How to start home decoration: apartments and cottages in new buildings

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

Apartment with rough finish

To answer the question: “Where to start decorating an apartment in a new building?” - you need to understand in what condition you purchased it. In this article we will consider what an apartment is without finishing, which means rough and fair finishing.
We will offer a small instruction on the sequence of work, as well as several options for finishing.

Apartments in new buildings

Currently, there is a rise in housing construction, the number of built-up square meters of housing is growing steadily. Developers offer the buyer a variety of options for apartments, cottages and townhouses (see.Modern decoration of townhouses).
So:

• They differ in the class of housing, the quadrature of the premises, the degree of their decoration.
  Often, apartments are sold even at the stage of building a house, without any kind of decoration. This is the so-called "samstroy".

Unfinished apartment

• What does an apartment without decoration mean? Looking at the picture above, you will understand it without words.
  But we will comment. So, the apartment is not finished interior doors and partitions. Only entrance doors and windows are inserted.
• If the project of the house provides for a single glazing of loggias, then in all apartments it will be made by the developer. The apartment includes: water supply, sewage, heating system and electricity, but without internal wiring.
• Many buyers who are able to invest certain funds in repairs prefer to buy just such apartments. This makes it possible not only to finish the apartment, but also to carry out the planning at its discretion.
• Oddly enough, apartments without decoration are purchased mainly in luxury homes. There is rarely any owner who makes repairs with their own hands - they invite a designer who is engaged in turnkey finishing.
• By agreement with the developer, the apartment may be finished with rough finish. The price of such an apartment will be somewhat more expensive, but interior partitions will already be built there, all surfaces will be leveled, and all communications will be wired.
  An example of such a finish you can see in the photo at the beginning of the article.

Finished apartment

• Another option is finished apartments. Such housing is fully suitable for operation and living.
  Its decoration is made by the cheapest domestic materials. On the walls: plaster and paper wallpaper, water-based paint on the ceiling, linoleum or laminate on the floor.
• Great demand for apartments with a fine finish in the economy class houses. For a middle-income family that does not have additional funds for expensive repairs, this is the best option.
  You can live in the apartment, making repairs gradually, as far as financial capabilities are possible.

Fine Studio Room

In business class houses with an individual project, apartments with a fine finish may look different. Naturally, the cost of such housing depends not only on the number of square meters, but also on the quality of the proposed interior decoration.
Such an apartment, although not individual in design, may well suit people who do not have: neither time nor the desire to do repairs. As they say - to each his own.

Getting to the finish

So where to start apartment repair for self-decoration? This question worries everyone who bought housing in a new building.
First of all, you need to think about how you want to plan the space, and decide how to do it:

• For the construction of interior partitions, brick or blocks of cellular concrete can be used. As for the brick partition, it can be further used in the design of the room. For this purpose, the masonry is made of decorative bricks.

Decorative brick partition in room design

• There is another option - drywall partitions, which have much more advantages over brick or block masonry. Judge for yourself: such a partition weighs little; the internal space allows you to bookmark the cable for the Internet, wiring, pipes.
• But the biggest advantage of drywall partitions are incredible design possibilities.
  These are not only working partitions with interior passages, but also decorative overhead structures and niches for various purposes. An example of such a design will be given below.
• And if you decide to do the planning in this way, with the help of GCR you can even all other surfaces and, if necessary, insulate them. In addition, suspended ceiling structures are also made in this way.

Layout and design of rooms with drywall

• We will not go into the details of this work. There is enough material on the Internet on this topic, including on our website.
  Read, watch the video, and best of all - contact the specialists who will do everything competently and efficiently, and can suggest a good design idea.
• After the planning is completed, it is the turn of engineering work. It is necessary to carry out the wiring of pipes for heating, water supply and sewage, as well as to carry out all electrical work.
  When installing partitions and suspended ceilings made of giprock, wiring for lighting and illumination is performed after installing the frame.
• Where to start the interior decoration, if you decide to align the walls and ceilings in the traditional way - using plaster? If you consider that the apartment has not yet installed interior doors, then before plastering it is necessary to mount the door frames and arch frames, if any.
• Plastering any surface begins with its processing by the primer. This process is very important, since it depends on it how firmly and for a long time the plaster will hold.
  Soil does not allow concrete or brick to absorb moisture from the plaster, thereby improving the adhesion of materials.

If the house is panel, the walls in it are relatively even, they only need finishing putty.
Brick or block walls almost always sin with uneven masonry and require more careful leveling: the starting layer, then the finish. And each of them should be covered with soil.

Finish finish

If you have chosen decorative plaster as the finishing coating of the walls, then alignment may not be necessary. It all depends on the degree of unevenness of the walls.
With significant surface imperfections, the starting layer of gypsum plaster should still be performed.

The walls of the living room are decorated with decorative plaster.

• Well, then, a layer of your decorative plaster is applied. On our site there are articles detailing the various types of this material.
  This way of decoration requires certain skills and experience. Therefore, if you want the wall decoration in your house to be done with decorative plaster, find a good specialist.
• Many are quite satisfied with the usual gypsum screed. In this case, there are many ways to decorate the walls.
  Number one on this list is painting. The color of the paint, in this case, can be any, they can even be several. The choice is made based on the concept of the entire interior, the chosen style in its design.

Painted walls look stylish too

• If you are faced with the task of visually adjusting the parameters of the room, it is quite possible to do this with paint.Suppose your room, as is often the case in economy houses, resembles a pencil case in shape.
• In this case, it is enough on one shorter wall to make any decor, which is a wide strip located transversely. There are a lot of options for such a decor.
  Using a stencil, you can paint the wall with stripes, or paste wallpaper on them with the corresponding pattern: not from the ceiling to the floor, but from wall to wall.
• In a more complex version of the design, a decorative structure made of drywall can be made on the wall. You can also mount a wide board on its surface, with a gap and a contrasting color.

Crossbars on the wall are in fashion today

• The lack of room height is perfectly corrected by all the same stripes, only vertical ones. In the photo below, the walls of the living room are sheathed with wall panels with a decorative coating.
  Not the fact that you will find such panels, but paint, or striped wallpaper, is always at your disposal.

Decorative panels in the design of the walls

• Wallpaper in general is the most familiar and affordable material. Recently, in the design of walls there has been a tendency for their non-standard use.
  It has become fashionable to perform all kinds of combinations. This may be a single picture, but in different colors; the same color, but with different geometric patterns; contrasting, but well harmonizing shades.
• Wall-paper is perfectly combined with other wall coverings, for example, with wooden panels. At the same time, panels are mounted in the lower part of the walls, and wallpaper is glued in the upper part.
  This design option has already become classic, and is great for both the hall and the hallway, or kitchen.

Living Room Design: Drywall and Wallpaper

• In the previous chapter, we talked about drywall interior partitions. Modern interior design today is also not without its participation.
  And here is a concrete example. A working niche is made along the end wall of the living room. There is a place for upholstered furniture in its central part, and shelves for books and all kinds of trinkets are made on the sides.
• To create such a niche, it is not GKL that is required, but GVL (gypsum fiber sheet). Its strength is much higher than that of drywall. In this interior, wall and floor decoration is made in the same color scheme.
• Moreover, it was in the same manner that we just talked about: for decoration we took wallpapers with the same pattern, but in different shades. For the walls - a lighter shade, and in order to emphasize the niche, wallpapers with a more pronounced pattern were needed.

Exquisite style in the design of the living room

• You can combine wallpaper on the walls with paint, or decorative plaster. Especially if the room is large, and you need to divide it into zones, or just rid the surface of the walls of monotony.
  In our example above, polyurethane half-columns help to solve this problem, the space between which is decorated in different ways: either wallpaper with a pattern, or paint.
• There is another way to decorate painted walls - hand-painted, which is rarely remembered by anyone. But in vain. Take a look at our example.
  Wall decoration in this room is done without any frills. The only accent is the drawing, exactly repeating the print on the curtains.

Hand painted on the wall

• For those who do not know how to draw, and do not want to attract a professional artist to the decoration, there is a screen-printing method for drawing. You can decorate the wall with a sticker.
  As for the interior as a whole, the style is often created by accessories.
• Please note that the two windows of the room, pictured above, are decorated with curtains with different patterns. On one is a bright floral, and on the other, a strict striped pattern, which balances the motleyness of the neighboring window, and, apparently, zones the room.
• If the picture on the wall copies the colors of one set of curtains, the pillowcases on the sofa cushions are sewn from the same fabric as the curtains on the second window.
  The interior is in complete harmony - you can see the hand of a professional designer. We can only learn from specialists.

Cork in living room design

• There are many other types of wall coverings that are used less often than paper wallpaper, just because of the higher cost.
  One such material is cork. In fact, this is the same wallpaper, only with cork veneer applied to their surface.
• The magnificent appearance of such wallpapers is not their only advantage. Cork has heat and sound insulation properties, has a longer service life.
  A variety of colors of such coatings allow you to carry out panels and applications, create various design options for the premises.
• In our example, the walls are not just glued with cork. On them, with the help of a plinth, decorative contrast stitching was performed, symbolizing wall panels.
  Equally irresistible in the interior of the living room may be coverings with wood, bamboo, or stone veneer.

Wall mural bedroom design

• To create an emphasis on one wall, use panels and wallpapers with a 3D effect. Leather and felt panels, gypsum tiles, stucco molding and paneling made of precious woods - this is a small list of modern materials that are used today to create original interior design.

Read the articles on our website: you will learn a lot about modern finishes. This will give you an idea, allow you to choose the right option and create a stylish interior that will delight you for many years.