How to Combine Kitchen with Living Room: Mediterranean Tone Project

The leading architect-designer of the capital bureau Kapitel, Elena Bulgina, suggested moving the kitchen to the place of the former hall and connecting it with the large room with an arched bay. The project resulted in a living room-kitchen-dining room, where classic and ethnic styles merged, turquoise and coral tones along with all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Elena herself tells how she managed to decorate the room in both Moroccan and Provence styles at once.

General Information

Area:

35.5 square meters

Ceiling Height:

2.7 meters

Designer:

Elena Bulgina

Elena Bulgina - an architect. Graduated with honors from Samara State Architectural and Construction University. Creates interiors for residential and public spaces in Moscow, Samara, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Kyiv. Currently, she is the lead architect-designer at the Kapitel architectural bureau (Moscow).

Customers and Preferences

The kitchen-living room is located in a large three-room apartment occupied by a family with children: parents, two sons of preschool age, and a daughter who is also in preschool.

It was necessary to create a vibrant and expressive public area with a kitchen, dining room, and living room. For this purpose, it was possible and necessary to rationally use the areas of corridors: the hallway, lobby, and passageway took up too much space. It was necessary to decide how to move walls to gain space for the new room and make the layout more organized.

Relocation

The hall, corridor, and entrance occupied about a quarter of the total area of the 107 square meter apartment. We decided to build a kitchen-living room in these passageway meters. Capital walls will not be affected during the apartment reconfiguration - we will only move or demolish partitions and utilities.

It is necessary to remove the wall between the hall and the central large room with a semicircular bay. As a result, the kitchen will be located where the former hall was, and utilities will be taken from the adjacent bathroom. This will save materials and avoid lowering ceiling height due to the lack of significant pipe slope. According to the project, ceiling levels in the room are lowered only in the dining area for the installation of skylights.

Finishing

The kitchen zone was traditionally separated from the main part of the room using floor covering - a patterned blue-white tile. Floors in the living room and dining room are covered with Karelia parquet boards.

The walls, according to our concept, will be painted with decorative paint, and in the living room and dining area, they will be decorated with ornate wallpapers. The backsplash is made of wall panels with bouazeri - they are ordered as a set with the kitchen.

There are many cornices and moldings on the ceiling, and we plan to decorate it with built-in stained glass windows.

Storage

This is a very elegant room, its main function is to provide visual and tactile comfort (and sometimes even taste), stimulate imagination through bright colors and refined ornaments. Therefore, storage tasks here were not solved in a traditional way. However, there are opportunities for it.

Kitchen modules are supplemented with a beautiful Provence-style buffet; the glass-topped chest of drawers between the living room and dining area works as a zoning element and decorative console, but it can also be used for storing dishes.

Near the sofa group, we placed a decorated Eastern-style chest of drawers, which can also be used for hiding items. Two small chests with curved legs stand under the TV.

Furniture

The kitchen cabinet with open upper shelves is built along the wall near the entrance. The dining group looks airy and leaves the visual space free - thanks to the forged bases of the table and chairs. The corner sofa and large armchair, opposite each other, add visual weight to the relaxation area by the window.

The living room contains many small furniture items that do not clutter the room but are delicately integrated into the environment, helping to make it cozier. For example, an ornate table in the relaxation area, a shelf above the TV, or a tall plant stand that is located next to the fireplace in the project.

Lighting in the room includes a lot of hidden lighting - niches and stained glass windows, light boxes with a print similar to marble texture, which are illuminated from inside. These sources can be used for soft lighting - like a table lamp on the chest of drawers, as well as wall sconces resembling torches beside the mirror.

And of course, the tone of the entire space is set by large chandeliers that resemble the design of old castles. One of them is suspended from the skylight ceiling above the dining room, and for the other, we created a luxurious socket.

Color

The kitchen, dining room, and living room are united by a turquoise color and ornate Eastern decorations. Within the overall palette, there are color distinctions.

The kitchen turned out light, with very vivid Provence motifs in its design, and its colors are cream and soft turquoise. The dining room adds a golden-brown tone, and the relaxation area includes both of these colors, plus blue and maroon.

Decorative elements, textiles with patterns, and forged items are abundant in the interior.

Decor and Textiles

The living room features glass with photo printing that resembles natural stone texture. Thanks to built-in backlighting, the pattern on the glass looks very striking. These light boxes decorate the space above the fireplace and frame the wall with the TV, like palace columns.

The living room is filled with bold art objects - a horse head stands on the fireplace, and a mirror with an ornate frame is located on the wall. Antique clocks, knightly armor, Eastern vases, and decorative lanterns prevent the eye from getting bored.

The fireplace, chandeliers, ceiling moldings, classical draped curtains, and cushions with a lattice pattern imperial create an atmosphere of an antique salon with rare exhibits collected at different times and in various countries.

Style

The most striking feature of this living room is the unusual combination of Provence and Moroccan styles. The room ultimately looks like a magical palace - with ornate decor, stained glass windows, and forged elements. Playful yet powerful palace accents - sparkling knightly armor that has become the quintessence of visual perception in the living room.

Classic elements appeared in the finishing and space organization, while decorative items that fill the interior are mostly exotic - this evokes a fantasy association with Eastern tales, knightly tournaments, and reminds of castles, knights, and princesses.

At the same time, it was possible to maintain a balance between Eastern and European styles. There is no situation where one direction completely dominates the other.

Challenges

The most difficult part was convincing the clients to go for such an unusual living room interior and a highly contrasting stylistic mix.

Timeline

Finishing works in the living room will take about a month.

Layout

Reader Tips:

How to Create a Similar Interior

1. To create a living room interior using a mix of several styles, it is very important to maintain balance: an ideal result would be the absence of clear dominance of one style over another. Choose a color palette that is appropriate for the selected styles and the entire interior as a whole.

2. In wall finishing, combine interesting and different materials by texture. The textures and colors of textiles for furniture should be chosen based on the selected style in the living room interior.

3. It is important to plan the structure and decorations for the ceiling and find interesting lighting.

4. Bright styling can be achieved using original art objects - for example, sculptures.