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Remodeling the refrigerator under the window. Modern finishing of the winter refrigerator built under the window. Converting a Khrushchev refrigerator into a window

The refrigerator compartment, which is located under the window sill in the kitchen, is familiar to many who live or have lived in houses built in the sixties and seventies of the last century.

The architectural element was provided by the builders for the purpose of:

saving precious square meters small apartments;
obtaining an alternative to a refrigerator, which was difficult to buy in those years.

Features of the built-in compartment

Purpose

Khrushchev refrigerator is a fairly voluminous niche under the kitchen window sill, which allows you to store kitchen items(dishes), and in the cold season, perishable foods.

Design

The thickness of the back wall is only half a brick. It is equipped with a hole for cold air to enter for ventilation. The interior space of the refrigerator is separated from the kitchen only by the compartment door.

And, like any window element, over time it ceases to effectively perform its functions, allowing access to cold air. Therefore, how to insulate a refrigerator under a window in winter is a pressing issue for many residents.

Note! External air entering the niche through the ventilation hole has low humidity, which contributes to the absence of frost (condensation) on stored products.

Advantages

The architectural solution for equipping an additional niche in the kitchen has certain advantages:

ease of access and ease of use;
a good alternative to a refrigerator at zero financial cost;
additional freezer compartment in winter.

Flaws

Connected to the window sill kitchen compartment whole line problems. Due to the fact that the outer wall is thin, it almost always freezes in winter.

As a result, a fungus appears on the walls of the Khrushchev refrigerator, which is not so easy to remove. In addition, the air temperature in the kitchen and throughout the apartment is significantly reduced.

To solve this problem, you need to know how to insulate a refrigerator under a window? Properly done thermal insulation of a window-sill refrigerator will significantly save heat in the apartment, as well as avoid fungus on the internal walls of the compartment.

Refrigerator conversion methods

There are several ways to bring the refrigerator compartment to the desired state.

The main ones:

complete sealing of the niche under the window. The result is good thermal insulation of the kitchen. You can provide a small recess on the wall for installing a heating battery under the window;
equip a cabinet for storing kitchen utensils that are not afraid low temperatures. To do this, it is necessary to thoroughly insulate the walls to prevent the penetration of cold and also carry out insulation plastic windows(see also article);
Properly carry out thermal insulation and equip the refrigeration compartment to use it for its intended purpose - for storing perishable foods and pickles.

Thermal insulation of the refrigerator compartment

Insulating a niche under a window

You can properly insulate the niche under the window sill with your own hands. A short instruction will help you equip and bring the department into the desired condition.

The main task is to equip a practical, useful, convenient refrigeration compartment under the window, which will fit perfectly into modern interior kitchens after renovation.

The main element of the refrigerator, which is responsible for thermal insulation, is the inner door. It is this that should provide maximum thermal protection for the kitchen space. A metal-plastic door will cope with the task perfectly;

Advice! The door should be selected from the same profile as the kitchen window. Since it is quite wide, it is advisable to make the door single-leaf.

It is better to use a two-chamber package (sandwich panel) as a filler;

The simplest fittings can be installed to save financial resources. There is no point in installing a fanlight system, since the dimensions of the door do not allow it;

The metal-plastic structure is attached to the side walls of the compartment under the window using anchors. The structure is sealed from the bottom and top polyurethane foam;

Note! Using a sliding system or sliding doors as an internal door significantly reduces the effectiveness of the thermal insulation of a Khrushchev refrigerator. The price of such systems is higher than that of a metal-plastic structure.

For an aesthetic appearance, it is enough to decorate the interior of the refrigerator with plasterboard, cover it with plastic, or simply plaster it;

The external ventilation hole should not be tightly closed (foamed, covered with polystyrene foam). If cold outside air is supplied in sufficient quantity, the formation of frost and condensation inside the niche will be avoided. It is enough to seal the hole with thermal insulating mineral wool (Read also article);

Advice! For the convenience of using such a window-sill refrigerator, you can organize lighting using a converter for low voltage(12V, 24V).

Insulated and initially finished niche

It is enough to cover the rear outer wall with moisture-resistant plasterboard or use insulation for refrigeration chambers.

Note! It is not recommended to make a three-dimensional structure, since condensation will form between the insulation and the wall, which will subsequently lead to the formation of mold and mildew.

The material suitable for drywall is Porilex, which is a thin (about 4 mm) but rather dense foam rubber covered with foil. Due to the heat-reflecting properties of the foil, the heat reflection coefficient is equal to that of foam plastic having a thickness of 60 mm. Porilex adheres easily and conveniently.

Advice! When installing, it is necessary to ensure a gap of 10 mm between the plasterboard and the Porylex to minimize condensation.

Drywall is puttied and, if necessary, painted;

The ideal option is when the apartment is insulated from the outside with mineral wool or polystyrene foam boards. In this case, the issue of insulating the rear wall disappears by itself;

If there is no external insulation, then it would be advisable to lay an additional row of bricks. In any case, the depth of the niche will be enough to accommodate food and necessary kitchen items;

At the last stage, drawers or shelves are equipped;

When installing a niche under the window and simultaneously replacing the kitchen window, you can consider increasing the height of the built-in refrigerator.

Today, the refrigerator has become an integral part of kitchen appliances. It allows you to store a lot of products, but also takes up a significant part of the room. However, in small Khrushchev-era kitchens it can be quite difficult to fit a large refrigerator. Many are forced to resort to non-standard solutions and build a special refrigeration device under the window.

Advantages and disadvantages of a refrigerator under the window

Winter has a number important advantages, among which the most important are:

the emergence of another place for storing preserved food;
Great freezer for the winter months;
saving valuable space;
possibility of purchasing a smaller refrigerator;
significant energy savings;
ease of cleaning;
minimal consumption of materials to create a refrigeration chamber, as well as ease of repair and dismantling.

However, a refrigerator under the window can also have serious disadvantages. In some cases, it causes the following undesirable phenomena:

lowering the air temperature in the kitchen, because to arrange a niche, apartment owners are forced to move the heating to the side from the window;
the appearance of mold and mildew due to high humidity and significant temperature changes;
the need for frequent maintenance of the refrigerator, as moisture constantly accumulates in it.

Attention! In such a refrigerator you can store only those products that do not lose their taste under the influence of frost.

Creating a refrigerator under the window

According to GOST, the thickness of brick walls varies from 0.51 to 0.64 m (laying 2-2.5 bricks). At the same time, the thickness of the wall in the recess does not exceed 0.45 m, as a result of which it is colder there. During the construction of Khrushchev houses, well-type masonry was used (slag was poured between the voids for insulation). Therefore, under kitchen window You can remove one row of bricks and in this way increase the capacity of the niche.

After all the manipulations, the thickness of the wall will be only 0.25 m. But thanks to the concrete lintels located above the window opening, as well as with careful intervention, the integrity of the wall is guaranteed. Then you need to insert a ventilation hole equipped with a damper. With its help you can lower or increase the temperature in the niche.

The partition between the room and the street must be plastered with a mixture of cement and sand, and then putty applied.

Great option interior decoration The refrigeration unit is smooth tile. So, it needs to be placed on the plaster, and for reliable fastening, use frost-resistant tile adhesive. In addition, it is appropriate to use sandwich panels for these purposes. This type of work does not require special knowledge, so it can be done by the owner of the apartment independently.

Refrigerator exterior

When arranging a refrigerator, you need to pay attention to its aesthetic side. In this sense important role play well-chosen doors, which should harmoniously fit into the overall interior of the kitchen. In addition, a high-quality product will not let cold air into the room. Therefore, you can resort to the following niche design options:

Attention! The doors need to be hung perfectly evenly so that they fit as tightly as possible to each other and do not let heat into the niche.

Quite often, sliding doors are chosen for niches rather than hinged ones, which save space. In addition, they are easy to make even with your own hands. To do this, you need to buy plastic guides and securely attach them to the window sill and floor. Then blanks from fiberboard should be inserted into them.

Remodeling and dismantling the refrigerator under the window

After purchasing an apartment, new owners often find a ready-made winter refrigerator in the kitchen. However, it is often in a neglected state. If the owners decide that this device will be useful, then they have to carry out complete redesign niches.

Refrigerator conversion

First, you need to remove all the old parts of the structure, because mold could already be growing there. After thorough cleaning and eliminating the fungus, you need to repeat finishing the niche according to the principle that was described earlier.

Sometimes the design of finished refrigerators has a through hole required for the entry of cold air. It is not recommended to completely close it; you can only fix the grille on the outside and carefully fill the hole itself with mineral wool. It will partially limit the air flow, but will help maintain the optimal temperature inside the niche.

Refrigerator dismantling

Not all apartment owners need winter refrigerators, so many prefer to completely disassemble the device. To do this, you just need to fill the niche with bricks, cover this part of the wall with plaster and complete the decorative finishing. At the same time, it is forbidden to seal the finished refrigeration chamber with plasterboard, as it quickly becomes unusable due to the high humidity in the niche.

In some cases, the recess is not bricked, but insulated with expanded polystyrene. Then you can conveniently place, for example, a microwave oven in it. If you dismantle the window sill, then even a gas stove can easily fit in the niche. As a result, when preparing food, it will be ensured good ventilation, and will also free up space for a regular refrigerator.

Thus, a refrigerator under the window is an excellent option to save space in a small kitchen in Khrushchev. Besides interesting design niches can give a room original look. However, such a design requires compliance with certain rules of arrangement, as well as careful care during its use.

The Khrushchev refrigerator was placed under the window sill due to the small kitchen area of the apartments of the same name. Modern tendencies in construction allow for high-quality redevelopment. There are several options for how to remake a Khrushchev refrigerator with your own hands.

In a small kitchen, you can successfully use the space occupied by the refrigerator as a kitchen cabinet, niche, etc. You can also restore it and use it to store canned goods and other products in cold weather. If there is no need for such options, it is possible to dismantle the refrigerator cabinet and close the niche. And besides this, you can disassemble the partition and install a French window. Let's consider the order of work and the advantages of each option.

Conversion of a Khrushchev refrigerator into a cabinet.

To convert a Khrushchev refrigerator into a kitchen cabinet, you should dismantle the old doors and clean the space under the window sill. If you plan to replace a window and window sill, it is better to combine these works. At the same time, it is also worth considering the option of raising the window sill to the height of the remaining kitchen surfaces or combining it with work surface. This will give a single harmonious image to the kitchen and will also save space.

Insulation is considered the most important when carrying out work, because the “winter” refrigerator is separated from the street by a thin partition, only half a brick long. Such a design was necessary to create the required temperature in the refrigerator, but during refurbishment this will cause unnecessary heat loss in the room and the development of fungus in the room. interior wall due to condensation occurring.

It would be best to lay another layer of brick on the mortar and fill all the cracks with foam. If the apartment is insulated from the outside, then such actions will be unnecessary. You need to attach a vapor barrier or thermal insulation to the brickwork and cover the back and side walls of the niche with plasterboard or lay tiles.

After this, you need to install the shelves. They can be made of any material: chipboard, glass, etc. The height and number of shelves should be measured against your needs. Doors for the cabinet can be ordered from furniture manufacturers so that it is in harmony with kitchen set. You can also install plastic or glass doors.

Restoration of a Khrushchev refrigerator.

If the decision is made that an additional refrigerated cabinet is needed, the conversion will not take much time. The Khrushchev refrigerator is a niche with doors into which ventilation is provided from the street. Ventilation should be given special attention, and a decision on its necessity should be made. If you leave it, you may encounter the fact that in severe frosts the temperature in the refrigerator will drop below 0°, and the food that is in it, and this is often canned food, will freeze. If the ventilation hole is sealed, then at an outside temperature in the range of -10..-20°, in the refrigerator the temperature will be about +8..+10°. This is quite enough for its functionality. But blowing foam or sealing the vent hole with mortar is not recommended. The best option would be thermal insulation material, mineral wool, etc.

The inside of the cabinet can be lined with plastic or moisture-resistant plasterboard. If necessary, it is allowed to provide lighting. In this case, it is recommended to connect the power supply from low voltage or you can use an LED strip.

The Khrushchev refrigerator will cope with its task if you install sealed doors so that warm air does not enter it and cold air does not penetrate into the room. The ideal solution in this case is a metal-plastic door. It can be ordered in the required sizes, and installation does not require much effort. In addition, it can act as an additional support for the window sill.

To make it more original appearance, the door can be made of glass, with sliding doors.

French window instead of a Khrushchev refrigerator.

Since the back wall of the refrigerator does not bear any load, it can be disassembled. However, you should first obtain permission from the relevant authorities, because this refurbishment will involve external wall. It is also worth comparing the advantages and disadvantages of this option: a kitchen with a French window looks original and unusual, it is lighter, but the functionality of the room becomes less. Not every housewife will like the absence of a window sill and an extra closet.

Having made this decision, it is necessary to dismantle the Khrushchev refrigerator, window sill and window and dismantle the brickwork. You can install a French window yourself or order installation from specialists. After completing all the work, you will need to seal the slopes. Choice optimal option depends on the design and appearance of the kitchen. This could be plastic, plaster, painting, etc.

To increase the functionality of the kitchen, you can move it to the window work area: frying surface, washbasin, and in the niche equip a cabinet for storing kitchen utensils.

If you decide to completely abandon the cabinet and other improvements, you can dismantle the Khrushchev refrigerator and create a niche. This is done using brickwork across the entire width of the opening. Exterior finishing made by plastering or attaching plasterboard. You can also lay tiles if it fits into the overall interior of the room.

Video instruction

It’s hard to imagine modern life without the conveniences that have become commonplace and familiar. This includes a refrigerator. It is convenient to store food in it, it allows you not to prepare food for one day, but it has one drawback - the space it takes up. In Khrushchev's houses, kitchens were very small and every square centimeter counted, which is why many choose to build a refrigerator under the window.

Benefits of a winter refrigerator

The design of a refrigerator under a window has its advantages and disadvantages. Before constructing or modernizing it, it is worth weighing them carefully. Among the advantages it is worth noting:

possibility of using a smaller refrigerator;
extra bed for storing twists;
energy saving;
ease of maintenance;
no complicated repairs.

The disadvantage of this solution is the possibility of mold appearing due to temperature changes. Also, when organizing such a refrigerator, you will need to move the heating radiator away from the window. The consequence of this may be a decrease in the temperature in the kitchen. This is due to the fact that warm air ceases to be a barrier to the penetration of cold air. A refrigerator without electricity requires constant maintenance, which consists of removing moisture and frost from it. Not every product is suitable for storage in such a refrigerator, since some are not allowed to freeze.

DIY making

Decorating a winter refrigerator with your own hands can be quite an interesting experience. You can implement interesting ideas for decoration or alternative use of a winter refrigerator. At the same time, you should be patient, because it will take not so much effort as time to use the space in the best possible way. The main challenge that will be faced is to make the niche such that it is airtight and practical enough so that its use does not affect the heating bills.

Niche finishing

There is already a small niche under the window sill, but it will not be enough to make a winter refrigerator of this design. Therefore, steps will have to be taken to deepen it. The first step is to remove any wallpaper that may be there. The next step is dismantling finishing materials, which are represented by plaster and putty. The easiest way to knock them down is to use a hammer drill or chisel. The latter option will take a long time and require significant expenditure of force. It is better to rent a power tool. You don’t have to worry that the strength of the wall will be compromised, because there is a concrete crossbar under the window that holds the weight. In most cases, well masonry was used in Khrushchev houses, which involves filling insulation between two rows of bricks. Only the first one needs to be deleted.

The insulation is also removed along with it. At the same time, the temperature under the window will drop significantly, which is what is required for a winter refrigerator. In order not to overdo it with the recess, you need to be guided by the size of the brick. Its length is 25 cm, which is exactly how much is required to reach the insulation layer. The external brick wall must be finished so that it does not collapse. For these purposes, bricks are coated with an antiseptic and plastered. If you want to achieve an ideal result, then it is better to use beacons, which will allow you to apply the same layer of plaster over the entire surface.

Advice! Before plastering, you must carefully inspect the wall for cracks. It is important to seal them so that moisture from rainwater does not get inside. When it freezes, further destruction will occur.

Do not think that dampness will not appear in the winter refrigerator. It is important to anticipate this and do everything to eliminate it. After the plaster has cured, you can proceed to laying the vapor-permeable membrane. It will allow air exchange in the winter refrigerator, which will reduce the unpleasant effect. Further finishing of the winter refrigerator from the inside can be done using plastic panels. If you want to lay ceramic or other tiles, then after plastering they can be glued with glue that is resistant to low temperatures. Nice tile will provide additional waterproofing, it is also easy to clean and wash. Additional finishing ideas can be found in the video.

Doors

No winter refrigerator would be complete without doors. This is also true for Khrushchev’s winter refrigerator. The design of doors should be approached with all seriousness. They must have high tightness so that air from the room does not penetrate into the refrigerator, and from it into the room. If this is not observed, then the floor will always blow cold. A harmonious solution would be to use doors with the same finish as the entire kitchen. But such doors are unlikely to guarantee the required tightness for the refrigerator. One of best options There will be a metal-plastic structure with double-glazed windows. Due to the presence of chambers in double-glazed windows, thermal conductivity is minimal. In order to best mount the doors on winter construction, there are a few things to consider:

proper finishing of refrigerator slopes;
correct choice of refrigerator opening design.

In order for the door frame to fall into place, care must be taken to ensure that the slope angles are maintained at 90 degrees. This applies to cases where installation is planned on a wooden or aluminum base. If we are talking about a metal-plastic structure, then all the shortcomings can be easily hidden with polyurethane foam, which is cut off and covered with putty. Many found it inconvenient to use a winter refrigerator sliding doors made of aluminum profile. This is due to the fact that it is impossible to place or place bulky products inside the winter refrigerator, since half of the opening always remains closed. Similar problems are observed when there is a central bar for fixing doors. You can do without it if a metal-plastic structure is used, since the doors will be fixed into the upper and lower bars.

If you want to install wooden doors yourself, then you will need to properly secure the hinges for the doors. From the corner of the facade it is necessary to make a gap of 20 mm to the groove in which the hinge will be placed. Depending on which facade was chosen, the size from the central part of the loop to its end can be from 75 mm. With significant weight of doors for a winter refrigerator, two hinges may not be enough, so an additional one is mounted in the middle. To make a groove for hinges in the doors of a winter refrigerator, you need to make a recess with an end mill. The latter will be needed with a diameter of 35 mm. On the cutter, it is better to mark in advance the depth to which it needs to be immersed, so as not to spoil the facades.

The second part of the refrigerator door hinges is fixed to the wall plane. To do this correctly, you need to fix them on the refrigerator door, and then attach and apply the appropriate marks. After this, holes are drilled in the slopes with a hammer drill and plastic dowels are inserted. If the decision was made to separate inner space tiles, then in the first stage you should drill without using a hammer to go through the thickness of the tiles. The hinges are pressed against the wall plane with self-tapping screws and are adjusted by a built-in mechanism to achieve a minimum gap between the refrigerator doors.

Note! In case of use wooden doors You will definitely need a crossbar in the middle, which will increase the tightness.

Refinement of the existing structure

When moving into some apartments, you may be surprised to find that they already have a Khrushchev-style winter refrigerator, which requires improvement. In this case, it is important to decide whether it is really needed and how to improve it. If the decision has been made to keep the refrigerator and use it, then maintenance will be required. The first step is to dismantle all its internal components. There may be mold or mildew that needs to be removed. Finishing is carried out according to the principle described above. Often in finished designs of winter refrigerators you can find a through hole, which was used for the flow of cold air. There is no need to completely eliminate it; it will be enough to secure the grille from the outside and place it in the hole. mineral wool. It will limit the flow, but will allow you to maintain a good temperature inside the refrigerator.

If there is no particular desire to have such a design for a winter refrigerator, then it can be completely eliminated. To do this, the niche must be bricked and plastered, and then proceed to finishing. You cannot seal a finished refrigerator from the inside using drywall. It will collapse from constant exposure to moisture and fungus will develop. If it was decided to leave a small niche, then a heating radiator can be placed in it. It can also be used for storage household utensils. In the opening where the refrigerator used to be, several shelves are installed on which jars of pickles can be placed.

There is another option for using a niche where the winter refrigerator used to be located. You don’t have to seal it up, but leave it as is. But you will additionally need to insulate it with extruded polystyrene foam. Thanks to this, it will be possible to shift the dew point outside the room. You can install it in a ready-made niche electric oven or microwave, which will save significant space. You can dismantle the window sill and place it in the resulting niche gas stove. This will provide excellent ventilation when cooking, and will also free up space for installing a full-fledged refrigerator. Interesting solution is the installation of a French window. Its height will be from floor to ceiling. But to install it, you will need to remove the remaining brick partition. Thanks to this solution, the kitchen will visually look larger.

Summary

As you can see, the winter refrigerator can be an indispensable assistant V household. In addition, the niche it occupies can be easily and tastefully converted. Some people use the window sill as an extension of the table top, with drawers placed in the niche. If the winter refrigerator in Khrushchev is made with transparent double-glazed windows, then inside you can install lighting from a sealed LED strip. Instead of transparent glass, you can mount mirrors that will expand the kitchen space. Interesting ideas How you can use the space from the winter refrigerator can be left in the comments to the article.

Everyone is probably hooked on the architectural miracle called the “Khrushchev refrigerator.” So in our apartment there is this masterpiece of engineering. The first winter after purchasing this apartment, for a long time we could not find a source of cold. It seems that everything is insulated, the heating is good, and the temperature of the house does not rise above 16 degrees. The source of the cold turned out to be Khrushchev's refrigerator.

The lower edge of the niche is located below the level of the wooden flooring, so the cold from the street went directly under the floor, from where it successfully spread throughout the apartment. And there was no shortage of cold, since, as it turned out after dismantling the box, there were through gaps between the bricks in the wall to the street.

Now, let's talk about what we did.

To make it clearer what we see in the photo, I’ll explain that the work on insulating the refrigerator was combined with work on replacing plastic window sill over it. The first thing we did was tear out the box (seen in the first photo). Then I sealed the cracks in the brickwork. I decorated this entire niche beautifully with brick and evenly plastered it.

I installed plasterboard panels on top of Porilex. For better thermal insulation, it is desirable that there be a gap of at least 10 millimeters between the panels and Porilex, but I, saving the small space of the refrigerator, installed them closely. Fastened with screws directly through the thermal insulation.

The top of the drywall was puttied and painted.

I installed plywood on top, and then a new window sill. The space between the plywood and the window sill was foamed.

That's all. Now the Khrushchev refrigerator has turned into a slightly cool cabinet. All that remains is to hang beautiful doors on it, attach a casing around the perimeter and make a shelf.

We have already survived one winter with the new refrigerator. The temperature in the apartment rose by an average of four degrees.

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User comments:

And once upon a time, a “cellar in an apartment” was a popular accessory :) I remember, as a child, string bags with groceries hung outside the window of almost every kitchen in the winter. Or boxes like parcel boxes or vegetable boxes. Now the “miracle of architecture” has become not only unnecessary, but also harmful.

It’s strange, I live in a “Khrushchevka”, and I’ve been to many “Khrushchevka” buildings, but I haven’t seen such a “miracle” anywhere. Usually there is always a battery under the windowsill. Architects of that time were quirky. Well, it turned out beautifully, and the floors changed, a completely different look. I can imagine how this closet looked there before.

We have a battery to the right of the window (it is not visible in the photo). And he looked really disgusting. It’s also good that there were just cracks in the brickwork. And I looked in some apartments in general, just stupidly one brick was taken out and there was a hidden through hole on the street. Maybe when they heated it in a normal way, this refrigerator didn’t cause much harm... But now they save money... they only heat it so as not to freeze...

Today, many people close up such a refrigerator, turning it simply into an additional cabinet. I was interested in the information about Porilex, thank you. Our panel house is made up of two boxes almost side by side. Our apartment is at the junction, the side wall is freezing, and there is no way to get to it from the outside to insulate it: a very narrow gap. Now I'll try to use Porilex for internal lining walls.

The renovation turned your Khrushchev refrigerator into an excellent built-in cabinet, which will not be out of place in the kitchen. If it's also cool, then it's perfect place for homemade marinades, which benefit from lower temperatures. Many people fill this niche tightly, but I would be sorry to lose additional storage space in the kitchen.

And I always feel sorry when a winter refrigerator in a Khrushchev-era building is sealed up or turned into an ordinary cupboard; nevertheless, it is a very convenient device for storing food. I would rather insulate the doors themselves so that the cold does not penetrate into the room, and keep the refrigerator just in case. For example, during the holidays I really don’t have enough space for food in a regular refrigerator.