7 tips for designing a niche in the interior + photo

How to to equip niche and practical to use it? Some lucky acquiring new apartment, receive a nice bonus in the form of a niche in the wall of the hallway or living room, depending on the room purchased property. Some are delighted and immediately come up with many options for using this extra space, while others, on the contrary, believe that it spoils the whole look of the room and is upset. And there are those who deliberately try to create this interesting element of decor in the interior of their apartment and make it a highlight. Anyway, let's figure out what a niche is in general and understand how to design a niche in an interior.

1. History of origin

Niche is architectural element in the form of a recess in the wall, used to install various objects. This is how niches were used in the old days. Basically, these were recesses with semicircular vaults, in which there were statues, vases, fonts, which were called exedra. Niches have found wide application in the architecture of various times and peoples, as well as in religious buildings of various religions. Even the ancient Romans in the 2nd century AD used niches as decorations for various temples. Famous Italian era Renaissancealso not without the use of niches, however, like European architecture of the XVII - XVIII centuries.

2. Practical application

In modern interior design niches began to be used more and more often. And not surprising, because this is not only an opportunity win extra space, but also to make the room unique and inimitable. In addition to an interesting design solution, niches have practical side of use:

• Niche like a place for storing decorative elements
  Everyone in the house will undoubtedly have small, but such favorite objects that would like to highlight a special place. Of course, you can just place them on wall shelves or various bedside tables, but if you equip a shallow niche with shelves for them and add lighting, then your figurines, vases or souvenirs from various countries will certainly sparkle in a new way and become the center of attention. Not to mention how interesting and cozy a room with such an element of decor will be.
• Niche - bookcase
  Why not? Why take up extra space with many bookshelves or bulky bookcases, if you can put shelves with your favorite books in your existing niche. First, you are essentially save spaceand, secondly, make such a space interesting and harmonious.
• Niche - wardrobe
  Of course, every fashionista just wants to have a real one in her apartment dressing roomlike the famous movie stars. Owners of natural (laid down by the project during the construction) niches in the apartment have a unique opportunity to make their dreams come true. Creating a dressing room in a niche is perhaps the most practical her application. Especially if you equip it with interesting sliding door and backlight inside. If a niche is located in the hallway, then an excellent use case will be to build into it closet for outerwear.
• Niche for placement furniture or appliances
  If there is a niche in the kitchen or in the bathroom, it must be used rationally, namely, to accommodate a large household appliancessuch as a washing machine or refrigerator, dishwasher, or oven. Dimensional objects placed in this way will become less noticeable and they won’t occupy so much space, especially if there’s not a lot of space already. If you are talking about a niche in the bedroom or living room, you can place in it bed or sofa. Furniture placed in this way will occupy smaller areabesides, spending time in such a place will become more comfortable. A niche will create a certain feeling of comfort and security.
• Niche for placing dishes
  A very interesting solution for the kitchen will be the placement of dishes and other kitchen utensils on shelves in a niche. No one says that it is necessary to put on display pans or pans, in no case, for such purposes a beautiful tea set, a vase with fruits, bottles of wine or various, beautifully decorated containers with anything, such as jam or colorful vegetables, are suitable. In shops, there are a lot of such decorative elements, when creating which, they use natural components placed in a special solution. This will give the room an extra comforteverything will look very original, But at the same time at home.
• Niche for bath accessories
  Rarely, but still there are niches in the bathrooms. They are either designed as a place for additional ventilation builders, or created in the repair process, in order to hide all unnecessary, such as water pipes, and give the room more aesthetic look. In this case, a niche can either drown or protrude from the wall. To make out a prominent niche, make a few shelves in it. It will be possible to place personal hygiene items, towels, or decorative candles on them. Or you can place small pallets or pots in such shelves, pour decorative pebbles or other beautiful pebbles in them, and “plant” artificial decorative greens there. This solution will be very original and will certainly give the room freshness and will revive his.

3. The most common forms of niches

To selection forms future niches need to be treated with special responsibility. Choose a shape depending on the purpose of the niche and the visual effect that you want to achieve by using this element. There are three most common forms of niches:

• Horizontal niche
  The simplest form often used to create special interior in the hallway or living room. Horizontal niches are very convenient, they can be used to place keys, handbags, various remotes. And if you make a composition of several niches, using decorative lighting, and place beautiful vases, figurines or other objects you love in them, you will be able to decorate the interior in a very original way. Horizontal niches capable visually lengthen the wall, especially in combination with low furniture. And if you place a horizontal niche above eye level, it’s alsowill lift»The ceiling. Such niches are rational to use in rooms with small areas.
• Vertical niche
  A niche with this form is also quite often used in the interior. This design will be especially beneficial for an empty wall. And it doesn’t matter if you want to place a sofa in it or just glass shelves with decorative elements or photographs. Vertical niches can make a room visually higher. Therefore, to all owners low ceiling apartments, it is recommended to pay attention to this form. Vertical niches are best placed next to a window, doorway or cabinet. There they will look the most harmoniously. Also, to achieve equilibrium on both sides of the niche, you can arrange two the same subjectfor example, a couple of chairs.
• Non-standard the form
  Such niches can rightfully be considered whole a work of art. They can be of various shapes, can be limited to columns, imitate a dome or be made in the form of flowers, fruits or a month. Especially appropriate such niches will be in kids room. Using a custom form, you can simply create unimaginable composition, hide communications, make an original headboard for a bed, in general - whatever your soul wants, would be a fantasy. Remember that the use of decorative recesses in the wall visually expands the room.

4. Niche trim options

There are two main ways to design niches - using faceless or contrast shade. You can decorate the back wall of the niche with the usual painting or wallpaperingor by applying decorative plaster. Whichever option you choose, remember main rule - It is not recommended to give preference to too dark colors, otherwise the effect of emptiness or “black hole” will be created and all objects located against such a background will simply be lost. If you want to make a color accent, it is better to choose bright colors. A great option would also be to use calm, pastel colors in color of the general interior of the room. There are more original and interesting finishes:

• If your niche occupies almost the entire wall, then decorating with photo wallpaper. Choose your favorite abstract drawing or order a custom-made reproduction of your favorite painting, as well as a popular image of a night city or a beautiful landscape. Whatever pattern you prefer, this design will set the mood in your interior and make it unique.
• Another unusual option is art modeling. it looks like not only very beautiful, but also very expensive. Real masters of their craft will sculpt very quickly and efficiently, accurately reproducing the desired pattern. The finished work can be left just white, or you can additionally decorate it. Do not forget about backlight, this will give greater depth to the volumetric picture, and the shadows will add expressiveness.
• Do not forget about such an interesting and versatile material as mirror. It's no secret that using a mirror in small roomscapable of performing real miracles. You can use a whole mirror, or you can use mirror mosaic or mirror panels various forms. Any option visually will expand the room, and objects located in a niche with a mirror wall will look much more interesting.
• Now it has become fashionable to use natural materials in the interior, for example, decorative rock. Finishing a niche with stone looks very modernly and expensive, especially in combination with suitable backlighting. But be carefulif you use too much stone in a small room, it will become visually more “heavy” and will resemble a cave. Also, stone as a finishing material is not suitable for all stylistic decisions. Therefore, before giving preference to this type of finish, rate common interior rooms and her sizes.
• The latest fashion trend has become wall decoration with laminate flooring. It looks very interesting and naturally. Moreover, for wall decoration, you can use a low-class laminate, starting from the 21st, which is much cheaper than the 32nd or 33rd, which are used for floor finishes. You can decorate the laminate with both the inside of the niche and the walls around it. Choosing this type of finish, rememberthat it is not suitable for rooms with high humidity or frequent temperature changes, such as a bathroom or kitchen, and requires flat surface or special frame. After laying the laminate, it is better to close the inner or outer corners with special corners, so the general view will be more accurate and finished. This is the perfect finish for the new eco style.
• It looks very impressive and modern with gypsum 3D panels. The simplest of them imitate brickworkbut there are more original options - various the waves, bubblesbee honeycombs and another ornament that fits perfectly into the interior in the style of a loft, minimal or hi-tech. And with the right choice of color and backlight, you will be able to create an unusual, but at the same time cozy design.

Do not forget that the above items can be very successfully combine together. The main thing is to choose the right style and not overdo it with the finish, so that the niche does not seem bulky and does not burden the space.

5. What rooms are niches suitable for?

You will be very surprised, but it is safe to say that a niche as an element of decor is suitable for absolutely any room. For the hallway and living room, for the bedroom and children's room, for the kitchen and bathroom, and even for the home office or balcony! If you want to make your room unique and original, feel free to use niches. It doesn’t have to be a big niche for almost the entire wall, it can be some small or many small niches used exclusively for decoration. Equipped with multi-colored lighting with beautiful candles inside, even such niches will create an indescribable mood in your home. Don't be afraid to experiment with shapes and sizes, just keep proportions and appropriately evaluate free space, and you can easily achieve the desired effect. And of course, do not forget about materialfrom which a niche is made. It must correspond to the microclimate of the room in which it will be located. Humid rooms - moisture resistant materials. For other rooms, choose any materials to your taste.

6. Niche do it yourself

In order to decorate your home with a beautiful niche, you do not have to spend a lot of money; you can equip a niche do it yourself. Often used as a frame for a future niche drywall, wood or metal. Materials are listed according to the degree of complexity of installation, we will consider in more detail each of them:

• Niche of drywall.
  This type of material can really be called universal. Almost everything can be made from it, besides, it’s very cheap and simple in use and installation. With the help of it you can realize the most diverse forms, because it is very easy to cut and even bends. Certain advantage drywall is its environmental friendliness, as well as the ability to choose the thickness and availability moisture resistant coverings. Any kind of decorative finish will hold very well on drywall, especially since the finished design is smooth and without visible seams. As a frame for a future niche, metal profiles or a wooden crate are used. The first option is preferable, since it is more durable. Decide on the shape and size of the future niche, for easier visual perception, you can mark it with a pencil directly on the wall, build a frame of special metal profiles and sheathe it with drywall. And then, decorate your niche as you like. Equipping a niche from drywall, rememberthat even moisture-resistant material will swell over time with constant contact with water. Andtake loads into accountthat will fall into the finished niche. Excessively loading drywall shelves with heavy equipment or utensils, you risk destroying them.Drywall niches are suitable for interior decoration made in any style, and bear, rather decorative than practical application.
• For niches that will be used as book shelves or for storage of other heavy items, it is the best suited tree. it ecologicaly cleanvery strong and lasting material. Moreover, the tree is beautiful in itself, due to its unique invoice, and does not require additional decoration. Unless in the form of a transparent or colored varnish. Only disadvantage wooden niches are the difficulty of performing complex configurations. You can easily make horizontal or vertical niches of wood, but with non-standard forms you may have difficulties, especially without proper experience in processing wooden products. But wooden niches are very easy to install. They can be mounted using special fittings directly to the wall. Such niches will be very strong and stable. Remember that a tree does not like moisture. Wooden niches will fit well into the interior, made in the style of new eco, country, Provence, Scandinavian or classic.

7. Design Tips

After all of the above, let's summarize and highlight basic tipsthat will help you choose and design your niche correctly:

• Before settling in, you must know the future for sure. application your niche.
• The scope and degree of load will depend on material execution, drywall is suitable for storing light objects, wood for heavier ones.
• IN which room will there be a niche? The need for moisture resistant materials depends on this.
• Decide in advance form, the size and the number of niches. Do not overdo it - niches should not pile up space.
• Niche should suit to general style the interior.
• To visually lengthen wall - choose horizontal niches.
• To make ceiling visually higher - give preference to vertical niches.
• Do not pile up niche with a wide variety of items.
• Not use as decoration dark colors.
• Niches look much more profitable and interesting. backlitMoreover, they can be used as an additional, muted light source.

Follow these simple rules, show imagination and resourcefulness, and you can easily create unique interior element, which will set the mood in the whole room and attract the attention of guests.