Bedrooms in American TV houses?

[bluebluezoo]

Watching This Is Us- one of the brothers is very well off, the size of his house is commented on regularly, a thing is made that it has a huge kitchen etc etc...

Yet it appears to only have 3 bedrooms, one being a small single. Any visitors sleep on the couch, in the basement, or one of the dd’s give up their room for guests.

Same in nearly every tv show, guests always on the couch. The OC, another massive house yet only 2 beds as Ryan stays in the poolhouse or the sofa.

Is there some weird US architecture that means houses have massive downstairs and tiny upstairs?

It’s really annoying me now! Along with how labour always starts with waters breaking with no warning, and an immediate rush to the hospital while millions of friends sit in the waiting area.

That house in This is Us has a huge master bedroom - must take up a large part of the upstairs floor.

I have just watched the episode when they are at the hospital awaiting the birth - the whole family was there all night, not just the immediate family but sibling's wives and partners too. Some from the other side of the country! Surely that's not normal - the whole family seems quite 'suffocating'.

We definitely don't do enough American property porn on MN.
£500k for 2 beds+1 bath in Pasadena in so-so area - the pictures are terrible. ime, the host family would probably move the kids onto sofa for 1 night & let guests have the kids' bedroom.

I’m addicted to American interior design/house flip programmes and they definitely do seem to have fewer bedrooms upstairs. Master bedroom suite downstairs also seems to be a very desirable thing which must eat into loads of the space. They also legally have to have a built in closet in a room in order for it to be classed as a bedroom which takes up more space.

@PLAYJAJADINGDONG

Hahaha yes!

Gilmore Girls is a case in point!

Lorelai and Rory, JUST Lorelai and Rory, live in this not insubstantial dwelling (see Exhibit A).

Yet Rory's bedroom is off the KITCHEN and is pokey as hell (see Exhibit B).

Huh 🤷

Sorry but the Gilmore Girls house makes sense! The house is only as wide as the living room (looks bigger in the pic because of the wraparound porch) upstairs is a a large master, full bath and the landing. The upstairs floor area is less than the downstairs by a reasonable bit too. Even when they did the reno all they did was extend the bedroom a bit for a bay window, add an en suite thing and a downstairs toilet (which was the cupboard area before).

It was the same in the Roseanne house. Only 2 bedrooms upstairs. But huge space downstairs with dining kitchen, living room, master suite, utility room.

My so called life similar.

But it seems to me that most US TV houses would be called bungalows here- bedrooms tend to be attic ones?

My friends house in the US is like this. Huge lounge/kitchen/diner type space downstairs and then only two bedrooms. In a U.K. house of that size you’d expect to find at least 4, maybe 5 bedrooms

Dream makeover on Netflix is another example where the houses seem huge but kids are still sharing rooms.

I love looking up floor plans

This one can’t be right though

www.deviantart.com/nikneuk/art/House-of-Lorelai-and-Rory-Gilmore-Floorplans-352162395

I don't think it's a whole lot different from here though that most people can't afford a guest room, so yes, people would sleep on the sofa or air mattress somewhere.

The difference is that if you have a massive kitchen and a music room and playroom in a UK house, you’re almost bound to have four or five bedrooms, one of which is likely to be a guest room. The houses without a spare room are likely to be either pretty small in general (or if larger but still don’t have a spare room, it’s because they have lots of children. So not like the US TV land where there are 2 children and a massive house but no spare bedrooms.)

What I hate about US online realty is that very few houses for sale have a floor plan, unless they’re new builds!

[quote Ideasplease322]I love looking up floor plans

This one can’t be right though

www.deviantart.com/nikneuk/art/House-of-Lorelai-and-Rory-Gilmore-Floorplans-352162395[/quote]
It's not, none of the floor plans on Google are right (Lorelai's bedroom is over the living room area for example with the bay looking out to the 'west' of the house).

I live in the US. Our house is a 3 bed with a big deck and yard. What I find weird as a Brit is how much of the house goes beyond necessity, which I think is what you're picking up on in these TV shows. You can buy a similar layout and #beds just a bit larger for up to $500k in our city- they have things like en suites for every bedroom, a workshop etc.

We have 2 dining areas, one off the kitchen and one at the front of the house. We actually don't really know what to do with the grander dining area... a second dining table feels like a waste of space.

The master bedroom takes up pretty much 1/3 of the house, and that's pretty normal! There is a normal size bit for the bed, but then there's a side area the size of a single bedroom which I think is supposed to be a dressing area. The master bathroom has a walk-in closet and is the size of a normal UK master bedroom.

The other 2 bedrooms are quite small. You can fit a double bed in one but probably just 1 single in the other due to the layout of the closets. In America, a bedroom can only be counted as such if it has built-in closet space too, so that can lead to awkward bedroom layouts. There is also a second full bathroom (eg. bath and shower) accessible to the whole house.

It was the same in the Roseanne house. Only 2 bedrooms upstairs. But huge space downstairs with dining kitchen, living room, master suite, utility room.

I don't want to speak for all of the US because it's not possible but master bedrooms on the ground floor seem quite common too, another exchange I went on had a huge downstairs space with master suite downstairs, and 2 small bedrooms upstairs like a dormer bungalow, and I play the Sims and watch US properly programmes and a lot of the houses seem to have a master downstairs.

Malcolm in the Middle, anyone? All the boys share a bedroom but… they have two lounges??? Why not just convert a lounge into a bedroom?

I grew up in a very large house in Massachusetts. It was originally built as a summer “cottage” for a rich Bostonian family and had full staff quarters in the attic. It only had three bedrooms BUT, my parents bedroom was bigger than our entire ground floor here in our 4 bedroom house in Scotland, all 3 bedrooms had full walk in closets and the upstairs hallway could have easily been sliced off into two additional bedrooms if you’d wanted- it was a massive living space on its own.

Most of my friends’ houses were much the same- turn of the (20th) century houses or older didn’t seem to be big on large numbers of bedrooms.

Is it because Americans are more comfortable with room sharing?

Ie they share bedrooms with strangers in uni halls of residence- are there even any of those left in the U.K.??

So are US kids more likely to share bedrooms growing up? So fewer bedrooms needed? Or do they need less bedroom space because they have more shared space? (Us brits do like our privacy!)

It's the closets too

American bedrooms have closets, often quite big ones, and there's usually a hallway closet too

If you put all that space together you'd have a single bedroom in the UK

My grandparents in America live in a 4-bed single-storey house. Master bed has small en-suite, and all of them have large built-in closets. They also have an open plan kitchen/living area as well as a 'family room'. Plus pool + garage accessible from kitchen. So much space but it's not even considered a large house in their area!!

I love it on US TV when a family is "poor" but has a house that'd be considered enormous in the UK. It's all relative I guess

@PerveenMistry

I'm American. There do tend to be fewer but larger rooms here. But also the tv production companies can't be building one set after another. Better to put guest on sofa in existing set than squeeze another onto the soundstage.

We've been watching Escape to the Country and most Americans would be taken aback at the tiny bedrooms and bathrooms that are the norm.

They would need smelling salts if they tuned into Homes under the Hammer then!

8 simple rules (for dating my teenage daughter) has just sprung to mind too - the sisters share in that but the house always looks massive...

@dreamingbohemian

It's the closets too

American bedrooms have closets, often quite big ones, and there's usually a hallway closet too

If you put all that space together you'd have a single bedroom in the UK

That's true.

My house is a 1,000 square foot 1947 bungalow in the Midwest and I have six closets plus large storage rooms in cellar. But only 2 bedrooms about 10x12' each, and a very small bathroom.

@BowlerHatPowerHat

That house in This is Us has a huge master bedroom - must take up a large part of the upstairs floor.

I have just watched the episode when they are at the hospital awaiting the birth - the whole family was there all night, not just the immediate family but sibling's wives and partners too. Some from the other side of the country! Surely that's not normal - the whole family seems quite 'suffocating'.

I'm rewatching Brothers & Susters atm and they do a lot of that whole family descend on the hospital in that too.

The layout which i don't get is Carrie Bradshaw flay in sex and the city. The walk in wardrobe layout in particular

It's similar in Canada. Our neighbourhood is mostly pretty substantial looking detached family homes but most are either 3 or 4 bed '+1', with the +1 being an extra bedroom in the basement. The master bedroom suites are usually disproportionately massive. King sized beds look lost in them and they have huge walk in closets and full bathrooms attached. The other bedrooms are then much smaller, often really small. Newer houses will pretty much all have the same number of bathrooms as bedrooms too, if not more.

This isn't far from us - it's huge yet only has 5 bedrooms (but 9 bathrooms!). All yours for the bargain price of $6.5 million

www.remax.ca/luxury/ab/calgary-real-estate/6-aspen-ridge-lane-sw-wp_id275693849-lst

I love it on US TV when a family is "poor" but has a house that'd be considered enormous in the UK. It's all relative I guess

One of my American uncles used to consider himself a bit 'out there' and one time we visited, was trying to shock us with a tour of his 'tiny' one bed flat. As a Brit it felt pretty spacious TBH. Had a bathroom big enough for an actual bath and decent size lounge which you could fit a small table in and the bedroom was large enough for a double bed. I thought he had no idea how many people are living in the UK!

The master bedroom suites are usually disproportionately massive.
The other bedrooms are then much smaller, often really small.

Reminds me of another 'americanism' on tv - the parents travelling in business class and the kids in coach - does/did that happen in real life? The kids are treated as second class citizens.