During this period, many flower friends work and study from home every day. When I get along with my family 24*7, will I feel more than usual: do I like it more and more, or do I feel that there is a lot of improvement? Yes, in the days trapped by the epidemic, whether the “small environment” of home is comfortable, refreshing, and beautiful has a great impact on our happiness.
We’ve shared a lot of tips for home remodeling. Among them, there is one that I am very impressed with. This guide comes from a professional designer father (Qi Honghai, director of design of Yuanzhan Lighting, co-founder of Jianzhong product design), he directly used his own “13-year renovation project” as a case to explain how to create a happier living room. s home.
This dad is both the designer and the user of the home. It is very rare to have both perspectives. The original post is very long. Today, I will review a very practical part of it: the entrance, hall, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, storage, and lighting, which are full of “ingenious thoughts and professional design”.
My Home Renovation: 2008-2021
I bought a house in 2005, spent three years designing and renovating it, and moved in in 2008.
When we first moved in, it was in the state shown in the photo below. As soon as you enter the entrance, you will see a large bench, which extends to the left to the living room, forming an enclosed space with the sofa TV in the living room. At the same time, the bench can also sit down and change shoes. To the right of the bench is a dining table, which can also be used as a seat on one side of the dining table. After entering the door, you can also put your bags and clothes on the large bench, it is a multifunctional thing.
This is the kitchen and bathroom at that time, and there is a bar in the kitchen.
This is the bedroom, the photo of the bed, pay attention, there is a small pool of five centimeters deep under the wall by the window, and some small tropical fish are raised in it. Opposite the bed is a fake fireplace, which has no function at all, reflecting the essence of a pseudo-literary youth in me.
There is also a small attic in the house, which is very low, and half of the space is used for work, drawing, placing papers, and storing things. The big table on the right is usually used for drinking tea or when friends and colleagues come to play mahjong at home on weekends.
The above is probably the living environment of my family after 2008. This is not a fake environment, not the clean renderings we usually see, there is really nothing at home, because our life is very simple.
This situation took a major change in 2011, when my daughter was born, and life has changed completely since then.
After having a child, the elderly in the family and all kinds of people who may have a relationship with the child come to the house, the people and the content of life gradually change, and the family environment also gradually changes. Therefore, the “tragedy” of Qingshan began to be staged in our family one after another.
By 2016, the year before my daughter went to school, the home was basically in the following state, all furniture had left their original positions, and the home was full of various things for children.
I was very worried that she would not have a basic sense of order and aesthetic ability in the future, so I was determined to remodel her home.
Between the two summers of 2016 and 2017, it took a year from design to completion.
The following is the comparison before and after the transformation, to be precise, the comparison between before and after the transformation, because it is a photo that has been used for more than two years. As you can see, there was a small niche for hanging clothes at the original entrance. This position has not changed, but it has changed a lot before and after the renovation.
Next, I will tell you about the new home from the six main spaces of the entrance, hall, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and storage.
1. Entrance: the highest technical content
In Chinese homes, there is almost no concept of entrance. Below is the entrance of my parents’ house. I pushed the door and walked in. The shoes were placed beside it. There was also a shelf to hang a few clothes, and there was a shoe cabinet next to it, which could store shoes and other things.
After entering the entrance, what you see is a large space, with a dining table on the left and a sofa TV on the right. This is the so-called two halls, dining room and living room, which is the most common home setting in China.
I chose two residential planes for a comparison, the left is a typical Chinese residential plane, and the right is a Japanese plane.
This Chinese house is 148 square meters. It is a very large house. It is completely qualified to make an independent entrance space, but it did not. In the red part of the picture, the entrance is also written on it, but there is no corresponding space, just an open space.
In Japanese houses, the area marked by color after entering the door is usually called the clean zone. The red area is the dirty area, where you arrive with outside shoes, and the blue area is the space for cleaning and other behaviors after entering, such as including the bathroom.
We will find that, in our conception, many actions that should take place in the depths of the home occur as soon as one enters the Japanese house. After experiencing the epidemic, we can actually realize that many behaviors, such as personal cleaning, should actually be solved at the entrance.
But Chinese families did not have this habit in the past. In the past few decades in China, everyone has lived in a situation of relatively poor material conditions, so now I hope to see a larger space as soon as I enter the house to show the improvement of life. I think it is related to this psychology. Like my dad, the best thing he can say about a space is “brightness”.
In fact, the entrance has specific behaviors, and these behaviors correspond to specific items and conditions. I listed a few typical behaviors that generally occur at the entrance: what to do when you enter, what to do when you go out, and a few other things.
For example, when it rains, bring an umbrella to the door and drain the water; for example, when dragging boxes in and out, we need to clean these boxes; for example, we need to sit down to change shoes. In many cases, we just stand on one leg and struggle to change shoes.
Another example is some conditions, access control, power supply, lighting, and water. Why is there going to be water? For example, every time I take a suitcase into the door, I will wipe the suitcase, especially its wheels, before it can be pushed into the house. In this process, I actually need to use water. If there are conditions for getting on and off the water, this behavior will become very convenient.
After sorting out these needs, one of the main directions for the renovation of our home is to solve these functions in the entrance area.
After the renovation, the entrance has increased from the original area of about 5.1 square meters to more than six square meters, and the increase in area is not large. Before the renovation, the storage area was only 1.3 cubic meters, which was mainly used to store shoes at that time. After the renovation, the storage area became 5.2 cubic meters, which was expanded to 4 times the capacity, which solved many storage problems.
In addition, the flow line has also been changed. Before, I didn’t think it was a rush to enter the door, so after entering the door, I walked around the large bench and walked into the kitchen. This time, I became more pragmatic, and went directly into the kitchen after entering the door.
After the renovation, a small wooden box was made outside our house to receive express delivery. After entering the door, there is a cabinet, which can hang clothes and shoes in the drawer below.
In the position on the right of the picture below, you can put things such as alcohol and umbrellas. Continue walking forward and there are a few small spaces after you walk in. One is to continue to store things in the small niche that was originally reserved. There are some small boxes in the upper right corner, which can put hats, gloves and other occasionally used things, and put them in dustproof storage when not in use.
Further in, continue to extend this space forward, and there is a cabinet next to it, in which sunscreen and other things to be used when going out are put out.
In the space on the left, a multi-functional cabinet combination is made to solve the problems of access control, lighting control, luggage storage, mask and gloves storage, bag storage and so on.
Also set aside a part of the cabinet space to make a small countertop, you can put some small things used in and out. There is a socket on the table top to charge the vacuum cleaner placed below.
A cork board is made of the countertop against the wall. I usually write some information on paper, such as what to buy when I go out, and then pin it on it, or stick some small paper notes to express my greetings to the leaders of my family. Because it is close to the dining table, a microwave oven is also arranged on the table. In this small location, many home functions are solved.
The shelf on the far left of the cabinet, which wraps the heater, is also multifunctional.
It can dry things. The heating in the northern winter is actually good for drying clothes, but direct baking is not good for the clothes. After making this rack, the clothes can be placed on the top to keep a certain distance from the heating. In addition, because it is made of galvanized square steel, it can be magnetically attracted, and you can also attract some small hooks on it to hang some things.
One more detail, I had no experience when I was designing in 2008. At that time, I did a routine treatment for the skirting under the wall to make it protrude from the wall, because this method is easier to handle in terms of craftsmanship and can hide the ugly. , relatively well done.
Later, we found out that there was a problem with the furniture. When the furniture was placed, it could not lean against the wall, so when making the furniture, I gave the furniture the thickness of a board in this position.
But you look at the wall of our office in the photo below, the wall is completely flat. I drew a picture on the right, which is about how the wall is made, so I won’t go into details here. It is actually not difficult, but for general home improvement craftsmanship, the average master may be reluctant to do it.
As you can see, these cabinets are actually a combination of small cabinets, which are divided into many small cabinets, ABCDEFGH.
The advantage of this design is that if there is a new possibility of use in the future, such as when moving, these cabinets can be easily removed and then recombined. It is not completely dependent on the existing environment.
In my opinion, the entrance is the most difficult and technical space in home design.
Need to remind everyone to pay attention to the following aspects.
First, leave a relatively large space for the entrance.
Second, don’t forget to make a mirror. I forgot about this twice and was repeatedly criticized by the leaders of the family. Because I thought the mirror was not good-looking, I always couldn’t remember to do it. Of course, the mirror can be hidden and set, and it can be pulled out when it can be used.
Third, don’t forget to drain the umbrella. Fourth, leave room for garbage storage. Because we now implement garbage classification, if the garbage is collected after a period of time, there is a problem of refrigerated storage of organic garbage. In addition, remember to get on and off the water, as well as the space for express delivery.
All these problems require corresponding changes in the structure of our houses.
2. Hall: sofa TV
In the second part, I will talk about the lecture hall, which is our traditional dining room and living room. The changes before and after the renovation of this part are very big.
In the photo below, on the left is the original so-called hall, which is a more traditional dining room and living room. The photo on the right is after the renovation. I changed the entire hall from the original sofa + TV combination to a large long table.
The combination of sofa and TV has a certain spirituality in China in the past period of time. In many families, people’s feelings for this combination are similar to those of Westerners when it comes to fireplaces. We must have a sofa and TV combination when we enter the house.
Below is what my daughter looked like watching TV at her grandfather’s house. After watching it, I felt physically and mentally unhealthy. In many cases, what I see is the scene where the family is lounging on the sofa watching TV. There is no communication between them, and it is not a good family gathering.
So in the new design, I completely removed the sofa + TV combination that I didn’t like, and combined the original dining table and the table in the upstairs studio into a long table about six meters long, with a front desk. Made a liftable table that can be raised little by little as the child grows.
After the renovation, this long table has become the most important element in the whole space, and other functions are developed around this table.
With this long table, the function of the hall becomes very rich. In this living room, my daughter can read, and if she wants to watch TV, she can sit on the floor with a cushion and watch it, and she can take online classes. Because this table is more convenient to move, she can also move the table away to practice the piano. After my colleague came to my house to visit, he said that we held a remedial class at home.
It is very important to pay attention to the sparring seat on the left when she practices the piano, and it is also very important to ensure that it is comfortable and convenient.
The renovated long table has become a main space for gatherings in our house. We often sit together, eat, drink, play cards, and chat, which is better than the original sofa.
The open space in front of the living room also solved the problem of fitness with my daughter during the epidemic.
Let me tell you a detail, you still remember the big bench that was turned twice after entering the house. In fact, I still cherish that big bench, but there is no way to remove it. After removing it, a hole was left on the ground.
When I was remodeling, I re-slabed where the bench left marks, and I wanted to keep the marks.
3. Kitchen: Keep things within reach
The kitchen is mainly functionally remodeled, and storage is the key problem to be solved. In the photo below, comparing before and after, you can see that the cabinet in the upper left corner has changed a lot, and the bottom of the bar in the lower right corner has become a storage space.
After the renovation, the cabinet on the left looks like the storage capacity of the original cabinet has been reduced, not increased. This is because in my years of interior design experience, there has always been such a view, that is, the space above two meters and above the position you can reach, it is not a real storage space.
Everyone, ask yourself, the so-called wall cabinets in your home, where you can’t reach, are all the things in there that you don’t want to throw away? Actually, you can throw them away, take them out every six months, wipe them, and put them back in. , is actually still something that can be thrown? So I think that where people can’t reach, the storage in that space is usually meaningless, so I removed the storage in that space.
This shelf is mainly made of two materials. One is a frame made of galvanized square steel and angle steel, and the other is a multi-layer wooden board that can be inserted and moved inside, which can be inserted, pulled out, or replaced. You can also put a drain tray and a drain basket in the shelf according to your usage. The board and the drain basket can also be interchanged, which is very convenient to use.
The things on the shelves, such as tableware and chopsticks, are basically used within a week or two, and they will definitely be recycled. I wouldn’t put it out there if it wasn’t something that would actually be used. One might ask, is cleanliness a problem? Not really, because you’re recycling these things all the time.
This shelf also has some design considerations. For example, the light is hidden in the shelf, and the light shines upwards and downwards to form the lighting of this space. And because it is made of galvanized square steel, it can be magnetically attracted, so there is no need to specially hang a horizontal hook to hang things.
On the morning of the New Year’s Eve this year, I posted a circle of friends to express my nervousness about making breakfast for the first time for the New Year’s Eve because I couldn’t go home, but I didn’t expect that the most enthusiastic feedback was from everyone The fish hanger is great.
Because the space of this shelf can be used in a variety of ways, the hooks for hanging fish can be hung in the structure, the fish can be hung on the pool, and the dripping water will drop directly into the pool, which is very convenient. There are many designers in my circle of friends, and everyone is more concerned about the design of this hanging fish.
In addition, the storage of the lower cabinets is basically arranged in a small grid. After the items are divided into small grids, they can be kept in a better state in a small area and are easier to clean. Note that the storage of kitchen items is divided into two categories: those that will be recycled in a short period of time and those that are closed for storage. If it is an infrequently used item, it should be put away, sealed and stored to avoid falling ash, and it can be used directly after taking it out to avoid secondary cleaning.
Another transformation is that I made two movable trolleys under the bar. In winter, I can push the trolley to the north balcony and keep things neat and tidy so they can get some sunshine and some wind. In fact, the north balcony in the northern winter is a good storage space, but there are piles of messy, large and small boxes on the balcony of a large number of families.
I also want to talk about the base cabinets in the kitchen, they are different from the custom base cabinets we usually see. For custom cabinets, a structure is generally used to support the top board, and then the cabinets are filled in. It is suspended under it, supported by legs, and a baffle outside. In this way, there are gaps on the back and sides of the cabinet, including the bottom, which is easy to hide dirt, especially for small bugs to crawl around.
When I was reprocessing, I affixed the floor and wall of the cabinet with artificial stone, and there was no longer any space. Then, put the cabinets and drawers in. These cabinets and drawers can be easily disassembled, and the inside is completely dense space, which is also very convenient to clean. After processing, I feel like they are clean.
In addition, I also made a remodel to the space under the kitchen sink and the sink.
This space is actually quite a large space, but when our storage has always been very tight, this space is often inefficient and wasted.
After the makeover, I made a large drawer underneath that can be pulled out. Note that this requires you to place the drain pipe as close to the wall as possible when you are running the water, leaving room for the drawer. Also, I left a space for the rag here. I feel that rags, like garbage, must be clean, and they should be placed in a very ventilated, comfortable, and easy-to-use state, which is just right here.
The placement of the seasoning is also important. In order to avoid bending over to get the seasoning, I put the location of the seasoning bottle on the upper part next to the stove, which is more comfortable and convenient to use. The position where the pot is placed under the stove is made open, and it can be placed in a drawer, or at the same time, it can be used without a drawer to place the pot, because some pots are slightly larger or longer, and the drawer cannot be placed in the drawer. .
There is also a detail problem, that is, where the kitchen countertop and the wall meet, the following is a more common treatment method: either directly hand over, and then apply glue in this place, but after a period of time the glue turns yellow, which is ugly; Turn over one side on top, but dust will fall, so it needs to be cleaned up.
At that time, I had no experience in designing. Later, when I was designing my own office, I turned the countertop up completely, and the horizontal seam became a vertical seam, so there was no chance of soiling this corner at all.
And in the kitchen and bathroom of my office, all the dimensions in the space are organized into multiples of ten centimeters, so that there will never be broken bricks when tiling, and all the corners are full bricks. Also, like the faucet on the right in the photo below, it must be on the intersection, and the outlet must be in the square, which is how I am.
4. Bathroom: The rag should be dried beautifully
The renovation of the bathroom mainly solves the problem of storage, and there are also some node problems between the upper and lower water.
In most homes, the bathroom is small and space is very limited, but the bathroom also has a lot of storage. When we see that clean, beautiful bathroom that sells furniture, or sanitary ware, we can’t help but ask, where did everything go?
After organizing everything we need to store in our bathroom, I decided to make very thin cabinets against the wall. So what is the size of the minimum storage depth? After analyzing all the items, within my limited knowledge, I found that it was determined by two things, a round toilet paper roll and a large square toilet paper bag.
The size and placement of these two things are basically regulated. The toilet paper roll is 10.5cm deep, about 11.5cm in diameter, and the tissue pack is about 7.5×16×24cm in size.
As for their placement, I want the round hole of the toilet paper roll to face me, not the side facing me, so 10.5cm and 16cm are the minimum storage depths for the left and right shelves above, and then I follow 11cm and 16cm To do the depth of these shelves in the toilet.
In addition, in the position of the mirror and hand basin, some open storage spaces are also made, which can liberate the countertop and keep the countertop clean. In fact, after so many years of designing, I found that the countertop is a completely unnecessary thing. We just need to make shelves around the perimeter and put the items around, because once there is a countertop, it is difficult to clean up after water splashes. .
The mirror cabinet on the wall can also be opened for storage. In addition, a power supply is set up in this cabinet, because things like electric toothbrushes will be used, which is convenient for charging.
Another problem with bathroom storage is the basin. Many families have pots, especially the older generation prefers to use pots. I don’t use pots very much, but my parents use them, so I made a shelf specially for pots. It turns out that they always stack the wet pots together, which is not very clean, and it looks much better that way.
Another possibility is my personal feeling. I always feel that the hand basin is dirty because it is connected to the sewer and has been connected to the main pipe. Especially after washing the rag, a lot of debris will fall in, and it will often block, and then I have to clean the drain frequently.
When remodeling, because I still wanted to keep the original basin and countertop, I didn’t do a complete renovation, but I made a pool below, and the water went down directly down the pipe and would not be connected to the main pipe again. I feel much cleaner and no longer see little bugs crawling out of the sewers.
Including the water from the washing machine, it is usually inserted directly into the floor drain of the sewer pipe. I also made a pool below, so that the water first drains into the pool, and then drains through the floor drain next to the pool.
The bathtub drain has also been remodeled. I always felt that there was such a dirty place under the drain of the bathtub. I was mentally unbearable to take a bath in it. So I made the following bathtub with a relatively Japanese proportion, and people can sit in it. There is a sink in front of the bathtub with a floor drain. After this is done, the water from the bathtub, including the overflow above it, flows down a slope without splashing all over the floor, and then enters the floor drain, and I feel like I’m sitting in a completely clean bathtub .
In addition, the rag in the bathroom is also very important. The rag must be air-dried beautifully, and the rag must be given a decent way of existence.
5. Bedroom: a space with a sense of belonging
The changes in the bedroom before and after the renovation were not too big, mainly because when the child slept with the parents later, a large railing was added around the bed, and a large cushion was added. One was for her safety, and the other was to put her Wrapped up, more comfortable.
I didn’t take it off after the kid slept on his own, because I found myself curled up in it and it was warm and comfortable. I think this can become a typical form of the bed, and future beds can be made like this.
The fireplace in the bedroom was ordered to be removed by my daughter-in-law. She said that Feng Shui was not good. A few new spaces have been added behind the fireplace, the protruding part in the photo on the right below, for storage for coats and hats.
My daughter’s bedroom, I’ve worked hard to make it, in addition to wanting it to function well, I want her to feel like it’s her own space.
As you can see from the picture on the left below, I made a tatami mat and raised the ground to form a complete space. The efficiency of the space is actually improved, and it is also relatively safe. You don’t have to worry about the child falling off the bed. Going down, we can sleep more peacefully.
There are other spaces around the bed, including the storage of books, clothes, and boxes, all of which are settled in the space around the bed. I think it has indeed become a space where she has a sense of belonging.
She would come back to play with her little friends, spend the night at home, read and play in bed. I’m still very happy that the remodel has achieved what I originally expected.
I’ve used it myself, and it’s pretty good. I broke my Achilles tendon playing football last year, and I felt it while working on it.
6. Storage: Do not do more than 2.2 meters
In all the spaces mentioned above, storage is actually more or less mentioned. The more concentrated storage in our house is in the walk-in closet in the master bedroom, as well as in the attic upstairs. Storage has several goals, one is to be easy to find, the other is to be easy to organize and move, and the third is to ensure cleanliness.
Therefore, there are several suggestions for storage. First, the space below two meters and two is used for storage, and the space above is not used. Second, things should be placed in a clear place, or in a transparent box, so that it is easy to find. Third, the drawer should be very thin, you can see the items inside when you pull it open, and it is more convenient to organize. The drawers in our house are all ten centimeters, but after using them for a while, I still feel that they are too thick. If I redo it, I think about five centimeters is enough, just put one layer of shirts and one layer of socks.
Fourth, the storage should be divided into small units, which are easy to organize and move. Finally, as mentioned earlier, storage should be divided into two methods: short-term circulation + closed storage.
The photo below is the change of the upstairs before and after the renovation, mainly adding a storage space to the right position.
The storage capacity of this space is quite large. All the things are organized into small boxes and put in, which is very convenient to find and very clean.
7. Power and Lighting
The main content in the front is finished, and then two small paragraphs are attached, power supply and lighting.
First, let’s talk about the power supply. Many families are not thoughtful about the power supply. In our house, we try our best to set up the power supply in all the places where the power supply may be used. Of course, you can’t let the power supply everywhere in the house, so you have to think carefully.
Like next to the dining table, there’s a power supply in the little shelf hole, because I figured it out myself, I’m going to sit here and work, and so on.
Finally, it comes to my line of work. Lighting is a very important element in home design. Regarding indoor lighting, there will be some strange little slogans every once in a while. I don’t know who made them up. Among them, there are more representative ones, such as “Seeing the light but not the light” and “no main light design”, they all have certain truths, but they are relatively one-sided.
What do they actually say? “Seeing the light but not the lamp” actually means not seeing the glare, or seeing the ugly lights. Not seeing an ugly light doesn’t necessarily mean that the light is ugly, but includes that the way the light is set up shouldn’t be ugly. “No main light” actually means that we used to rely too much on a light in the middle of the room, and now we should consider the combination of more lighting methods.
But in fact, in our house, there are main lights, visible lights, and all kinds of things that slogans say they can’t have. I don’t think it’s a problem. Of course what matters is how the lighting setup and furniture are combined. In the photo below, you can see that a lot of light fixtures in our house are on top of the furniture.
Some locations have no furniture, and you can easily set up lamps without being so nervous. Many designers are very nervous about setting up lamps. They always feel that when they see lamps, they are ugly. I don’t know how this concept came into being.
In the photo below, the above is the lighting of the piano practice position. This light is surface mounted. Its node is very simple. It is an angle steel and a light is directly fixed on it. I don’t think it is too ugly. The light strip in the bedroom below is directly folded twice with a galvanized steel sheet, folded up and down, then nailed to the wall, and the light strip is placed on it. These look good to me.
In addition, lighting can really change the atmosphere of a space greatly, below is the nightclub scene in our living room.
In short, in my opinion, home is actually an arrangement of desires. Clean and beautiful, it’s not renunciation, it’s desire. To eat grandly, to wear a lot of clothes, to wear a lot of shoes, to be gorgeous, to be comfortable, it is also a desire. This is the allocation of time and space, and it is also the allocation of your life, so you cannot easily give up one part for another. From my personal standpoint, I feel that a clean and beautiful home should not be abandoned.