What are your thoughts on downstairs bedrooms?

[Ewokewok]

We're moving and at the moment are considering different layouts for our new house which needs a bit of 'updating' ripping out and starting again.

Downstairs there is a decent sized study (big enough for a spare bedroom) and upstairs there is a small bedroom which will fit a single bed and not too much else in it. Dh was thinking we make the small bedroom into his study (he works from home but not regularly) and have the larger room downstairs for a spare room. DC's room and our bedroom would be upstairs. There is a downstairs toilet but not shower.

We thought that if we ever sold (unlikely but just in case) we could just reverse the rooms again so that the small bedroom is set up as a bedroom again in case the downstairs one puts people off.

The alternative is to rip out the largeish bathroom upstairs, knocking through the separate toilet, making that the spare room and turning the small bedroom into a bathroom and keeping the study downstairs.

Any thoughts on downstairs bedrooms in general?

We are currently house hunting and I would rather see a decent sized downstairs bedroom than a large study.

I think ordinarily you'd be limiting your market but if you can stage the house with the upstairs bedroom if you do ever come to sell, then it's just down to you as to whether you'd like it.

I have no problem with a downstairs guest bedroom (though wouldn't like DC downstairs). I'd probably put a sofa bed in the downstairs room and have it as more of a family room.

Living in Australia, downstairs bedrooms are the rule rather than the exception, and oddly, no-one worries about their children being downstairs. I have two downstairs bedrooms (bathroom downstairs, too), and upstairs a bedroom with ensuite and a study.

Agree that having a sofa bed keeps it flexible, though the tendency to turn the same room into a dumping ground drying/ironing room can make it harder to turn it back into guest bedroom at short notice.

Well in newbuilds over a certain size it's a requirement so pretty common

We live in such house, it's required to have a downstairs shower room too

Although the the bedroom is a toy room for us as we have another 5 bedrooms upstairs

Yes Jelly, the study does seem needlessly large for somewhere which is used many as a place for DH to dump his keys/bag/laptop and occasionally work!

If we do go down that route I think it will be a 'proper' bedroom - as in bed and bedside tables, we have a separate family room elsewhere so wouldn't need it for that purpose.

Thank everyone it's good to hear people aren't opposed on principle.

Downstairs guest bedroom is absolutely fine.

I have 4 DC and one has her bedroom downstairs. It's never been an issue for her or us although she moved in when she was about 8 so not a toddler. She's across from a toilet too.

We have this -beds upstairs but the guest room downstairs with a loo. We will have shower downstairs too but not done that yet so guests shower upstairs atm.

It works really well in practice for us - i like that we have a bit of seperation from our guests as do they i expect!

The difference though is we have 3 beds upstairs so a family of 2 kids can all be upstairs. When we were looking i wanted all the dc upstairs and only having 2 beds would have been a deal breaker for me, so yes, use the house how it works for you, but i would sell as a 3 bed upstairs.

Df and her husband have a down stairs bedroom and the children have all the bedrooms upstairs.

They don't venture upstairs. It is far too scary. It is up to the dc to look after the upstairs.

We are getting to the stage where we need a downstairs bedroom to accommodate elderly parents. So I'd like it!

Certainly cuts down on the cleaning.

If having a downstairs bedroom works then great but when you come to sell then people won't recognise a downstairs bedroom. It will in a viewers mind be discounted as a bedroom.

Could you not make the downstairs room and study and spair bedroom combined with a good quality sofa bed that way not having to redo when you come to move

LOL! OLiversmumsarmy - knowing the state of my dc's bedrooms I can't even imagine if they had a whole floor

Shadowridge - we have three beds upstairs (+ study) and downstairs one will be guest room. We are a family of four too - I put dc's room in my OP when I meant rooms. Both of them in same room would result in a bloodbath (hormonal teenage dd and ds who has 'annoying younger brother' down to a tee )

We have a downstairs guest bedroom but instead of putting a full time bed in there got a very high quality sofa bed....and also have a book shelf in there .... Means it looks ok down stairs. Guests have said they like being slightly depressed and having the downstairs loo sink to themselves in the night!

Guests have said they like being slightly depressed. - hope that's not because they're staying in your house Andcake

Agree OliversArmysmum - we always discount downstairs bedrooms too. This is going to be a longterm home though so re-sale isn't a priority. Definitely not moving for at least 10/15 yrs if we move at all - unless something unexpected happens (like winning the lottery!).

And what are they doing in the downstairs loo sink in the night?!

andcake

Love it for guests - have downstairs shower so they never need to venture upstairs. I wouldn't use one for my dc's bedroom though - I like to be all on the same floor.

I actually like a downstairs guest bedroom it's great so guests have their own area also great for anyone who needs to look after grandparents. It can be a multiuse room playroom etc whatever you want.

I don't understand the problem people have with downstairs bedrooms, but I know some do. I think they work really well, especially if you have elderly/immobile visitors or it's just nice to give the guests some space away from the family chaos. They are very common in many countries.

We have two bedrooms downstairs with a bathroom in between and two bedrooms upstairs, one with an en suite

We all sleep downstairs as the DC share but soon ds will be going upstairs into his own room above us. He is 7 and hasn't wanted to move before now

We nearly bought a place specifically because it did have a downstairs guest bedroom. We have guests regularly and some of them are getting older, so it would have been good to have a room that we knew would stay accessible. I wouldn't want a children's bedroom downstairs, but an extra one is a great bonus! Unfortunately we couldn't agree a price with the over optimistic owners (who sold a year later for less than we'd offered).

I like the separation between guests and family, so much so that I'd also be looking for ways to extend the downstairs loo into a full shower room.

We have a room downstairs that is used as an extra living room / bedroom with a really lovely sofa futon in it. It has direct access to the garden, is next to the utility room (so has its own fridge) and downstairs bathroom with shower in it. It gives a nice degree of separation and is popular with guests. Being able to fold the bed back is useful because we can use the room like a conservatory on a nice day. (It has floor to ceiling windows with big blackout curtains.