Comfort is an unspecific concept, in many ways intangible and even imperceptible. When we come to a comfortable and cozy house, we just understand that it is comfortable here, but we can’t explain why.
We just feel good here, comfortable, warm, and bright. And what’s interesting is this. Many, even the richest and most stylish houses, are not always comfortable, and sometimes in a small and cramped apartment decorated without any extravagances, a person feels quite comfortable and happy.
In this article, the essay writer from write my essays service asked the experts from the architecture bureau why they need a master switch, a motion sensor, and a high bed in a typical city apartment.
Bathroom
An understated bathtub.
For everyday use, a shower stall is much more comfortable than a classic bathtub. But a bathtub increases the attractiveness of the apartment when selling, and you can’t do without it when you have children.
We offer a compromise solution: to lower the level of the bathtub. To do this, during the renovation, you must put the tub with its feet directly on the concrete slab of the floor, that is, as low as possible. Here you need to carefully consider all the levels of plumbing in your house and, most importantly, the level of entry into the sewer riser.
Well, of course, observe all the nuances of waterproofing. But if you are lucky, you get a bathtub, which will be easy to step into, as the edge will be lowered by 10-12 inches from the standard level.
If you are tiling the bathroom screen, we recommend making a small notch at the floor for your feet at least seven centimeters deep. Then it will be much more convenient to wash your head by leaning forward, bathing the child, and just walking up to the bathtub.
Shelves for cosmetics
The bathroom quickly gets overgrown with tubes, jars, and other small items. And chrome shelves lose their former shine and even begin to corrode, requiring constant maintenance.
We recommend making small niches in the wall for bottles, tubes, and candles at the stage of renovation. They are only five to six centimeters deep, which is quite enough. And most importantly, it does not affect the functionality and durability of the wall itself, as it is usually tiled and reinforced between the layers.
And you can also glue a moisture-proof mirror to the back surface of the resulting niche and thereby make the space of even the smallest bathroom even more spacious and light.
It is important to understand exactly where such niches are located so that they are within easy reach without shower water getting into them. And if it does, it quickly dries it out.
Motion sensors
Often we only go into the bathroom for a few minutes. Imagine if the lights there turned on automatically and turned off by themselves after five minutes.
You get used to it so quickly that you wonder why the lights don’t go on by themselves in other places. The motion sensor seems like a complicated device, but now there are power sockets with a built-in motion sensor that can be plugged into an ordinary wall socket.
You can connect a moisture-proof lamp with an economical LED lamp through the tee. The main thing is that the sensor should be at a level of 120-150 centimeters from the floor. Then it will notice the movement. We recommend providing outlets at the height of 120-150 centimeters in bathrooms and closets for such cases.
Fan
A fan in the bathroom draws out extra moisture. But if you turn it on with a separate button, you often forget to turn it off. And if you connect it in one circuit to the lights, it turns on and whirrs every time the light comes on, and it is not always nice.
So what to do? We came up with a simple solution – a fan with an off-timer and a key instead of a classic light switch: click, and it goes back to its original position, just like on a doorbell.
Now, if you need to suck out the extra moisture, you press the key – and it starts the fan. It’ll run for 7 to 10 minutes, depending on the setting, then shut itself off.
High sink.
You can lift the sink up a little more to about 90 centimeters, and you’ll be more comfortable when you wash: you won’t have to bend over and get a lot of splashing around.
A podium for the washing machine
If you have the opportunity to put the washing machine a little higher, making a small podium – act without hesitation. Loading the machine will be much more convenient, and at the bottom, you can place a tank for laundry and other small items.
Let’s say right away. Such a podium must be properly linked to withstand the weight and vibration of the spin. Provide small corners to minimize the risks of the washing machine deciding to jump down.
Electrics
The master switch, or “hotel” system
Any one of us has been in a situation where, when leaving the apartment, we realize that we left a light fixture on in the room or kitchen. And so you don’t want to go back to get to the light switch.
In modern hotels, this situation is impossible a priori: when you leave a room, you simply remove your card from a special receiver, and the lighting in the room is turned off automatically. We decided to apply this solution to our projects, and it turned out to be very convenient.
All we need to do is to ask an electrician, during the renovation, to connect all the circuits of the lighting to a certain group of fixtures in the switchboard, and to put a relay starter which will control this group with a simple switch.
It sounds complicated, but an electrician can do it easily. In this case, only the lights will be turned off, and all necessary appliances, such as the refrigerator, will work as usual.
Socket outlet with switch
Some indoor outlets can be plugged into a standard switch box by the door. Imagine how convenient it is when you can use a regular switch to turn on a floor lamp or, for example, Christmas lights plugged into a specially marked outlet.
This technique gives you amazing flexibility in choosing lighting scenarios and, in combination with a master switch, makes life doubly comfortable. For a large living room, it even makes sense to have several loops of such outlets, so you can choose which floor lamp to turn on with which switch.
Outlet layout
In our projects, some of the most commonly used outlets are outlets on the window jambs. In today’s apartment, there are a lot of different chargers and gadgets that are not very convenient to use if the outlet is too low. Outlets 25 centimeters above the floor are slowly giving way to these solutions, especially in smaller apartments.
The kitchen
We do not know who came up with the standard heights for the kitchen. But in different countries of the world, the figures differ. Personally, we recommend making the kitchen countertop 90-94 centimeters from the floor, which is slightly higher than the generally accepted 85-86 centimeters standards.
It will win some space, which is important for small rooms. So, the appliance drawer will fit over the oven, and every drawer can be made almost 10 centimeters more useful.
Bedroom
Tall bed
If you are lucky and you have a beautiful view from your bedroom window – do it! Try to find or order a bed and mattress higher: even plus 10 centimeters in height can dramatically change the feeling.
In some cases, when the bedroom has a balcony or loggia, we even reduce the window sill block a little so that nothing interferes with the view outside the window. And the higher the bed, the more additional storage space can be organized under it.