Ecology of life. Interior design: B modern apartments A small bathroom is quite common. What to do if you have planned a bathroom renovation and at the same time want to introduce many practical and functional details?
In modern apartments, a small bathroom is quite common. What to do if you have planned a bathroom renovation and at the same time want to introduce many practical and functional details?
You can make your bathroom stylish even with the most limited dimensions. First of all, you need to make a plan for remodeling your bathroom. Think through all the layout ideas, starting with the design of the room itself, its color range. After all color palette really helps change appearance rooms. So light, warm and smoky shades allow you to visually expand and enlarge the room.
A large number of mirrors, which can either be hung on the walls or mounted into the surface of furniture, also significantly visually makes the room larger. No less attention should be paid to the choice of lighting for a small bathroom. Maximum use of natural lighting is important here. If there are no windows in the bathroom, then small bright lamps will come to the rescue. They will make the room light and spacious.
The choice of wall and floor tiles. For a small bathroom area, it is recommended to choose medium-sized tiles and muted colors. This again allows you to visually increase the size of the room.
Furniture for a small bathroom must be chosen according to its size. Small glass and plastic objects will look good. Small shelves are suitable for decorating and storing small items.
You need to choose bathroom fixtures that won’t take up much space. Now there are various options smaller sinks, toilets, showers, which take up much less space than usual. And small decorative elements will help complete the image of a spacious and bright bathroom, where it will always be cozy and comfortable.
Every person living in small apartment, I have a dream - to have a spacious bathroom in which all the items necessary for its comfortable use would be located. Original interior, conducive to rest, would allow you to relax by sitting after taking fragrant bath in a cozy chair, and the view from the window helped improve my mood.
However, having paid tribute to the dreamy mood, you inevitably have to return to reality, and in it there is a bathroom, the entire area of which does not reach three square meters. Only a bathtub and a washbasin can fit into such an area, and its only decoration is a mirror cabinet in which the most necessary cosmetics for every day are stored and shelves built under the sink for detergents. It seems that there is no interesting solution for creating original design interior in such small room it’s impossible to come up with - all that remains is to accept the bathroom as it is as intended by the designers.
Don't be discouraged - fantasize!
Modern designers say that a small space is an excellent opportunity to show ingenuity when developing an original design. Their correctness is confirmed by many photos in magazines dedicated to interior design. Design projects for bathrooms with a minimum area occupy a place of honor in such magazines, because only a very talented master of his craft can decorate such a room, giving it originality. That's why the best option To create a comfortable bathroom in a room with a small area, you will turn to a professional.
In order to explain to him what you would like to see in your bathroom, you can show your favorite photos from magazines. After creating the project, the client will only have to purchase necessary materials and plumbing equipment and order the builders to carry out the project developed by the designer. This way of obtaining an original design for a bathroom is the simplest, but requires considerable financial costs, which are not available to everyone.
The second method is labor-intensive and not acceptable to every apartment owner, but in the end it gives a good result when investing not too much money, especially if you have minimal construction skills. This method is often used by owners of small-sized housing that have separate toilets and bathrooms, combining them into a single room.
At the same time, using small-sized plumbing fixtures, as well as changing their location, you can significantly transform the interior of the room, achieving a very significant saving of space in it. Designers also have such projects, so before starting such work, even at the planning stage, you can get acquainted with photos of projects that have already been brought to life.
They show that such redevelopment allows, when using corner bath, attached to the wall of the toilet, washbasin, partly located above the bathtub, to obtain so much free space that not only washing machine, but also a narrow pencil case. If there are no small children in the family, for whom a bath is still necessary, then the bathtub can be replaced with a shower cabin, to save space by choosing a model that does not have back wall. This will save a few more precious centimeters.
Radical changes
For those who do not consider it possible to combine a toilet and a bathroom, but at the same time want to economically use the space of a small bathroom, a radical solution to the problem is possible. However, it should be noted that it is only acceptable in the absence of small children. Although children grow up, a small bathroom does not have such an opportunity.
Designers suggest getting rid of the bathroom, not purchasing a shower cabin, but using a shower panel mounted on the wall. The water drain is located directly in the floor. and in order to prevent splashes from the shower from scattering throughout the room, it is mounted sliding partition made of durable glass. published
A meter to the right, a meter and a half to the left - unfortunately, thousands of tenants still have to put up with this layout of bathrooms. And this tightness sometimes causes not only physical, but also purely psychological inconvenience. Therefore even professional designers are constantly looking for new techniques to visually enlarge the bathroom. The main task is to eliminate the “stone bag” effect, but at the same time maintain maximum ergonomics of the room, so that all the necessary devices and objects are at arm’s length.
There are many ways in which you can visually expand a small bathroom. Firstly, a lot depends on color combinations and the selection of lighting. Secondly, it is convenient to model the space in the bathroom with the help of mirrors - after all, they must be there. Thirdly, it will do its job comfortable furniture, which by default will fall into “its” place and will not “absorb” extra square meters.
So, let's look at the popular methods in more detail. visual expansion bathroom
Colors and paints: insidious and magical
The darker the color, the more it “conceals” space or volume. The lighter it is, the more successful it works in reverse side, that is, it enlarges and expands. This rule is well known to any designer.
Critical options:
bright and rich colors - red, orange, crimson and others; dark and gloomy tones; contrasting combinations - for example, a bathroom in black and white will look good only if there is enough space in it. The same can be said about other contrasts.
Wall decoration
Most economical material for finishing walls in a small bathroom – plastic panels, which are mounted end-to-end and create the illusion of a complete, even coating. Ceramic tiles, preferably medium-sized, are also appropriate. Too small or large tile masonry can provoke optical disproportions in space due to the grout being too clearly visible at the seams.
plain texture; smooth matte or glossy finish; horizontal or vertical stripes as decoration or masonry technique (the former help to visually expand the room, the latter - to stretch it vertically). Of course, you need to give preference to either the first or the second, depending on the specific tasks.
Critical options:
Ceiling finishing
Small bathrooms often feel cramped because the ceiling is too low. In fact, it is impossible to raise it above its level, but visually - please. They will come to the rescue fashion trends and advanced technologies.
suspended ceilings with a shiny surface. On the one hand, when installing them you will have to “steal” a few more centimeters of height from the cramped space. On the other hand, the end result will be a very attractive sight - you yourself will stop noticing that the ceiling is actually low; suspended ceilings with a glossy surface - ideally they should be white; mirrored ceilings - they can be treated differently, but they significantly increase small rooms, especially in height.
Critical options:
Plumbing
It is clear that you cannot install a large and comfortable bathtub in a small bathroom, and here it is not even a matter of visual problems, but a simple lack of space. But you still want the plumbing to be comfortable.
Critical options:
baths square shapes, including sedentary ones, they still won’t provide you with comfortable swimming; models of toilets with installations; using the sides of the bathtub instead of shelves - you should not place bottles of shampoos, jars of scrubs, etc. on them.
Furniture
Many owners of cramped bathrooms are hesitant to include pieces of furniture in their interior, believing that this will only aggravate the situation. In fact, well-chosen furniture helps organize the space.
Critical options:
various cabinets, including under the sink - you can do without this piece of furniture, and use the space under the washbasin to install a washing machine; closed cabinets and shelves - it is better to replace them with models without doors.
When you need renovate a small bathroom, you'll likely want the result to be a practical space that looks larger than it actually is. There are many different factors that influence the perception of the size of a space, but in this article we will focus on the color of the walls. Is it possible to increase or decrease the perceived size of a bathroom just by using one wall color? We decided to test this using a virtual space modeling program.
To do this, we contacted the company Santa Ceramica and asked her to do several small bathroom interiors for us with tiles of different sizes and colors. The comparison results are in front of you.
So, the initial data: a bathroom measuring 1.6x1.7 meters and a height of 2.5 meters. As you can see, the bathroom is small, the total size is 2.72 square meters. For laying on the walls, tiles of 4 sizes were successively used: 10x10 cm, 20x20 cm, 20x50 cm and 40x85 cm in the same colors: white, green, brown and black. The laying seam was 1.5 mm. We decided to experiment with tiles different sizes, to exclude the influence of size on color, and see what effect the shade of the tile produces for all size options - from small to large tiles. It is generally believed that a light color increases space, and a dark color reduces it. Let's start checking.
1) 10x10 cm tiles in a small bathroom. Which color should I choose?
Let's say you want to lay tiles small size, 10x10 cm. Let's compare white and green tiles (hereinafter, the view of the bathroom from the door)
Which bathroom looks better? Probably white, although the difference is not that fundamental. Let's compare with a darker color - for example, brown.
Here the difference is already more obvious. A white bathroom looks more spacious than a brown one. Let's darken the color even more - let it be a black tile 10x10 cm.
Yes, the result is obvious. In black, the bathroom looks much smaller (and the furniture is white and gray, imagine what it would be like without it). Now let's complicate the experiment. It is quite possible that you do not want to make a bathroom in one color. Let's try making the bathroom floor a different color than the walls.
With a brown floor, the bathroom certainly looks a little more lively. But visually, unfortunately, it decreases a little. Of course, it still looks bigger than the completely brown version.
So if you like it that much dark color, but at the same time you are not ready to sacrifice much space, using a dark floor is some kind of compromise. Here's an interior for green tiles with brown floors
Again, visually the size has decreased slightly. As for lovers of white and black bathroomsah, let's see what happens,if our bathroom floor turns from brown to black.
To be honest, the difference is quite strong. It turns out that after all, dark floors visually reduce space. We suggest you think a few times before installing subflooring in a small bathroom. However, there is good news. If you're a big fan of dark colors and still want to make your small bathroom dark, there's a way to make it look a little bigger. In exactly the same way that a dark floor reduces the area of a light bathroom, so a light floor increases the area of a dark bathroom. Here's an example
A room with a white floor looks larger. If you really want to make dark walls, then if you use a light floor, the final size of the bathroom will seem a little larger. Of course, a reasonable question arises - what to choose in this case? Dark walls and light floors or light walls and dark floor? Let's get a look.
I don’t want to upset those who love the dark, but still, light walls + a dark background give a little more space than dark walls + a light floor. How more contrast difference between two colors, the more obvious it is. Control check - white and brown tile combination:
Again, light walls win (although the difference is slightly smaller).
So, for a small tile (in in this case 10x10 cm) it turns out that light colors expand the space, and dark colors reduce it. This rule also applies in the case of partial use of light/dark colors: adding a dark color to bright interior makes it visually a little smaller, and adding light to dark interior makes it a little bigger. Let's see what happens with other tile sizes.
2) 20x20 tiles in a small bathroom. What color tiles make the space look bigger?
Let's check the 20x20 cm format tiles. Let's start with light shades: white and green.
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As with 10x10 cm tiles, green option, maybe it looks a little smaller, although the difference is not so fundamental. Let's check out the black tile.
The rule continues to work. A white bathroom looks larger than a black one even with 20x20 cm tiles. (During the rendering, the laying of the tiles shifted slightly, but this did not change the essence). Will a light floor make our small bathroom look bigger?
Expanded. If the walls are darker, it will also expand:
How amazing! Or maybe the use of white flooring in itself is so good,that it doesn’t matter what color the walls are? Maybe it’s the floor that will determine what size our bathroom will look like, and the rest isn’t important?
The answer is a bit ambiguous. It all depends on the difference between the shades. If you remember, in the first part, where there were 10x10 cm tiles, we compared an all-brown bathroom and a brown bathroom with a white floor. The bathroom with white flooring definitely wins in size. These two pictures above show a green bathroom. wins the brown one, but not so much with a huge advantage. This happens because the difference in brightness between green and brown bathrooms is not huge. If we replace Brown color walls to black, the difference will increase. See:
The black bathroom in the picture looks less green, even despite the same white floor. Therefore, if you are choosing between two colors of similar brightness, give preference to the shade that you like best and do not think about the visual effect. And if the choice is between distant shades (for example, light blue and deep brown), then the lighter of the two will make your bathroom more spacious.
Now let's complicate the input data again. Which bathroom will appear wider: green with green floors or brown with white floors?
The answer is even more vague. We think that a green bathroom looks wider, but, of course, the brown one is greatly helped by the presence of a white floor. (Just in case, we repeat once again - the point is not in the green color, but in its brightness. In our pictures we use a fairly light green tiles, so she wins over brown. Instead of green, you could just as well have used blue or pink). If we had taken an even lighter green, the left bathroom would have won the competition, but if we had taken a darker green, the result would not have been at all obvious.
Enough with 20x20 tiles, everything seems clear. Let's look at something rectangular. bigger size.
3) 20x50 tiles in a small bathroom. Which tile to choose to increase space?
We continue the experiment with 20x50 cm tiles. Let's start with a standard combination - white and medium-light (in this case green) tiles
The white tile won by a small margin. In order not to torment you with repetitions, let’s say right away that more and more dark shades looked even smaller. Does a light floor expand the space?
Expands. The same will happen with the rest of the colors. Now let's do something new. Previously, we only changed the color of the floor, but you can also play with the color of the walls? Who said that a wall can only be one color? Let's put a light stripe along the walls and take a look. what will happen:
Bathroom miraculously expanded a little. So. What if we put in a light floor?
What happens if you put a darker stripe in a light bathroom?
Maybe. It became a little prettier, but we lost a little in size. A little - because the stripe was still quite light. Let's make it darker.
The dark stripe made the light room appear smaller than the light one. What if we add a dark floor?
The bathroom began to seem even smaller. Pay attention to this, this option for laying tiles is quite popular: light and dark colors on the wall, dark floor.. If for large bath This is not important, but for a little one it can visually take away much-needed millimeters. Here's a look at the difference between a white bathroom and a bathroom with a black stripe and black floor:
If you still want to combine light with dark, reduce the contrast of the second color and put a light floor. For example, a brown stripe instead of a black one will cause less damage to the dimensions:
And even lighter - even smaller
In any case, it is also important to consider the size of your stripe. If it's large and dark, it will likely make the space feel smaller for a small bathroom. If it is large and bright, and even the bathroom is large, the result can be completely different.
A digression on the design of large and small bathrooms:
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If you carefully read our article about vertical and horizontal laying of tiles in the bathroom, you noticed that horizontal stripes visually expand the space, while vertical stripes stretch it out. There were many examples in the article where a light line around the perimeter of a room expanded the space. There was also an example in the article with a darker line running around the perimeter of the room. The result of applying the stripe, in our opinion, was not clear: on the one hand, the dark color reduced it, on the other, the stripe expanded it, and all together it came down to the fact that the bathroom practically did not change the visual volume. However, the picture showed a rather large bathroom - 2.5x2.5 meters. A strip drawn along the perimeter expands because your eye clings to it and passes the entire distance that it covers. Thus, it emphasizes the size and makes the room seem larger. If we draw a dark line across a small bathroom, the damage from it will be much greater than from the same line in the middle large room, since there is no size that she would emphasize. in fact, no. Plus the fact that it is dark and itself reduces the space. Therefore, what is not evil for a large bathroom can become evil for a small bathroom. And the light strip will increase both of them, which is good (if you, of course, do not suffer from the fact that your bathroom seems too big and deserted to you) |
Either way, consider the total amount of light versus the total amount of darker. What, for example, is better: a darker bathroom with a light stripe or a very light bathroom with a darker stripe? It seems that in the first case the light stripe should expand, and in the second case the dark stripe should reduce it?
That’s right, but since the total amount of white is higher in the right picture, this small bathroom wins in size, it seems more spacious. The more light it is, the more likely it is that your bathroom will look bigger.
Now let's move on to the tiles large sizes
4) Tiles 40.5x80 cm in a small bathroom. Which color should I choose?
Many people are afraid to lay large tiles in small spaces. Whether this can be done or not, and what the effect will be, we will consider in a separate article. Now let's just look at the color.
The initial comparison is a classic one. Will the result differ depending on the tile format?
It looks like not much. The white bathroom, as usual, looks a little bigger. Let's check the brown one.
And again, as expected, the dark color of the walls visually reduced the space. Green or brown?
Lighter. Let's check the floor. Will a light floor expand the space?
It will be all right. Want to make your space bigger? No problem: let the light run
By the way, what happens if we increase the stripe size even more?
The more light the better. Visually, the room has increased just a little bit. Of course ours green color quite bright, so the difference is not fundamental; if we compared with black tiles, the difference would be much greater. Even if you compare completely green walls and green bottom- white top, the difference will be more noticeable
Let's add even more white and compare
Again, the more light, the better. The white bathroom wins.
Are you still with us? Time to take stock.
5) Conclusions. What color tiles should be placed in a small bathroom to visually increase its size?
So, when developing small bathroom design, the following factors should be considered:
Regardless of the size of the tile, tiles more light color will increase the space, and darker ones will decrease. White color will maximize the visual size of the bathroom. Black color - reduce as much as possible.
If you want to combine two shades of color, then try to there was more light than dark. Also, if you are choosing between which tiles to put on the floor- lighter or darker, choose the one that is lighter.
The more light the better. Combination dark wall+ a light floor will look smaller than light walls + a dark floor. which in turn will be inferior to the set of light walls + light floor.
If you in a small bathroom you want to combine several colors of tiles, try to choose light ones(for example, white - light blue, white - light green, two light beige, peach - vanilla, etc.). Combination of two light colors will look more spacious than light and dark (beige-dark brown, white-black, white-violet, etc.)
If you want to let strip (decor, border) around the perimeter of a small room, prefer a lighter shade. otherwise the strip will reduce the space.
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Equipment made from translucent materials is guaranteed to increase the volume of your bathroom. Once you hang a translucent or transparent cabinet, install the same washbasin, make the ceiling and walls light, you will see that the area of the room has visually increased.
In a small room you should not use furniture in intense dark colors. Use a range of cold tones - they visually push objects away. By the way, thanks to this you can hide design flaws. For example, hide electric wires on the ceiling.
Horizontal stripes of a glazed tile pattern can also visually expand a room. However, remember that it should not be wide. The maximum is the width of one tile, and a small one at that.
Using tiles of different shades can visually increase the space. But you shouldn’t lay out patterns - this will reduce it. There is also no need to use products with expressive texture.
Vertical stripes will make the space appear higher - this is an axiom for any designer. Use them as an optical illusion in the bathroom with low ceiling. Illusionist painting will give the impression of depth.
But such effects are best done by specialists, because patterns and colors must be selected very carefully. Otherwise, the opposite result may occur. And instead of visually high ceiling you'll get an even lower one.
