Scandinavian style kitchen

The Scandinavian style is gaining more and more popularity every year. A significant role in this process was played by the Swedish company IKEA, which constantly opens new branches throughout the world. Practicality and convenience combined with beauty, and all this for reasonable money - this approach easily captured the hearts of millions of housewives. Scandinavian style kitchen has become one of the most popular urban trends. The availability of ready-made solutions, convenient forms and interchangeable designs allowed everyone to realize their dreams even in small apartments. Impressive largest squares also benefit when the design of the project is decided in a strict “northern” style. Lack of frills allows you to create very logical interiors for life, not cramming and pleasing the owners of kitchens for many years.

Scandinavian style is perfect for those who like to combine minimalism with maximum comfort.

Features Scandinavian style

Northern peoples have a special temperament, and this is reflected in everything that surrounds them in everyday life. Perhaps restraint is the main motive in the interiors of the interior created by Scandinavian designers. They value naturalness, apply natural finishing materials whenever possible, and when the budget is limited, they use environmentally friendly imitations of wood, stone, wool, flax and other natural materials.

Natural wood can often be found in Scandinavian cuisine

The main features of Scandinavian-style kitchen design are:

• Conciseness. Pretentiousness, volumetric forms, exquisite patterns - all this is strictly prohibited in the interior of the kitchen space. The true northern traditions are restraint and moderation in everything. Strict forms, functional furniture, natural materials help to create in the kitchen a world of order and peace, which is conducive to the creation of healthy and tasty food.
• Moderate color effects. Smooth color transition is typical for most northern interiors. These are not southern countries with a variety of bright colors of tropical vegetation. The surrounding nature of the Scandinavians does not dispose to diversity. At the same time for painting the walls can be used any color, well diluted with white paint, to a consistency, which is more a hint of color than the color itself.

Bright detail will quickly refresh white monochrome Scandinavian interior

Despite the seeming simplicity, when creating a true “northern cuisine” it is necessary to strictly adhere to the canons of style. Examples of Scandinavian-style kitchens, the photos of which can be seen below, demonstrate how to advantageously beat simple shapes and materials, creating a cozy and functional space.

Open shelves help visually increase the kitchen space

Wall decoration

In the Scandinavian house, the walls literally become assistants to the hostess. Each free surface is always involved, especially in small kitchens, where the score goes not by meters, but by centimeters. Storage systems as well as plasterboard structures help make any frontal surface more functional. Using this material, you can create niches for storage, shelves, and also change the configuration of the room, separating, for example, the cooking zone from the dining room.

White walls are the basis of the kitchen, decorated with northern style

When finishing the walls is very important to carefully consider the choice of material. Typically, the "northern" direction is characterized by modest interior solutions. Scandinavian-style kitchens, the photos of which are presented below, demonstrate this trend. Most often Finns and Swedes use the following materials for decorating walls.

Plaster

It is smooth and relief, interspersed with small stones and other composite materials. It is possible to apply this coating evenly, creating a smooth, even texture, or randomly, distributing brushstrokes in a creative mess.

Although the relief surface and can be found in the Scandinavian style, but most often use a plaster with a smooth surface.

Brick imitation

One of the most common trends in the decoration of dining rooms and kitchens, designed according to the northern canons. Bricks can be made of various materials - ceramic tiles, ready-made plastic panels, foamed polyurethane foam. Very often, this type of decoration is used not only for decorating walls, but also as an apron for the kitchen in the Scandinavian style. It can occupy a small space between the table top and cabinets, and it can extend further, completely covering one of the walls.

When decorating the kitchen in the Scandinavian style is popular ceramic tile "hog"

Tree

Historically, it was the tree that was the basis of the Norman house. This material was found everywhere, but most often it was used for decoration, insulation and wall decoration. In modern kitchen, the surface of the planed boards will also look very good. Painted with stain, varnish or paint in natural shades, wooden walls will create a feeling of comfort even in a typical city apartment.

Incredibly stylish decor from wooden logs

Important! Despite the severity of the Scandinavian style, it is permissible to dilute it with a playful note. Make it help wallpaper in a small flower, aged in bright colors.

Ceiling decoration

In any film about the Vikings, you can see that this brave nation of navigators and conquerors lived mainly in wooden houses. The ceilings in such houses were supported by massive beams, which through centuries moved into the interiors of modern houses and apartments. This detail will help to sustain the Scandinavian style in the interior of the kitchen.

White wooden ceiling adds more light to the room.

If your kitchen has ceiling beams, then just when creating a Norman interior they should not be hidden. There are many options for finishing these designs, which will give them aesthetics and new functionality.

1. Wood paneling. For this purpose, choose light boards or panels of wood with a thickness of not more than 10-15 mm. If necessary, a frame is built under them with a minimum clearance from the surface of the beam, and then the tree is attached to the metal with self-tapping screws. If the surface of the beam is flat, it can be well cleaned, degreased and secure panels on it with adhesive bonding.
2. Putting relief plaster. A quick way to decorate beams of any size and shape that does not require special skills. Creating a harmonious design, the same material covers all or one of the walls of the kitchen.
3. Installation of lighting. In this case, the transverse dimensions of the beam increase due to the installation on it of a frame of metal guides and fixing to them a plasterboard structure, under which wires are drawn for the installation of light bulbs-minions. Wooden beams can be simply painted, pre-cleaning them and covering all chipped and cracked with mastic. Then get a real kitchen in the Scandinavian-style photo of the interior of which is presented below.

Laconic lamps on long cords look incredibly impressive

Tip! If there are no beams in the room, they can be made by hand. To do this, use a dried timber (it is fastened in the most reliable way, as it is very heavy), or hollow beams, which are much easier and safer.

Floor finish

In the interior of the Scandinavians prefer the floors of wood in bright colors. Birch, pine, and sometimes other types of wood are used. In the kitchen, a practical start prevails over traditional foundations, and then alternative materials are used that are more acceptable for a given room. Most often it is a tile.

Tile is the most practical material for floor decoration.

This flooring is the most common after wood. It is easy to install in rooms of any shape and configuration, covering the entire area of ​​the floor, or only part of it. The most preferred colors and textures for tiles, the design of the kitchen in the Scandinavian style are the following options:

• Milky matt;
• Gray marble;
• A natural stone;
• Baked milk gloss;
• Imitation texture of natural wood.

Ceramic floor tiles harmonize perfectly with wood

Laminate is used in the case when the budget is limited, trying to choose light shades. Linoleum for the decoration of the floor in the northern-style kitchens is not strongly recommended to use - it completely destroys the whole integrity of the concept.

Laminate "under the tree" fits perfectly into the concept of a light interior

Boards - the most traditional type of flooring for the Swedish repair. They can be of any thickness and width, it all depends on the size of the budget. Usually they are painted with clear varnish or light paint. In the second case, the plinth is painted in the color of the floor.

The boardwalk is a classic Scandinavian design floor.

Lighting

People in countries closer to the polar circle experience a constant lack of light. Long winters, a short daylight hours - all of this has developed a tactic of a certain approach to room lighting. They are visually expanded, for example, by combining to get more light. The kitchen living room in the Scandinavian style photo of which can be seen below - one example of this approach to combining rooms to increase the level of illumination.

Work zone

There may be several options for highlighting. The first - hood with built-in lights. Usually, the lighting level in this case can be adjusted, including one or several lamps at once. The second option is the luminaires on a flexible connection (you can change the direction of the light), which are attached either to the top plane of the cabinets, or on the clips to any surface located near the object being illuminated.

Stylish lamps on long pendants will be a great helper in the kitchen with open top shelves.

Eating area

If the ceiling height allows, a chandelier is suspended above the dining table, the height of which can be adjusted. Another option is a wooden or drywall construction, whose size and shape correspond to the dimensions of the desktop. On it are fixed light bulbs-minions, which are usually located around the perimeter of the structure.

A large chandelier over the dining table fits perfectly into Scandinavian design

Interior spaces of cabinets

The space inside the furniture is illuminated in two ways: ribbons of LEDs that are glued in any convenient place; directional lamps, attached to the top edge of the cabinets.

LED lighting can be installed on open shelves

Important! Scandinavians do not use large lamps to illuminate the kitchen space. To maintain the style in the interior, choose strict options of steel or frosted glass of small size.

Kitchen furniture

Swedes, Finns and other northern people love functional and modest furniture sets, which at the same time should have good spaciousness. Decorative elements are minimized, sometimes there are not even handles on the doors of the cabinets - they are opened by pressing the door.

Classic set, buffet, island table and open shelves create a magnificent ensemble in one square

The upper boxes above the working area are not always installed. Often they are replaced by open shelves made of wood, which are complemented by various hangers and fasteners for household utensils. Scandinavians have a greater tendency to buffets, therefore, if the area of ​​the room allows, it must be installed near one of the walls. For small kitchens Scandinavians have come up with many original ways to expand the space. They were the very first who began to build a working surface along the windows, saving space. With the same purpose, invented retractable dining tables (folding or retractable), which in between meals can be folded.

Open shelves help create more room indoors.

Color decisions of furniture facades get out in light scale. They can be honey, golden, milky. Well diluted shades of gray and blue are also common. But the most characteristic for the northern countries are white kitchens in the Scandinavian style, the photos of which can be seen below.

Very often the white color of the headset is complemented with pastel shades of blue.

Decor

Compliance with established canons for centuries makes the northern style so recognizable. Its main distinguishing feature is the use of handicrafts in the interior. Many things in the interior are still made by handicraft, by hand. These can be various rugs made of cloth, jute carpets, wicker baskets, wooden storage systems and much more. The most important thing is that all elements of the decor must bear not only an aesthetic, but also a practical burden, otherwise they will be out of the general concept.

Deciding to arrange your kitchen in the Scandinavian style, you can get a number of advantages. And this is not only a stylish design and rationality in every detail. The calm, peaceful atmosphere reigning in such an interior has a beneficial effect on the microclimate within the family, whose members will be happy to gather in their kitchen. Due to its unobtrusive design, it will not get bored, and will please the owners with comfort and coziness for many years.

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