Balcony in Khrushchev - 75 photos of the best design ideas

Khrushchev's apartments can hardly be called comfortable for living without redevelopment performed in them. Balconies, which are formally a continuation of the room, but due to their disastrously modest size, are by default only suitable for storing unnecessary things, do not remain unnoticed by the owners during renovation. If this topic is more relevant than ever for you, then carefully study our selection of cool and modern ideas for your balconies.

Room decoration

Before developing the design of a balcony in a Khrushchev-era building, you need to soberly assess the condition of the existing structure, and if necessary, then strengthen it.

Balcony slab is a structure clamped into the wall. Sometimes the opening in the outer wall is enlarged so that the balcony becomes like an extension of the living space. This cannot be done for a number of reasons:

The mass of the wall is noticeably reduced, and therefore the slab is not sufficiently pinched.
In some cases, it is necessary to move the heating battery.
It is necessary to additionally attach the plate to the wall.

To restore working capacity, different methods are used, which depend directly on the condition of the slab:

If there are minor cracks in the slab and you need to increase the load.
In some places, destruction of the slab is observed.

The last option is the most difficult, because here you need to replace the slab or restore it by adding reinforcement mesh.

Insulation

In order to create a comfortable temperature in the balcony space and increase the usable area of the apartment, it is necessary to carefully insulate this room.

Types of heat insulators:

Styrofoam;
Penofol;
Penoplex (extruded polystyrene foam);
PPU (polyurethane foam);
Mineral wool;
Penofol (foamed polyethylene, one of the surfaces is covered with foil to reflect heat).

A good way to provide additional heating is to install a heated floor system.

Glazing

Repairing a balcony in a Khrushchev-era building always begins with glazing - it’s crazy in the modern world when the balcony is not glazed.

How to glaze a balcony in a Khrushchev building? Classification of glazing: classic, when there is a blind area below, and panoramic. The choice is influenced only by the preferences of the homeowners.

Read here! Door to the balcony - which one to choose? Non-standard solutions in the interior! (77 photos)

The frame can be:

Aluminum.
PVC.
Wooden frame.

Frameless glazing of balconies in Khrushchev, when there is a solid surface that transmits light. Depending on the further purpose of the balcony, it can be made either warm or cold.

A cold balcony perfectly protects from wind and bad weather, and a warm balcony gives you the opportunity to comfortably stay on the balcony in winter.

The initial stage of floor repair

With any balcony repair option, you will need to level and finish the floor. This is a rather difficult and time-consuming stage.

Raising the level

First of all, you will need to decide whether the floor level will be raised and what the height of the rise should be. This operation is carried out, as a rule, only if it is planned to combine the balcony and the room.

Let's look at how to raise the floor on a balcony with your own hands. The choice of method is determined by the height to which you need to raise the level:

if there is a small difference in height (up to 6 cm), it is recommended to simply fill in a new screed;
if necessary, raise the level by more than 6 cm, before pouring the screed, lay rigid insulation of the required height on the base;
If you plan to lay a wooden floor, a sheathing of logs of the required height is assembled on the base. On top of the assembled sheathing, it will be possible to lay a floor made of boards or moisture-resistant plywood.

Advice! Before laying a wooden floor, heat-insulating material (foam plastic) is placed in the gaps between the frame elements of the logs.

Leveling with a screed

At the first stage of repair, it is worth identifying the presence of differences on the slab. A building level is used to complete the work. Let's figure out how to level the floor on the balcony using a screed.

To make a new screed you will need metal profiles, so-called beacons. They will need to be cut into several planks equal in length to the width of the balcony. The installation step of the beacons is 0.6 m. Install the planks, carefully leveling them using a level.

Advice! If the leveling is carried out on a glazed balcony, then the floor surface is made flat. If you do not plan to glass the balcony, it is recommended to make a slight slope towards the outer edge of the slab.

After installing the beacons, you can proceed to the next steps of the screed. Sequence of work:

assemble the formwork, installing bars along the outer perimeter, carefully cover the gaps between adjacent formwork elements;
prepare a working solution using a dry mixture;
pour the solution onto the surface of the slab, carefully level it;
allow to dry for at least 48 hours;
dismantle the formwork, seal the gaps and eliminate bulges along the edges.

Balcony design in the bedroom

Office for work - if you do not demolish the window, you can get a separate place to work. To expand the area of the office, it is worth removing the window and using the window sill as a table.

Wardrobe - if there is no space in the apartment, then the balcony becomes a small wardrobe, compact, with a full-length mirror.

It is worth considering several shelves for shoes, and a light chair is suitable for relaxation.

Design ideas

Balcony bar. The window sill most often serves as a tabletop.
Dinner Zone. This solution is appropriate if the kitchen is adjacent to the balcony.
A place to relax. Comfortable chairs, wicker chairs, a sofa or a bed are suitable for arrangement; you can also put a small table.
Cabinet. You can work quietly in such a room if privacy is necessary.
Game room. For children's leisure, a play area is often organized in the balcony space. The interior style should correspond to the purpose of the room; it is better to choose a cheerful color scheme.
Flower garden.
Boudoir. To decorate the interior, you need a dressing table and a comfortable chair. It is worth giving preference to furniture with carved decor and thick textiles.
Workshop for creativity.
Wardrobe. A competent layout will free up a lot of space in the main part of the apartment. For the effect of visually enlarging the space, you can install a mirror.
Room for sports activities. Filling the space with inventory and equipment directly depends on personal preferences and the availability of free space.

A place to relax and a bar area in one space.

Dining area on the loggia in Khrushchev.

Interesting room design ideas in the photo.

Corner for relaxing and reading books. Cladding with wooden clapboard.

Finishing materials: white painted lining and decorative plaster.

Compact office.

A place to work at a computer.

Playroom for children.

Flower garden and storage area in one area.

Mini-greenhouse.

Open balcony design

When decorating a balcony, you should use materials that are not afraid of moisture - furniture made of plastic, rattan, wood.

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To hide from views from the street and add coziness, you can use plants in pots - shrubs, trees.

If you choose all the materials responsibly, if you approach the decoration of the balcony wisely, you can get a warm, safe balcony, additional square meters in Khrushchev.

Fast, inexpensive and do it yourself.

The various technologies offered on the Internet are, of course, good, but they are either expensive or require materials that are difficult to find in a small town.

Using some knowledge of a general physics course, I made the floor for my balcony myself. Last year, a major renovation was carried out on the balcony; this article describes the process. It, like this one, provides detailed photos in “before” and “after” format.

Here are some materials for insulating a balcony. But I did not adhere to the fact that it is best to use mineral wool as floor insulation. Reason: on the balcony there is a whole greenhouse of all kinds of vegetation and the likelihood of moisture getting under the floor is very high (as Sergey told us, “in humid conditions, mineral wool quickly becomes saturated with moisture, “falls off” and loses its thermal insulation properties”), in addition, I have a terrible allergy to mines. the cotton wool and the prospect of re-flooring did not suit me.

On the advice of a carpenter friend with golden hands, I decided to make an ordinary wooden floor, like in an ordinary apartment with some changes. By the way, he made a sandbox mill, a decorative Russian well, how to replace carpentry windows yourself, and for a couple of beers he provided a photo and wrote about it (as best he could, anyone who needs it will understand).

To begin with, the budget was strictly limited. At the end of the article, we’ll calculate the total cost and find out why it’s better to do all the work yourself.

Purchasing material

At the construction market we buy a floorboard 8.5 cm wide and 86 cm long (distance from the parapet to the wall), timber for the logs and a sheet of foam plastic.

Board 8.5 x 4 cm For a subfloor, it is not possible to use the highest grade, and even more so for a floor on a balcony. But this only depends on the thickness of the wallet. For the floor on the balcony of an old Khrushchev building, a board of the lowest quality will do. It is not advisable to buy whole boards, and they are 3 meters each: the length of the future floor is only 270 cm, lifting 10 boards to the upper floors is difficult due to the design features of the staircases. We choose “from the remnants” with a length no less than the distance from the parapet to the wall. By the way, buying in pieces allowed you to save money.

The beams for the logs needed different sections. In our case, 2.5 x 5 cm and 5 x 5 cm.

In hardware and office supply stores we buy 2 rolls of food foil for baking and 2 rolls of double-sided tape. Aluminum foil, especially durable, 10 meters per roll. It took 1.5 rolls for a base area of 270 x 86 cm. At first it was impossible to glue it evenly, so there was a slight overrun.

Necessary and sufficient tools: a drill with an impact mechanism, a hacksaw (I had to buy a new one, that’s why it looks so fresh in the photo), a “six” impact drill, a regular wood drill with a slightly smaller diameter than self-tapping screws (in our case, a “four” drill "), tape measure, shaped screwdriver (there was no such luxury as a screwdriver), metal corners (according to the width of the beam for joists), consumables (screws and dowels, nails)

"Alifa" was used as a protective coating. Why 1 liter was bought, the question remained open; 0.5 liter would have been enough (Alif). Good and accurate level (preferably not made in China, as in the photo)

Main stages of installation

Before starting all work, you should thoroughly (preferably twice) wash and dry the base. Try not to let the dust settle again. Dry with the balcony windows closed.

Due to the strong slope of the base, the height of the logs turned out to be different: 2.5 cm and 5 cm. Keeping a constant distance between the logs (38 cm in the photo) and setting a level on them, we move the logs and find the exact horizontal position of our level. Next, use a marker to make notes on the position of the lag. We also make notes for the metal corners - fastening the joists. The number of attachment points may vary. With a log length of 270 cm, 3 corners were needed for each. Two on one side and one on the reverse. We drill the base, fasten the corners to the base, lay and fasten the joists (with the exception of fastening the joist close to the wall. Since the distance is too small to work with a screwdriver, first fasten the corner to the joist, then fasten the corner to the base. It is not difficult to guess that from the side there was only one corner of the wall). Now the joists do not “dangle” and you can safely attach floorboards to them. But before that, let's think about insulation. We glue double-sided tape to the base. Along, across, cross to cross... as your heart desires.

Insulating the floor on the balcony

Carefully remove the protective layer from the adhesive tape and, without tearing the foil off the roll, stick it to the base. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to stick on pre-cut pieces of foil (checked, so there was an overrun). The width of the foil roll did not match the distance between the joists (30 and 38 cm, respectively), so gluing took a considerable amount of time.

Cover the entire surface of the base with foil.

Installation of floorboards (floorboards)

We fasten the first floorboard with self-tapping screws. Next, we lay the next floorboards and at the same time place pre-cut strips of foam plastic under them.

I didn’t worry about ventilation or space when attaching the first board. The tree itself “breathes”, and taking into account the fact that any tree, no matter how well dried, will still dry out over time, the resulting cracks will allow air to pass through perfectly. The option with indents is applicable if you use chipboard or other sheet material.

Installation of floorboards (floorboards)

We “attract” every fifth floorboard with self-tapping screws, drilling 100% of the floorboard and 5-10% of the joists. The holes were necessary because the second joist was made of larch. As you know, larch is harder and more elastic than, for example, ordinary pine from which floorboards were made. But this fact only played into the hands: larch is extremely resistant to rotting. But cutting it (adjusting it to length) at home with an ordinary hacksaw made me sweat.

Finishing

After installing the floorboards, we sand with sandpaper No. 16, vacuum and cover with two layers of Alif. If “you can’t spoil the porridge with oil,” then you don’t have to regret “Alifa” (“Alifa” is made from sunflower oil). After the second layer has dried, we attach the baseboard and select the color of the felt-based carpet.

Photo of a balcony in Khrushchev

Legality

To glaze a balcony or attach it to a room, you must comply with the law and obtain permission for redevelopment and construction work. This is necessary for the safety of apartment owners and neighbors. The rights and obligations of all parties are fixed in the Housing Code.

Basic rules to follow:

Do not violate the integrity of the supporting structures of the house.
Do not load the slab; it has the ultimate strength.
The removal of the structure beyond the perimeter of the slab must also be agreed upon with the authorized bodies.
All fire safety regulations must be followed

In case of failure to comply with the norms of the Housing Code and in the absence of permission for repairs, a fine may be imposed on the apartment owners. And the entire illegal structure will have to be demolished or remodeled in accordance with established standards.