Redevelopment of a three-room apartment: renovation ideas in Khrushchev with before and after photos

The word “Khrushchevka” evokes unsightly associations, being the object of invariable jokes. But does this mean that such a dwelling must necessarily be typical, cramped, dull? Not at all! Today, anyone can turn their “khrushchev” into cozy modern apartments. It is enough to turn to the experience of specialists to understand what miracles are created by renovating your own apartment. It doesn’t matter whether you do redevelopment or limit yourself to cosmetic repairs. The modern design of a Khrushchev-era or Soviet-style 3-room panel house will magically transform your home, making it functional, comfortable, and stylish.

Important Features

The buildings of the Khrushchev era were erected as temporary housing, therefore, they cannot boast of special convenience. Therefore, their owners often have to resort to various kinds of transformations to improve the comfort of their own home.

It should be noted that, subject to regular major repairs, buildings built during the Khrushchev era will last for many years. Therefore, it makes sense for owners to spend energy on improving living conditions through design tricks, achieving maximum comfort.

This type of housing has the following features:

• low ceiling height;
• availability of walk-through rooms;
• small apartment size;
• cramped kitchen;
• combined bathroom;
• low sound and heat insulation.

IMPORTANT! The internal partitions of Khrushchev buildings are not load-bearing, which allows them to be easily demolished during redevelopment.

Typical layout options

There are several versions of the standard layout of three-room Khrushchev apartments:

• “vest”: one spacious room plus two small ones. The least convenient option for radical restructuring;
• “book”: two spacious adjacent rooms plus one small separate one. Redevelopment will require large expenditures of space;
• “tram”: walk-through rooms, reminiscent of a tram’s interior, are often lined up. When remodeling, it is necessary to install additional partitions for insulation;
• Khrushchev 60 m2: all rooms are completely isolated from each other. A comfortable option, no radical changes may be needed.

Depending on the variety, options for organizing space are chosen. The Internet provides those interested with a huge number of photos of various projects, among which it is easy to find the right one. You can also contact a professional designer to create a unique design specifically for your case.

Typical layout of a three-room apartment

There are several layout options for 3-room apartments in Khrushchev:

• two of the three rooms are very small, as if one of the rooms was divided into two;
• 2 large adjacent rooms and one small separate room;
• living quarters are scattered on both sides of the house;
• There is an option when all rooms are completely isolated from each other.

Often one of the three rooms has a storage room. This is where it is best to arrange a bedroom, as the closet can be turned into a small dressing room. This way you can unload the room and solve the problem of organizing space. One of the rooms is often designed as a living room, where the whole family can gather and receive guests. If there are children, then the third room turns into a children's room.

Features of redevelopment

Redevelopment is a radical way that truly transforms the appearance of your home. Of course, it will not be possible to change the size of the home. But it is quite possible to expand the usable area using such methods.

There are two ways of redevelopment:

1. Demolish all non-load-bearing partitions, turning the apartment into a studio apartment. Designate areas of the kitchen, dining room, living room, highlight an office, and a children's room. To delimit zones, light partitions, multi-level floors, color transitions in design, different types of covering, etc. are used.
2. Complete a partial combination: kitchen with living room, bathroom with hallway, balcony with bedroom, etc.

IMPORTANT! When expanding the living room with a balcony, make sure that it can withstand the additional load!

Additionally, you can create the effect of spaciousness by expanding the window openings. By replacing old windows with modern double-glazed windows, you will improve the thermal insulation of your apartment, and spacious windows will let in sunlight and air. The window sill can easily be turned into a compact built-in table. You can see what it looks like in a photo from the Internet.

Typical and non-standard options for changing space

It will not be possible to actually change the dimensions of the apartment, but you can increase the space using non-standard solutions. There are two principles for reorganizing space:

• combine all the rooms, get a studio apartment, with specific zoning;
• partial combination of premises: kitchen with living room, bathroom with hallway, balcony with bedroom and so on.

Traditionally, in such a house the kitchen is cramped, so those who have such an apartment have a natural desire to combine it with some room and expand it. A typical kitchen is a room of 6 square meters, rectangular or square in shape.

The most advantageous option is to combine the kitchen space with the living room. The old doorway is being sealed. The bathroom is expanding due to the previous passage to the kitchen. This project is truly considered one of the most successful. After all, there is also an adjacent zone between the two rooms, which can be used as a small dining room.

To zone the space, if necessary, removable sliding partitions are used. Corner 3-room apartments are attractive due to the presence of an additional window, which makes it possible to divide one large room into two with a separate window in each of them.

Studio apartment Room and balcony Bathroom and toilet Kitchen and balcony Kitchen living room

Bathroom remodeling

The usable area can be increased by adding a bathroom. Varieties of changes are also possible here:

• dismantle the partition between the bathroom and toilet;
• replace a massive bathtub with a modern shower stall. This allows you to place a washing machine in the vacant space, freeing up space in the kitchen;
• increase the height of the doorway: thanks to this technique, the entire bathroom will seem higher;
• expand the bathroom using part of the corridor, built-in closet or pantry. Additional waterproofing will be required.

IMPORTANT! Enlarging the bathroom by encroaching on the territory of the living space is prohibited by sanitary standards!

The real disaster of three-room Khrushchev apartments is the adjacent rooms. They look terrible in photos, and even more so at home: if several family members live with you, then it becomes impossible to relax in the passage rooms. By reducing part of the area of ​​one of the living rooms, you can run a corridor to the end of the apartment. The passages to the bathroom and kitchen are located on both sides of the corridor, isolating the apartments.

Restrictions on redevelopment and repairs

The redevelopment of the apartment takes place in several stages. First, a project is being developed for the redevelopment of a Khrushchev-era building in a 3-room apartment. It makes sense to entrust this work to specialists - they will perform the necessary calculations, make the necessary drawings and conclusions for them, and also present them in the best possible way to government agencies.

The traditional interior of Khrushchev is small rooms with low ceilings that constantly put pressure on your head

If the redevelopment has already been carried out, then specialists will carry out the necessary measurements and calculations, and analyze the apartment for violations. If there are no violations, then you can submit documents to legalize alterations in the apartment. If any violations do occur, they must be eliminated. It is better to do this before they are discovered by regulatory authorities.

Everything must be legal

When planning a major renovation, consult with experts. They will tell you what changes can be made and what changes are strictly prohibited.

When drawing up a project, you must consider:

• in some cases, dismantling walls may be prohibited;
• any change in the configuration of the walls must be agreed upon and registered;
• you cannot move the bathroom, as this can damage the sewerage system in the entire multi-story building;
• If you have a gas stove, combining the kitchen and living room is prohibited. Install an electric stove or use a light partition.

To create a project, the services of professional designers may be required. Especially if you are going to change the configuration of the walls of the apartment. Turning to specialists guarantees you a competent project, which is much easier to coordinate.

You need to know that any changes to the layout must be agreed upon and registered. Before starting work, it is necessary to collect a package of necessary documents and obtain a licensed project for future housing that complies with construction standards.

Options for the arrangement of rooms in a three-room Khrushchev house

When developing premises layout plans, it is important to take into account the lifestyle of all family members and analyze their main movements around the apartment. Perhaps all the residents get up early and also go to work in the offices together early, and then return home at about the same time. In this case, you should think about a wide corridor and a separate bathroom.

You can visually expand the corridor using light wall decoration or through redevelopment by moving the partition between the hallway and the living room

Replacing a bulky bathtub with a compact shower will solve the problem of saving space in a small bathroom

Maybe, on the contrary, all residents have different schedules - young people work remotely at home in their rooms, wake up late, only one adult wakes up early and immediately goes to work, and an elderly grandmother is constantly busy with housework. Here it makes sense to expand the kitchen at the expense of the adjacent room and make a beautiful dining room.

To divide the kitchen-living room into zones, a bar counter is often used

Popular room layout options:

1. By tram.
2. A vest.
3. Mini improvement.
4. A book.

A tram is an elongated layout where all the rooms and passages to them are attached to one another. This arrangement is considered very inconvenient. Here only the very last room becomes an isolated space. The kitchen can usually be accessed through the hallway, the living room through the kitchen, and other rooms through the living room. It turns out that each time you need to go through the entire apartment in a row. This inconvenience can be corrected by placing all the rooms along one corridor. You can also combine the living room with the kitchen, which will add more space to the apartment.

Layout of a three-room Khrushchev house “tram”

The layout with a vest is considered the most successful. With a vest, the corridor is in the center of the apartment, and rooms are located on opposite sides of it. Thus, all rooms are isolated from each other and face different sides of the world. Different lighting in the rooms makes the apartment more cozy and psychologically comfortable. The disadvantages of such layouts may be unreasonably large corridors, due to which you can increase the space of the rooms. Often, such apartments still have small, uncomfortable kitchenettes. This problem can again be solved by combining the kitchen with the nearest room.

Layout of a three-room Khrushchev “vest”

From the point of view of Feng Shui, this arrangement is not very good, since here the corridor becomes the central room - that is, the passage space. To balance the arrangement of zones, it makes sense to enlarge one room and make it central. This could be the living room, dining room or living space of the head of the family. Thus, energy will be concentrated in this area.

The book layout assumes the presence of two adjacent rooms. They can only be separated by rearranging the corridor, but in this case it will turn out to be quite narrow. But if you choose between isolation and a narrow corridor, then from the point of view of psychological comfort it is better to leave the corridor.

Layout of a three-room Khrushchev house “in a book”

The mini-improvement layout is the most harmonious placement of rooms around a hallway. At the same time, he can have his own pantry.

“Mini-improved apartment” - the most convenient layout of a three-room Khrushchev house

This arrangement provides the greatest space for creativity when renovating. You can even add one room to this apartment if the number of windows allows. You can also combine the kitchen and living room, or reduce the corridor itself.

How to increase space?

Even if you don’t plan to demolish the walls, you can really increase the usable area of ​​the three-ruble ruble by wisely managing the available territory:

• avoid unnecessary details of the situation, do not clutter up your home. Any item used in the design of an apartment must be functional;
• focus on height: cabinets rising upward, proper arrangement of furniture, proper lighting;
• hang mirrors, place transparent glass surfaces;
• The pantry can be turned into a convenient dressing room by installing shelves, hangers, and a chest of drawers for storing small items. A dressing room will be an excellent replacement for a closet, allowing you to significantly save space;
• a loggia or balcony can become a work office, a cozy nook for tea or a miniature gym. It is necessary to insulate the loggia or balcony so that it can be used all year round;
• Instead of ordinary swing doors, it is better to install sliding doors or accordion doors. This allows you to win up to 1 m2;
• lighting should be bright and abundant. Instead of one massive chandelier, use several spotlights. Methods for their location can be easily found in photos on the Internet. Well-lit rooms always look more spacious.

Choosing an interior style

When choosing an interior design for a three-room Khrushchev apartment, functionality comes to the fore. After all, the territory is small, which means it needs to be managed wisely. Therefore, lush styles that involve abundant decoration are inappropriate here.

The best solution would be an economical, spectacular modern minimalist style. It not only looks chic, but allows you to use your home with the greatest efficiency.

Main features of minimalism:

• the general background is made in light shades;
• simple sealed design;
• mirror, glass elements that add air;
• dividing the territory into functional zones;
• instead of voluminous cabinets, compact vertical structures under the ceiling are used;
• multifunctional transformable furniture: sliding tables, wall cabinets, neat bedside tables;
• furniture is placed in the corners, freeing up the center of the room;
• lighting fixtures are camouflaged whenever possible;
• as much natural light as possible.

By looking at photos of design projects in the minimalist style, you can get a lot of useful ideas, while at the same time making sure that this style looks great.

Choosing flooring

The original floor covering of Khrushchev houses is wooden boards, which are designed for a service life of no more than 20-30 years. They need to be replaced, especially if you are planning a major renovation of your apartment. If you are going to use linoleum or laminate, you must first remove the old boards and level the floor.

An excellent floor covering for a 3-room apartment is tile. To install it, you do not need to additionally level the floor surface. Thanks to photos from the Internet, you can choose beautiful tiles without leaving your home.

If you have combined your three rooms into a studio, zoning is a necessary condition. A multi-level floor with a different coating looks incredibly impressive. The walls are also painted in different colors (use wallpaper, paint or decorative plaster). The result is a stylish, spacious home with plenty of air and light.

Redevelopment of a three-room apartment with photos

Having 3 rooms in an apartment seems like a great success for many, because it is possible to provide personal space for each family member or equip a home office, workshop or place to relax. But if we are talking about a house from the times of Khrushchev, then the prospects immediately become not so rosy, at least for those who have never dealt with renovations in such buildings before. To make your home comfortable and beautiful, you will definitely need to remodel a three-room apartment, and those who decide to do it need to carefully prepare:

• decide on priorities in the area of ​​space distribution;
• develop project documentation and obtain permission from city services;
• draw up estimates and purchase materials;
• hire craftsmen (unless you do everything yourself, which is quite problematic if you lack knowledge and skills);
• supervise repair work.

In practice, the most difficult thing is to choose a successful option for remodeling a 3-room apartment, since you want the inside to be quite spacious, comfortable, and at the same time the premises serve a functional purpose. Below you will find a variety of ideas on how to transform your home with photo examples and useful tips from experienced designers.

Choosing a ceiling

The well-known problem of “khrushchev” is low ceilings. Such a significant flaw can be corrected only with the help of skillful design. This circumstance dictates its own design rules:

• give up bulky chandeliers, replacing them with several bright spotlights;
• Light shades create a feeling of spaciousness and additional height in the room. Avoid dark colors;
• a multi-level plasterboard structure sets the style, making the apartment visually higher;
• A glossy stretcher or mirror will help create the effect of visually increasing height;
• tension and plasterboard structures steal several centimeters of height during installation, so in particularly low rooms it is better to abandon them;
• Instead of tensile structures in the design, it is better to choose correctly selected wallpaper or paint. They create the illusion of height, a feeling of spaciousness and lightness.

Choosing furniture

Properly selected furniture will also allow you to reclaim a considerable part of your living space and help create a stylish image of your home.

There are several rules for choosing furnishings for small apartments:

• Functionality should come first, only then appearance;
• give preference to furnishings with clear geometric shapes and a smooth surface;
• priority – mobility: folding bed or cabinet, compact chest of drawers;
• tables and beds that fit tightly to the floor;
• to save money, you should choose compact mobile ottomans instead of chairs;
• give up massive structures: they require too much space;
• Tall cabinets will help save space: by increasing the height, you can reduce their depth without compromising the useful volume of the cabinet.

IMPORTANT! You should not choose cabinets that are too deep: they require a lot of space.

Choosing a color scheme

A correctly selected color scheme visually expands the space of even a small apartment. There is little free space in a typical Khrushchev apartment. Therefore, you should carefully consider the choice of shades of furniture, floors, walls, and ceiling coverings:

• light colors create the illusion of greater volume;
• a small pattern on the wallpaper makes the room more spacious, a large pattern reduces the space;
• It’s better to avoid using saturated bright colors in your design: they visually reduce the space, making your home look small and cramped. Use pillows, paintings, photos and souvenirs as bright accents in your apartment design;
• a glossy suspended false ceiling will visually expand the space if its color is lighter than the tone of the walls;
• 3D plaster or wallpaper with decorative patterns can become a separate color element of the design;
• For children, gentle pastel colors are optimal: they have a calming effect on the child;
• a small kitchen will seem more spacious if you use mirrored surfaces - for example, a refrigerator and cabinets.

Initially, the peculiar arrangement of rooms in an apartment from Khrushchev times does not contribute to comfortable living. Therefore, the design of a three-room Khrushchev apartment should be thoughtful. The main goal of the renovation should be functionality - of course, without sacrificing its excellent appearance. Then the old “Khrushchev” will turn into cozy and comfortable housing for all its inhabitants, which you can be proud of.

Successful examples

A successful redevelopment can transform an apartment and make the life of its inhabitants more convenient and comfortable. The plan below shows an example of such a “Brezhnevka” layout with 3 rooms.

The bathroom was connected to the toilet and the space was expanded due to the area of ​​the corridor. The door to the bathroom was moved to another location. They did the same with the door to the kitchen, as a result there was more space here. The corridor has become much smaller, but it opens directly into the living room, and thanks to this there is no feeling of an enclosed space.

Two rooms of 14 sq. m, which were originally there, they made one large living room. To save space in the room, ordinary doors were replaced with “screen” doors.

In the foreground is another room of 10 square meters. m and a small storage room. In the background you can see that one large room was divided into two small ones and the storage room was removed.

In addition, the plan shows that the position of the door on the loggia has changed. She began to open in the other direction.

To create an apartment in a certain design, you need not only to correctly rearrange and redecorate, but also to correctly arrange the furniture. If we talk about the furniture in the room in the background, it is also quite well located.

In the bathroom, to save space, the regular bathtub was replaced with a corner bathtub. The kitchen has a table with chairs, a stove and kitchen cabinets. The living room, made of two rooms, contains a small amount of furniture: a TV, armchairs with a coffee table, a sofa and a wardrobe.

Instead of one room, they made two small rooms - a bedroom and a nursery. The children's room has a wardrobe, a bed and a desk with a chair. The bedroom contains only a bed and a wardrobe. The wall between these two rooms is of an unusual design, made in the form of a “snake”.

You will learn more about the Brezhnevka layout in the following video.

“Brezhnevka” apartments are the so-called old housing, which is widespread in our country. Dozens of houses from that era have been preserved in each city. Such apartments are still in demand. If you are going to buy or sell housing on the secondary market, you need to know what makes typical houses of the last century stand out.