In the field of interior design, the interior arch takes a special place. Replacing the usual doorway, it can not only attract attention, but also become the main detail of the interior. The use of a beautiful arch in design is not uncommon for a long time, with its help the interior acquires elegance and nobility.
Depending on the interior design, you can choose an arch in shape and execution. Undergoing stylistic transformations in various design directions, the arch itself invariably remains the main alternative to interior doors. With the help of the arch, openings are made not only in living rooms, but also in office and many other premises.
8 pictures Types and forms
Consider the types of interior arches:
- Classics . The classic opening is a semicircle with a radius equal to 1/2 of its width. This form is the embodiment of strict elegance and clean lines. The construction of this arch is possible only in a room with ceilings of 3 meters and above.
There is a version that a semicircle is a distinctive feature of the oriental and antique style, capable of giving weight and significance to the interior.
- Arch-portal. This is a rectangular opening without doors, it does not require additional labor during installation, but it does not suit every room. This form fits perfectly into a laconic, austere interior with linear decor. All the effect of the result depends on the materials chosen for the design.
One of the most spectacular examples is a portal made of wood with illuminated vaults.
- Modern . This form is a cross between a classic and a portal. The arch is less round, but far from straight; its upper part is represented as a segment of a circle. The radius of curvature can be any, the main requirement is that it does not exceed half the width of the portal itself.
Modern is suitable for the design of openings in rooms with low ceilings, for example, in standard high-rise apartments. The design gives the room an elegant, discreet look.
- Ellipse . This shape differs from the previous one only in a large corner radius. The elliptical model is the most versatile, it fits perfectly into any interior design and is appropriate for any ceiling height. The height and shape of the bend depends only on your wishes and the initial data of the room. Also, an elliptical arch is ideal in combination with columns.
- Romance . The romantic design is a rectangular arch with rounded edges. It is ideal for wide openings and rooms with low ceilings. This form will look equally impressive both in a small, modest room and in a spacious palace-style one.
- Trapezium . A very non-standard solution for decorating a doorway in the form of a trapezoidal arch is guaranteed to add exoticism to your room. A competent presentation with the help of correctly selected interior items, harmoniously combined with the shape and material of the arch, will cause genuine interest and delight. This arch is simple to design and no less effective than rounded openings.
- Semi-arch . A semi-arch is an example of asymmetric openings that combine 2 shapes at the same time. For example, it can be portal and romance, portal and classic, portal and ellipse. The design of this shape is based on a quarter circle. Asymmetry will help to hide errors in calculations, if they arose during installation.
In addition, the non-standard form will decorate the doorway, add sophistication to the room and allow you to bring to life any original idea.
- Copyright . Thanks to a wide range of finishing materials, the arch can be made of absolutely any shape and bend. This is a solution for those who want to make their home unique and inimitable.
Non-standard arches can have broken lines, combine several styles at the same time, complemented by windows, lighting and other details.
- Construction features. When building a private house, arched openings are designed and built initially, while in apartment buildings, the presence of arches is more likely an exception than a rule. It should be remembered that the arch is a curved overlap between the supports and has a functional significance: it carries the load of the wall.
When redeveloping an apartment with the introduction of arches, their location is absolutely appropriate in the interior walls, if they are not load-bearing.
- Arches in load-bearing walls. There is a lintel directly above the door frame, if the wall is load-bearing, then the lintel cannot be removed, this can lead to unpredictable consequences. In the load-bearing wall, the arch can only be in the height and width of the doorway. In this case, the height of the opening cannot be increased, you can only expand it.
- Arches in a panel house. The same applies to using an arch instead of a door in a panel house. Doorways in the panels are pre-made recesses in accordance with GOST and it is not recommended to violate the integrity of the panel.
In these two cases, arches of a romantic style are made with a small radius of rounding of the corners, ellipsoidal or a portal.
- An arched opening in a solid wall. It is not difficult to remake a doorway into an arch, but punching a passage in a solid wall where it has never been is a very laborious process. It is much easier to remove the partition wall completely and build a new one with an opening.
Arch device and its design
The device directly depends on what tasks this design will perform:
Zoning rooms when dividing rooms
The interior arch is an elegant and stylish solution in open-plan zoning. It divides the home into functional zones and is used if there is a need to visually divide the space. Arches, made to order or ready-made, are designed to mark the boundaries of two or more zones, but not separate them, but visually combine them, thereby expanding the space.
Some rooms can perfectly do without classic doors and only benefit if they are replaced with an arched opening. Usually it is a kitchen and dining room, dining room and living room, living room and hallway, bedroom and living room. When they are combined, the space expands, the feeling of isolation disappears.
A bright accent in the overall design of the space
If you are the owner of a strict and laconic interior in a classic style, or, on the contrary, furnished your dwelling in the Empire style, but you lack an unusual detail that can attract all the attention and amaze you with luxury, the arch will help with this.
It should be rich, decorated with graceful stucco moldings with floral ornaments running in an arc. If the arch is high, classical, it is better to order full-fledged columns of the Corinthian order, the most luxurious and majestic. The height of the Corinthian column is decorated with carved flutes. Its graceful capital with carved grape leaves and curls will be the most significant element in the interior.
For arches of a lower profile, romance, ellipse, Art Nouveau and even semi-arches, the columns of the simplest and devoid of excesses Doric order will be a good choice. Its understated architecture will nevertheless create an antique accent in the room.
Wanting to give the opening a major role in the decoration of rooms, it is distinguished by the contrast of color or material, decorating with colored mosaics and enamel.
Elimination of defects during construction
If your room has ugly ceiling beams or ventilation pipes, they can be sheathed with plasterboard and completed with a non-standard arch. In addition, in older houses it is often necessary to mask uneven ceilings and walls.
By hiding construction defects under the arch, you will not only eliminate the imperfection of your interior, but also give it a new sound with the help of a non-standard beautiful design.
Utilitarian purpose
If the arch is installed in a load-bearing wall, its panels are quite wide, they make recesses in them, which are used as bookshelves, as well as niches for decor. In round arches with great depth, recesses are made, poufs are installed and places for rest are organized.
Near the arch itself, a group of through windows is often built in, which increases the passage of light between rooms. Windows can be decorated with stained glass motifs or be through and serve as shelves for souvenirs and jewelry.
Dimensions
The parameters of the arches directly depend on the architectural specifics of the room. The width is limited by the owner's preference, the height is determined only by the level of the ceiling. In a room with a height of 2.5-3.2 m, an arch with dimensions of up to 2.2-2.6 m, respectively, fits perfectly. However, these numbers are relative. It is not worth adjusting the arch of the arch to the very ceiling, this will ruin the whole view.
A small opening in a large, wide wall will create dissonance, therefore it is important to carefully measure the room and calculate the parameters of the future arch. It should organically fit into the interior.
Materials
The following materials are used in the manufacture of arched structures:
- Brick . To make a brick arch, it is necessary to mount a frame made of reinforcement, drill holes in the wall and, driving in metal pins, weld the frame to them. The whole process is very laborious and the construction at the exit turns out to be heavy, therefore the "brick-like" finish, made of various types of artificial facing stone, is very popular.
- Drywall . This material is versatile and malleable for the construction of rounded arches. Erection of any interior solutions from plasterboard is quick and easy to perform. The weight of such structures is small and will not give additional load on the wall. In addition, it is a good solution for one-room apartments where there is not enough space to install doors.
- Tree . Often, when choosing a material for decorating an arched opening, they opt for wood. Constructions made of this noble material will add status to your interior. Openings made of wood are very beautiful and durable.
Arches made of solid oak are a luxurious pleasure that you can do with your own hands, with a minimum skill in working with this wonderful material.
- Laminated MDF. This material has rightfully won wide distribution and received consumer recognition due to its low cost, variety of textures and colors, and attractive appearance. Also, laminated MDF is very practical and versatile.It can be used to assemble complex structures, as well as order standard models. In addition, the ability to order products of non-standard sizes and configurations makes this material especially attractive.
- Veneered MDF and eco-veneer. The arch veneered with MDF looks stylish and expensive, since the material most accurately conveys the texture and shades of solid wood. It is made of MDF board and veneered with oak veneer. Possible shades: wenge, bleached oak, walnut, oak with patina, ivory. Eco-veneer arches are also beautiful in appearance and have high performance.
- Polyurethane . Polyurethane is an elastic polymer that is widely used in decoration and construction. Possessing high strength and resistance to external influences, it is durable, and most importantly, it has a very low cost. This polymer makes it possible to make products from it with the maximum complexity of details, and in decorating arches it successfully replaces plaster.
- Plastic . Plastic products are very popular and allow you to repeat non-standard forms of arches, which cannot be made of wood without great expense. Plastic panels have not only a decorative function, but also a functional one. They protect the edges of the opening from damage and are moisture resistant, durable and fire resistant. Plastic, unlike other finishing materials, melts and does not burn.
- Tiles . A simple arched opening of a classical shape without any details, tiled with tiles, is very effective. Tiles imitating the surface and texture of stone are especially effective. Its advantages: low cost, rich assortment of colors, moisture resistance and durability.
These are not all possible materials for the manufacture and design of arches, but the most common and effective ones.
How to make an arch with your own hands?
To make an arch with your own hands, you need to have a basic skill in working with building materials, choose an easy-to-install material and get competent instructions. Let's look at a simple and easy-to-use way to build an arch in your home.
Drywall arch
We need:
- Plasterboard of 2 types. For walls 12 mm thick and for arch vaults - 6 mm.
- Profile for racks 60x27 mm, and for the outline of the arch 28x27 mm.
- Self-tapping screws and screwdriver.
- Fiberglass mesh.
- Putty.
Stages of work:
- First you need to measure the opening into which the arch will be built. The standard door height is 2 m, to build an arch, we need to raise the height of the vault to 2.5 m by removing part of the wall above the opening.
- Many types of arches significantly reduce the opening, so in some cases it needs to be slightly widened. We select in advance the shape of the arch, which will organically fit into the parameters of the room.
- To do this, we attach paper above the door, on which we outline the height and bend of the arch. If the width is more than 120 cm, it would be better to make a slight bend by choosing the Art Nouveau shape, with its small radius of curvature. If the width of the opening is larger, then it would be more correct to choose a romantic shape, it does not require raising the height and rounding of its corners will be enough to design an arched opening.
- After measuring the parameters of the opening and calculating the length of the radius, using a compass, draw a semicircle on drywall and cut it out with a jigsaw.
- Then we build a frame from a bar or a metal profile.
- We collect a rectangular opening and from a rack profile.
- We sheathe the structure with drywall with a cut out circle using self-tapping screws, slightly melting their caps into the surface.
- On the walls of the arched profile, we make cuts with scissors for metal every 3 cm. Then we fasten the profile along the arch with self-tapping screws, bending it in the form of a semicircle. This must be done from both ends.
- Next, we make the vault jumpers. We measure the depth of the arch and subtract 1.5-2 cm. This will be the length of the jumpers.
- We cut them from the profile and put them on self-tapping screws. Jumpers are essential for the strength and stability of the structure.
- From thin drywall, you need to cut out a part that will close the arch from below. This is a rectangle, the width of which is the length from one edge of the butt to the other, that is, the depth of the arch.
- We measure the length with a tape measure or a sewing measuring tape, from one lower point of the arch to the other.
- We also attach the resulting sheet to self-tapping screws.
- The joints should be glued with fiberglass mesh. The edges of the joints of the panels and the arch sheet are connected with a plastic perforated profile.
- We putty the irregularities, the caps of the screws and the joints of the drywall sheets, first with a thick-layer putty, then we go through the entire surface of the finishing.
- After drying, the putty surface is sanded with sandpaper.
Only finishing work remained. For decoration you can choose decorative plaster, artificial stone, propylene or plastic cladding.
The construction of the arch is available to absolutely any customer, regardless of his income. Currently, not only ready-made arches for individual sizes are available to order, but also prefabricated ones. Also, thanks to the large assortment of materials and shapes, the arch can be made by hand.
How to make a drywall arch with your own hands, see the next video.
Interior arches in the interior
- For rooms with low ceilings, a good solution would be to choose a wide semicircular arch of the romantic or modern style. Ideally, it will be placed from wall to wall, without columns and posts.
- On the contrary, in the interior with high ceilings, arches of a classical form or with an upward domed, lancet shape are installed in order to emphasize the volume of "air" in the room.
- If you have a long, narrow corridor, along its entire length at regular intervals, you can inscribe arches, creating a beautiful enfilade. In this case, the vaults should be made classic, devoid of details and decor. This simplification will help not to overload the already tight space.
- The urbanism and daring charm of a loft-style room will be emphasized by a zoning partition with an arch made of brick. It can be used to separate the kitchen and living areas by integrating a bar counter into it. The width of such an arch can be large, but it is better to make the vault in the Art Nouveau style, this form will perfectly emphasize the severity and laconicism of a deliberately industrial interior.
- The openings between the living room and the hall in a home furnished with natural wood furniture would be better decorated with elements of solid wood, tinted to match the color of the decor. The shape and height must be selected based on the general style of the room and its size.
- If you have a glazed balcony or loggia, replacing the balcony group with a beautiful arch, you will expand the kitchen space. In this case, it will be appropriate to replace the window sill with a small countertop or, by lifting it, build in a bar counter, such an arch will carry a utilitarian function. The kitchen, enlarged due to the attached territory of the balcony, will acquire an exotic and cozy look.
- The arch in the corridor of a one-room apartment is an ideal solution for visually increasing the space without changing the area. Unfortunately, hallways in high-rise apartments do not differ in large area and comfortable parameters. Replacing the door from the hallway to the corridor, living room or hall and combining these locations, you will save yourself from crampedness and inconvenience and get a wonderful interior element that will ennoble absolutely any room.
- Installing spotlights in the hallway arch, you add light to a dark room and give it a touch of mystery and romance.
