Glass floor: an elegant addition to modern apartments (35 photos)
Content
- 1 Advantages of glass constructions
- 2 About the design of the glass floor
- 3 Selection of the main material
- 4 Reasonable savings
- 5 Varieties
- 6 Decorative compositions: creativity and sophistication against the backdrop of ghostly fragility
- 7 Niches in the floor
- 8 “Dry Aquarium” is an easy way to create complex compositions
- 9 Glass art processing methods
Glass in the room allows you to create the most modern and unusual interior. Transparent compositions are appropriate both in a residential building and in office premises. It remains only to determine the basic interior concept and choose the right glass floor.
Advantages of glass constructions
Glass in itself looks interesting in any interior. The material allows you to form interesting details, which in the future can become a complex structure in fashionable apartments or a laconic addition in a compact apartment.
The glass floor in the apartment will visually expand any space. The thought-over design will create a feeling of weightless soaring in the air in the room.
Today, transparent glass floors, complemented by backlighting from LEDs or fluorescent lamps, are especially popular. This technique will even turn a modest glass path or a small window with a mosaic into an exquisite composition. In some cases, such light locations also play the role of an additional light source.
About the design of the glass floor
In order to understand what design ideas can really be translated into reality, and which ideas are better to refuse, you should carefully understand what the design itself is. The main element is a stable base, which will be responsible for the strength and reliability of the installed floor.
Usually use a frame made of strong steel. A good alternative is a flat concrete surface formed over the base floor. The glass must be heavy-duty, since the coating will have to withstand a standard load of 400 kg per square meter.
Selection of the main material
Experts recommend using triplex - a three-layer composition, each layer of which is over 7 mm. Layers are combined into a single canvas using a polymer film. In some cases, the so-called laminated glass is used. This is a hardened material that is coated with an impressive layer of polymer. Hollow glass microspheres give strength to the product.
Laminated glass is not subject to cutting at all. Products are produced by casting, giving the elements a pre-thought out shape and size. This is important to consider, giving preference to this particular material. If measurements of the area under the future glass floor are incorrect, on-site adjustment will not be possible.
Reasonable savings
Saving on the quality of the material is categorically undesirable. It is better to reduce the design itself, replay the main points in the interior, thus saving.
By purchasing cheap low-quality products that are completely defenseless against mechanical damage or weight, each apartment owner risks losing much more. If at least one element that forms the glass floor in the bathroom, bedroom or living room has cracked or damaged more seriously, then it is impossible to restore or somehow restore the part.
Varieties
It is believed that the floor of glass elements can play a purely decorative role. In fact, the original designs are very functional. Depending on the size, configuration of color schemes, the presence of auxiliary attributes, its functionality will depend.
Types of glass floors:
- The window is an element, popular in country cottages or multi-level apartments. An ordinary transparent hole, nobly decorated with laconic accessories, literally plays the role of a window. The only difference is that such a niche, which acts as a connecting element between floors, occupies not a vertical, but a horizontal position;
- Interfloor overlapping is an architectural refinement rarely found in apartments, but effectively complementing luxurious private estates. In fact, the design takes a position and acts as a window, but it looks much larger and more interesting. Transparent ceilings usually try to decorate in an interesting way, given the general interior idea. For example, they form a real aquarium in glass voids or create a space installation with unusual lighting;
- Floor with a complex decorative composition - a design that allows you to give the room a specific stylistic color. Sometimes glass elements are so decorated that the lightness and fragility of the glass disappear, and the window becomes the bottom of complex textured installations;
- Glass podium - a structure that rises above a common floor canvas. It can be very complex and textured due to the use of auxiliary decorative elements or to identify the “gold standards” of minimalism and laconic restraint. The glass floor with the illumination in the form of a podium is a “classic” attribute in film studios, night clubs, and various entertainment complexes. However, it can look quite organic and in a simple apartment.
There is another view - a glass panel on the floor, presented as a finishing material for the finish. Usually use an opaque cloth, not burdened with decorative elements. Glass blocks are used along with other finishing materials, forming a single coating.
Decorative compositions: creativity and sophistication against the backdrop of ghostly fragility
The transparency of the base material allows you to experiment to the maximum. The easiest option to ennoble the space is a transparent floor, which occupies almost the entire area of the room. Under absolutely transparent glass, you can place the following elements:
- Ceramic tile;
- Patterned materials or volumetric installations;
- Composition of river stones and pebbles;
- Create a surreal decor of broken glass, original accessories that combine with the main interior of the room;
- Place sand or imitate a different kind of soil, creating the illusion of a natural coating;
- Create a beautiful aquarium with real fish, spectacular algae and proper decor.
Such compositions are beneficial to create in small rooms. For example, in the bathroom. Materials will be required at least, and the effect will exceed all expectations. In addition, glass, tiles, marine elements, water attributes and animalistic motifs always organically fit into the atmosphere of the bathroom.
Niches in the floor
Creating a niche in the floor will be even cheaper. On the one hand, miniature windows are much more difficult to beat stylistically. It’s not always possible to convey an idea with the help of a decor without going too far.
On the other hand, having a minimal amount of materials and decorative attributes, you can create a unique element in a modern apartment. Even in the smallest apartments there is a niche for an exclusive installation.
Experts recommend carefully thought out the idea, avoid excessiveness and tasteless pretentiousness.For example, a scattering of old coins on sand and pebbles or a broken amphora and antique clock located on an expensive velvet cloth looks good. Another good option is a bright glass mosaic on the floor, complemented by powerful lighting.
“Dry Aquarium” is an easy way to create complex compositions
Marine themes for decorating niches (both wall and floor) are in high demand. To construct a full-fledged aquarium with beautiful lively fish and algae, you will have to invest a lot of effort, money and your own imagination.
Not everyone can afford to spend precious time on the full care of artificial home water. If even the simplest aquarium requires time and effort from the inhabitants of the house, then niches with water of a more complex configuration can not be remembered.
“Dry Aquarium” is a wonderful alternative that does not require large investments or too intensive maintenance of the composition. The main decorative elements:
- Sand;
- Pebbles;
- Sea pebbles;
- Corals
- Artificial plants;
- Outlandish flowers;
- Crabs, scorpions, river insects (artificial);
- Original decor (broken amphora, old coins covered with silt, a scattering of pearls and other “lost treasures”).
Such "dry" compositions have one important quality - it is impossible to overdo it by creating an installation. In fact, the most unusual, creative, fanciful installations will look fresh and extravagant, without creating the impression of bad taste and vulgarity.
Glass art processing methods
If the desire to make a glass floor is not fraught with financial freedom or the desire to decorate home space too elaborately, there is always the opportunity to choose an extremely simple and convenient option. For example, you can create a mosaic floor by decorating the selected area with bright glass details.
To give the glass a pronounced decorative quality resort to the use of the following technologies:
- Sandblasting is a process that allows you to create original drawings on glass, which ultimately look like delicate engraving;
- Matting - giving the glass a noble dullness or forming a specific pattern by matting individual fragments of the canvas;
- Etching - applying decorative elements and patterns using special chemical solutions;
- Coating - heat treatment of glass sheets in order to give a special shape to the element.
The glass canvas, decorated with silk-screen images, film stencils, special tinting and other methods, in itself looks impressive and attractive. Whatever the idea of creating a glass floor was originally, such an attribute will give the whole house a special gloss and charm. Any room will be transformed and will look much more spectacular.