a podium, remember that it reduces the height of the ceiling, and apartment residents often trip over it, which is especially dangerous for children and the elderly.
Be careful: studio apartments, podiums and suspended ceilings!
Suspended ceilings require high quality workmanship, thoughtful design and smart lighting solutions. Therefore, it is better to either make a first-class suspended ceiling in a large company with the involvement of a professional designer, or limit yourself to a classic smooth coating.
Dining room interior design from our portfolio
Almost any private designer periodically uses techniques such as:
- longitudinal pattern of the floor covering,
- mirrors, lighting, light wallpaper with vertical stripes,
- multi-level ceilings.
All this helps to visually expand the room, make it lighter and taller.
When decorating a room, it is necessary to periodically repeat some techniques and decorative elements. The entire interior design of a home can be built on repetition and contrast. For example, if there is any curved piece of furniture in the room, then you can use the same motif as a decoration for the door leaf. The headboard, decorated with forging, will perfectly match the forged lamp. Bright kitchen curtains with a floral pattern will not match with equally colorful wallpaper.
Functional areas
Furniture allows you to divide the room into several comfort zones
Before starting finishing work, it is necessary to determine the purpose of each room in the apartment, that is, where there will be a living room, bedrooms for each family member, what furniture will be in a particular room. This is a very important point, because the convenience of living depends on it, as well as the need to install sockets, switches, and other functional elements that will be used daily.
Arrangement of furniture and interior items
Each person, before arranging furniture, can create his own design project
Many people prefer to place furniture around the perimeter of the room, along its walls. This option is suitable for small spaces. However, if the apartment has a lot of free space, this method is not always appropriate. In this case, it is best to arrange the furniture differently, for example, a sofa and armchairs, as well as a coffee table, will look good in the center. A new way of decorating a room will allow the interior to sparkle in a new way, making it modern and original.
How to choose the interior of your apartment yourself
To make the renovation work, you just need to choose the interior style that makes you feel good and comfortable.
. And here a professional designer may be powerless, since he is unlikely to sense the psychological type of your personality.
What to do? Become a bit of a designer yourself.
Brief history of design
Let's first study what design styles exist.
In fact, there are a great many of them:
- They appeared on the crest of a new wave and disappeared
- Some remained forever, changing at times: classicism was replaced by neoclassicism
- modern - postmodern
- decor – art deco, etc.
This meant that humanity does not accept monotony and constantly craves something new, rushing:
Apartment interior design today
Our time is surprising in that today they live together in the interior:
- bionics and constructivism
- vintage and avant-garde
- art deco and hi-tech
Moreover, this is not a chaotic jumble of objects of different styles - one style can be inside another
:
- The walls, floors and ceilings of the apartment can be made in one style, and the furniture in another
- Some objects on which a kind of emphasis seems to be placed are in the third: for example, objects of art, a painting, a decorative panel, objects of ethnic art and personal creativity. Sometimes an unusual chandelier, made independently, can concentrate all the attention on itself.
However, modern principles in design are the desire for expediency and unity of style
.
Expediency is a principle that puts in first place the functionality of a thing and its manufacturability (ease of manufacture)
The concept of functionality of an apartment interior is understood as
:
- All interior items should perform their direct functions (it should be comfortable to lie on a sofa, sit on a chair, etc.)
- The item must be truly necessary, aesthetically pleasing and fit into the interior
- The interior must carry a certain idea and meaning
For example, the designer is given goals:
- Create an apartment environment in bionic style (as close to nature as possible)
- Immerse yourself in the atmosphere of antiquity (vintage style)
- Create the feeling that you are in a factory floor (loft style)
We are slowly approaching a unified style.
The unity of style is an organic combination of all interior objects, as a result of which it begins to look like a single whole. Each item in the apartment should be part of the composition, without contradicting it or coming into conflict with it
When they say that this thing seems to have been here forever, they mean a successful choice of an interior unit and its arrangement within one space within the framework of a unified style.
Some terminology (modern styles)
- Eclecticism
:
Considered one of the interior styles, although in fact it is a deliberate mixture of two or three styles in one interior - Art Deco
Art Deco style is distinguished by sophistication, lightness and laconicism.Art Deco is a sophisticated, light and playful style. It combines:
- A variety of materials (light airy tulle, soft carpets or skins and metal)
- Graceful inlays and laconic forms
Straight and smooth lines
Its main condition is the taboo on pretentiousness
- The designs are simple and original
Minimalism in the interior is a minimum of objects and a lot of free space
Minimalism – a minimum of interior items and a maximum of free space
- Decorative elements are missing
Solid colors
How to tie the interior to the character
Of course, such a connection is similar to fortune telling using horoscopes, and besides, human characters are polysyllabic.
But in general it was noticed:
What do you like?
How to choose an interior
If you haven't found the answer yet, try this:
- Find the things and interior objects in your apartment that you like best and try to determine their style
- Go visit your friends and acquaintances and take a closer look at their housing: maybe something will catch your eye. Not the most original advice, if, moreover, you don’t want to copy someone else’s interior in your own apartment, but create something of your own
- Look through magazines and catalogs with apartment interiors
- Go the opposite way - listen and take a closer look at yourself, and try to analyze your psychological type
If you have absolutely no ideas, and you don’t care what the interior of your apartment will be like, then don’t get too hung up on it
:
- Contact the designer and rely on his choice. He will show you options for apartment interiors, and maybe you will like something
- Use the standard Sweet Home 3 D repair program, although it requires some knowledge of drawing and geometry within the school curriculum. But after spending a little time studying it, you won’t regret it: you yourself will be able to choose the interior specifically for your apartment or house, although the choice of interior items in the catalogs of such programs may be limited
- See how it will look visually (visualize). You can familiarize yourself with other catalogues, use the principle of similarity to help and further improve the interior in your imagination
- Save a lot of money on professional design
Video: Even a small studio apartment can be made very cozy
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Convenience for every family member
Both adults and children can take part in decorating the interior of the house.
This point is especially important when creating the design of individual rooms, for example, bedrooms, children's rooms. Here it is necessary to discuss the following issues with each family member:
- personal preferences regarding layout;
- color preferences;
- the need to organize a separate workplace;
- health status (for example, someone may be allergic to dust, in which case it will be necessary to avoid carpets, heavy curtains, and upholstered furniture);
- the presence of hobbies and hobbies of one or another family member;
- how often it is planned to invite guests, where holidays and parties will take place.
Choice of color and lighting
When decorating the interior, you can combine several colors that will create a special atmosphere of comfort.
Sometimes different colors of furniture and finishing materials look chic in the store, but when used at home, they seem to lose their appearance. This happens because the display window always has ideal lighting, which allows you to present the product in the most favorable angle. This does not always happen at home. Therefore, when choosing specific colors in a store, you should always check how it will look in natural and artificial light.
It is important to choose the right light sources. If previously the only option was to place one large chandelier in the center of the room, today this is not the case. Therefore, for each room, depending on its size, color scheme and purpose, it is necessary to select a lighting design in advance.
How to choose an interior design?
Whatever method of changing the interior you choose, the main thing is to remember that the main task is not to carry out repairs and change furniture, but to change the surrounding space. Repair can be a step in accomplishing this task, but it is not at all the main tool.
You need to look at your apartment through the eyes of a stranger. Look, what do you see? The environment tells a lot about the owner of the apartment. The interior design of a room is a kind of business card. You can even conduct an experiment and invite a stranger to your apartment. Let him try to answer the questions - who lives here, how many people are there, what is the age of the owner, what is his character, is the person living here happy? Who do you want to appear to others as? A housewife, a business person or a person of movement and creativity?
The design of the room should reveal the owner’s inner world and at the same time successfully harmonize with it.
The Baroque style is characterized by gilded stucco moldings and a large abundance of mirrors.
Only in this case will you be able to feel comfortable and cozy at home. Many people have situations where the repairs that have started take a very long time. This happens because old wallpapers are replaced with new ones, ceilings and floor coverings are updated. Maybe the old renovation would have been fine, but now we have to change it so that we don’t feel ashamed in front of our guests. When doing renovations and changing the interior “to suit you”, everything happens completely differently. A person taps into his creative potential and little by little begins to create his own “nest.” The peculiarity of a good designer is to feel the mood and preferences of the owner of the room and bring them to life in an ideal form, using his knowledge and skills.
However, the home owner himself, having received the necessary information and answered a few questions, will be able to become the best creator for creating the interior of his home. You just have to believe that throughout the entire area that you own, you will be able to fully express your individuality, and make the interior memorable and interesting.
When choosing a style, you must remember that the apartment performs several functions:
- The apartment is a place of rest and relaxation (think about what objects, colors, details and materials you associate with relaxation).
- The apartment is a place for gathering strength, recharging energy, and eating (choose for yourself those items that really bring you pleasure and joy).
- The apartment is a reflection of your personality (think about what colors, things, symbols or anything else you identify with yourself and your inner world).
To avoid previous mistakes, carefully examine every detail of your interior. In relation to each detail, answer the questions: does it bring you pleasure to look at it, use it, what associations and memories does it evoke, does it fulfill its functional purpose well? Sometimes even the best interior can be overshadowed by negative energy. When there are a lot of quarrels and unpleasant moments in life in a room, a negative attitude towards the interior inevitably develops. In such situations, a change of scenery is essential.
Accessories
Various decorative items perfectly complement the overall design of the room
Many people do not attach importance to them. And this is wrong, because even small details, correctly selected and arranged, can give the room a completely different look. These could be, for example, pillows on the sofa, napkins, small sculptures, photo frames, and other small designer items.
Of course, when creating your own unique apartment design, you need to pay attention to other nuances, in particular, your financial capabilities. After all, in order to bring a project to life, monetary costs are required, and sometimes very significant ones. Therefore, it is necessary to plan changes in accordance with budget capabilities.
Own design project
In order to be able to draw up a design project yourself, you need to remember the following rules.
- Start with an idea. Just think of what idea you would like to implement. It can be quite modest and ordinary, or it can be unique and unusual. It is worth assessing your capabilities, how much you will be able to implement this idea. Unfortunately, this is not always easy or financially possible. At least you can definitely keep the style you choose.
- Be as accurate as possible with the data you have. It is better to measure the entire room several times so that unforeseen circumstances do not happen later. It’s great when you have an apartment plan with precise measurements, but in any case it’s better to once again go around the rooms with a tape measure. Otherwise, not the most pleasant situations may happen.
- Currently, it is best to use special programs that will help you create a project. They are very easy to use. Then the sketches obtained in the software must be transferred to the drawings, which will be your working material.
Related links: Features of choosing a corner wardrobe for the bedroom
It is worth noting that the design project should take into account all the nuances and even decorative items as much as possible. Only in this case can you accurately assess what type your apartment will have. If you have money, you still shouldn’t take on such an important matter without any experience. It is better to contact a designer who will take into account all your wishes, advise on what is best and make the project the one that suits you.