Siblings sharing bedroom, 5 year age gap, boy/girl layout ideas

[hypnobell]

We’ve two children, DSS aged 5 and DD aged 6 months in a two bed flat. DP & I currently have the larger room, we have DSS about 10 nights a month and about 50% of the holidays. DD is in with us at the moment but we’d like to swap our bedrooms around for the DC to have the larger room when DD moves out of ours between 12-18 months(?)

We’ve no scope to move at the moment, we’d be looking to in 4-5 years. It also wouldn’t really be feasible for us to move into the living room as it’s a shared space with the kitchen and not a huge living space.

I know that siblings sharing rooms is frowned upon on Mumsnet but how could we configure these rooms to give DSS a little more privacy? The red window is short but wide window, blue window is narrow but floor to ceiling almost. The window on far right is a small bathroom style window as plans originally had an ensuite. Room size is 12’5” x 10’8”.

Thank you!

If you own the house I’d create 2 small rooms tbh.

This is a really bad idea, unless you can split the space permanently.

What’s a bad idea sorry?

I was thinking more of a partition/stud wall but not sure how I’d split the room up without one having to go through the other?

You can’t have them sharing in years to come, so unfair on them. Give them the bedrooms and you and your dh have the living room.

She's already said they're looking to move in 4/5 years.

I'd split the space across so they have a window each and let the older one have the back room so that he goes through the little ones room rather than the other way round.

Ime four/five year olds don't spend a huge amount of time in their bedrooms anyway, don't have the same privacy needs as an older child and it'll only be an issue 50% of the time anyway.

Yes I know. That’s why I said it. It’s still way too long.

Of course it isn't. A five year old can share a bedroom. It's not like they're teens.

I understand that it’s far from ideal but did you miss the bit where I stated we’d be moving in about 4 years time? As far as I’m aware, it’s not even classed as over occupancy for social housing until the eldest is around 10.

We part-own through a shared ownership so would require permission to make any structural changes.

So you’d think it’d make more sense to have a room sat unoccupied for 50% of the time whilst I squeeze a double bed into a kitchen space

Might this sort of thing work?

Does that matter? Older one in the back room, youngest in the front as they won’t care about privacy when they’re that young and it also means that you can close DSS’s room off and block the youngest from the potential choking hazards that often come with small boys like lego and hot wheels!

And OP you’re fine to have opposite sex half siblings under 10 sharing! Ignore any posters saying other wise because frankly they’re bonkers and if it were social housing you wouldn’t even be entitled to a 3 bed until the eldest is 10. It’s only inappropriate past puberty but if you’re planning to move in a few years then that isn’t an issue.

Thank you! It would make more sense to have older DC at the back of the room. DSS’s room is only used for sleeping and toy storage at the moment to be honest, most playing is done in the living room or our bedroom, depending on where we are at the time.

Ignore this kind of comment. It's ridiculous. Your space is your space and you're trying to make the best of it. Children under 10 of opposite sexes can share.

My children didn’t spend loads of time in their bedrooms until they were more secondary school aged.

I had my dd and ds sleep in the same room sometimes and live in a house where there’s space for the older one to play computer games or whatever downstairs so the younger one could go to bed earlier.
Basically you want to configure the room so that dss can quickly get to his bed without waking dd. You want enough light so he can see where he’s going and get pyjamas or whatever his night routine consists of while dd hopefully stays asleep because he will be up longer than dd.

The people who say that 2 primary age children can’t share are being ridiculous. You’re moving by the time that dss is 10 which is a good age to have separate rooms.
Do they get up at the same time ? If one likes to sleep longer then you ideally want a room configuration where they can leave without waking the other up. That’s obviously harder in the winter months when they might need to turn a light on.

The wall they share you could have a platform bed for DSS on his side and then chest of drawers or storage on DD side instead of straight wall. You have enough space to have a corridor and 2 doors.

DSS is an early riser by nature and up at the crack of dawnDD is usually asleep until much later but I expect all of that to change! DSS is also still up a few times a night and will obviously be going to bed later than the baby within the next couple of months.

Yes to the choking hazards! I can’t move for Lego at the moment

I'd do a partition stud wall, as you say, with a sliding door into the bigger section, boy's room, accessed from her room, so you don't waste any space on creating individual access. It really won't matter at that age that his bedroom is accessed through hers. I'd probably put glass panelling along the top of the stud wall so light from each room filters into the other, to make both rooms feel less dark and poky. Then he'd get one of those beds with ladder access and a play/storage space underneath, and she'd get a toddler bed with a small storage unit for clothes and maybe some shelves above for soft toys.

It'll be fine.

My brother & I shared a very similar room for a couple of years. I was aged 14-16 years, he was 6-8 years.
It wasn't ideal but here's how we laid it out; the "divider" was our wardrobes, side by side & facing opposite directions, as we couldn't put up a stud wall due to it being a rental.
Our door opened the other way and actually fit the gap of the wardrobe pretty well, but a curtain could have been used otherwise. Obviously this layout wouldn't really minimise noise between the spaces but it gave some privacy.

No I didn’t miss it, that’s why I said for years. I don’t care what the official rules are, I personally think it’s wrong to expect them to share when they could have a room each and you use the living room. You are the ones that put them in this situation. No 9 year old boy will be wanting to share a bedroom with his 4 year old half sister.

I shared with my sister until I was 13 and my friend with a brother shared until a similar age. We both had a 4 year age gap to our younger sibling and we often played as the 4 of us until age 10ish. Most of my friends at this age shared bedrooms. We both had bunk beds and the space in the room was shared but our beds were strictly no go areas for siblings to have some private space.

I think I would look for a mid sleeper for your DSS and have underneath as a him only space so he has somewhere that's just for him.

Something like this?
funkybunkbeds.com/product/room-divider-bunk-bed/

https://mkfurnishings.co.uk/product/room-dividing-bunk-bed-with-stairs/