To wonder what you think is a reasonable living space for a family

[BelleMarionette]

For a family house, with children, what would you say is a reasonable number of square metres. I know the perception varies wildly.

For example, for a family with four children, how many square meters do you think would allow for reasonable living standards? How many for a family with two children?

When people have seen my house, they have either thought it was decently sized, or very small.

My apartment is 75sqm and feels fine for me. It would be tricky as a couple but that's because of the layout mostly

@LolaSmiles yes I've seen a few layouts where it's been described as'snug' and I'm sat thinking where's the lounge!!

Weve turned down a few higher end rentals simply because whilst very nicely done they were all 'kitchen' - as I've not got kids at home , whilst I like a good kitchen , I don't like it at the expense of a decent lounge

My house is a very average three bedroom semi. 2 adults 2 kids (18&16) it's 92m².

My last house was 3000sq feet and that would be just right. 5 beds, 3 bathrooms plus downstairs loo. 4 receptions rooms and kitchen-diner and utility room.

But the best bit was having a spacious downstairs loo. And the master bedroom en-suite bathroom wasn’t a tiny squished in bathroom, it was bigger than the family bathroom. (Clearly I’m obsessed with bathrooms!)

3 kids, 4 bed house and 195 Square metres.

I'd say it's on the larger side but a good size for us.

Size doesn't really matter with houses. It's how you use the space e.g. making sure kids have privacy and somewhere they can have their own space

Ideal for me is
open plan / kitchen diner- it’s where we spend most of our together time
Small utility room/ general mess room so we aren’t always listening to the washing ma how.
lounge/ snug- doesn’t need to be huge - it’s for chilling/ watching TV and we don’t do a lot of that
1 bedroom per child big enough for a single bed and a desk + wardrobe
a Family bathroom
Master bedroom + ensuite
an office and / or spare room ( office essential for me- I work from home, spare room optional)
Good storage around the house to keep it tidy

No idea about square metre, but I think children should ideally have their own room once in secondary school. Apart from that, whatever you can affford!

We used to live in a 2 bed, 1 bathroom 80sqm house with our two kids, who shared a room. We now have a 4 bed 2 bathroom house which is twice the size and wow is it so much more pleasant to live in! It's more space than we need really (big rooms) but I'd say at a minimum kids ideally get a room each. Then any adults who work from home need a dedicated work area (not necessarily an office room but not just sitting with a laptop on the sofa). The other thing I love about having more space now is having a dining table. Having 2 bathrooms is nice but not quite as important as the other things I've mentioned, in my opinion.

There are 110sqm new builds round here that just about tick all these boxes on paper, but the rooms are pretty small so I'm not sure if you'd manage to have for example two adult workspaces and a dining table.

A couple with 4 children, so 6 people in total? I think comfortable living space for that number would be a kitchen diner, 2 receptions or a double reception, 2 baths, downstairs loo and 5 bedrooms. But could easily live with kitchen diner and one living room, and 3 double bedrooms, if there are two of each sex.
Cramped would be a small kitchen living room combined and kids in bunk beds in single-sized bedrooms in a 3-bed house with one bathroom. But it's all relative. In some economies that would be a luxury.

I’d go more for quality over quantity.
While no one wants to be overcrowded I think a damp -free, mould- free, safe and warm house that might be small is better than a huge, rambling house with numerous bedrooms and bathrooms that’s cold and damp, covered in mould.

Feeling a bit deflated after reading this for some reason 😂
We have 84 square meters and are hoping to live in this house for the next 7-8 years, hopefully with two children (expecting the first one now).
It does feel a bit claustrophobic at times to be fair but we aren't using all of the space at the moment.
Being on the minimalistic side definitely helps though!
I think we made such a mistake buying this house but to make it financially worthwhile, we really need to stay here for quite a few years.

We are a family with three dc and have a four bed semi that’s about 125sqm, it’s the biggest house I’ve ever lived in and to me it feels very big. It’s the first house where no one has had to share a room, it’s the first house I’ve had with a shower, the first house I’ve had with a dishwasher, and the first with a downstairs loo. It’s the first not-terrace I’ve ever lived in. Most people comment about how big it is if they say anything at all.

Ideal for me if I could design my own. Big kitchen with casual dining table, dining room with a sofa, bar area and garden access, a sun room of some kind with plants, and a decently sized living room that can seat at least 10 (current living room at 14sqm seats about 6/7 beyond that we are squished up) A utility, downstairs loo and a cloak/boot room ideally with a side door.

Enough bedrooms for one each and a guest room with an en suite, the rest of the rooms can use the family bathroom as I’d never want an en-suite for myself.

@Loveyoutomatoes we had 62sqm 2 bed house until we had a primary age DC and a toddler and we were fine, we could have stayed and made it work but we had to move areas for other reasons and used the chance to get an extra bedroom for the toddler. Don’t be disheartened.

When we lived in our house of this sorry of size with our 2 DC it was OK. We survived lockdown with primary school age kids in it, and our kids are ND too so an extra layer of trickiness. I think it was hardest for me as there just wasn't room for me to have my own space in the house, not even a proper work desk. Kids shared a room but had their own spaces within it and didn't mind. In fact that say they miss the old house!

Ours is around 250 square meters and it’s plenty of space for 5 of us

We have a huge bedroom, the kids and our Ukrainian house guest have a double each and we have a 5th we use as a study. Downstairs we have a kitchen diner at the back with an attached snug, a separate living room, toilet and small utility. We also have a larger external utility/storage space. It’s in what was the outhouses but it’s all fully insulated and has central heating so it’s a proper room. We sometimes feel short of storage having been used to a garage but really we have a large boarder loft space, a coupon of sheds and a couple of massive cupboards so I think the issue is really the number of bikes we’ve acquired. I think we could happily manage with 4 kids and it would just have meant arranging the space we have a little differently. I do think in small spaces the layout makes a huge difference. Some of our rooms I felt we couldn’t make the best use of due to the way windows/doors have been placed and we moved some of them
when renovating to make it easier

@InTheFutilityRoomEatingBiscuits thank you! 😊
@Sweetandsourdough thank you for your input as well! 😊

Sq footage doesn't matter so much as how the space is used

This, been in so many new builds with lots of toilets but no storage space anywhere. Or a house with a flat large kitchen that had a bad design compared to a flat with an galley kitchen

also location trumps space for me. I would rather the smaller house nearer the amenities rather than the big house where you have to drive for everything.

Four children?

Space, if you can afford it.

We found we needed two living areas so the children didn't clash when little. The older ones could be watching a movie in one room and younger ones charging around with toy cars in another.

We needed two bathrooms as mornings could be a rush.

The children all had a bedroom each which I know is a luxury often, but it helps as they become teenagers.

And I have an office so I can work from home. We had to sacrifice the garage to gain the study/home office.

Big garden when they are small but they seem to lose interest as they grow.

kitchen or kitchen diner that fits a family table, eating together is important if you can accommodate that.

It's a tall list but apart from the kitchen that needs to accommodate cooking plus table plus whole family sitting down, the other rooms don't have to be particularly big. Just separate spaces.

Saame
We have a 85-90sqm house, 2 bed for us and DC. It feels cramped, but madly it was one of the bigger 2 beds we could find for price in our area.
We will be reconfiguring the rooms when a second child turns up at some point to try to split the master bedroom, but we need to get rid of a lot of stuff.

Wish we could have brough bigger- but will be here for 5 years now.
We try to spend as much time as we can out of the house tbh to wear the small one out.

You're not alone feeling like this tho.

We are 75sqm with 2 DC. It's OK but I'm constantly decluttering and 'resetting' the house each morning. Rooms and furniture have to be multifunctional. For example our kitchen table (beautiful hardwood piece) is our dining table, lego build workshop and my workspace 2 days a week among other things. Sometimes we'll go to stay with family with a huge (to me) house and I'll get used to more space. I struggle for a day or two when we get back. We're staying put for the foreseeable. It means less expense but more time spent moving stuff around and out of the house. We would be lost without the garden though and burst out into it at the first sign of Spring. I'm quietly amazed when people with a house twice the size and the same number of DC complain about lack of space!

200m2 for a family of six would be the minimum imo. Thinking about teens etc.

To be really comfortable and not on top of each other - I should clarify. Obviously less is perfectly livable.

Ours is about 95sqm - 2 adults and 2 young adults... it's big enough .... just.

But I always say an extra foot in each direction on all the rooms, and a downstairs loo / shower would make it much more pleasant. It feels crowded when we're all here.

Good Lord how does anyone know the square footage of their house?! I wouldn't have a clue!