Balconies in the loft style: photos and ideas

Loft - a new style of interior design, characterized by freedom of space, high ceilings, lack of partitions and walls, large windows and an incredible amount of light.

Loft style features

This design trend appeals to people who reject the patterned theories of decorating apartments with a flashy life adjusted. It is a style that optimally combines elements in the interior that indicate the original purpose of the room (beams, brick or concrete walls, pipes, ventilation systems, other building structures) and new ones (modern home appliances, fashionable furniture novelties, chrome and metal parts).

To some extent, the loft - a reflection of sincerity and reality - appears chaotic style, but when you look at the room there is absolutely no sense of confusion. Everything is so harmonious and modern that it causes sympathy for people of different characters and spheres of activity: amateurs of traveling, free artists, information technology workers. They feel comfortable in the style of the loft with its stressed absence of "warm" comfort and cold rebellion, single people, newlyweds, people who are hungry for communication, space, change and who can freely explain their feelings and desires.

Where to begin?

The ideal layout of the apartment is a whole large room, the rooms in which are separated from each other by different ways of zoning, and not by walls. The bedroom and the bathroom remain isolated rooms.

If you want to design your home in a loft style, the transformation of space is recommended to begin with a balcony, which is preliminarily required to be insulated and glazed. Let it be a sample of the pen, but in the process of making changes, it may be decided to transform the loft-style apartment throughout.

Balcony in the loft style is beautiful

The balcony should not be a warehouse and a storage place for conservation, but a corner for immersion in oneself, one's own thoughts or a space for reading and drawing. The design of the loft-style balcony implies the presence of large windows through which a maximum of light will penetrate. No curtains are supposed, except that if you feel some discomfort, adjusting to the overall design, you can hang roller blinds or blinds.

Loft's aesthetics, as opposed to plastic bags, prefers wooden frames, preferably brown and black shades. The sill is recommended to "revive" with flowers in pots or turn into a bar counter, under which to place wine lockers. You can build niches for storing small dishes, arrange several comfortable chairs, and a small balcony (loft style) will become a favorite place for a pleasant pastime with a glass of semisweet wine.

Variants of use of balconies

Balconies in the style of the loft are perfect for organizing an excellent office with a modern computer installed on a wide window sill. Or to equip an art workshop with an easel, shelves and racks. The latter are also the decor of the room, characterized by an unusual design and can be made from the most unexpected materials: for example, water pipes or wooden boxes fixed to the ceiling.

Such a height will save space at the bottom and give the room an original look. Balconies in loft style can be used for sports; In addition, the simulator will fit into such a space quite organically.

Historical background: the emergence of style

From English, the loft is translated as an "attic", and this is not an accident. This direction appeared in America during the Great Depression (30-40s of the 20th century). During this period, many enterprises were closed, whose owners, in order to somehow survive, were forced to sell parts of production premises for sale. The maximum demand for them was from creative personalities who could use the premises for housing and for work.

The new owners of the purchased premises, which were the upper floors of industrial buildings (trading halls, warehouses), for the most part did not have the financial ability to conduct full-scale repairs and left them in their original form: with brick walls and roof-supporting steel beams.
Gradually, in such apartment-studios "simple" furniture was built, which fit optimally into the interior of the loft-style balcony , becoming an integral part of it. Over time, such an original design was considered a design style, and the housing has a demand.

Brick walls: a sign of the loft

The main feature of the loft is the walls of the room. Brick masonry (real or organized with the help of finishing materials) is a sign of style and does not require special embellishment.

Balconies in loft style do not accept expensive and fluffy carpets. They are alien chic chandeliers and comfortable large sofas. Simplicity and scarcity are the components on which the loft-style balcony is based. Interior can be diluted with a bright shade, which would be optimally combined with furniture. For this, the wall or a part of it can be painted with the chosen color, thus diluting the "boring" design.

Balcony in the loft style

To visually increase the area (if it is impossible to extend it in fact), it is recommended to use the wall decoration with light shades: cream, beige, blue, white. Uniformity will increase space, as will finishing materials with a glossy surface, which have the property of reflecting light and filling the entire room with it.

The floor should be made in a comfortable style: you can lay a laminate or tile, preferably a rough design, or leave the concrete surface. In the balcony interior, optimally fit aged boards or material that repeats their pattern. To soften roughness of a floor it is possible a small rug which on a monophonic, boring background will be allocated with a bright stain.

Balconies in loft style are characterized by ceilings, which can be made of coarse unpainted boards; In the modern interior for the decoration of steel, plastic panels are used more often, representing a single whole plane.

For lighting, which is considered a key concept of style, tires with mobile luminaires or metal luminaires with an electric cable stretched to them, not hidden under the lining, are often placed on the ceiling surface.

Internal partitions often represent a screen and are possible only on large balconies. They can hide the angle where old things are stored.

Also in the loft style, retro lamps are used, also called "Edison lamps". Such lighting devices are characterized by a fascinating appearance and can act as an independent light source or as a component to the lamp.

As a decor on the walls are preferred not cute paintings with landscapes and still lifes, and street posters, magazine covers, posters.

There is no need to mask communications: the pipes are part of the interior. Space on purpose can be done, as it were, not fully equipped.

Furniture is an important element of the loft style

The balcony in loft style (the photo colorfully conveys the originality of this style) is always distinguished by furniture, which has a special role in the design decision.

It can only be one armchair or just one sofa, preferably of a bright color and a non-standard shape. Such an accent (the view at the entrance to the balcony in the loft style will immediately stop at the original furniture) was originally conceived as a maneuver to distract attention from the sloppy surfaces, and then became an integral feature of this direction. Thanks to this effect, the unattractive walls go to the background and become an excellent background for furniture pieces of interesting shapes.