Content
- Meaning of the word “loft”
- Loft Design: Key Features
- Colour
- Floors, walls and ceilings
- Furniture
- Lighting
- What the loft does not tolerate
Increasingly, we hear borrowed words that have no suitable analogues in Russian speech, because they mean new concepts for the post-Soviet space. To understand the meaning of words such as “loft” or “highflat”, you need to not only translate them into Russian, but also get acquainted with the history of their origin.
Meaning of the word “loft”
Loft is translated from English as "attic", but in fact this concept is used in three different meanings, the meaning of which is closely intertwined.
- In real estate, a loft is the format of an apartment, most often located on the upper floors of a residential building, which is characterized by very high ceilings (3.6–7 m) and huge panoramic windows.
- In a design environment, this interior style, which naturally appeared in New York in the 40s due to the growing number of vacant industrial buildings, previously owned by bankrupt enterprises and factories, which were then converted into residential premises.
- For creative people, a loft is a style without strict boundaries and borders, but at the same time without unnecessary frills.
Everything is much simpler with the concept of "highflet": it is nothing more than an apartment with non-standard high ceilings (3.2 m), fully corresponding to its English name.
Loft Design: Key Features
The basis of the loft direction is the remains of the factory past: brick or concrete walls, primitive masonry made of stone, provocatively exposed pipes, wires and beams - a kind of industrial romance. If you like factory charm, welcome to the loft, the abode of muses of artists, musicians and designers, the territory of the impudent and free.
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The principles of style:
- Large spaces. The room, generously spanning a couple of hundred square meters - a typical phenomenon for a loft.
- Lack of obvious partitions. You cannot find standard rooms in the interior in this style, and zoning occurs with the help of screens, movable partitions, furniture, color play.
- Maximum light and air. Open spaces, high ceilings, higher than in high-level apartments, large windows do not cast a glance.
- Minimum furniture, lack of decor as decoration. The presence of an interior item means its mandatory use for its intended purpose. Laconic design accents on the walls such as posters, photographs, abstractions are allowed.
- Industrial style attributes: technical communications and “native”, in the literal sense of the word, walls of an industrial building put a logical emphasis in the interior.
Colour
The basic tones of the room are gray, brown, black and any of their variations: the colors of stone, concrete, brick, metal. You can dilute restraint of style with the help of bright accessories - cushions, bedspreads, small rugs. It can be a steel-colored sofa with orange and green pillows, a red bedspread on a metal bed, a motley abstraction on the wall.
Floors, walls and ceilings
Loft implies the original appearance of the floor - concrete or brick. Raw materials, rough texture or careless painting will emphasize the urban mood of the interior style.
On the ceilings - beams, floors and technical boxes.
In cases of reproduction of factory surroundings, it would be appropriate to spend money on a suspended structure made of metal and drywall that imitates original ceilings.
Floors are most often plank or bulk concrete. A laminate that mimics an old tree is allowed.
Furniture
Furniture in the loft must meet several basic requirements:
- functionality;
- minimalism;
- zoning of space;
- simplicity and comfort.
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What does this mean in practice? Furniture can be easily transformed, moved and ungrouped. Style requires that it does not stand along the walls, but forms functional islands throughout the entire area: a resting place, kitchen area, work shop or creative corner, bedroom. Perfectly fit into the interior in the loft style:
- open shelves and racks;
- sofas that change their design depending on the requirements for them;
- armchairs and folding chairs;
- roll-out tables and tables;
- mobile screens;
- wardrobe racks.
A win-win loft is its eclecticism. A mixture of styles, a mix of old objects and modern technology, modernism and conservative elements only reinforce the rebellious spirit of this direction.
Lighting
A considerable space requires a lot of light. Artificial lighting in the interior, made in the loft style, should be sufficient and carefully thought out. Well take root:
- industrial lamps on tires;
- fixtures at different levels;
- table and floor structures;
- lamps without shades;
- built-in LED backlight.
The audacity of style is not limited to bare pipes. Who said a crystal chandelier with pendants is an uninvited guest in the loft? Nonsense, information out of date. For people who have exchanged standard housing for “factory-like” comfort, everything is possible and much is acceptable, even central bath, not like a chandelier.
What the loft does not tolerate
Such a design can do a lot: combine the impossible, forget that it is a style of large spaces and agree to a modest area, endure violent eclecticism, put up with partial "Ennoblement." But there are things that a loft cannot forgive, otherwise it will cease to be itself.
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Standard layout
Moving to an apartment in a loft style is a challenge to generally accepted concepts about home and life in general. This is bold and unexpected. Therefore, you should not exchange such a desperate impulse to return to standards in the form of cutting space into the usual typical rooms. Open spaces have the resources to create an atmosphere of privacy and privacy: bedroom can be located on the mezzanines of the second floor, as in high-level, and the bathroom will be fenced high septum.
Plastic windows
Windows are the eyes of a loft, an integral part of it. And the old metal frames are a unique thing to cultivate. Clear business, it is not worth changing them to standard plastic designs.
Curtains on the windows
The pronounced industrialism of this style of interior deprives the window of the right to decoration. They should be “naked” and generously give light and sun. Maximum - strict blinds.
White heating radiators
Faithful companion of the "European-quality repair" - white batteries - is another way to ruin the urban style. Pig-iron tubular heaters organically fit into the interior in black, red or even in purple colors.
Substitution of the original
Untouched concrete or brick walls are the top of the urban triumph. Natural or skillfully reproduced, they still look worthy of any attempt to “ennoble” them, stitching with hyposkarton.
A loft is not only a trendy interior style dictated by life itself, but also a way of thinking. To exist in a loft format means to destroy stereotypes, to be ready to reject public opinion and live it in your own way, including decorating your own house according to your own taste.