Show me your cosy box rooms

[Pollypolspol]

This follows on from a previous thread I had but can’t be bothered to change user name back. Immmaking my small single into a spare single which my DC will use when back from
uni. It’s tiny so thinking just lovely rug, lovely bedding and maybe dark colours to make it feel nice and cosy and a fabulous lamp and textiles. Show me yours if you don’t mind. Or any lovely pins you know of if working on your own little teeny room? Thank you 🙏

My bedroom was in the box room when I was a teen. When we first viewed the house the slope for the stairs was partially on show but the council boxed it in before we moved in which seemed to take up a lot more space and stumped us all because it meant the bed took up ALL the floor space. Then someone talked mum into having a friend of a friend’s husband build a platform in the gap to make a bed. He did it in MDF with cubbies underneath for storage, a bit like an Ikea kallax but much deeper.

I stripped the wallpaper, painted the walls white and the woodwork on the bed and bulkhead beige. Fell in love with a vintage gentleman’s compactum style wardrobe on Gumtree and arranged for a courier to drive it the 75 miles to our house! My clothes went in the gentleman’s wardrobe and in plastic bins in the under bed storage, just about. No room for a bedside table but the bulkhead basically formed a big shelf above my head so I didn’t miss it. I’ve dug up the photos from an old phone and I still think it looks good now! Would be easy to colour wash if you prefer the dark look too.

@Pollypolspol please don’t leave the thread. Ignore the miserable.

I was so happy to see the title of the thread because my children and I live in a shoe box. I can’t move, so want to make it nice. Would love to see more suggestions . 💐

I need our resident ship architect to draw me a sketch ? I’ve cheered up since reading the earlier messages. I can’t think of a single person in real life who’d tell me my house was lacking for my child so why it’s ok on here to suggest it’s uninhabitable is wild. BUT, back to positivity. I’ve got some paint and going carpet shopping tomorrow and will be getting a new platform bed without headboard or footer and a rug to go under the bed and in front of it It’s quite exciting to create a cosy nook

My sketching is soon poor, so I've borrowed from someone else. This is the layout I did - it's just I moved the bed further over the stairs, and lifted it up so the stair ceiling slope met the bed end.
Bed went over pink bit.

I love this thread @Pollypolspol . Thank you.
The floor plan says our room is 8’ x7’ but you’ll see from my pics that this seems a bit of a stretch as the bed is standard 6’ and practically fills the wall.
Our stair head has a wardrobe cupboard over it so good storage .

I'd be inclined to keep the decor light in colour as dark colours will make the room feel smaller and very claustrophobic.

I grew up in a 2m x 2m box room very similar to this.

I had a cabin bed with drawers, desk and cupboard under. DM chopped a bit out to fit it over the bulkhead. A tiny wardrobe was squeezed in the other side of the room.

Better to have a tiny room to myself than share with a sibling IMO.

I still love a cosy little room all to myself please

I’d do something like this:

@Karistyleaftea this looks so lovely. What kind of bed is it ? I’m looking at a very basic (and thankfully cheap!) platform bed which will give the illusion of more space I think

Thank you Polly.
DC has long since flown the nest so it is just a basic 3ft wide divan for guests.
If I was going to replace it now, I would get a base which has room underneath for either storage boxes, or for a mattress to go on the floor along by my window with enough room for the feet underneath ha ha,
I am sure whatever you do will be gorgeous, good luck!

My DD's bedroom is like this and shockingly she did very well in her GCSEs 🙄
Her younger sister's is even smaller and she is also doing well at school.

Thanks for the ideas. Similarly my dd is moving into the bigger bedroom now my eldest is at university so I want to make it 'theirs' for the holidays.

@Karistyleaftea not sure what you mean about mattress and feet ?! 🤣. My worst thing today is trying to get under the bed to clean so thinking a basic base will help me there !

@Pollypolspol The length along the wall where my radiator is (pic earlier) is not enough for a 6ft mattress or futon , you'd have to curl your feet into a ball to sleep there.
If you had a cabin bed type base, raised up a bit like your idea you could stretch out fully I was thinking!

My child also has a tiny bedroom, I also posted on here about 5 years ago feeling terribly guilty ha.
My child is now 10, he has a 5foot 11 by 6foot 7 bedroom.
il have to upload some pics, he has a slightly shorter bed under his window, made with kallax units then a tall kallax unit in the corner that goes to the ceiling which I put his clothes in, and from the unit to his bed is a homemade desk that we have built in with a gaming chair.
He occasionally moans it’s small however he regularly has two to three mates in there with no issues.

I had a beautiful bedroom, little bigger than a box room when I was growing up. It is my favourite room ever. I felt so safe in there, my parents let me chose the wallpaper, which was pretty sprigs of flowers, with gingham curtains. It was my happy place. I can still remember feeling safe, happy and content in there, feelings that have been sadly lacking in the last 10 years. I would go back to that little room like a shot, even now.

How does the sibling feel? Watching all the effort go in to improve the box room they were in for years?!

@Rogerthat14 effort went into it for the purpose of it being a child’s bedroom for him. He no longer needs it like that. That purpose has now changed and the room changing with it.

Honestly can't believe some of the comments on here!
My dd has the box room in our house, she loves it, it's her space. She originally had a high sleeper but we found it caused mould. We removed one of the bed legs and cut the others down so it rested on the box there is still room underneath for drawers and storage.
This set up also leaves floor space so the room seems bigger. We had to use grey paint on the walls but the furniture and accessories are white and pink so the room doesn't seem dark and dingy it's lovely and the only issue is she's a messy little sod!!

I've done a few box rooms in 1930's semis.

They are all slightly different in size and the layout is dictated by whether you can fit a bed along the wall opposite the door.

Some of them have had cupboards with hanging space above the stair bulkhead and some fitted a shallow Ikea pax next to a smaller desk.

@AlannaOfTrebond that cupboard is excellent. What is it ? Is it an ikea hung the other way ?! This could absolutely work for us

My sons room it’s not the smallest box room I’ve ever seen, but it works for him

The cupboards are actually kitchen units, the horizontal type with lifting door.

I think the ones in the photo are Howdens, but Ikea do a similar one https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/metod-wall-cabinet-horizontal-white-veddinge-white-s19391895/?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19843024779&gbraid=0AAAAADqyA2NdiyUtCfx8aBRmm9YaEBm5c&gclid=CjwKCAjwmNLHBhA4EiwA3ts3mQl9ej8LmvVqkXTBBQrhgogdKzDrdgGWkPXeuAV_A_iJiq69NJHdlhoCYyUQAvD_BwE

I don't have pictures, and no longer live in the house, but an ottoman bed is brilliant for some storage, and either wall hung cupboards (high up, as in @AlannaOfTrebond's photos) and/or some shelves high up. Roman blind or shutters rather than curtains.

I have a bulkhead in my current house and it has a big cupboard built over it. Mine isn't a wardrobe, but it could easily be.

I think you can make it really lovely OP.

The bed I looked at is great size wise but I think the mattress I have already bought won’t work. Might need a piece of plywood…

It is awful you have been made to feel bad just because of the size of a bedroom.
Unfortunately it is the standard in most 3 bed houses in most areas.
Blame the people who made the plans and built them ! Not the people who pay insane rents/mortgage payments to be able to live in them.
If you are so deluded as to think this is not the standard for a box room then you need to open your eyes to the reality of how most people live .