How to effectively separate the living room from the kitchen?
Versatility is the key to any good small home interior design. But what happens when we want to create smaller and cozier spaces within open an open-floor plan? There are several ways to achieve this. And we can do it without that costing you and arm and a leg. We have some simple solutions in our arsenal, which will by no means look out of place, but on the contrary – they’ll definitely achieve the goal and look fabulous (if executed properly).
In small apartments and houses, where the living room and kitchen are next to each other, one often feels the need to divide the spaces, at least visually. In today’s article we present some ideas on how to effectively divide a room into two parts with different functions – hassle free and for cheap. Take a look at our suggestions and share your thoughts!
Sliding barrier
One of the most logical and at the same time beautiful solutions is the installation of an interior door. Not just any door, of course – the idea is for the door to be large enough for both spaces to quickly and easily overflow into one. Sliding doors are a great choice to that end. And the design options for the door itself are many and depend on the overall interior of the home. They can be glass, if one room is brighter than the other, or wooden – when we are looking for more “warmth” in the design of the interior, which in turn offers a number of other design options. Take a look at our gallery and catalogs to get a better idea of what type of doors SBS Design can build for you.
Arranging the upholstered furniture
The most compact spaces are often divided only by means of arranging the furniture in the room. For example, if we put the upholstered furniture (sofa) in the living room with its back to the kitchen part, we will get the desired effect, creating an invisible barrier between the kitchen and the living space. Naturally, this is a suitable choice for smaller apartments and especially the narrower ones. An illustrative example of this division can be seen in many of IKEA’s showrooms.
Kitchen island
Using a kitchen island between the kitchen and the dining / living room is a great alternative. In addition to looking good, the kitchen island adds an awful lot of useful storage space, as well as additional worktops – great advantage, if you’re into cooking. And along with the practical advantages of the kitchen island, the latter makes the overall décor more attractive. The island allows you to stay part of the conversation while preparing food in the kitchen or cleaning up after dinner, while visually dividing the room into two functional parts.
Partial / decorative wall
When we say “wall”, do not imagine a solid brick wall or even one made of drywall. This is more of a decorative divider in the form of a wooden rib or similar structure. You can see examples of this in the gallery below. This divider can be more functional – taking the form of a shelf, for example. This, of course, would suit especially smaller rooms, where extra storage space is never enough.
Carpet
When we think of the division of space, we rather think of décor in the vertical plane; we are looking for something in height, furniture, shelf, etc. to divide the room. However, the carpet can also serve as a visual delimiter between rooms. This is a good option and equally important, it’s budget-friendly in light of the proposals we’ve outlined so far. In all, using the right carpet is a simple, but at the same time very effective way of achieving your goal of dividing the interior space.
Wall texture
Sometimes simple solutions are the best. In this line of thought, in addition to carpets, the transition between the two functional parts of the room can be made by using different textures on the wall. What do we mean here? The part of the wall on which the kitchen is installed can be painted, and the rest (which houses the living room furniture – most often the sofa) can be decorated with wallpaper, decorative brick, or decorative wooden panels. Thus, the two rooms are again separated visually without the décor taking up extra space.
Have you encountered a similar challenge in the process of decorating your home? What option did you opt for in separating the room into two functional spaces? We will be happy to find out in the comments below.