Niches in the wall: how to make and make it yourself

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

How to close a niche in the wall

Niches in the walls play an important role, both from the functional side, and from the aesthetic. These are not only openings in the wall, they can be used as cabinets or racks, visually make the space wider, mask the imperfections in the layout of the room or communication, or store everyday necessary things. The article will tell you how to make a niche in the wall.

How can niches be used in apartments

There are so many ways to use niches.

It can be:

• Wall-mounted bookcases. This method of storing books is traditional and well-known. The easiest way to design a niche in advance is to determine its depth, the number of shelves. You can easily equip the structure when performing a small repair.

How to create a niche in the wall

The advantages of such a niche are obvious: a large number of books, as shown in the photo, can only be placed in a spacious cabinet, and the entire library fits perfectly in the niche, and in addition the design adorns an empty wall. For its design you will need to purchase beautiful wooden shelves sold in construction stores.

Tip: For additional illumination of the built-in rack, all work related to wiring must be carried out at the design stage of construction or not wall finishing. Otherwise, it will be possible to install only a floor lamp close to niches.

• Buffet for dishes. This niche is not particularly different from the previous one. The only difference is that it is a niche in the wall in the kitchen or in the dining room for storing dishes. Features of the device for storing dishes:

1. depth can be much less than for books;
2. shelves in such niches can be made of glass.

A perfect combination can be several shelves that are finished with a wooden frame for dishes, and one highlight for candles. In this case, the practical and decorative role of the niche is connected together.

• Decorative design. With sufficiently high ceilings, when you don’t want to use banal shelves, the price of which can be much higher, built-in niches for storing a variety of small things, photographs are ideal. If the niche will be a decorative element, you must select the original design for it, purchase unusual materials with which it will be made out. For instance:

1. paint the wall of the structure with a color different from the color of the walls;
2. lay out the mosaic;
3. insert a mirror on the back surface, due to this visual effect, the niche will seem even deeper.

• Niche for a bed in the wall. This is a rather interesting method of saving space. In this case, the folding bed is placed in a niche and is closed by a door that looks like a closet.

Niche for a bed

This idea is great for a small apartment, it can be used as an option for storing a sofa for guests.

Tip: In a niche, you should arrange spotlights that make it convenient to read books while in bed.

When making a niche, it is slightly wider than the bed itself; here you can place several small shelves (see How to hang shelves on a flower wall with your own hands), replacing them with a bedside table, or bedside tables. On the back wall in the niche it is worth sticking a wallpaper where there will be bright patterns, paint with a few tones different from that used on adjacent walls, place paintings on the wall or arrange a composition of photographs.

• Niche in the bathroom. It can be an interesting decorative element or a place to store hygiene products and various bath accessories.

Niche in the bathroom

Such niches are placed in any free places:

1. over the bath;
2. over the sink;
3. in the wall near the window, if any.

Designs decorated with contrasting materials look very stylish:

1. tile and stone;
2. mosaic of various contrasting colors;
3. dark shades waterproof paint.

In these niches it is convenient to have clean towels that will always be at hand. Small potted plants or decorative vessels look great here.

A romantic atmosphere can be created by installing several lighted candles in a niche.

• Niches for a do-it-yourself device for additional lighting and visual expansion of space. This design is not just a recess, the niche in the wall is also an important detail in the design of the room as a whole. With its help, you can hide the TV or picture, arrange additional lamps or sconces.

How are the walls with niches laid out

Masonry walls with brick niches are performed with the same dressing systems as solid walls. At the same time, structures are formed by interrupting the inner verst, and in the corners of the niche, to make their connection with the wall, bonded and incomplete bricks are laid.

Niche for hiding communications

Instructions for laying walls with niches for heating devices:

• Flues, ventilation and other channels are located in the inner walls.
• The channels are laid out from a full-bodied ceramic brick with a dressing of the channel masonry with the wall. The thickness of the walls of the niches and partitions between them should be no less than 1/2 of the brick.
• Channels run vertically. Allowed their bends to a distance of one meter at an angle to the horizon of at least 60 °.
• The section of the niche in the area perpendicular to the axis of the channel is taken to be the same as the section of the vertical channel. Plots at an angle are laid out from hewn bricks at a certain angle, the rest from whole elements.
• In the places of approach of wooden structures close to the smoke channels, cutting out of brick or asbestos is arranged, and the thickness of the walls of the channel increases.
• The same cutting is done in places near the design to the ventilation ducts located next to the smoke.
• Cutting between the chimney and wooden structures of the building must be more than 38 centimeters, in the absence of protection against fire, and more than 25 centimeters, in the presence of protection.
• Brick walls with niches are laid out after preliminary marking them according to the template on the wall. The same template controls the correct placement of a niche.
• Masonry joints should be well filled with mortar.

A niche is a universal way of decorating an empty wall or its sections. It performs a functional role for hiding communications, storing books, dishes, being a decor item, using the beautiful design of a niche in the wall, and decorating it with unusual materials. For those who are interested in how to fill a niche in the wall, what types of structures can be used in their apartments, the video in this article will tell you.