What to use 4th bedroom for

[Cyantist]

We currently have master bedroom, DDs have a room each. Then as well as living room, kitchen and dining room we have a separate office which is big enough for a spare bed, and a decent size playroom.

New house has 4 bedrooms (3 double and 1 large single). So we will have one bedroom spare but would ideally like a playroom, an office, and a guest room. We will be 200 miles from most of our family and friends so do really need somewhere for people to stay. But then we will both be WFH at least 50% of the time and so somewhere dedicated for this would be ideal.

I’ve asked DDs if they’d want to share a bedroom and it was a resounding no from both (one sleeps terribly so it's probably not the best plan anyway). Most of their toys are shared so not sure how we’d split these between bedrooms and whenever they do have toys in their rooms they don’t go to sleep and stay up for hours playing so I would rather them all be kept separate if possible.

How would be best to organise that one room?

I'd give child 1 a double room with a double bed. I'd give child 2 a single room with a trundle bed.

I'd use the spare double for desks and toy storage.

When you have guests - the children can share a room.

I don't know the age of the children - assuming young?

I wouldn’t compromise on your family living and sleeping arrangements for occasional guests. A double wall / Murphy bed in the single room would give you the flexibility to use the room as an office the majority of the time.

When I was a kid it was toys kept in a cupboard and taken out and put away as they were played with rather than all out at the same time in a designated room. Would that work?

What space is downstairs that could be used for any of those purposes? How often do you actually have guests staying over?

Assuming no options downstairs given you haven’t mentioned anything, I would prioritise office space with a sofa bed or similar that can just be pulled out as needed. Playroom is a nice to have but not essential, they can play in their rooms.

Kids are 3 and 6.
I didn’t mention - it’s a rented property so wall beds or anything fitted won’t be allowed.
We’d be expecting guests probably one weekend out of every 3, plus most school holidays.
Downstairs the living room will only just fit the furniture in, same for the dining kitchen. Only other option would be working from the dining table though this will be hard when we both have meetings or when one of us is working later and the other has picked the kids from school at 3.

Our playroom is mainly lots of cupboards and units and toys are taken out then put away but there’s so many units we have they won’t easily fit anywhere else. There are also quite a few things that wouldn’t fit in a cupboard (like their play kitchen, large playmobil set ups, pikler triangle, Barbie house etc). I suppose we just have too many toys! And we are working on getting rid of a huge amount of them but I don’t want to throw things that are used so much

Would the guests you have coming to stay be happy to sleep on a nice sofa bed? At our last flat we had a combined office and guest room with a nice sofa bed from cocoon, also with a thick mattress protector from John Lewis. And I think there are probably some even nicer sofa beds out there - or a daybed style single with a proper mattress, with a trundle underneath that pulls out and attaches to make a king.

Murphy bed on the wall, and office space possibly a reading chair if space, as an adult sanctuary.

Do they really need a playroom? When they're younger they like to play where they are. If they each have their own room they can play there?

I'd only give kids a playroom if it was going to create an adult space elsewhere free of kids' stuff but I don't think that really happens in the main living room.

You take the smallest room. Then you have a double to play with.

Get the kids a bed that has another that stores under it, then when you get visitors they can share, or bunks

The smallest room absolutely wouldn’t be big enough for 2 adults. You couldn’t barely squeeze in a double bed, let alone any bedroom furniture/storage.

Guests would be happy with a sofa bed I’m sure. Usually we’d have 2 adults and 2 children as visitors though. So if we have DD1 a double bed which she could vacate for visitors, we’d then need to squeeze the 4 kids in elsewhere.

They don’t absolutely need a playroom. But as so many of their toys are shared it wouldn’t be easy to split between bedrooms. Also when they have toys in their room they sleep even worse as they are playing when they should be sleeping. Even though we take them to bed, the youngest still wakes several times a night and we’ve found her playing dolls at 2am before

We have one of these, it's so handy when we have guests (it's larger than a double when pulled out) and doubles up as a nice sofa when not in use. Might be a good idea to utilise the room as an office but have it as an option for guests when they stay round.

That looks good @Boymummyofone
I think office/guest room would work much better than office/playroom/toy storage as one of us will often be working with the kids in the house but we will rarely work when we have visitors

What about two singles, both with a trundle underneath? You could get one where the trundle pops up onto legs and as long as you can then fit a super king sized bed into the room you could turf one of the girls out when you have guests and use that to create a double bed (or twin) arrangement for guests?

Then use the spare room for two office desks and as much storage as it's feasible to squeeze in?

Ah, just read your point about kids playing and wanting to access the study.

Definitely do office/guest room with a sofa bed/daybed/futon as pp have said.

You can manage without a playroom. Just split the favourite shared toys equally between bedrooms e.g. one gets the barbie house and the other the play kitchen. Rotate every now and again. DC will grow up fast and many of those big toys will be outgrown soon enough.

The novelty of having toys in their rooms and being able to play dolls at 2am will wear off after a bit anyway as they will get too tired!

I think to fit a sofa bed of some sort and office in one room we’d have to put one of my DDs in the smallest room. But that could work though I’d feel a bit bad about them having different sized rooms.

The novelty of having toys in their rooms and being able to play dolls at 2am will wear off after a bit anyway as they will get too tired!

I’m not sure it will with my
youngest. She doesn’t sleep at the best of times and “too tired” doesn’t seem to ever apply to her! 🙄

Guests would be happy with a sofa bed I’m sure. Usually we’d have 2 adults and 2 children as visitors though.

How long do they typically stay for?
Even the best sofa beds aren't great for 2 adults for more than a night.

Will the child guests bunk in with your two?

It would always be more than a night. Typically maybe 3/4 nights, maybe even longer.

I genuinely don’t know where the kids would all go! I hope we could fit the 4 kids into the 2 kids bedrooms

One double for you
One double for eldest child with zoning for her and play room area for them to share.
One double for home office with ikea pull out day bed.
Single room for younger child with only a few toys to avoid night time escapades
Ready beds for visiting children. They can go in the study with their parents, or in play room area.

A 3 year old won’t care if they have the smallest room, I’d give them the single room, with a high bed with lots of storage underneath for toys.

I’d have a double for you, a double for six year old and a double as guest bedroom with double bed and desk.

*Meant to add split the toys based on where they fit, they can go into each other’s rooms to play!

Would a studybed work?

One of the things you should consider carefully is how each of the room’s functions will be impacted by each other?

Will the dc not be able to play when you’re working? Will you not be able to work when you have guests? Will your dc resent guests when they can’t get at their toys?

I don’t actually think we could sort it much better than this overall!

I grew up with a tiny room while my DSis had one 4 times the size so I have a thing about uneven room sizes. But when you’re 3 it really doesn’t matter and I’m not seeing this house as something we stay in for longer than a few years.

They'll play together wherever they want anyway so it does make sense putting most of the toys in the bigger bedroom.

@R4ID i think a proper double in the guest room/office would be ideal. We already have a sofa bed so would probably put that in initially then upgrade if there’s enough room

Thanks so much for the ideas everyone 😊

I'd do a day bed than converts to a double (like the ikea one posted) with a desk in the single room (if it fits). I've slept on one of those while visiting friends, it's perfectly comfortable. Give the girls each a double room, but get them trundle beds so you can accommodate guests' children. Let them know that they will have to share toys between the rooms if they don't want to share. Find a way to share the toys evenly - one gets the kitchen, the other gets the doll house etc.

Do you have a big landing area that would accommodate a desk for wfh? Not ideal, but I know a lot of people did that in lockdown times!

That absolutely would work but I don’t want to spend that much on a guest bed!

We wouldn’t really be working much when we had guests as they’d only stay over weekends and school holidays so that wouldn’t be so bad. But we’d definitely be working sometimes with kids at home so keeping the toys and office separate I think will be a necessity.

@WhatWouldTheDoctorDo i really don’t think a daybed like that, when opened out, would fit in the single room along with a desk big enough for 2. The landing is tiny as well, as is the hallway downstairs - there’s no little nooks we could use to put a desk in.

Maybe buy the kids ottoman storage beds. Once the toys are in there for the night they won’t be able to lift the bed to get to them. There will be space for roll up guest mattresses & bedding too.