Kitchen combined with living room is a trendy home design solution often used in spacious lofts, private cottages and studio apartments both in the USA and the UK. Sometimes the two areas are united in order to expand both kitchen and living spaces, sometimes merely for the sake of achieving an open layout. Kitchen with living room ideas may seem simple, but the practical side of the designing process requires ultimate sophistication. Your goal is a versatile room that allows for food preparation and dining, while also offering entertainment for your guests.

8 Ways To Divide Your Kitchen And Living Areas.

Visual division is necessary for open layouts. Keep away from finishing your kitchen and living room in one and the same style, color and texture. What you should strive for is creating two different, well-balanced interiors that smoothly flow one into another. Various zoning solutions are applied for different areas not to dissolve in each other completely.

  1. A breakfast bar is the most typical division idea. Young people who often throw parties and receive guests will make much use of it. The bar is highly functional and can be used as a dining place, counter top or interior decoration.
  2. A two-level floor. If the ceiling is high enough, raise or lower the floor in the kitchen by 4-6 inches as compared to the living area. The solution helps hide all the kitchen communications, but isn’t acceptable for elder people and children.
  3. A kitchen island can mark the line between the kitchen and the living room, while functioning as a breakfast bar.
  4. Different flooring materials. Choose tiles for the kitchen and cozy hardwood for the living area. The contrast of colors, textures and patterns results in perfect zoning. To delineate the division even more clearly, add different wall finishing.
  5. A large dining table with ceiling lamps hanging low above it is good at visually dividing and organizing the space.
  6. Ornately shaped aperture. Leave in place some fragments of the wall that once separated the two rooms. This option works only if your apartment wasn’t initially designed as a studio. Make a wide arch or an aperture of complicated shape and accentuate it with miniature lighting fixtures.
  7. Light, semitransparent partitions. Folding or sliding, they’re the optimal choice if you want to hide the kitchen area from guests and to enjoy your open layout when you’re alone.
  8. Live plants and fish tanks are preferred by those who loves nature and original design solutions.

Finishing And Decorating.

Elaborate your design and decide what to place accents upon. If you plan to use the kitchen only for food preparation, ensure its optimal functionality and give up on decorations. If bright individual character of the interior is your first consideration, explore a bunch of design ideas to find the suitable one.

Your choice of the color scheme and finishing materials is crucial. Contrasting color solutions, furniture of different materials and combinations of different styles are of help when you need to underscore a certain apartness of the two zones. Try countering metal and plastic in the kitchen with wood and textiles in the living area. The contrasts should not be annoying or distressing, so abundant bright colors are barely appropriate.

The minimalist style have been widely applied in designs combining the kitchen and the living room in 2020. It maximizes the space of the merged areas. The absence of unnecessary decorations and accessories provides the best possible functionality and highlights the visual openness of the layout.

Shed Some Light Upon It!

Pay attention to lighting when designing a kitchen combined with living room. Carefully arranged lighting fixtures are a means of increasing comfort, apart from the fact that they play a role in dividing the two areas. Bright and dimmed lights should be balanced. Let’s consider some of the 2020 US designers’ tricks that help create a properly lit kitchen and living room interior.

  • The kitchen area requires bright lights. One or several large ceiling lamps of sophisticated design will provide a sufficient basic gush of light;
  • The stove, sink, counter tops, kitchen table and other working surfaces must have additional spot lights;
  • In the living area, lighting should be generally softer than in the kitchen. Creative solutions are welcome, but simple spot lights are good, too;
  • If you’ve installed a breakfast bar, it should have lights of its own;
  • Modern ideas of combined kitchen and living areas allow for applying LED lights to mark the division of the two zones.

Minimize Kitchen Noises And Smells.

A powerful air ventilation system is a must for a room combining kitchen and living areas, unless you’re not going to use the appliances too often. Push the boat out for purchasing a good cooker hood to avoid the nasty situation when smells of accidentally burnt food fill all the space of your US home.

The first requirement for kitchen machines is the highest possible noiselessness. Few of your guests would enjoy hearing the fridge buzz or the microwave ding. If an appliance is unavoidably loud, try installing it into a cabinet to reduce noise and vibration.

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