The attic is a special area. With the right design, it becomes the most pleasant and cozy room in the whole house. But how to make your attic sparkle with bright colors and please the whole family?
Features of the attic room
Since the attic is located directly under the roof, there are several important things to think about. You should start with the construction of the roof.
So, the roof can be one-, two-, three- and four-pitched. There are also rarer options: a cone, a hemisphere, a multi-pitched roof, and so on.
Here are a few features to consider before building an attic:
- The ramp facing south will get very hot from the sun. For the summer season, this is a minus, but for the Cypriot winter it is a huge plus.
- All ramps must be equipped with good drains.
- It is better to make the angle of connection of the slopes and/or walls close to 90⁰. Too sharp an angle will create a feeling of "infinite" height of the room, which is not always good and convenient, and too blunt an angle will "eat" that attic charm, turning the room into an ordinary one with an almost flat ceiling.
- Windows built into the roof slope are cool and stylish, but not always convenient. They will have to be washed more often, because dust, water, garbage and so on will settle on the inclined surface.
- If your house is located in a mountainous area of Cyprus, keep in mind that the winter will be snowy. Therefore, the angle of the slope / slopes of the roof should be sufficient so that the snow easily descends and does not lie at the top — this is about 40⁰.
There are also moments that are taken into account regardless of the shape of the roof.
They are obvious, but still it would not be superfluous to recall them again:
- beams are a wonderful part of the interior, especially in the attic
- insulation — you need to take care of high-quality insulation
- sound insulation — should be moderate if you like the rustle of rain, and very good if you prefer silence
- windows — installation of windows in roof slopes is always more difficult, and therefore more expensive, so windows are mainly made in the wall (if the roof is not four-pitched or domed).
If you bought a ready-made house, and it has an attic room, it does not matter. Each of these features can be turned to your advantage.
Life hack #1: Lighting
As a rule, the attic is a rather dark room. Large windows for such a room are not structurally suitable in most cases, so we have to solve the issue with the use of artificial light.
Chandeliers and sconces are not the best options for an attic for obvious reasons. They are suitable only for those rooms where there is at least a piece of the "traditional" horizontal ceiling. But on a beveled wall they will look, at least, strange.
Hint: you can buy special fasteners for chandeliers and sconces with a beveled edge — they will allow you to hang any lighting device exactly (see below).
But most often built-in lamps are used in attic rooms. These can be both point elements and solid structures. They can be placed absolutely anywhere, as well as directed in the right direction.
If there are beams in the attic, then the light can be "hidden" in them. For some interior styles, this becomes the only right solution.
Life hack #2: Beams
Beams can be a necessary part of the construction of a house (a supporting element) or a purely decorative object. If in the first case you will only have to beat and arrange it, then in the second case you can give space to imagination.
Undoubted advantages of beams:
- allow you to form the interior style more clearly (for example, Mediterranean)
- they can hide many "ugly" things — cables, wiring, etc.
- visually harmonize the space, especially if the upper point of the ceiling is too high
- they can visually divide the space by participating in zoning.
It is not recommended to use beams in cramped rooms with a low ceiling. They will "cut off" free space, and they will be more inconvenient than useful.
Life hack #3: Usable area
The roof slope, as a rule, eats up part of the actual area, thereby losing useful area. To "win back" it a little, place the following pieces of furniture near the walls with a "low ceiling" (ramp):
- desktop
- sofa or bed
- kitchen surfaces
- chest
- duffel or bookshelves designed specifically for the ledge
- home theater, TV cabinet
- indoor plants that don't need a lot of light
- pet corner.
There is also an option to simply fence off this place with light railings-handrails. This will allow you to understand what area is at your disposal.
Life hack #4: Zoning
If the attic is large enough (25 m2 or more), it makes sense to place either one large multifunctional room in it, or make several small ones. In both cases, it is better to avoid walls, and use zoning instead.
If it is assumed that there will be a common space in the attic (living room, reception room, creative studio, etc.), then it makes sense to emphasize the abundance of free space. In this case, color separation, podiums or recesses in the floor, and lighting separation are used for zoning.
If the attic becomes several rooms, it is recommended to use a more expressive separation: shelves (for example, bookshelves or collectibles), carved lattices, artificial relief of walls and so on. Light sliding doors (similar to traditional Japanese ones) are also well suited.
Life hack #5: Non-standard functionality
Usually the attic is presented as an ideal place for a bedroom, nursery or study. But in fact, it can accommodate absolutely any room! Here are three options that do not come to mind right away, but on closer examination they turn out to be very attractive:
- Kitchen. Usually the kitchen is located lower — on the 1st (ground) floor. But there are also enough advantages of the kitchen upstairs: there is no communication with common rooms — this is additional cleanliness, cooking smells do not spread throughout the house, it is easier to close the room from pets, you can not insulate much — no one will live in the kitchen.
- Bathroom. If the attic is small (a strong slope angle, a low ceiling), then it is not very comfortable to arrange an ordinary room in it. But the bathroom will be great! The most important thing is to make good ventilation, but it is not very difficult, especially if there is at least a small window.
- Family room. Surely you have met both living room and family room in the description of real estate in Cyprus. The first is a place to meet and receive guests, and not always the closest ones. But the second one is intended for cozy gatherings of the whole family and friends. As a rule, this separation of the two "living rooms" allows you to create more comfort in the family room. And the comfort and the attic are practically inseparable things.
In large villas in the attic, you can arrange specific rooms: a bar, a billiard room, a cigar room, a gym and so on.
Life hack #6: choosing the color scheme of the interior
A dark attic looks good only if it is finished with natural wood or stone of dark colors. At the same time, there must be a large space!
In all other cases, darkness does not look very good in attic rooms. Remember the first point: there is less light in the attic, which means that it needs to be "increased" by all means. This will contribute to the light tone of the finish.
It is also worth avoiding an abundance of bright and variegated colors. Of course, individual expressive elements are allowed, but there should not be too many of them. It is also not recommended to use styles with a large number of decorative and voluminous details (Baroque, Moroccan, etc.).
Life hack #7: Underfloor heating
The attic is a place of comfort and warmth. It is especially important to maintain a comfortable temperature in this room if it is used for a bedroom, nursery or living room.
Underfloor heating in the attic is the best solution for heating such a room. Any heating devices do not look very good against the background of ramps (the exception is single-pitched roof types, when the battery can be placed near an ordinary wall), and this must be taken into account.
If the roof, walls and windows of the attic are well insulated, underfloor heating for the Cypriot winter is quite enough to maintain an optimal temperature in the room and not spend too much on heating.
Hint: to save money, lay out a "warm floor" only on the useful area. The places of the junction of the ramp and the floor, which are not used in any way or on which the furniture will definitely stand, can not be insulated, but then you need to worry about the absence of drafts.
So, the attic is a magnificent room that can be beaten in a variety of ways. If you are just building a house in Cyprus, be sure to think about having an attic there.
Interested in buying a property in Cyprus? Welcome to the DOM website! Here you will find options for houses and apartments in Limassol, Paphos, Larnaca and Famagusta, as well as get the help of experienced specialists.
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- Paphos or Limassol: all the pros and cons
- 10 reasons to move to live in Cyprus with children
- The story of Plus Properties in Cyprus
- TOP 10 elements of Mediterranean style for an apartment in Cyprus
