Personal experience of our heroine, who made a cool renovation without the help of a designer
I chose a white kitchen, smooth matte fronts, hidden or integrated handles and a natural oak (Wotan oak) countertop that extends onto the window sill to increase the work surface. Due to the fact that the kitchen is non-standard in size, my favorite solutions from IKEA were not suitable for me. The only option left is to make it to order.
The design of the room, and almost the entire apartment, began with a laminate wall in the TV area. Black color in the interior has never scared me – it’s actually my favorite. When I saw this laminate at Leroy Merlin, I knew for sure that I would use it somewhere, and I found, in my opinion, a great place for it. It looks like porcelain stoneware, but this is an 8mm laminate.
I asked the workers to leave me two 50 cm columns to the left and right of the laminate wall and prepare them for painting. Then it was like a fog: I saw moldings on the walls in a coffee shop, watched installation videos on YouTube, went to the construction market, bought a suitable meter of duropolymer, titanium glue, a small saw and a miter box. And on the day off, while the workers were away, I drew frames on the wall, sawed the moldings at 45 degrees and glued them.
In the collection of granite laminate there was also a beige color, I decided to use it in the columns at the head of the bed. So as not to duplicate the laminate wall in the center, but to support this technique in the bedroom. Between the columns, I decided to order photo wallpaper in muted colors with a floral theme.
I ordered it from a catalog in an offline wallpaper store in the exact size that corresponded to the required opening. I ordered sconce lamps – black metal cubes – on AliExpress, they had an incredible number of positive reviews with photos. I was satisfied, the electricians did not experience any problems during the connection either.
The area by the window in the bedroom was also immediately identified as a workplace. I’m in love with wide window sills. In reality, it turned out to be difficult to find a custom-made tabletop with a width of 80–90 cm from wall to wall. I looked at solid wood, furniture panels, and eventually chose and ordered a 25 mm countertop from a kitchen manufacturer to fit the width of the room.
On site, the installer made cuts on the sides and installed steel angle brackets under the tabletop to the walls. The pine shelves to the left of the window were ordered from a local loft workshop along with a river window sill (with epoxy resin) that was installed near the balcony block.
I really wanted more white walls in such a bright but small apartment. It was decided to make a white corridor, since it is very small, a wall extending from it, a kitchen and a wall with windows. Gluing white wallpaper somehow seemed like a crazy idea to me, but I always liked textured white matte plaster.
The foreman calculated that, including the material, work on 25 m² of wall area would cost about 30 thousand rubles. I was somehow not ready for this: I, of course, liked the walls like that, but I understood that they were background, unremarkable, and simply convenient to use.
I turned to the Internet and found videos on YouTube about textured paint, which does not require a special approach or qualifications of the worker. I went to the construction market, having previously chosen Jobi PutzEffektFarbe textured paint, bought primer, rollers, a tray, a couple of spatulas and a trowel. Two days off, five thousand rubles (all materials + 10 liters of paint) – and everything is ready.
Dressing room: I’m not a fan of wardrobes, especially sliding wardrobes. Therefore, the dressing room was returned to its classic location on the site of the Khrushchev storage room (the previous owners combined the storage room with the bedroom). The wardrobe system from Obi cost 2,999 rubles. I came specifically to the offline store to touch and feel it – steel, reliable, white. Absolutely the same configuration of shelves and rods. It was a nice saving, without any loss in quality.
The chest of drawers for storage is as ordinary as possible, suitable in size, was purchased in a budget offline store in Tula. I ordered fashionable black handles for it instead of cheap plastic ones, and it already has a different look – it claims to be a modest classic of minimalism.
Everything was going according to plan until I saw a 3D hexagon wallpaper in blue shades and decided to use it for the dressing room. This was a mistake. They look good, of course, but they are narrow with frequent adjustments. Because of this, they came out twice as expensive as plain ones, and they have wardrobe systems on them. Plus, the pattern is too aggressive for a small room. I would not make such a choice again.
Old wooden windows were replaced with plastic Veka ones, reconstruction, cladding and glazing of the balcony. 100 thousand rubles turnkey – local company. For some reason, all the measurers dissuaded me from laying it out inside the double-glazed window, but I was adamant. It’s charming. And once again, the shadows from this layout are my little joy. And also a balcony door to the floor.
The decision on what the bathroom would be like was the simplest – modern and universal. For such a small area, I decided not to go too small: not to use decor, ornaments, or a lot of details. I wanted to make an ergonomic, comfortable bathroom. This design does not pretend to be unique, but matte porcelain tiles are easy to care for and keep clean.
The corridor is the last thing to be equipped, as it is very small. The shoe shoe from IKEA miraculously fit between the front door and the door to the bathroom. It fits there perfectly, and does not interfere with the opening of the door.
The electrical panel was replaced and installed in place of the old one, but the door and beacon, of course, spoiled the picture from the living room. I came up with a solution: a picture shelf from IKEA and a canvas painting of a bicycle covering the shield. It’s convenient to put your keys/phone on the shelf at the entrance – a useful solution.
Photo before renovation
