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 don’t quite understand why you are trying to arrange your children’s home more for the benefit of guests than them.

Do you actually need so many visitors so often? It’s quite disruptive for kids to be shunted around and have to keep sharing their rooms with random children. You should be focusing on what works best for your children, not your guests’.

what TheIsleOfTheLost said. Double room for home office with sofa bed.
DD2 could have IKEA Kura with some fun bed tent and you can fit many toys under it.

When we moved as a child I got the bigger bedroom wiht a 3/4 or double bed (I can't remember) but this was on the understanding that if we had guests I was sleeping on the upper bunk in my brother's room.

I completely agree with this. It’s their home and it’s a waste to allocate space to visitors which won’t be used 80% of the time.
But… we live nowhere near our families and are now moving hours away from all of their friends. If we don’t have space for people to stay with us then DC will miss out on seeing people they love, so it’s difficult to balance.

I’d make the single bedroom your office then put a sofa bed downstairs in the lounge or something or if the single room allows it in there. We have a small 4ft sofa bed which fits in a single room.

We really can’t afford to be buying completely new furniture and we have a new sofa that we bought last year and couldn’t fit a sofa bed in the living room as well as that. The living room isn’t massive.
A sofa bed wouldn’t fit in the single room along with desk etc unfortunately, even a small 4ft one

You and DH take a double, have a small desk in your room for working.

both kids have a double with either a double bed each or small double depending on room size, with ikea toy storage.

the 3rd large single is used as guest room, the bed previously mentioned from ikea is a great idea, can be turned into basically a king bed when guests are there and it has proper mattresses for longer trips, and it can be tided away neatly when they are away. Have a de clutter and minimise toys. Have some clever toy storage your living room.

I too think you should have the toys in the older childs bedroom, desk in your bedroom, youngest child in the smallest bedroom where there are less fun distractions. Start off with the spare room as just a spare room, and if you find that it doesn't get used as much as you thought you can re-think.

I have nothing useful to add, sorry, but a desk in your bedroom is a terrible idea. It blurs the boundaries between home and work, and can make it harder to relax.

Putting the 3 year old in the single room (they don’t do much more than sleep in their rooms at that age) and making a section of the 6 year olds ‘the playroom’ would give you the office/guest room that you need in one of the double rooms.

that would mean a child always having to give up his bed and his room for visitors and that is not fair. the 4th bedroom could have a sofa bed in it just for the occasional guests to stay and computer for wfh!

I agree it’s not ideal with a desk in the bedroom. But also the double rooms aren’t huge and I don’t think they’d fit a bed, clothes storage for 2 adults plus 2 desks and all the books etc we’d need. And as we’d both be wfh quite a lot we’d either need a very large desk or 2 desks.

“Sorry, can’t accommodate guests overnight ”?!

But then we wouldn’t see people very often and I quite like seeing my family and friends.
I’d never expect people coming to visit to pay for their own accommodation (especially when they go out of their way to make sure they can accommodate us when we visit them). We’d happily pay for their accommodation but that’s not really an option. It’s a very popular seaside/tourist town we’re moving to and finding rooms is extremely difficult especially on weekends and school holidays.
We wanted to go up to do some house viewings recently and there wasn’t a single family room available anywhere near there.
We will be 6-7 hours drive from a lot of our close friends so day visits are also out of the question.

You poor thing. What a hard life

I think, given everything you've said that the uneven sized room split is the only realistic way.

The other thing I'd think about would be if a non standard bed for your youngest would make more space?

So e.g if the small room was 5ft wide, could you sort a short bed out, as that would probably do for even the next 5 years if necessary - and if you're thinking you'll move in a few years time that might work quite well?

It makes perfect sense to me that you want to be able to have guests and preferably put them up comfortably, particularly as you're moving a long way. I have a spare room and sometimes people ask why I don't get rid of my spare bed to make hobby space instead - and it's because a lot of my friends are a decent distance away and actually I'd rather be able to see them more often.