How to arrange a narrow and long room: type of room, selection and arrangement of furniture, how else to play up the decor

The color of the ceiling in a narrow room should stylishly complement the interior of the room

Ceilings can be called one of the most important elements of the interior; with the help of different designs of this surface you can radically change the atmosphere. For example, light ceilings can visually enlarge a room, expand the space, and give the room airiness and lightness. Don’t forget about tension structures - glossy, matte, satin ceilings will add coziness to the room. In a narrow room, special attention should be paid to the design of the ceilings - let's talk about this today.

Specifics of narrow long rooms

Narrow long rooms are often called “pencil cases”, “carriages”, “stockings” and even “sausages”.

There are certain interior problems in such premises:

It is difficult to select and arrange furniture so that everything fits, but does not interfere with free movement.
The lengths of the walls may differ from the usual proportions of furnishings.
The gaps between walls and window-door openings can be extremely narrow for typical furniture.

As a rule, in such rooms there is only 1 window on the smaller far wall or side. For this reason, lighting suffers.
The wrong furniture, decor and wall color can visually shrink a room even more. As a result, a box effect will arise and comfort will disappear.

Expert opinion

Glavatskikh Inna Vladimirovna

Artist and interior designer

It is a fairly common opinion that in such rooms furniture can only be placed in the letter “G” or “P”. It is a myth. In fact, there are ways to play with the setting.

How easily you can get out of the situation depends on the specific width of the small wall. Instances from 3 meters have a lot of layout options. If the smaller side barely reaches 2-2.5 meters, the process will be more complicated, but still not limited to one type of arrangement.

Decoration of the entrance door and floor

The feeling of spaciousness is achieved with the help of a wide doorway. It is best to install a sliding door. It is difficult to come up with a more suitable option for separating the kitchen and living room, but only if the appearance of the door matches the design of these rooms.

Light laminate flooring is often laid on the floor. This coating can visually add lightness to all volumetric elements of the interior. You can visually shorten a long room using parquet planks laid parallel to the short walls (across the room). A pattern of squares would be appropriate on the floor. A soft square carpet in the center of the room will also help, which will emphasize the cozy and relaxing atmosphere in the recreation area.

General recommendations

A narrow long room can be a living room, bedroom, or children's room. Each of them implies specific furniture and its own nuances. However, there are also general recommendations from which to start building ideas about the future interior.

The following techniques will help you unlock the potential of any room:

Use wall storage . If possible, replace floor furniture with hanging shelves and cabinets. Large cabinets or racks are chosen in extreme cases, giving preference to those that reach the ceiling as much as possible. The TV is also placed closer to the ceiling.

Place beds, sofas, tables and armchairs in corners or across the room . Such items look as heavy as possible. Corner upholstered furniture, a bed or sofa between long walls, dining and living room sets in the far corner will create an airy effect.

Avoid sticking furniture to long walls . There will be inconvenient cramped passages in the center. The room will become like a reserved seat carriage or a tunnel, where you cannot turn without hitting a corner or object.
Send small decor to the end walls . This arrangement of shelves with small items and books, paintings, posters, night lights will direct the shape towards a square.
Choose floor furniture with legs . A heavy landing narrows the space, unlike air gaps at the bottom. Cleaning will also become easier.

Move large furniture to the deepest part of the room . In this way the center will be freed. It will become easier for residents to move around in space. The situation will no longer seem cramped.
Balance opposite angles . Place some of the massive furniture in one corner of the room, and some - opposite, diagonally. The room will visually approach the shape of a square.

Use zoning where possible . Zoning can be visual due to different colors, textures, and purpose of objects. Or it can be physical, when a shelving unit, a screen, a curtain, or a raised floor like a podium appears in the middle of the room.

Maintain moderation . Overloaded with furniture and details, a narrow long room will become even narrower and longer. Or it will “collapse” like a crumpled cardboard box. The less clutter, the easier and freer the atmosphere.

Additionally, multifunctional furniture is recommended for tight spaces. The role of additional storage spaces will be played by compartments in ottomans, armchairs, sofas, drawers and headboards of beds.

The optimal size of free space is a square with a side of 70 cm.

Some designers advise avoiding sharp corners. The rounded shapes of armrests, armchairs, poufs, headboards and sofas, decorative items, and rugs will perfectly expand the room.

Recommendations for room types

In addition to the general rules, individual advice can be given for each type of room.

Living room

A narrow long living room is the most contradictory arrangement. Here it is important to provide a sufficient number of seats for family members and guests, ease of communication without shouting across the entire space. Given this fact, you can safely violate the standard recommendations.

The sofa can be placed along a short wall or in a corner. But if you plan to have a large company present at the same time, then preference should be given to the longest sofa found. Accordingly, it should be placed in a larger wall.

Expert opinion

Glavatskikh Inna Vladimirovna

Artist and interior designer

In some cases, it makes sense to consider installing small, narrow cabinets or bookshelves around a window on a narrow wall.

TV, cabinets, racks, shelves are located on the opposite side of the room. It is important to choose narrow items. This way a small table will fit in the center, but the passage will remain quite comfortable.

In living rooms, zoning into places for socializing, watching TV, reading and working works well. The communication area with TV was discussed above. The far part of the room is suitable for reading and working. It is optimal to place a desktop if there is a window there. If it is absent, it is better to use the wall for decoration and lamps, and place a chair with a table or a couple of chairs below.

Additional seats for guests can be pillows that are thrown directly onto the floor, compact bean bags, transformable tables into stools or ottomans.

Occasionally, in long narrow rooms, the window is located on the same wall as the door or near it. The furnishings will be more conducive to a table with armchairs than to a sofa. Items in retro style fit perfectly - chests of drawers, poufs with carved legs, wooden cabinets and sideboards.

Bedroom

With the organization of bedrooms, the situation is somewhat simpler. With a width of more than 2.5 meters, a double bed fits easily. It is better to place it in the very depths of the room. If there is a window, you can step back a few centimeters to make it easy to use the curtains. With an impressive length, the bedside tables will easily fit on both sides of the bed. Otherwise, you will have to do with one or without them at all.

A width of less than 2.5 meters requires either a built-in bed from wall to wall, or a single or one-and-a-half daybed. Often built-in beds are replaced with podiums with drawers. The mattress is placed directly on the body, plus storage space is added.

Expert opinion

Glavatskikh Inna Vladimirovna

Artist and interior designer

The TV is placed opposite the bed under the ceiling. At the other end of the room it is good to place a table with a small chair and a table lamp. The comfort will immediately increase.

The idea of using a bed base without a headboard or footboard is generally extremely successful for narrow rooms. The headboard can be improvised directly on the wall from soft quilted fabric, knitted panels and pillows. This frame saves at least 15-20 cm of space. Wall shelves for books and small decor will make an excellent headboard.

When it comes to the closet, there are several options. If the head of the bed is made in the form of shelves, the closet can be moved almost close to it. In other cases, massive structures. It is better to place it in the corner opposite the headboard.

With an impressive length, it is good to use the closet as a partition between the bed and the rest of the space. The bed can stand either along a small wall or with the head of the bed facing the exit. A chest of drawers or a desk can easily be placed in the remaining space near the bed.

Children's

The sizes of children's furniture are much more modest than adult ones. This allows you to move objects quite freely.

Beds are most often placed along the walls. If you need two beds - opposite each other or on two floors. In the back of the room they place a table and chair for studying, leaving space for games and creativity. Closer to the door there are chests of drawers and cabinets for clothes, toys and other items.

The option with a bed by the window for a child is rare. Instead of a bed, it is convenient to use ottomans, sofas with backs and linen drawers.

What else can such a room be turned into?

A narrow, long room can quite successfully serve as an office or dining room.

For an office, a filing cabinet, a table with a chair and an armchair or ottoman are usually enough. Furniture can be placed along one long wall. It is important to select items with almost the same width and leave at least 40-50 cm of empty space for movement. If the window is located in the middle of the length of the wall, the table is placed directly against it, and the wardrobe and chair/ottoman are placed to the right and left of the table.

The dining room will play to its advantage with a long oval table and rounded chairs. It is better to decorate the walls with paintings and mirrors. It is acceptable to replace the chairs with a designer bench with long ornate legs, but not every family will like this option.

Choosing a color for the living room

The right choice of colors when decorating a rectangular living room will help hide the shortcomings of a long room and emphasize its advantages. Designers always advise decorating living rooms in light colors, so any room looks brighter and more comfortable.

It is best to use pastel colors: peach, light pink, beige, light gray, light green, cream.
You can visually expand the space of a rectangular living room using a combination of finishing materials.
For example, you can paint part of the wall with paint, and another part can be covered with wallpaper. This combination should be done horizontally.

You can bring bright colors into the room through decorative elements. For example, sofa cushions or curtains.

If the living room windows face south, then you can use a palette of cool colors: blue, blue, gray, green. If the windows face north, then it is imperative to use warm colors: red, yellow, brown. In a rectangular room, use no more than three colors so as not to oversaturate the room with color.

What details will improve the interior?

Proper furniture is not the only key to successfully decorating a narrow room.

For such a space, details are important:

Fabrics
. Curtains and upholstery that are soft, with a slight shine, without flashy patterns, look advantageous.
Mirrors, photo frames and paintings under glass . The placement of such elements on long walls allows you to create a feeling of a square due to glare and reflections.
Prints . A large number of patterns and their complex compositions are not suitable for narrow spaces. However, simple stripes, zigzags, animal colors on paintings, carpets, bedspreads and curtains will enhance the interior and make it pleasing to the eye. It is important to place the print parallel to the short wall.
Colors . For widths less than 2.5 m, the emphasis is on light shades of walls and furniture. It is suggested to add brightness with details - rugs, paintings, figurines, bedspreads, pillows, lamps. In a larger room, one of the long walls can be painted in a cool, dark shade. Visually the wall will seem distant, the room will expand. You can play up the color of the wall in furniture upholstery, curtains, floor carpet and paintings on the opposite wall.

In general, you should pay attention to the so-called visual weight of objects. If something creates a strong contrast, catches the eye, seems very massive and heavy against the background of the rest of the room, this item is clearly not suitable.

Avoid creases

Small floral patterns are inappropriate for narrow curtains; such a print makes them look like rolled wallpaper.
In some cases, folds on the curtains make the interior somewhat heavier. If you're not a fan of window drapes, you can choose plain sliding curtains for your narrow living room. They take up little space and consist of several combined strips of fabric. Such canvases can be moved along the wall. This elementary technique visually expands the living room space.

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Answers to frequently asked questions

How to position a ceiling light if the furniture in the living room is along long walls?

Give preference to several spotlights around the perimeter of the ceiling rather than one large chandelier in the center. In the center you can use single hanging lamps, at least 1 piece per 1 m.

What is better to zone a long narrow room: a closet or a thin sliding partition?

Typically, cabinets have a decent depth, so they are used only for atypically long rooms. The option with a partition will look easy at any length.

What furniture upholstery is suitable for such a room?

A minimum of textures looks better on a flat floor. If there is carpeting, use upholstery of a similar texture. For laminate and parquet – smooth fabrics. When zoning the floor height, you can play with different fabrics in different parts of the room.

Would a coffee table with a mirror surface look good?

Yes. It will visually expand the part of the room where it will be installed.

Arranging furniture in a narrow, long room is a task with an asterisk. Before choosing furniture, you will need to carefully measure the space. It would be ideal to create an electronic or paper plan, taking into account the proportions. A responsible approach to business will save you from buying inappropriate items and will create a comfortable space for years to come.

How to make a ceiling in a room with your own hands

It is best to start repairs from the ceiling, not from the floor. In a one-room apartment it is easy to carry out simple finishing work. It is best to do repairs yourself in the summer, so that there are no temperature changes, which wallpapers do not like so much. At home, you can whitewash or paint the ceiling, it is quite possible to glue PVC panels and wallpaper yourself.

You can make the ceiling beautiful and modern with your own hands, the main thing is to think about its design and color scheme in advance

A few recommendations:

Remember when choosing panels or tiles that they do not always have the required length - they will have to be cut somewhere, so such work should be done with special care.
Before starting finishing work on the ceiling, you must first prime and putty it. You can neglect this step if you are going to cover the surface with plastic panels.
You won’t be able to install suspended ceilings in a living room yourself - they have a very complex and fragile structure, so trust the professionals.
In a large room you can make a dark ceiling - paint it dark blue or black, hang vinyl wallpaper.

Indoor work is performed using approximately the same algorithm.

The figurative algorithm is as follows:

Get rid of the previous coating;
Level the surface of the ceiling;
Apply putty in an even layer;
Apply one coat of primer;
Proceed with wallpapering or applying paint or whitewash.

Remember that each coat must dry completely before you apply the next one. If you settled on wallpaper, then remember that non-woven wallpaper is best suited for painting; the result is an interesting relief.

Vinyl materials are practical and moisture resistant; they can be hung in the kitchen or bathroom. Wallpaper is also easy to paste with your own hands.