Sill-tabletop: design features
Designers offer a lot of life hacking to create an interior apartment. One of the fashionable chips today are window-sills. This extraordinary solution is perfect for your apartment, if it differs in modest dimensions, but you are accustomed to use the space to the maximum. Consider the features of such countertops.
What it is?
Replacing windows is a standard repair procedure. However, it is often necessary to install new window sills. However, you can beat this piece of furniture so that it becomes not only a stand for flowers. One of the most popular design solutions is the creation of a window-sill.Moreover, contrary to popular belief, countertops, combined with a window sill, can be used not only in the kitchen, but also in other rooms: living room, study, nursery or bedroom.
Sill-tabletop - is a single design that can make the space near the window useful and free up other areas in the room, because here you can put a lot of useful things. As an option, you can install a folding worktop and use it only if necessary.
Advantages and disadvantages
Sill-tabletop most often choose the owners of small housing. Indeed, this is one of those finds that today are so popular with owners of apartments with small footage. However, its benefits are not limited to saving space.
There are several other advantages of this design solution.
- During the day, the working surface is well lit by the sun's rays. This is especially true for those who have vision problems. And if there is also a beautiful view from the window, this can be another bonus.
- Thanks to the tabletop by the window, the furniture will be standing evenly in the room. Usually, part of the room by the window remains unclaimed.
- At the request of the customer, such a tabletop can be of any shape and color. In this case, it will become a bright accent of your interior and emphasize its uniqueness.
The drawbacks of the windowsill-table-tops are rather conditional, rather they are nuances that are important to consider when choosing such a design.
- It is appropriate on deep window sills with a width of at least 30 cm. By attaching this construction to a too narrow window sill, you will not gain much in space.
- If this design is installed in the kitchen, then you need to consider that the curtains will be in contact with water and can often be contaminated, which means that they should be practical. It is better to abandon the usual curtains and hang roll or blinds.
- In cases where the tabletop is not foldable, it will be difficult to open the window wide open, because this will have to remove everything from the table.
If you plan to put something close to the window, for example, dishes or jars with spices, then this option may not be suitable for you.
Kinds
Indeed, most often similar window sills, turning into tables, can be seen in the kitchen. They are used as lunch, as working for cooking or as bar counters.However, they can become an element of the room and be used as a writing table, a toilet or a small table for tea drinking. Using window sills as bar counters is especially interesting, because sometimes you want to eat in the room by the TV, and not in the kitchen.
If we consider the window-sills, countertops, in terms of their design features, we can distinguish several options.
- Embedded countertops can often be seen in kitchens, where headsets are installed according to individual sizes. These are integrated options where the table is a single plate with a windowsill.
- Folding tables are used much more often.
- Folding structures that are fixed by fasteners and put on one or two supports.
- Instead of the usual ones, you can create multilevel tables, as if consisting of steps. They are especially relevant if the height of the sill is too large, and allows you to create designs with an even more unusual design.
Application area
Let us consider in more detail the features of window sills-tops in various rooms. To begin, let's answer the question of how they can be placed in the kitchen.
- Mount the tilting table top using the fixings. For a small kitchen or studio, this option is ideal. Not all people spend much time cooking. Spending all day at work, a person can often order ready meals at home or eat at a fast food cafe. But even feeding mainly on the move, he can use a folding tabletop, for this it is enough to lift it and fix it in the desired position.
- Combine the work area along the wall and window sill. This design will be a godsend for those who want to use the space not only at one, but also at the side walls. Downstairs there is plenty of room for shelves. You can select the area under the sink, then continuing its sill will become a place for storing dishes or detergents. It is important that the height of the window sill was sufficient for the hostess. This is a good solution, but it can not be implemented everywhere - it all depends on the layout of the kitchen, the depth and width of the window, as well as other features of the kitchen.
- The bar counter may depart from the sill in parallel or perpendicular. Here is where you can show imagination and create a design of an unusual form.And having decorated it with LED tape or spot lighting, you can try to recreate the atmosphere of the bar, which will be open for you at any time. Such solutions are especially popular in apartments where the door to the balcony and the window is dismantled, which allows you to elegantly combine these two rooms.
You can use the sill-countertop successfully in any room of your home. It gives more space than just a table installed at the window, and aesthetically this option will look more advantageous.
- When it comes to work areathen a computer monitor, stationery or books will fit into the extra space. In this case, you need to monitor the tightness of the windows so that moisture does not hit the table top. Moreover, if shelves hang on the side walls or shelves stand, you can create a truly cozy and lighted workspace.
- An equally good solution would be to use a windowsill. to increase the size of the dressing table. Every woman has a lot of cosmetics for which there is always not enough space. Sill-tabletop will allow you to get more space for all the little things.And the presence of daylight in this area will be an undoubted bonus when applying makeup, procedures for care, hair styling and so on.
- If you are not going use the window-sill directly as a table and sit behind him, then beneath it will successfully rise a chest of drawers or another closet for storage of things, and from above you can place anything.
- A popular option is the greenhouse., as on ordinary window sills there is not always enough space for all flowers and seedlings.
- If there is a battery under this window, an unusual solution would be to install a fake. This is a very original way to decorate the battery in the living room and add a bit of coziness to it: the box is made of plasterboard or chipboard, a grid is installed in front, through which heat will be radiated.
- If your bathroom has a window, you can put a similar tabletop here. It uses only materials that are not afraid of water: natural or artificial stone, plastic.
How to do it yourself?
If you like the idea to combine a window sill and a tabletop, then do it better, armed with the knowledge of experienced craftsmen.As mentioned above, there are several types of window-sill-tops, so the methods of their manufacture may vary.
To replace the usual window sill with such a construction, you do not need any special skills. We offer you to familiarize yourself with one of the simple instructions for the manufacture of this functional element of the interior, thanks to which the table will be an extension of your window sill.
With experience, the entire replacement process will take several hours. If your window already has a simple window sill, and you want to redo it, then removing it will be easy - you just need to apply enough power.
You will need a chipboard or MDF more than a centimeter thick, ceramic tiles, silicone, table legs, adhesive tape and foam.
- Apply tags. To do this, measure the concrete base of the window and taking into account this, select the length of the structure. Pay attention to the height: is it lower than you need? Perhaps a tabletop at such a height would be uncomfortable for you.
- Prepare the base. Cut the construction of chipboard or MDF, then walk on the tabletop and its edges with a plane and sandpaper with a grain size of 60 or more.For a small table, the legs will not be needed - and so it will be held at the expense of the opening, but for more massive tabletops need support.
- Process the countertop. Run the ends of the silicone twice. The reverse side must be pasted with packing tape. The plane should be normal to verify this, use the building level. Screw the legs, if your design implies them.
- Installation. Using the level, set the countertop. After mounting the plate, it is necessary to replace the hole. When the mounting foam hardens, seal the joints between the slopes and the window sill.
- Finish We suggest to revet a cloth a tile. For the product to look beautiful, the distance should be minimal, and the gaps should be painted over.
Stone and marble countertops are easier to install, as they are sold in finished form. It remains to make the installation and carefully seal the seams. However, these are more expensive materials that not everyone can afford.
A good alternative is artificial stone. It has all the advantages of natural, but is much cheaper. In addition, some rocks, such as granite, may be radioactive, and with synthetic counterparts, you need not worry.
Tips
Before proceeding with the installation of a windowsill-countertop, read the tips of the masters.
- The table top is located under the frame of the window, which means that the end in the place of attachment may get wet. Even if your windows are not leaking, condensation will most likely form on them. This means that the material of the product must be moisture-resistant, not prone to the formation of mold. Stone and glass are best suited for this purpose. On the windows, you can install an additional ventilation valve - this is a common service for window specialists.
- The window should rise to the position of ventilation, as it is very difficult to open it every time and remove everything from the table top.
- The seams of ceramic tiles are often contaminated or moldy, which means they need preventive care. Do not forget to regularly clean them, and the entire surface of the tabletop as a whole.
Beautiful examples in the interior
- Sill-countertop in the kitchen, located on several walls at once, allows efficient use of space.
- The table top with a support looks original and easily replaces an ordinary table.
- Falshkamina under the window may look like a work of art.
- In the bathroom, a worktop from the window sill will be a convenient shelf for hygiene items.
Everyone wants to make the space of his apartment as functional as possible, and a table-sill is one of the ways to expand its useful area. And with the right choice of material and a good design, the window-sill-table top will help you to transform the ordinary atmosphere of the kitchen, living room or room.
To learn how to make a window-sill with your own hands for 1000 rubles, see the following video.