Kitchen on the balcony: features and interesting examples

The kitchen on the balcony is an original design decision and a good way to increase the useful area of ​​the room. This method allows you to save the interior of some bulky furniture, but does not allow you to change the location of communications. The bright and stylish design of the kitchens on the balcony in the studio apartment and other apartments looks very attractive on the pages of glossy magazines and blogs. In the article, we will consider whether it is so simple to realize this idea, whether it is possible to move the kitchen, and how to do it with the least damage to others.

There are many solutions for creating a kitchen on the balcony in modern urban housing.

A typical kitchen space has a small area - an average of no more than 10-12 m2. When using the additional space, you can achieve a significant increase in the room, change its unsuccessful configuration, make it more adapted to modern interior solutions. Among the obvious advantages that the kitchen has on the balcony, there are a number of factors.

1. Possibility to add living space a few additional square meters. With high-quality thermal insulation, you can provide maximum comfort in using the combined space.
2. The increase in light output. The loggia gives almost panoramic glazing, reduces the need for the use of artificial light during the day.
3. Multifunctional use. It is worth paying attention to the possibility of using a balcony to create a dining area, space for relaxation, receiving guests or storing the necessary utensils.
4. A wide selection of design solutions. You can create an interior with a bar, or find other interesting and unusual layout options.

Among the possible disadvantages of combining a kitchen with a balcony are the technical difficulties of implementing such a project. For a large-scale change in the layout, it will be necessary to carry out a variety of approvals, and in some cases, issue a decision to the general meeting of residents.

The cost of redevelopment with the addition of a balcony is also a good reason for the limited use of such design ideas. High-quality thermal insulation, double glazing require serious expenses. Otherwise, combining a kitchen with a balcony brings only a positive result provides a significant improvement in living conditions in a city apartment.

It all depends on which series the house belongs to, whether additional loads on the protruding parts of the building are provided for in it. The easiest way to resolve this issue is on the objects of individual housing construction. Here you can simply change the layout or even lay in advance the combined space in the design solution. The problem is quite easily solved in modern studios, devoid of internal partitions.

Planning to join the balcony to the kitchen requires the homeowner to make certain efforts and costs. The simplest solution in this case is dismantling window and door blocks in the room. Partitions remain in place, insulation and glazing of the balcony is carried out, but there is an additional usable area.

If you plan to completely dismantle the window sill block, change the position of the heating devices, transfer communications: heating pipes, water supply, ventilation, you will first have to obtain permission for these works. For this you need officially submit the design project for approval to the management company and the town planning committee. Without this preliminary stage, demolition cannot be started.

This mainly concerns buildings with balconies, where floor slabs are part of the overall wall of the house. In addition to limiting changes, it is very important to accurately calculate the load that the floor will withstand. To move the gas stove out and the sink in this case will definitely not work.

In a studio apartment or ordinary housing with a loggia, different rules apply. Additional area does not extend beyond the walls of the building. Accordingly, it refers not to common property, like a balcony, but to living space. Here you can legitimize the complete dismantling of the partition, level the floor difference and generally provide greater freedom for the implementation of design decisions.

Let's figure out what you can really redo when creating a kitchen on the balcony. Place here a dining area or storage system, equip a bar counter. Making communications can be done only after agreement with the resource supplying organization. For gas stoves, there are restrictions on the length of the flexible eyeliner. In most cases, hobs and electric stoves are moved to the balcony.

A sink brought to the loggia also requires a complex and lengthy coordination. But from heating in such a combined kitchen, only a warm floor with water or electric heating will be available. Battery removal is strictly prohibited.

To do everything according to the law, it will be necessary to notify of the plans for reconstruction:

• sanitary and epidemiological service;
• architectural and housing authorities;
• Bureau of Technical Inventory;
• Ministry of Emergencies;
• Rospotrebnadzor.

After studying the project, notifications will be issued - with them, the owner applies to the municipality for a final permit. If an object has several owners, you will have to obtain their written consent for redevelopment.

To turn the balcony into a full kitchen space, you will have to perform a number of works. In any case, the window and balcony block will be dismantled - the door and window frames with boxes. The upper concrete or brick partition is reinforced, it can be turned into an arched opening or supplemented with columns as supports. The battery is usually carried to the nearest wall of the loggia.

It is recommended that you plan to combine the kitchen with a balcony for the spring-summer period at the end of the heating season. If you have to start earlier, it is necessary to pre-conduct full-scale insulation, install glazing, and only then remove the partitions. The heating battery is transferred or dismantled, replaced by a heated floor, only with the consent of the heat supply organization and under its control.

When moving the oven or stove onto the balcony, make sure that the ventilation system is duplicated in the room. Electricity to the warm loggia will also have to be transferred additionally.

The layout of the kitchen on the balcony can include both a functional or dining area, and a full-fledged resting place. If the supporting partition between the rooms is preserved, it is converted into a bar counter or work surface. Depending on the functional purpose, some work will have to be done.

• When transferring the working area to the balcony, it will be necessary to carry out complete insulation (possibly on the loggia) with the removal of the heating battery. All the main equipment is installed on the attached area: refrigerator, stove and sink, possibly moving the washing machine, oven. Be sure to place the electric stove and sink along the same wall where they were previously - this will simplify the transfer of communications. The furniture will feature worktops and open shelves or narrow cabinets. But to bring a full-fledged headset to the loggia without completely dismantling the partitions will not work.

• When placing the dining room on the balcony, you can implement a summer or year-round version of the project. If we are talking about a loggia with a non-capital partition, you can make panoramic glazing and completely combine the space by making the floor in the rooms at the same level. The kitchen table in this case is replaced by a dining table - round or oval, along one of the walls you can put a soft sofa and a coffee table.

• On the small balcony you can arrange a home bar or enoteca. Outside there is a small sofa, wine cabinets with a certain temperature, a small refrigerator or an ice maker. The partition between the kitchen and the balcony turns into a bar, you can lay an opening on top, making it arched. You can refuse the classic kitchen table by adding high chairs with a chrome frame to the countertop on the side of the kitchen.

Even the simplest version of the kitchen on the balcony brings a “twist” to the design of the entire apartment. For a bachelor apartment, a design with a bar counter and a soft sofa or armchairs on the loggia is suitable. With full insulation and demolition of the partition, you can install a kitchen set on the balcony, turning a more spacious room into a dining room. Combine the interior will help wall decoration with stucco, ceramic tiles.

When designing the floor in the working area, it is worth using moisture-resistant, easily washable materials. On a small balcony, it is better to equip the glazing with practical blinds, which allow you to adjust the level of light penetrating inside. When choosing a headset, you should give preference corner models. To increase the working surface, the metal frame of the frame in the glazing is slightly extended forward.

When choosing a kitchen design on the balcony, you should pay attention to the color scheme. It can be contrasting - in this case, it is easy to apply zoning techniques. A combination of rough materials looks good - brick cladding and an artificial “hearth”. If the area does not allow you to place the dining area, you can put on the adjoining area two chairs and a coffee table.

Harmoniously fit the kitchen and balcony into the common space will help the recommendations of designers.

• Visually increasing the area of ​​the kitchen, combined with a balcony, will help create a common color scheme. It is this approach that makes the design the most harmonious and stylish. In addition, a single color scheme simplifies smoothing transitions, height differences.

• If it is not planned to combine the area on an ongoing basis, glass partitions can be used that preserve the intensity of the light flux but provide the necessary insulation. Such a solution is convenient when creating a recreation area or a summer dining room on the balcony, and can be used for cold glazing of the loggia.

• If there is a height difference between the floor level in the kitchen and on the balcony, you can use this architectural detail to create a podium. The demolition of thresholds is one of the significant changes in the construction of the building, needs to be agreed.

• It is better to use light shutters as curtains in the combined kitchen. They will guarantee the preservation of the luminous flux. But it is better to refuse heavy curtains. Too dense fabric will look out of place here.

• In the design of the transition from the kitchen to the balcony, designers prefer to use columns, half columns, arched structures. They provide the interior with the necessary lightness, give originality and chic to the layout.

• When furnishing a balcony combined with a kitchen, you should pay attention to the most lightweight, open solutions. Shelves, racks will allow the formation of the most attractive interior decoration. In the recreation area, you can arrange light garden furniture, glass or translucent plastic tables, chairs.

• Lighting devices play an important role in the design of a coherent and harmonious space. It is enough to make a single LED backlight around the perimeter, apply local directional light over the functional areas.

Let's look at some interesting examples of the design of an enlarged kitchen space.

• A stylish example of a modern kitchen combined with a balcony. Contrasting colors are complemented by clear and precise planning, rational use of the area. The partition is demolished and does not interfere with making the loggia a part of the living quarters.

• An example of using an attached balcony as a dining area. The furniture here is radically different from the design of the headset in style and color, the dark wooden frame of the opening serves as an element of zoning.

• A classic example of placing a kitchen on a balcony. The working area is moved out to the annexed territory, panoramic glazing opens a view of the city, and in the vacated space you can place a dining room or a living room. The best option for a studio apartment.

About the kitchen on the loggia, see the next video.