When choosing housing, old and solid buildings have always been a priority. They have thick brick walls and a beautiful façade. Creating a cozy and functional interior is not difficult. The design of a Stalin building with 2 rooms allows you to redevelop it and turn it into an apartment with a large number of rooms.
In the middle of the 20th century, Stalinist apartment buildings were erected everywhere in the Soviet Union.
As a rule, Stalin's houses consisted of three or four floors, but taller buildings also existed.
- 1 What are the differences?
- 2 Repair or redevelopment of the apartment 2.1 Internal finishing work
- 6.1 See also
What are the differences?
On the secondary real estate market there are buildings from 1930-1950, the so-called “Stalin” buildings, of two types.
Most often they had two-room or three-room apartments with high ceilings and huge windows.
The layout of such apartments is comfortable and spacious, but their owners are not always happy with the location and size of the rooms.
- Houses for the working class. Their difference is the small square footage of the apartment, tiny kitchens and a small number of floors.
- Buildings for the party elite and other figures. They can be four-room, have spacious rooms, a kitchen with an area of 10-12 square meters. m.
Many people think about remodeling their home, but do not know how to do it correctly and whether it is possible to undertake such a serious renovation.
Before independently implementing it into a building structure, you must consult with specialists.
Buildings that were built before the 50s have wooden floors. Younger block houses were built using reinforced concrete structures.
Stalin buildings, unlike Khrushchev buildings, have large and spacious rooms.
They are distinguished by wide window sills, high ceilings and large footage of the premises.
See also Art Deco in the interior: design, photos, tips
Photos of the interiors of Stalinist apartments during the USSR and in the 90s
Here I want to say a few more words about the interior of the houses themselves, and then I will simply attach and sign photographs. Not far from my house there is a truly typical “Stalinist” building - with a place for a clock and stucco with fruit!
Without the watch, of course, they were stolen back in the 90s. A house with premises for shops, columns inside, high ceilings, huge windows.
Simply beautiful, even the backlit paintings
The interior looks more like the nineties
Here it’s already exactly like in the nineties, even the beginning of the 2000s
This is, let’s say, the “Stalinist elite”
Some of the houses are plastered, others are just brick, often red, some with white. Let's look at the apartments, unfortunately, there are not enough photographs of “exactly Soviet” interiors.
An interesting apartment in the USSR style with parquet floors - it looks like nothing has changed at all since the 70s!
“The legacy of a dead empire” - the “killed” apartments of ordinary Stalinists. And in the 80s, and in the 90s, and now there are such people very often
Apartment renovation or redevelopment
Redevelopment, Stalin design 50 sq. m., will require replacement of the floor, ceiling and walls. During repairs, the condition of communications and gas risers is checked. The Stalin design, which has 3 rooms, will require a “sacrifice” in the form of one of them to expand the kitchen space and create a dining room. Or the use of visual enlargement through design moves, if there is no desire to have a kitchen studio.
Some Stalinist apartments have mixed floors.
In the kitchen area, bath and toilet the floors are made of concrete, while in other rooms they are made of wood.
See alsoJapanese style in the interior with a modern interpretation
Interior finishing work
Repairs should begin from the floor. After removing the floor covering and replacing rotten boards, you can begin leveling the surface. Soundproofing and heat-retaining materials, for example expanded clay, are poured between the joists.
Mixing materials is good because wooden floors are prone to rotting and sagging.
The buildings are built from durable and massive concrete, which allows you to retain heat indoors in the winter and keep cool in the summer.
The design of a 1-room apartment in a Stalin building, by removing partitions, will turn it into a studio apartment. The walls can be leveled using drywall, treating it with putty. It is better to remove old plaster, because it causes a bad odor and is a breeding ground for bacteria and mold. The ceiling can be leveled with putty or by installing a stretch ceiling.
Concrete also allows for sound insulation, which significantly saves money on installing sound-absorbing systems.
Buildings from Stalin's times have a lot of advantages, but still some people want to change their layout.
See alsoTurquoise color in the interior: tips, photos
How to create an apartment interior in a Stalinist house
In this monthly column, together with the designer and founder of the Buro 5 architectural bureau Boris Denisyuk, we develop the interior design of Moscow apartments in the context of the architecture of the building, era and urban environment. This time our choice fell on an apartment in a premium Stalinist building, and we thought through its interior in detail, which is not difficult to repeat.
Stalin's apartment buildings were built from the late 1930s to the 1960s. The main architectural styles were neoclassicism and the Stalinist Empire style, or, as it is often called, “Stalinist eclecticism.” A distinctive feature of the apartments in these buildings are high ceilings - at least three meters. The area of a one-room apartment varied from 32 to 50 square meters, and two-room apartments - from 44 to 70.
The main building material of these buildings is brick (initially red, but later white was used), the walls were made 65 centimeters thick.
Premium Stalinka apartments, which are also called “nomenklatura” apartments, in addition to the usual rooms, have a library, a separate bathroom and utility rooms. Such apartments have significantly more living space than other Stalinist buildings, since they were intended for the upper stratum of Soviet society. The area of rooms in such buildings ranges from 15 to 25 square meters, and sometimes could reach 30.
Boris Denisyuk
“In my opinion, the construction of Stalin buildings is one of the most successful pages in the history of Russian architecture. The apartments themselves are very spacious and have good heat and sound insulation. Among other things, Stalin’s houses were built conscientiously; everyone still notes the high quality of the buildings. And if we talk about the service life of such buildings, they will last at least 150 years.
In addition, the buildings of the Stalin era, especially the “seven sisters”, are distinguished by their perfect symmetry, from the facade to the smallest details. The view from the window is another advantage of such houses, since they are located in the best areas of Moscow.
By the way, in every “nomenklatura” house, Metlakh tiles have been preserved to this day. Now this material is considered a luxury item: a square meter of the cheapest tile costs about 125 euros.
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Selection of materials, furniture and decorative items
In our interior we focus on symmetry and will use bright colors in the spirit of the Stalin era. In general, it must be said that in Stalin buildings the interior should be “heavy” and solid. But this does not mean that you need to choose exclusively vintage furniture - in our version we will rely on the trends of 2017.
The walls in our design are dark green, and to emphasize the color and recreate the atmosphere of that time in the apartment, we decided to hang “heavy” burgundy curtains.
The floor of the living room can be covered with Metlakh carpet or tiles. This will give the interior a rich look. You can view different tile options here.
Closer to the spacious balcony, we placed two bright yellow chairs opposite each other to maintain symmetry. Our choice fell on the 720 Lady chair from 1951 by Italian designer Marco Zanuso. This model received a gold medal at the ninth International Exhibition of Architecture and Design in Milan. For the production of this 2015 chair, fabrics were chosen from Belgian designer Raf Simons.
In the center of the living room is the Lune sofa from the Danish brand Republic of Fitz Hansen. This model was created especially for him by Spanish designer Jaime Hayon. The sofa's upholstery is made from a mixture of natural cotton and linen. Indigo color was suitable for our interior, but you can choose other colors on the website.
Next to the sofa and one of the armchairs, we placed coffee tables from the Italian brand Dimore Studio, for which the design duo Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran creates furniture. The table we chose with thin legs will “unload” the space.
Opposite the sofa we placed a Soviet retro TV "Rainbow". It was the first color television in the USSR, which appeared in 1961.
We decided to place a large oval black walnut wooden table with two beige granite chairs near the TV. You can order them on the website of the American brand Pieces.
In our interior we used a minimalist geometric lamp by London designer Michael Anastassiades. In its shape, it resembles the chandeliers that hung in old Stalinist apartments, which helps preserve the spirit of the times.
There is a poster hanging on one of the walls. This is a still from the film "Shirley: Images of Reality" by the Austrian director Gustav Deutsch, who reproduced the main paintings of the American artist Edward Hopper.
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Furniture
Design and decor
interior
house
Stalin design
High ceilings and spacious rooms create a balance between new and old.
Options for redevelopment and interior design in apartments depend on what exactly you want to change.
You can combine the kitchen with the adjacent room. This method will allow you to get a kitchen-living room with conveniently located functional areas.
Stalinist apartment design, design options.
| Historical | It includes Empire and Baroque. Furniture with carved facades, expensive textiles and floor coverings are used. |
| Classical | A Stalinist interior of this type is able to convey the spirit of that time combined with modern technologies. |
| Ethnic | Provence or country are quite simple to implement and are applicable both in the Stalin kitchen and throughout the room. |
The modern and harmonious image of a three-room Moscow “Stalin” apartment requires bold design solutions.
If possible, you can demolish one of the walls to combine the two zones.
Thus, you can get a huge room for gathering the whole family and receiving guests.
See alsoLoft style in the interior of a small apartment
Interior in different types of kitchens
The design of a Stalinist kitchen in three-room apartments begins with a design, installation of pipes, repairs, and then the work of a specialist. With a designer, it is easier to implement and plan all the stages of transforming an old apartment into a modern space.
The absence of physical boundaries will allow you to increase the space, and properly selected lighting will delimit it into functional zones.
You can increase the area of the room by demolishing the wall.
In addition to area, they differ in types:
- Square;
- Pencil case;
- With ventilation ducts;
- Rectangle.
The last type on the list is the most common. The difficulty of working with this kind of layout lies in the location opposite the entrance. Kitchens with boxes in the middle of the room require a special approach. They can accommodate a dishwasher or microwave. The main thing is to skillfully play with this design.
There can be quite a lot of ideas for planning a Stalinist apartment.
The main thing is to understand exactly what requirements it must meet.
Small kitchens can easily be remodeled by removing a wall completely or partially. The interior of a Stalinist kitchen can be completed without demolishing the partitions. In this case, it is worth dividing the space into zones and highlighting them with the help of different floor coverings or plasterboard structures on the ceiling.
Stalinist buildings are no less popular than apartments in new modern houses.
The most attractive features of such apartments are high ceilings and the absence of load-bearing walls.
Using gray classics in the interior is the most modern solution. The combination of the graphite shade of the kitchen set with tiles shimmering in silver and linen textiles gives the kitchen a sophisticated and stylish look.
And also, the use of monochrome design together with the use of accents is popular. For example, in a white glossy kitchen there may be matte red or green chairs. Or in the kitchen with light green shades there is a purple or other sofa.
The interior turned out to be light and open with rich, bright accents.
Don't be afraid to experiment and successfully complete your renovation!
See also: Combine blue with other colors correctly
What the interiors of these apartments look like now
Of course, there is no escape from modernity: the interiors of such apartments are being updated, and you can even go wild with European-quality renovations. Everyone is trying to renovate such apartments - that’s what I thought, until I personally encountered a “fanatic” of the USSR...
There are these layouts, we see an old Soviet carpet. And I’ll even say that he’s from the Georgian SSR, because I had one like that hanging
A modern Stalin-era one-room apartment - there is nothing Soviet left here.
And many people prefer to leave some Soviet things. Chandeliers, figurines, bedside tables; and the ceilings are so beautifully decorated - with a pattern. The only modern things (that catch your eye) are a TV, a sofa and an air conditioner.
Everything here has already been demolished, which could be called Soviet
At Yula I sold things from those years: dishes from the GDR and Czechoslovakia, badges, a radio tape recorder. Two days later a man called me and said that he wanted to buy almost all the lots. We talked and it turned out that he was restoring the Soviet interior.
He is not many years old, but it seems that the man firmly clung to this idea.
As I say, there is somewhere to roam. Here is a large “Stalin” hall - so many things!
Spacious and bright!
And this is how they are “bombed” when they are going to remake them
Now I would like to “listen” to your personal opinions, dear friends, about the “Stalin” apartments: I see not only the pros, but also the cons - after all, it is expensive to maintain such apartments (4 rooms) when you have to do the same repairs. And the heating costs a lot!
Although something tells me that there is no need to rush to sell the “Stalin” - I see that the demand for them is very, very high.
Sell it in the future? Divide among all children? All the same, the stone also ages, the years go by...
