our living room is also needing to be our bedroom how can we make this work?

[Veggielove84]

Hello

We are a family of 4 living in our 2 bedroom, 1st time home owners. We look likely stuck here long term.

My daughters can not share a room (autism and large age gap) and so they each have a lovely room but me and husband are just on a sofa bed in living room and it was over a grand in ikea and its shockingly uncomfortable! I can not sleep on this thing any longer! our living room is not big at all.

Living room currently holds the small office desk and computer. some toys (most in bedroom) 1 x 3 seat sofa that is a sofa bed and and arm chair. My thinking was to move the office space and convert under stairs cupboard in kitchen to office space.

But do we just use a double bed and have a smaller sofa with the arm chair ? I am torn between needing comfort (I'm 40 this year husband in his 40s we need proper rest) and the look of it, I have a similar colour scheme but still... No option to do extension as live in a flat that is upstairs downstairs ( maisonette 2 bedroom and bathroom up, living room kitchen downstairs)

I hate sofa beds we have tried so many :(

not a lot space for a bed to pull up into wall and wouldn't probably be able to afford one anytime soon if it would fit.

our radiator is undeneath the large window/ there is a fire place on one wall with 2 small cupboards either side so only have a small corner area in the room and one wall where nothing is.

oh to add we also are putting a large set of drawers to share under the living room window Infront of the radiator as its only place for it for our clothes as they currently all over place and hate that too. Just want a space that is our own lol. I thought it would be good with a decent priced sofa bed but... I am not happy with it. Obviously could not afford to buy bigger 3 bedroom place and can not convert the loft as again.. money.

Can you draw a floor plan? I'm useless personally but I've seen other posters come up with some really impressive solutions, but dimensions might help. (Also following as we are probably going to end up in a similar position!)

Would the desk and chest of drawers fit in the larger of your daughter's bedrooms?

If they have the bedroom, they should hopefully understand that they'll need to compromise too?

Same for any toys etc.

Have you tried a mattress topper to make the sofa bed more comfy they can work wonders x

Can you make the bed into a giant sofa in the day with a big throw and lots of fat cushions at the back?

Could both girls share a room but with a room divided so they each have their own space?

Also, would more fit in the girls' bedrooms if you had a ruthless declutter?

Also things like the chest of drawers could be instead of a coffee table / sideboard etc.

How old is your youngest, have you considered a bunk where the bottom is a double for you and dh and your dd on top? Only going in the bedroom to sleep once your dd is already asleep,

How about a day bed? Better than an unfolding sofa bed IME. Something creative to stash the duvet etc and put it away during the day

Or a pull down bed that is mounted to the wall?

Oh I was going to suggest a wall bed as they are definitely the best solution for daily use. If a sofabed fits then a wallbed should fit I think?? But I guess it would mean no space for a sofa as well.

Another option is a day bed with another single bed underneath that pulls out and raises on legs to join the other one, this way you get proper mattresses unlike a sofabed. But there is a divide down the middle. Will try to find a link

Is there any way to re divide the bedrooms to make 3 even if they are tiny, there are some clever solutions out there, could you post a floorplan?

i was also going to say to try a bed topper. My daughter’s ikea mattress was shockingly uncomfortable but a standard Argos one improved it immensely.

Other ideas - Japanese mattress for the floor, splitting a bedroom into two.

this is the daybed with extra bed underneath idea. You can leave the sheets on and cover in a throw in the day.

I don't think they make the old fashioned studio couches any more, but they were much better double beds than the modern sofa beds, and could be dressed with big cushions and throws.
The bed topper and wall bed suggestions seem to be the best idea.

My Russian DDIL's parents lived for years in their Moscow apartment, using the sitting room as their bedroom, when the children were living at home. They had a massive fold out couch and their hallway was basically cupboards, on every wall, so they had a massive amount of storage (and a smaller hall)

Then there's alway this, which I have posted before. I think it’s an excellent way of dividing a larger bedroom into essentially two rooms, giving greater privacy than conventional bunk beds, if that would suit your DC.

Yes! This is the room dividing solution I was thinking of. Might this work to divide one of your bedrooms OP?

The IKEA Hermes day beds are surprisingly comfortable if you put two decent single mattresses on them. It can be a sofa by day and once expanded they are equivalent to a king size.

What about one of those desk bed things? By day it's a desk, by night you fold it down and it's a bed (but you don't have to move any of the stuff off the desk). And then turn the space you were going to make into an office nook into clothes storage, instead.

By the time the op has bought that bed posted above and divided the room up she might as well have gone for the obvious solution which is to convert the loft.

Would a double loft bed work. (Id struggle getting in and out, but you might not).

If doing the loft is at all workable then yes, it would be sensible.

For comparison purposes here's a desk bed, which is indeed not cheap: https://www.studybed.co.uk/products/large-double-studybed/

Would it be feasible to divide the bigger bedroom into two, so kids have a small room each, then you get a bedroom?

Could you rent 3 bedroom while renting out your 2 bedroom flat?

Depending on your relationship and how you both sleep best I'd either

Get two daybeds, one each, to go one on each spare wall. The sort with two equal ends and a side, so when bed is made and all tucked in, filled with large cushions along the ends and sides it looks a bit like a sofa. Clothes in the drawers underneath. Ditch the armchair and sofabed. Get a couple of small "bedroom chairs" that's probably not the real name of them but I hope you know what I mean, they're smaller than living room armchairs, less padded and don't always have arms. They could go under the window by the radiator. That gives more seating options and maintains some semblance of it looking vaguely like a living room during the day.

Or

Get a double divan bed. Use drawers underneath for clothes. Lose any pretence at this room looking like a living room. It's definitely going to be a bedsit so don't try to disguise the bed, have it wherever you'd put it if the room was primarily a bedroom. Get a very small 2 seater sofa. Ditch sofa bed and armchair.

I've heard rumours that IKEA is planning to release a Murphy bed (hopefully a lot cheaper than an actual Murphy bed!). I'm really keen on the idea for a study/bedroom.

It even has shelves inside the bedroom bit, so you can have a little lamp, books, moisturiser etc there permanently and not have to move them every morning

There are always hammocks. You string them up every night…

Or lay out a futon mattress on the floor every night. You know, the Japanese kind of futon bed.