How we made a multifunctional corner out of a loggia with our own hands

Hello everyone! We are Rostislav and Svetlana from the city of Domodedovo, we want to share with you our experience and emotions, about how we equipped our loggia. After buying an apartment in a new building and the long-awaited completion of the renovation work, we decided to work on the loggia with our own hands, save a little budget and at the same time try our repair skills.

We insulate

You need to start repairing the loggia with its insulation. The first step is to replace the windows from the developer with new ones to avoid heat leakage. When choosing a new double-glazed window, you should not pay attention to the cheapest models, it is better to take windows from proven German manufacturers so that there are no problems with drafts, as is often the case with windows from developer. It's better to overpay once, as they say. This difficult task was accomplished by a team of workers.

Next, it was necessary to choose what material to insulate. For ourselves, we have identified:

- Penoplex, aka extruded expanded polystyrene;

- Mineral wool;

- Styrofoam.

Our choice fell on Penoplex, since it is easiest to work with it without experience in construction, what we need. It can be of different thicknesses, from 20 mm to 100 mm, we took sheets with a thickness of 50 mm, as we thought it was optimal, to keep warm and free space in our cozy corner. Installation of sheets was carried out by spreading glue and applying them to the wall, which was not a big deal. You also need to coat all the cracks with an adhesive, and reinforce the sheets with plastic dowels with a wide head. Getting started is easy, right?

Covering the walls

After sheathing all surfaces with insulation, we decided to plaster the walls right on top of the foam. Many would call this decision controversial. More often, a frame is made of timber, and all this is sheathed with chipboard sheets, but it seemed to us that this would strongly “eat up” our inner space. Armed with spatulas, we plastered all the walls, stretching this pleasure for several days. After everything was dry, we, satisfied with our result, especially for the first time, began to cover the whole thing with a finishing white putty. A very addictive activity, during which it always seems that there is no limit to perfection. Whoever putty at least once will understand us, won't they?

Making the exterior

After we plastered and putty all the walls, it was decided to decorate the loggia with clinker tiles. Again, this does not require a lot of experience in construction, but looks very appropriate, giving the loggia a "loft" style. We divided the work into two. I smeared the tiles with special glue, having previously grinded them from the back side, thereby preparing them for gluing. Svetlana glued the "bricks" in a checkerboard pattern. The process is simple, but time-consuming.

Floor and ceiling

Even when we were doing a "rough" repair, the floor in the loggia was poured by the workers with expanded clay mixture. After reading about this material, we decided that its heat transfer would be sufficient. The area of ​​the loggia is small, so the finishing material for the floor could be chosen whatever the soul wanted, not to the detriment of the budget. Our choice fell on cork laminate. It retains heat well, is pleasant to the touch, and also has very interesting colors in order to slightly dilute the white color of the loggia. We are very pleased with the result. How would you rate this color combination?

We assembled an ordinary, rack-and-pinion ceiling. We chose, again, from what we mastered with our own hands, and it also suited us for the style. It was really not difficult to assemble it, the main thing is to clearly calculate the slats so that it fits in width. A collapsible clothes hanger was attached to the ceiling, on a reel to add more functionality.

Cabinet, or creative corner

The highlight of our cozy corner is a folding table that is screwed to the wall and folds up if you need to expand the space. And also a hinged stand with special cells, where you can hang various items in any order.

As a result, we got a workplace, or a creative corner where you can safely work with a laptop or draw. Despite the low costs, we were satisfied with the quality of the materials. It is very pleasant to be in our new room, and if necessary, you can hang up the laundry to dry, or fold the table using the additional storage space. The second half of the room, for storage, was occupied by a rack, which we painted with one layer of white paint. We, like you, have a lot of things that need to be placed somewhere, therefore, you cannot do without it. Do you like this version of the multifunctional loggia that we got?

Read also:

Having bought an apartment, they began repairs from the bathroom: how to do it with minimal costs or tried as best they could