Kitchen combined with a living room in a private house: 100 design ideas

The combination of the kitchen with the living room is today a very popular design solution, which is used both in the Khrushchevs of modest sizes and in mansions whose squares are amazing. The main goal pursued by combining the kitchen, dining and living areas is to visually expand the space. In this publication, we will consider the design of a kitchen-dining room, located in a private house of urban or country type.

The main advantages of the kitchen, combined with the living room, include the following:

significant expansion of space;
getting a bright room;
convenience in organizing celebrations, receptions;
the opportunity for the housewife in the kitchen to keep an eye on the children playing in the living room;
free traffic over a large room;
Fashionable and modern appearance of the space.

From the point of view of arranging a large room in which the zones of the kitchen, dining room and living room are connected, it is not an easy task. Indeed, as a result, you need to get a space that will fulfill the functionality assigned to it 100%, be convenient, comfortable and easy to care for, and at the same time look not just attractive, but harmoniously and balanced. When planning repairs in a large room with a large functional load, you will need to consider not only the style and color palette of the interior, but also the layout of the furniture in all areas of the room, the combinatorics of the segments between you and not forget about the ergonomic arrangement of structures, furniture and decor items that do not interfere free traffic around the house.

When planning the repair or reconstruction of the kitchen-living room to obtain a comfortable and rational arrangement of functional segments, the following factors must be considered

size and shape of the room;
location relative to other rooms in private households and cardinal points;
the number of door and window openings (not only the location of furniture, but also the number of lighting devices, the choice of color palette will depend on this);
the presence of young children, the elderly and people with disabilities in your home;
financial budget for repairs or alterations.

Regardless of the size of your premises, into which you want to enter several functional areas of the house at once, what budget you have for the repair and how complicated the alteration is, we hope that an impressive selection of design projects of modern living rooms combined with a kitchen and dining room , will help you with this, and will inspire you to search for your own design ideas, color schemes and original combinations.

Space zoning methods

Among the obvious methods of zoning certain functional segments of a room, one can distinguish arches, various beams, columns and supports that do not hide the zone from view, but give a clear idea of its boundaries. In modern rooms, a kitchen room is most often exposed to such zoning.

With the help of screens, which are most often storage systems, it is possible not only to successfully set the boundaries between zones, but also to equip a room with spacious swing or drawer cabinets.

The next popular way to mark the invisible borders of the kitchen space from the living room is to highlight the level using a false ceiling. Usually, a lower ceiling level is built over the kitchen segment, into which a lighting system is built. Obviously, the lighting of the kitchen area should be brighter than the segment for relaxation - the living room. In addition to the functional load, such designs can also play a decorative role if original forms or unusual colors are "connected" to the execution of a multi-level ceiling, photo printing.

One of the obvious and most practical methods of zoning the space is the use of various flooring in different functional segments. To simplify the cleaning process, the flooring of the kitchen area is made of easily washable materials with high resistance to moisture - porcelain stoneware, stone tiles or linoleum. In turn, the living area can be decorated in any version of the flooring - from wooden parquet to the use of carpet. In modern design projects of kitchen-living rooms, it is increasingly possible to meet zoning with the help of carpeting, which is located in the leisure segment.

An excellent way of zoning the space is the bar counter, which can serve as a place for breakfast and other short meals in the kitchen area and as a support for the sofa, for example, in the living room segment. Such a rational arrangement of furniture significantly saves the useful space of a small living room.

And the last, but not the most popular method of zoning the kitchen space in the living room is the use of various wall finishes. Obviously, the vertical planes in the kitchen segment will be more exposed to moisture, temperature extremes, mechanical abrasion and contamination. And, nevertheless, in modern living rooms we increasingly see a uniform finish in the whole room, only a kitchen apron is awarded with an individual choice of finishing materials. This is primarily due to the fact that most homeowners want a harmonious environment in a large and functional room, without pronounced boundaries and differences in the methods of decoration of various zones. An alternative to such zoning is the choice of finishing materials of one palette, but different in their technological qualities. For example, wallpaper and ceramic tiles or plastic wall panels of the same shade will look more than appropriate in different functional segments located within the same room.

Options for placing the kitchen and dining area in the living room

The kitchen area, which occupies one of the walls of the room, is a frequent design technique for combining several zones in one space. In this case, the arrangement of the kitchen set in one row or L-shaped method is applied. Most often, such kitchen ensembles are accompanied by the installation of an island or peninsula.

Another popular option for the location of the kitchen area is in the corner of the room. Obviously, with this arrangement, the most rational is the use of an angular or L-shaped layout of the kitchen unit. As you know, the corner layout is the most versatile option and is suitable for both spacious rooms and rooms with modest sizes, if you add such a layout to the kitchen island, you can place a large number of storage systems, work surfaces and household appliances on several square meters. The kitchen island in this case can act as a breakfast bar or a dining area, if there is no dining room in the household or 2-3 people live.

If your living room has a staircase leading to the second floor, then the space near it is more convenient and more rational to use for the arrangement of the kitchen segment. The location of the kitchen near the stairs is optimal if there is a window on the opposite wall. There is never much natural light, especially in the working area of the kitchen space.

If your room, in which several functional areas will be located, is quite long, then placing the kitchen space in the center of one of the largest sides would be an ideal option. With this arrangement, the housewife, busy in the kitchen, is convenient to communicate with households located nearby in the living area. During receptions and parties it is very convenient to prepare snacks and move them to the dining room or living room area, while remaining in the circle of friends, I do not feel disconnected. From the point of view of arranging a family dinner or lunch, the kitchen area is located close to the dining room and you do not have to “wind up kilometers” with dishes and ready-made meals.

Parallel layout of a kitchen ensemble for studios or living rooms with a kitchen is extremely rare. But in the event that your large room has a complex shape and there is a corner of several square meters in the passage space, then such a place will be optimally equipped with a kitchen set located in two rows.

For small rooms in which the kitchen is combined with the living room, you can consider installing the kitchen set in one row with a small length. If 2-3 people live in the house and among them there are no small children and elderly people, then for the organization of the dining area you can limit yourself to a small console or a folding table, which, if necessary, saves space on the wall.

The advantage of combining the kitchen and living areas into one large room is that you can arrange a dining group within the kitchen segment. At the same time, the number of work surfaces, storage systems and household appliances does not need to be reduced. Serving food to the table and collecting dirty dishes at the end of the meal is greatly simplified - all functional segments are located close to each other. In addition, such a location of the dining table is closer to our compatriots due to the mentality; not in many Russian cuisines can you still find kitchen islands used as places for meals.

"Kitchen in the cupboard" - an original way to mask the kitchen area in the living room. The built-in small kitchen is located in a niche that can be closed with swing doors. Such constructions are very convenient to hide during receptions, parties. The rest of the time, the wings of an impromptu cabinet can be opened - its insides contain all the necessary elements for the implementation of working kitchen processes.

If your hob or stove is integrated into the kitchen island, you will have to place the hood over it, attaching the structure to the ceiling. The importance of acquiring a powerful and possibly silent hood cannot be overestimated in the combined spaces. After all, while you are frying fish in the kitchen area, your household is relaxing in the soft segment of the living room or watching TV and smells and sounds can interfere with them, and you don’t want the upholstery of the furniture to be saturated with the aromas of the kitchen.

A wealth of stylistic choices

For a harmonious atmosphere of a large room of a kitchen, dining room, living room, it is better to adhere to one stylistic decision in all functional segments or to choose stylistic styles that are close in concept and do not contradict each other. The easiest way is to take as a basis one style of interior decoration and, if desired, add elements of furniture or decor from other stylistic decisions, but do it either metered in as accents, or everywhere, but without highlighting features using bright color, texture or method of execution.

Classic cuisine is always in trend. And the most popular version of its execution is snow-white (sometimes in combination with pastel or neutral shades in furniture or decoration). With such a kitchen, it will be easy to combine the decoration and furnishings of the living room - natural shades, the use of natural materials for the manufacture of furniture and decor items, glass lighting fixtures (possibly with decorative elements), upholstered furniture with neutral upholstery and natural textiles for window decoration.

The modern style of the decoration of rooms tends to minimalist motives, enclosed in an attractive appearance with a mandatory practical load. Simple and clear forms, smooth surfaces, neutral colors, only the necessary furniture and a minimum of decor - everything strives to ensure that the room is comfortable, but convenient from the point of view of operation and cleaning. In such an environment, it is easy to relax, clear thoughts and emotions, tune into peace and tranquility.

Just a few pieces of aground or decor in a rural style are enough for a completely traditional setting to take on a shade of country style - using some rusticity in the manufacture of a dining table or small coasters, carpets imitating animal skins, lighting fixtures with forged details of a simple shape.

Kaleidoscope of color solutions

In a spacious room with different functional loads, many options for furniture and decor, it is easy to get confused in color schemes. Obviously, the easiest way is to choose one light, neutral tone for finishing all the walls of a large room and dilute the color palette with furniture and decor. At the same time, a space will look more harmonious in which the color schemes of furniture overlap in different zones. For example, a dining group made of unpainted wood will look great in a campaign with a coffee table placed in the living area, executed in the same vein.

A bright palette for decoration and furnishing is the most popular option for the design of combined rooms. And the point is not only that the white color gives us peace, gives the atmosphere lightness and freshness, but also that light shades are much easier to combine with each other. You can "cope" with the pastel palette yourself, without resorting to the services of specialists.

White smooth facades of kitchen cabinets are ideal from the point of view of combinatorics for combined spaces. Such a zone will harmoniously integrate into the room with any decoration and furnishings of the living area. To dilute the snow-white palette, you just need to put out bright dishes, hang a picture or decorate a window with variegated curtains.

For lovers of contrasting interiors, we suggest paying attention to the next design project. The snow-white decoration of the room and the execution of the kitchen set contrasts with the dark tones of the base of the kitchen island and upholstered furniture. This black and white idyll is diluted by the presence of red shades in the flooring, kitchen apron and wall decor.

Another option for a contrasting combination, but for less daring homeowners is the “white top, black bottom”. The visual expansion of the space is guaranteed when using white shades for wall decoration and black tones for flooring.

The opposite way of combining black and white in the interior of the living room-kitchen is the execution of the upper tier of cabinets in black gloss, and the lower tier - in a snow-white version. If you dilute such an active contrast with bright color in the execution of the kitchen apron, you get a very interesting and modern design of the room.

Brickwork is an excellent option for the color and texture accent of a large room with light furniture and snow-white design of the remaining surfaces. Some prefer a brick wall as an accent of the kitchen area, others prefer the execution of one of the dining room planes in red-ocher tones of brickwork.

Gray and blue tones in the decoration and furnishings of the room create a cool and fresh atmosphere. In such rooms, our temperature seems to drop slightly, the pulse does not beat so fast, breathing relaxes, emotions calm down.Using photo printing to finish an accent wall can be the highlight of your interior, where, like in spacious rooms, you can use similar design techniques.