To think 2m by 2m is not a bedroom

[dancefornow]

Advertised as a 3 bed house. What could you really use a 2x2 room for?

It’s a box room

It works fine as a small child’s or spare bedroom, and obviously can work for a single adult if necessary. As long as the measurements are on the blurb I dunno what the problem is.

It is tight, but I did have a narrow single, and a chest of drawers. Couldn't fit a wardrobe, a desk or a bedside table in as well though. I had a little corner shelf instead of a bedside. I agree that with the amount of toys, clothes and general stuff kids have nowadays it would be a very small bedroom if all their belongings had to be kept in there. I am not judging, and it's great that standards of living have improved, but I had a bedroom this size until I left home at 19.

Chest of drawers in place of the bedside table. Ours is too narrow for that as it's 1.7 x 2.9 so the chest of drawers is on the wall with the door.

We have no bedside tables or wardrobes in the house at all though. We use a chest of drawers and valet stand. I have a stool as a table beside my bed.

DS has 2.05n wide, possibly slightly longer, but fairly square. It's got a custom made mid-sleeper bed with storage underneath, and a wardrobe filled with drawers/ shelves. The doors are assymetric so it's easy to move around from the door. It has blinds as the bed overhangs the window. The bed is constructed from the walls as there isn't space for a frame, and it wouldn't fit with a radiator.

He finds the small size and enclosed bed very cosy and secure. The small area and storage is easy for him to keep tidy for longer. It's a very practical room for a neurodiverse child and he prefers it to sharing a double room.

I've just checked the floor plan of my childhood home and my bedroom from age 2-18 is 1.9x2.1m - was fine for me and totally normal amongst my school friends too.

DS2 is in a room that is 6'x6'6", excluding an odd shaped bit where the door opens. We've currently got a cot, a stool/ tiny table, changing table, a folding camping chair and a bedside table in there. He'll either get a shorty loft bed or move in with big bro eventually (bedroom 2 is 8'x7' or thereabouts). It's small but it works just fine for us!

There’s a legal minimum size for bedrooms in new-builds in the U.K. I think…that’s below it. I’d have to check.

Its a box room. DS2 has been in the boxroom since he was born, he is now 13 and still in there. He now has a highsleeper in there with a desk and shelves underneath and he has a wardrobe on the landing. He has never complained and even if he had its tough really we can't afford to move.

In our box room, we had a built in bed put under the window for our son when he was young. He still fit in it at 13yo when we left, but anyone over 5'5" would've struggled to sleep in it. He had a double wardrobe with a few drawers and a desk with a chair in the room too.

I removed the fitted bed and just put a single bed, desk and wardrobe in. I rented that room out too. My tenant loved it.

MINIMUM BEDROOM SIZES FOR NEW HOMES from the nationally described space standard:

• a single bedroom to have a floor area of at least 7.5m2 and to be at least 2.15m wide

I have a 1930s EOT house, and the third bedroom isn’t much bigger than that. It was my son’s room for a long time, until I could afford to convert the loft.

But the OP is referring to a new-build. The regulations are different.

It really is normal for probably the majority if houses surely? Other than very big houses. Even then the small room is often converted to an office.

My youngest has a room that could only fit a single bed either way but we do have some "over the stairs" space. The other child's bedroom is a bit bigger (think length of bed and a Billy long) .

We do have a tiny house and it drives me nuts. But it really isn't uncommon. I remember reading that pre thattcher (I think) we had minimum building standards that got rid of hence the small 1980s houses.

All my googling tells me there is no 'legal' size requirement when building houses. There is for people to be housed. See here for more details. @TrueScrumptious - the standard is optional. Quite why it exists when it can disregarded I don't know.

But that's not what I meant, it's privileged to be able to say 'oh what a tiny room why would I consider a house with such a small room?' Not everyone is so lucky to be choosy.

My DDs bedroom is very slightly bigger than that. She loves it. She has a single bed, with toys stored in boxes underneath, a full size wardrobe facing the bed, a tall bookshelf beside her bed. Her doll’s house and dolls crib are also on the floor. It does have the benefit of a deep cupboard that goes over the shower in the shower room next door (our only showerroom) and a shallow wall cupboard that stores big toys like happyland and an easel. We also store some toys and games in the living room. When she gets older I’m planning a cabin bed with pull out desk.

My room is not much bigger 2.5m x3m. I love it too. Double bed in the middle opposite window (with lots stored underneath, including the ironing board and clothes airers), small wardrobe, two large chest of drawers and a stack of sea grass chests facing the bed. I quite like being able to reach the drawers without getting out of bed.

We used our 6x7' boxroom as a child's bedroom. It's that or a study or a dressing room, surely. Sold the house to a family with 3 kids, who put their teen in it. The USP was it was one of the cheapest 3 beds on the market - partly because of that tiny bedroom. There are always compromises in house buying, unless you have an infinite budget. A small third bedroom is a really common one, and not too painful.

If a new build with tiny third bedroom doesn't suit, you can probably get an older house with a bigger third bedroom, or a really nice 2 bed with a few bells and whistles, for the same money.

@TrifleForBreakfast your room sounds lovely but I make it 7.5sqm, virtually twice the area of a 2x2m one.

Just had a quick google, national space standards for new builds are that a single bedroom has to have a floor area of at least 7.5m2 and to be at least 2.15m wide. It’s not implemented everywhere, but is in London.

I think we should sell by Msq like other places, it’s weird that it’s not more of a factor, makes it harder to compare.

Yeah i don’t get the box room shit. Ours a “4th bedroom” could fit a single bed and a bedside cabinet. That was it. Awful we shouldn’t be crammed in to spaces living on top of each other.

Is it actually the standard size of box rooms in 30s semis as PPs are saying?

Because one of my DC’s have what I have always described as a “box room” and checking the floor plan it’s a lot bigger than exactly 2x2.

I find it interesting so many can't imagine sleeping in a box room as an adult or even a child. Due to special circumstances I'm 31 and have lived in one for the last decade. My sister lived in it happily for 2 decades

I have a choice of large bedroom or small (single adult)

I choose to sleep in the small one. Me, my bed, door, window, little bedside shelf, clothes mostly in drawers under bed.

People didn't really hang out in their bedrooms before central heating, did they? They only slept in them. So they didn't need to be too big.

I can see that if you want a room to be a teenager's den etc you'd probably need more space or excellent planning, but in general I love the cosiness and lack of clutter of a small bedroom. Would work fine for a child, as a study, as a spare room. Or you can buy a differently configured house. But there's no scandal in small bedrooms - just lifestyle choices.

I am really not that old, but when I was young kids had single beds or shared double beds. Larger families, but nobody saw that as abnormal. Even thinking of rich kids in houses with more bedrooms than people - they did the same.

I find the idea that everyone needs a double bed and surrounding suite of furniture a bit ... decadent maybe. I mean, not saying you can't choose it. But the idea that everyone needs it is obviously just a cultural norm - and they change with time and place.
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Are people saying that children need a double bed though? I haven’t seen people say that in this thread. It’s just that 2x2 is really, really small.

PPs are relaying their experiences of box rooms but most of the dimensions given, when they are, are significantly bigger than 2x2.

2.5x 2.5 is 6.25sqM for instance, which is over 50% bigger than 2x2.