Making attic room into bedroom

[Goosethemoose]

Hi, NC as outing photos attached! We're changing our attic room into a bedroom. Toying with the idea of installing a small ensuite, or maybe just a toilet&sink. The alcoves, sloping ceiling and huge windows make it an awkward space, and we want long term usability- decent storage, space for a double bed, etc. Needs to be done by the summer as toddler DS will be moving up there ahead of DC2's arrival.

Any thoughts, please?

My current idea is to install a built in wardrobe under the sloping ceiling, and fill in the triangular gap to make a flat wall against which you could fit a double. Maybe not worth it, as a cot or single could slot into the gap? The half of the room nearest the big windows would have an armchair/rug/toy box/child's table and chairs etc...

More photos... Apologies for the mess!

Thanks, that's helpful! I've got Sharps and a competitor coming on the weekend but I expect some ridiculously high quote... just want to see what they suggest, and then I'll try a local carpenter to see if they can do something a bit more sensible!

What we did in last house was to line the wall on the right with built in wardrobes. So full height (useful for iforhers might use the room eventually. We had the bed against the lower wall, and doors into the eaves for storage.

Useful for if others

Does it have a door anywhere? I'm pretty sure that you need to have a fire door installed into attic bedrooms to meet building regulations.

Obviously, its your house, you can use it for whatever you like, and nobody is going to be coming round to check. However, there's a good reason why fire doors are needed in loft conversions, and personally I wouldn't be happy having a toddler sleep on a different floor to me in a room that doesn't meet basic fire safety standards. I think you may also want to look at the Velux windows from a safety point of view, they look very low down, and potentially in the reach of a toddler.

When you say "wall on the right" @riverislands do you mean replacing the cubby holes with full height wardrobes?

Thanks @mrsm43s the door is at the bottom of the stairs- it's a glass door. I'll look into regulations but I didn't think ordinary households (ie not HMOs) need fire doors?
The windows open at the top, ie I need to stand on a chair to open and shut them. They're definitely a hazard if they're open, which we do need to consider, but there's no way he could open them for the next probably 8 years by himself. We may well move him to a different room in a couple of years, which is why I want to make sure the room is prepared in as flexible/useful a way as possible.

We had our loft converted, and definitely needed fire doors for the top floor. Since you have a doorway, it shouldn't be a big job to get a fire door fitted.

I'd really really rather not- there's currently a beautiful glass wall and door at the bottom of the stairs, replacing the door with a fire door would look appalling. You can sort of see it in the final photo. Maybe the regulation only applies to new conversions- the info I've found from a quick google suggests it's since 2007, and the conversion was done in the 80s. I'll look into it properly to be sure either way.

Yes, regulations will only apply to new conversions. Legally you don't need to do it.

But there's a jolly good reason for the regulations. Is the look of your door really more important than your child's safety? It's your choice, of course, but no child of mine would be sleeping somewhere that didn't meet current fire safety standards.

As a minimum, I would suggest you get a fire safety officer round and ask them for an assessment. I'm sure you don't really want your young child sleeping in an unsafe room.

Perhaps I'm fairly cautious as our conversion was done around the time of Grenfell so fire safety was on my mind, but before our children moved into our converted loft, we had fire doors fitted to both loft bedrooms, upgraded hard wired fire alarms fitted (both those are now building regs requirements), and also I bought an escape ladder and showed the children how to use it so they can escape from the loft safely in the event of the fire. They are teens. I'm not sure I'd want a toddler sleeping on a different floor from me at all, but as a minimum I'd want it to fully meet all current fire safety regulations.

How old is your toddler OP? We sleep on a different floor to our kids, but that room just doesn’t look very safe to me, not just the veluxes and the fire door but the glass bannisters too.

One thing we notice with our top floor room (not a conversion) is how hot it gets in the summer. We have a ceiling fan and heat reflective blinds on the windows.

Sorry, but I'm another one who thinks that room isn't the safest option for a toddler. Those windows, the glass panel around the stairs and the raised platform in front of the window - the whole thing is an accident waiting to happen. What will happen if he wakes in the middle of the night and tries to leave that room? Honestly, a fire door should be the least of your worries.

I mean the wall on the right on the red diagram.

I once put up shelves so that my first toddler couldn't reach stuff. He watched me with interest, whilst sitting on his toddler car. Then after I'd finished and walked backwards to admire my own handiwork he wheeled across the room, got on top of his car, and reached the shelves. 😬😬😬

Well the toddler has to be on a different floor from us because every room is on a different floor in this house! Literally. Minus the living room being next to the bedroom that DC2 will occupy (where DS is currently). The layout is a mess really, hence trying to make best use of it all.

Toddler is 15mo currently so will be in his cot a good while longer- and we'll be installing a stair gate at the top of the stairs. Maybe it should be our room though, it's a good point. The argument against that is that you have to go down 3 flights of stairs from that room to use a bathroom that's not an en suite. If it were our room, we'd have to do all 3 flights as D.C. would be in the bedroom at the bottom of the pictured stairs, with the ensuite. So we'd not want to use that and disturb DC. If D.C. were in the attic room, he could come down and use our en suite no problem. Hope that makes sense. Maybe we need to consider more seriously putting in a loowith sink in the attic room.

I’d put a full height partition where the bannister is so the room is a properly enclosed room. Then partition off the other side of the stairs for a storage cupboard/ bathroom if possible

At 15 months I suspect DS1 would have kamikazied head first over that bannister the way he used to out of his cot.

Honestly I wouldn’t risk it with one of my kids. I would use that room myself until he was at least 4 or so. Presumably you will have the baby in with you for a while anyway so no desperate rush. Ours actually shared a room for quite a few years with no trouble.

Actually that’s not true - I’d make the dc share in the room next to me and use the attic as a guest room

Full height partition is an interesting but likely very expensive idea... Worth looking into though. Baby will be in with us, but ideally I was hoping to share with baby in one room and DH stays in our master bedroom to enable everyone to get enough sleep. Seems silly to have D.C. sharing a tiny room when the top room is so lovely and the master is a good size too. Atm DS is very calm, doesn't even attempt to exit his cot, goes down stairs very nicely, etc- but I accept this may (will!) change and we should be prepared.

Now I'm thinking loo but not shower in the corner with the single window, and have it as an impressive master with the nice view etc. Then D.C. could eventually share the current master which is about twice the size of the smallest bedroom.

Don't think it would be that expensive - surely it’s just plasterboard and a door