Advantages of a drywall niche, varieties, design and calculation of materials, installation of structures and plasterboard cladding, features of finishing and decorative work. You can create niches from gypsum plasterboard in any room: hall, bedroom, bathroom, corridor, balcony. In each of them, it will perform its functions.
In modern apartments, you can find several types of niches and partitions that can be made using drywall. Their design depends entirely on what they serve. Decorative ones are placed in the hall, living room, bedroom, above the windows. Their function is to create an original design in the room, zoning the room. They can accommodate paintings, figurines, vases, books, spotlights (sometimes colored).
Functional niches can be found in any room of the apartment, including a toilet and a balcony. In the bedroom, such niches are used to accommodate wardrobes or a dressing room. In the toilet, they are used to store hygiene items, cleaning and detergents.
With the correct design of a niche in a plasterboard wall, you can visually adjust the space. So, if it is horizontal, then with its help you can make the wall wider. The vertical niche will emphasize the height of the ceilings. The two-level decoration of the wall and ceiling can make the interior exclusive and unique. Thus, the geometry of the room breaks down and a unique design is created.
It is worth noting that this type of work can be performed independently, without involving outside workers and with small financial investments. Indeed, among the large assortment of building materials, it is drywall that is considered the best option for finishing work. But, if you do not know how to make a drywall niche, contact professional designers who will help you put together an interesting project.
Please note that before starting the process of installing a niche, you need to decide on its purpose. This will allow you to make the correct calculation of materials for the frame and sheathing.
Preparatory work before installing a drywall niche
Before starting work, it is necessary to carefully measure your future design and draw up a drawing of it. If a niche is planned for household appliances, then you should definitely take into account the gap for natural ventilation of the air and prevent heating of the drywall. If you plan to bring electrical wiring into the structure, then mark this point on your plan.
In addition, you should decide in advance on the type of drywall and frame material. When building a drawing, they must also be taken into account. In the decoration of premises, as a rule, wall drywall (12.5 mm thick), ceiling (9.5 mm), arched (6.5 mm) is used. It is also recommended to use either universal gypsum plasterboards, when it comes to bedrooms, living rooms, or moisture resistant, if you plan to create a niche in the bathroom, kitchen.
The next step is to calculate the required amount of consumables. To build a niche, you will need: profile guides, drywall profiles, self-tapping screws, tools for working with metal, corners, levels, drill, drills, screwdrivers, hacksaw.
For the guides, you can choose wooden or metal profiles, judging by the photo of niches in the plasterboard wall. The first option has a number of disadvantages, including the specifics of wood processing, exposure to temperature changes, which can negatively affect the shape of the niche itself. The best option is metal rails made of aluminum. The material is easy to process, lightweight, and easily changes its shape.
Before starting work, the plan of your future design is applied to the wall, indicating the locations of shelves, sockets, lamps, arches, and curly elements. Thus, the installation process is greatly facilitated.
Before applying the plan of the future structure to the surface of the wall, it is necessary to clean it of dirt and assess its evenness. This is quite simple to do - place the rail against the wall and see how it fits. Small bumps can be easily removed with a chisel. If necessary, the wall can be plastered.
Installation of a frame for a niche on a plasterboard wall
The metal frame of the future niche should be assembled clearly along the drawn contours. We carry out the work in this order:
- We place the guides and fix them with dowels strictly along the marking lines in increments of no more than 40 cm. If your design has straight lines, then this operation will not be difficult. The process will be more difficult if the niche is provided with curved lines. Then you will have to cut the profile at the bend and give it the desired angle. In modern stores, you can find guide designs of various shapes. This will make the job much easier.
- When the guides are fixed, we make the future structure three-dimensional. To do this, we attach profiles to the ceiling and floor. Moreover, their ends must be made strictly vertical. Therefore, when carrying out this stage of work, it is imperative to use a level.
- To create the front side of our structure, we bend the profiles at an angle of 90 degrees. Then we fix it on vertical guides with self-tapping screws.
When creating a metal frame for a drywall niche, remember that a polyurethane tape should be laid between the concrete main wall and the profiles.
If you envisage creating a niche in a backlit drywall wall, then before starting the installation of the box it is worth planning its placement. The future location of the backlight must be applied to the wall when marking out the structure. Thanks to the plastic concealed boxes, you do not have to lay the strobe in the wall. And the wiring itself from the junction box can be started up under the baseboard.
If the design of a niche in a plasterboard wall is small in size and simple lines, and the installation surface is smooth and even, then you can assemble the metal frame from the profiles separately on the floor, and then fix the finished structure on the wall.
Important! This operation requires constant use of the level. This will produce a flat surface with rectangular corners. In addition, do not forget about the square.
Installation of shelves and stiffeners for a drywall niche
The presence of shelves inside the niche makes it more rigid and stable. Their installation is carried out in several stages:
- The first step is to determine the location of their future location and make a mark.
- Then we set the plane using a level and a square.
- After that, we fix the shelf using self-tapping screws. To give it rigidity and stability, it is necessary to strengthen the structure from the inside using load-bearing profiles.
This procedure is especially important in the manufacture of a wardrobe. After all, the load on the shelves in it will be higher than in a conventional niche. If you plan to install shelves in a niche that are not decorative, but functional, then you should make them not from gypsum plasterboard, but from plywood or chipboard. In this case, only profiles are initially prepared for them, and their installation is carried out at the stage of finishing work.
If shelves are not provided in your design, then the presence of stiffeners must be taken into account. They can be made of wood or metal profiles. This moment is especially relevant if your niche is located from ceiling to floor. When sheathing the structure, additional fastening of drywall sheets will be made on them.
Niche cladding technology with drywall sheets
When carrying out cladding, it is important to remember some important points:
- We start fixing the gypsum board on the box with geometrically irregular elements or small fragments. We cut them out and immediately try on the installation site for the future. If necessary, we can adjust the size. After that, you can drill a hole in the drywall. In this case, the size of the drill should be slightly larger than the self-tapping screw. This is due to the need to completely "drown" the head of the fastener in the drywall.
- When decorating the interior of a niche, it is best to use one continuous sheet. Thus, the structure will receive greater rigidity.
- Lastly, we sheathe the front part of the box with drywall sheets.
Remember the rule that GCR joints should not be allowed near openings and corners. Also, you cannot interrupt the sheet at the end and beginning of the niche, its ends must necessarily go into it.
The plating process will be easier and faster if there are few curved, small elements and joints in the frame. This is especially important if you are new to the business.
To keep your niche soundproof, lay a layer of mineral wool or foam inside it. With small structures in the hall, this is not particularly relevant. However, in the case of installing a niche in a toilet, bedroom or bathroom, the installation of soundproofing is an important point. Otherwise, any sound will be echoed.
For simplicity of further finishing and ease of joining drywall sheets, it is recommended to chamfer them before installation.
Rules for finishing a drywall niche
After you have sheathed the niche with drywall, you will need to carry out finishing work. You should start with puttying seams and grooves from self-tapping screws.
We carry out the work in this order:
- We sew the corners with a float, and the joints with a knife.
- We check the horizontal lines and fix the perforated corner using a stapler.
- We apply the starting composition of the putty to the seams and, while it is not dry, we fix the serpyanka.
- Apply the next layer of putty and carefully level it with a spatula.
- With a narrow spatula we apply putty to the places where the screws are deepened into the gypsum board.
- We wait until the putty is completely dry and proceed to the grouting procedure with sandpaper.
- The finished niche, as a rule, is painted with acrylic or water-dispersion paint or pasted over with wallpaper.
You do not need to putty the structure if you plan to put tiles, artificial stone, etc. on it in the future. You can walk on the surface with a primer. This will improve the adhesion properties of the drywall.
If you plan to install lamps or lighting in a plasterboard niche, then it must be carried out at the stage when the structure is completely assembled and putty.
Quite often, the inner surfaces of niches are finished with mirrors, glass or decorative elements. Such decoration must be planned in advance when drawing up a plan for a future design. The installation of these elements is carried out immediately after sheathing the box with plasterboard before carrying out the putty and painting work. To secure them, additional fasteners are used (corners, staples, liquid nails, etc.).
There are a couple of the most popular ways to decorate drywall niches. This is its decoration in the same colors as the whole room, or a color accent on it by means of a darker paint. However, it is not recommended to paint niches in too dark colors, otherwise they will create the effect of "holes". This is very striking, especially if the walls are light in color.
If your niche is small, then it can be painted from the inside with paint a couple of tones lighter than the rest of the walls. In this case, small things on the shelves will look more attractive. It is possible to design a small niche in the wall using an unusual picture frame.
How to make a niche in a drywall wall with your own hands - look at the video:
You don't have to be a professional builder to create an original and functional niche. It is enough to stock up on the necessary materials and tools, as well as imagination and the desire to significantly update the old boring design of the premises without large financial costs.
