Design of the attic floor: bedroom, nursery, decoration of the ceiling, walls

It is not too easy to make the attic rooms comfortable, beautiful and functional. Extraordinary geometry – that’s what delivers the most inconvenience. Therefore, the design of the attic floor has a special approach: it is also necessary to select finishing materials, taking into account possible changes in size. 

Finishing the ceiling

One of the most difficult issues is finishing the flow in the attic. The ceiling in such rooms is either sloping or broken. Both options are not too easy to finish. In principle, you can use any material that finishes the ceilings in ordinary rooms, but the installation must take into account the possibility of displacement of the supporting structures. The beams are made of wood, and it changes in size with changes in temperature / humidity, so that the rigid fastening of frames or finishing materials threatens to crack.

With or without beams

Before you start finishing the ceiling in the attic, decide whether you want the load-bearing beams to be visible. The method of filing depends on this: it will be necessary either to close the beams or leave them in sight. The first option “takes away” the height from the room, but there are no problems with insulation and sound insulation – you can choose without paying attention to the thickness. In the second case, the height of the room will be greater, but you will have to look for materials with a minimum thickness – you want the beams to be visible …

Some visible load-bearing structures are considered a disadvantage that prevents a standard design from being made. But it is worth emphasizing the “flaw” as it turns into an interesting design solution. If we talk about style, then the attic with beams looks much more “interesting”. The space between them can be sewn up with a board, tightened with stretch ceilings or closed with suspended ceilings. They are combined with any type of finish. It will only be necessary to choose a color scheme that fits the overall design of the attic floor or a particular room.

Bearing structures fit perfectly into modern styles, expand the possibilities of finishing, give the interior an individuality. They can be highlighted or painted in the same tone. The visual perception will change, but in any case they look very “trendy”. The only thing to avoid is varnishing the beams – this method of finishing has lost its relevance. In any case, you should not use varieties that create a shiny “varnish” surface. Lacquer, if used, is water-based, matte or semi-matte, but not glossy.

Plasterboard on the ceiling in the attic floor

If you want to have a standard design of the attic floor as close as possible to the modern “neutral” style, you can sew up the ceiling in the attic with drywall (gypsum plasterboard). In order to prevent cracks on the surface and at the joints of the sheets with fluctuations in dimensions, all guides are mounted on suspensions.

The second trick is not to rest the sheets against the walls, leaving compensation gaps. The joints, as usual, are glued with mesh tape, the ceiling is puttied. At the junction of the GKL to the walls, there are gaps to close them, you can use polyurethane moldings or wooden skirting boards of a suitable shape. They can be painted to match the walls or ceiling. When attaching this finish, we fix it only to the walls, but not to the ceiling. We don’t even get too close to him. It is necessary that the gap is closed, but without rigid fastening. So, with seasonal movements of the load-bearing beams, the plasterboard ceiling in the attic will not crack.

There is a very interesting use of drywall on the ceiling of the attic floor. They can only sew up the gaps between the proteins, leaving the beams themselves in plain sight. Due to the greater contrast between the smooth surface of the putty surface and the structure of wood, such interiors are very bright and memorable.

With this method of finishing the attic ceiling, many joints are obtained between wood and plasterboard sheets. To close them all with moldings is too clumsy. It is reasonable to grease the joint with silicone sealant, which remains elastic after drying. Since the distance between the beams is not too large, the gap can be left small to compensate for dimensional changes – it will be easy to fill it with sealant. That’s just the paint will need to be selected one that can hold on to silicone normally, but this is not such a problem.

By the way, the plasterboard ceiling in the attic can not only be painted. You can also wallpaper it, and so that the design is not too colorful or overloaded, make the walls plain painted. There is a second option – use the same wallpaper on the ceiling and walls, but you can get a “box”, so the first method is preferable.

Stretch ceilings

Film or fabric stretch ceilings can be used in the attic without restrictions. They are not afraid of small deformations, so no problems are expected during operation. They can arise only at the stage of installation. If you want to tighten the distance between the beams with canvases, you will need a large number of edge baguettes. But that’s all, there are no other difficulties.

The beauty of this option is that you can get perfectly flat ceilings without much hassle. If you want gloss, choose a film. Need matte ceilings – mount the fabric.

Behind the stretch ceiling, all layers of insulation and soundproofing of the attic will perfectly hide, and there are a lot of them. For light films, you only need to sheathe everything with white material, otherwise the “insides” may shine through. “White material” – any. Whether fabric or nonwoven. You can fasten it with brackets directly to the beams and crate.

If we talk about design, then bulky multi-level structures will not work here, except that you have the entire attic without partitions and the height of the room is around three meters. The very structure of the ceiling of the attic floor is broken. It is hardly worth complicating it with additional elements, except to make a box with illumination from the side farthest from the window.

Boards, lining, imitation of timber or logs

One of the most common ways to finish the ceiling in the attic is lining with clapboard, edged board, imitation timber and other moldings. Against the background of the beams, this design is quite logical, the ceiling fits into most of the current ethnic styles: Provence, Scandinavian. It can be wonderfully beaten in loft and rustic style. You can find options for modern interiors. Each style requires a specific wood finish:

• For interiors in the Provence style, boards or lining, like beams, are painted with soft, pastel colors, with a matte or semi-matte surface. The hemming board can be wide or narrow – it does not matter.
  

• For the Scandinavian style, the natural color of the wood can be used (be careful with yellow shades), but either “aged” or bleached boards are more characteristic. For such interiors in the attic, the beams can be made dark, the filing is very light.
  

• There are no rules for a loft at all – it all depends on the idea and color. You can leave it in a “natural” color, you can darken or bleach it a lot.
  

• Rustic is a kind of style in which some elements are deliberately rough and “raw”. If you come across curved beams, this is a godsend for this style. It will be necessary to emphasize the texture of wood more strongly. To do this, it can be “scraped” with a metal brush. Softer fibers will break out, hard ones will remain, the relief will appear more clearly. You can facilitate the process by passing the surface with a blowtorch. When heated, the soft fibers will burn, which will make processing faster and easier, but when working with open flames and wooden structures, you need to be very careful.
  

There is another style that can be implemented on the attic floor with a wood-trimmed ceiling – Russian. But in this case, for finishing, you will have to choose an imitation of a log or timber. Accordingly, it will be necessary to select other interior components. Everything is easy here. We just do not recommend varnishing wood or other compounds with yellow tints. Very quickly they set the teeth on edge, although, at first, they “warm” and create a sunny mood.

Exotic materials

Ceilings in the attic can be finished with unusual materials. It is important not to forget that the design can shrink. Therefore, the finish must be elastic, or, if it is rigid, its installation must leave the possibility of slight movement. Here’s another way to decorate the ceiling on the attic floor:

• Bamboo or bamboo wallpaper. An excellent choice, especially if the interior has an oriental orientation.
• Fabrics. You can tighten the gaps between the beams with dense fabrics. And it does not have to be tapestries or their modern counterparts. Experiment – it might turn out interesting.
  

• Wall panels. The installation of load-bearing structures should be done according to the type of frame for drywall, the seams can be smeared with silicone and painted either in tone or in a contrasting color.

Perhaps there are other options, but we have not met them yet.

Wall finishing options

What is interesting about the walls of the attic? The fact that a closet or a large niche that runs along the entire room can be hidden behind the sheathing. Often this is how they get out of the situation if the roof of the attic floor is gable. Using the space near the wall is problematic due to the small height of the ceiling. Coming out of the situation, either a bed is placed at the window, or part of the area is fenced off with a false wall. And it would be unreasonable to lose a significant amount, so cabinets are often arranged on the sides of the attic.

The walls of the attic floor can be finished with the same materials as in the usual premises of a frame house. To begin with, a sheathing made of sheet materials is attached (to the crate), then puttied. After that, you can even paint, even apply decorative plaster, even glue wallpaper. There are also faster options: wall paneling with MDF, wood, etc. Finishing material is attached directly to the crate, finishing is not required. Everything is fine, but it will be impossible to change the design with little blood – only to remove and redo everything anew. So if you like to redo the interior often, this is not your option.

If the ceiling is hemmed with a board or clapboard, the same material can also be used on the walls, or it can be combined with painted walls or decorative plaster. But with the second combination, you need to be careful: not all combinations look equally good. For example, it is better not to experiment with a Venetian – she is not friendly with a tree in any way, give her a perfectly smooth ceiling and no beams. Not that style.

But the wooden ceiling gets along well with brick, stone. This is a win-win combination. If there is no “natural” stone or brick, you can use a decorative one. It is many times lighter than usual, easy to install, and looks no worse. There is another option: a flexible stone. It is somewhat reminiscent of linoleum, but designed for walls. Mounted in general “one or two”, it looks quite plausible.

Another interesting combination of wood and stone / brick is that it is appropriate in rooms for any purpose. Looks great in the hallway, bedroom. You can make the interior of the living room, but the style will be loft or Scandinavian. But there are a lot of ideas in this area, and one is better than the other. And all of them are “unused”.

Decoration of windows on the attic floor

If the windows in the attic are vertical, they can be decorated in any way – with curtains of any type. If the windows are made in the plane of the roof, they can be closed by making special curtains. They make drawstrings from above and below, into which a braid or elastic is threaded. With them, the curtains are tied to the latches fixed on the sides of the window frame.

So the windows have a more or less familiar look, but even light fabrics sag a little. So a complete adjoining to the plane of the window will not work. If you want the curtains to sag less while closed, you can support them with a special rod. But opening and closing such curtains is not very convenient.

Another possibility to decorate the windows of the attic floor is roller blinds or Roman blinds and blinds – vertical or horizontal. In any case, you will have to use models with guides that will hold the fabric closer to the window, but such models are more expensive and more difficult to install.

However, very often windows that “look at the sky” are left without any curtains at all. There is practically no chance that someone will walk on the roof and look out the window. But, if you are uncomfortable, you can choose one of the proposed options.

Photos of interesting design options