to think that bedrooms should be big enough to put a bed in

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Just fed up with the number of houses we go to see which are 'three' bedroom by which they mean two bedrooms and another tiny room which is too small for a blooming bed. What is the point. And yes, I know I can look at the floor plan first, but after two years we're desperate. I keep hoping a three bedroom house will have three rooms which are big enough for beds.

We looked at a new-build (small plot, one of three) that was advertised as a 4-bed. Bedroom 4 was a mezzanine floor over the living room! I spent about an hour on the phone arguing with the agent over the misrepresentation and how much it would cost to 'fix' the bad design (there was no need for it not to be a proper room. We didn't buy it.

I can remember my folks having to make a bed for my DB that went over the angled cut out for the stairs, in their built in 1974 house. Luckily my grandad was able to do this for them but ....why ?

Our house was built in 1998 and although it isnt big it does have just four double bedrooms. I know people having to move from their 3 bed to four bed to get two decent bedrooms for their two dc

What do you all mean by the angled cut out for the stairs? I don't think I've ever seen this.

Toatlly agree we have just brought a "3 bed " ha fucking ha we have just have to covert the garage as a bed cannot fit in the room sell a bed and a person my son is 6.2 and when he lies down his feet touch one wall and his hands touch the other

And don't get me started on new build they are clearly building for hobbits we looked at some one described as a lounger dinner and thought were exactly would you do your dinning I presume they ment down the road at harvester because their was no room for dinning at all

Hamiltoes may be right - I'm in an 810 sq foot 3 bed ex county council house (equivalent of LA in Ireland) and there are two good doubles and a big single room upstairs. In fact the single room could actually fit a double bed at a squeeze. However the bathroom is downstairs - bit of a faff if you are dying for a wee in the morning!

Yes we ended up buying a four bed as couldn't find a sensible 3 bed. Even older 3 bed semis often have 2 large doubles and a titchy single, for families with 2 kids how do you decide who gets the crap bedroom?

I've only seen one proper three bed with three double bedrooms our current is two and a box room..

Our youngest has that room no idea what we will do when dd needs a proper bed and she notices how much more room her brother has compared to her.

I live in a one-bedroom flat, built in the mid-80s. My bedroom is best described as compact - built in double bed, built in single wardobe, built in shelved cupboard. No space for anything else. My Mum's flat is a two-bed, built in the 1940s. The smaller of the bedrooms is double the size of mine - and back in the 1960s when another family member lived there that room was described as a single!

There was a BBC news report around the end of November that was saying that most new builds are about 10ft square smaller then a generation ago.

Our house was built in 1999, and I would say every room needs to be about 2ft bigger to make them a usable space. My DS bedroom the bed can only go in part and then it fits wall to wall and will need to be taken apart to move it to decorate. The house opposite ours their 4th bedroom is 7ft by 7ft so by the time you have a single bed in it there is barely space for a wardrobe let alone any space for them to play.

Don't bedrooms have to be a certain size to be called a bedroom?

I call them 2 1/2 bed houses. My village is full of them. The semis are virtually all that design so I had to buy a terraced design for 3 double bedrooms. It's crazy as it's all just about layout and proportions. My house isn't 'bigger' it's just better laid out. Annoys me these kinds of houses are still being built as it really limits how long you can stay in that house.

7 square metres is the minimum size for a single room, and 11 square metres for a double or twin. Which are lot smaller then 50 yrs ago.

We bought a two bedroom end terrace and built a two storey side side extension with an extended kitchen/diner downstairs and a double bedroom upstairs. The extension cost around £15k less than it would have cost us to move to a house needing a lot of work with two reasonable sized bedrooms and a box room. So it might be worth looking for extendable two bedroomed houses.

YANBU. All the three beds around here have them. W only realised after we moved in and tried to put a bed in it. 1 inch too short. Why on earth would you build a house like that???

We saw one new build where the dining table only fitted on with the double doors open and the 'master' bedroom only had room for a queen size bed with bedside tables next to it. And yes it had an en-suite, rather than the walk in cupboard it needed.

I live in a 3 bed house with three very large double bedrooms, so they do exist - to whoever said they'd never seen one. Its one of the traditional Victorian terraces with a double bay window at the front.

I'm on the other side of the process and am currently trying to sell my 4 bed detached house.
The latest 2 buyers have both said they loved the downstairs of the house but the upstairs is too small.

I have a large master bedroom with decent sized en suit, another double bedroom, then 2 further single bedrooms. All 4 bedrooms have built in floor to ceiling wardrobes and the 2 smaller rooms have a proper single bed in. They both have a bookcase and bedside cabinets too. My 16 year old ds sleeps in one of them. There is also potential to fully extend one of the single bedrooms over the integral garage.

If people wanted a 4 bed en suit with 3 double bedrooms they would be looking at paying an extra 60k.

I sometimes think people expect too much.
Not meaning you op as a bedroom should house a bed.

We bought ex local authority so we have two good sized double and a generous single (it does have a boxed in area because of the stairs but it's big enough that there's still a choice of bed loactions).

In other countries it's a legal requirement to publish sq m sizes of a house and that's what people look at, in the UK people are too hung up on number of bedrooms. I think it would be interesting if they had to publish total sq metres with any estate agent listing.

Usually victorian houses up until 1940s/1950s have really good sized bedrooms, any time after this and the 3rd bedroom is barely big enough to fit a cot. i knew someone who bought an old victorian 2 bed terrace and the master bedroom was big enough to convert it into 2 smallish double bedrooms. Good Luck house hunting

Interesting about the floor spaces.

DH used to rent a house on this street

Bed 3 is an example of the houses where the floor space is reduced by the staircase. Because you need the head space on the staircase, there is a box taken out of the room - usually about 70cm high.

The house linked to above has a cupboard above the space. I've also seen cabin beds successfully modified to enable sleeping space above them, and drawers underneath.

Floor space is 5.6m2 - quite a lot less than the 7m2 suggested above.

DS1's current bedroom is 7.5m^2. He currently has a cabin bed and wardrobe.

Look for ex-local authority properties

we bought in central London, an ex-local 4 bed terraced freehold house, which was about 2/3 the price of the cheapest similarly sized victorian in the same neighbourhood. yes, the bedrooms are all real double bedrooms (and then some, all rooms are fairly large).

there are some trade-offs. ceilings are not grand. no ornate trim around. but the houses are solid, easy to heat (we are foreigners and are used to warm houses so this is a big plus) and great location/size for the your pound (although, now even the ex-locs are outrageously priced).

That 'double' bedroom in the link above is shocking

oh, and they are purpose built, so the layout makes sense. we saw some crazy conversions when we were looking.

We took to referring to "estate agent doubles" when we were looking at houses. You also get a lot of big rooms being subdivided here, especially in the areas with student flats. I think the worst I saw was a flat I recognised from the shape/windows had originally been a 1 bed and they'd turned it in to a 5!

Original Layout - Large livingroom (maybe 19*10) with double window, decent kitchen/diner, large master (double window), and a boxroom (about 5' by 7')

New layout - Livingroom split in to two "bedrooms" lengthways, kitchen has mysteriously become a living/kitchen/diner, master split in to two bedrooms...the split rooms were ridiculous, they were 5ft wide as the windows were on the narrow wall! And a skylight knocked through the roof so the boxroom was called a bedroom

Suspect "that" double is the master - it was quite long iirc. And I suspect it is a king bed. Certainly I remember the room being narrow, but fairly certain DH had proper bedside cabinets.
The second bed is the same width - and shorter.....