Bunk bed or loft beds

[Booksandpens]

We need to sort out the children's room, but if we buy the furniture, it has to last until they move out basically. We live in a 2 bed house, so the children are sharing. Same sex so no issue with sharing as teenagers.

At the moment, we have 2 single beds in their room, but we need more storage for clothes. The 2 options I can think of is to get 2 loft beds with wardrobes and desk underneath, or get a bunk bed, freeing up space for more storage where the second bed used to be. I think the loft beds may be useful for longer, but bunk beds are so much cheaper and closer to our preferred budget, so I would like to know if you have experience with either of the beds, and what is the best solution for a room that needs to be shared until they move out?
We've probably got another 12/15 years before that happens so it needs to work long term.
Thanks

Id go down the separate loft beds with desk under. Bunks are crap for one persona clambering in and out at a different time to the other.

Ikea have some decent cheaper ones.

Loft beds better for the kids long term.

Neither are great!!

I wonder about offset bunks?

11+ they like to lounge on their beds etc.

How big is the bedroom? I would be investing in very good storage and keep standard beds.

Thanks, I thought bunks weren't going to be too popular.

The bedroom is a big double bedroom, it's meant to be the master room. The current wardrobe is full of wasted space, so maybe a better wardrobe would be the answer. It's tricky to know what is the best for so many stages, as children keep changing their needs.

Is there room for 2x three quarter beds? One against each wall. Shelf above/alongside for bits and bobs. A skinny tall wardrobe each. Put desk space elsewhere in the house when they get to rhe age they need it.

We lived 6 in a tiny 3 bed - you need to use the height of the room. Wardrobe - built in with 2 tails one set up high and the other underneath so double hanging space. Tall drawers or floor to ceiling shelves - much easier to find folded clothes on shallow shelves than in drawers.

How old are the DC now?

DCs are 6 and 3. So already the loft bed isn't great for the youngest at this stage.
Eldest likes their own space, which is why we thought a loft bed could be the answer, but maybe a curtain or partition between the beds would be better.

Can you do a floor plan? I would look at dividing the room somehow.

I once had a place where the room had a bed base platform into the room next to it.

Is there space to steal from rooms next door?

I remember seeing something, possibly on Pinterest or Facebook, where a room was divided for kids using something similar to Kallax so they had storage too. It would depend on the layout of that was possible though.

I would stick to single beds* and look at a combination of ruthless & regular decluttering, and really good storage.

*I can't see bunk beds or loft beds working for older teenagers or young adults.

Agree with @DisplayPurposesOnly you really don't need loads of stuff or clothes!

What about ottoman beds or beds with drawers underneath? As a kid I had the latter and all my clothes lived under there - didn't have a chest of drawers.

Not the best floor plan but hopefully you get the idea.
We have a 16 box kallax that we could use as a divider, but I'm worried it'll just be a recipe for even more mess (although looking at the room now, I don't think it could get much more untidy...)

Best thing we got were freestanding pull out drawers under the bed - robust, full depth. One contained all the duplo

I was wondering about a bed with drawers, but I don't know if we have enough space to open them as the children seem to spread their toys everywhere.

At the moment, we have a spare mattress under one bed, and all the outgrown clothes of DC1 in boxes ready for DC2 under the other.

I'd get Ikea extending beds for now or do the Ikea hack where one bed is a mattress on the floor - do super low bunks.

Keep them in small beds as long as possible then as they get older the toy clutter Shrnks, they need less floor space etc.

What dimension is the room?

Do you have toys downstairs too?

Clothes can go in the loft space?

Wardrobe needs to be ceiling height - stuff stored out of reach such as out of season clothes etc

Toys are mostly upstairs, but we are thinking of doing the toy rotation system to get rid of the toys from the room. It's a big project though because we need to clear the space somewhere else to make it happen.

Yes yes to toy rotation! We had trofast so in the tall units the top couple of boxes (huge ones) and stuff on top was out of reach.

If you ask the DC to split into one to keep and one to go it's very enlightening what they choose.

Also some could just go up in loft for 6 months whilst you get on top of it?

The loft isn't boarded up, so we can't put much up there, without all the insulation losing it's efficiency. But I think we can free up space, and if we concentrate on the wardrobe/kallax area, we might find we have a lot more room to play.

If you are there for the long term I would get your lift boarded out!

Also consider offset bunks - at right angles to one another.

I think I would go for two cabin beds, off set at opposite ends of the room with storage each at 'their' bed head end. There are not that may clothes you need to hang up for young DC. We only hang 8yo DS's school blazer!

Like this.