Moving box room walls to extend it - anyone done this

[WishIHadABetterRoutine]

Just that really. We are buying a house with a typical 1930s layout, 2 huge bedrooms and one box room, 2.3m x 2.16 wide. Am thinking we could steal maybe 0.75m from the adjoinjng room and have the wall moved to create a slightly bigger bedroom.
Anyone done this and did it make enough of a difference? It would mean the wall was right next to the bay window in the 2nd room, which might spoil the proportions/symmetry.
We will prob go up to the loft eventually when I feel the kids are old enough to be on a different floor to us so this would be a (cheap?) measure to tide us over for a few years.

Should have said we have.a girl and boy aged 6 and 4 so sharing the big room not ideal as the 6 year old already likes her own space away from her annoying brother...

Depends if its a structural wall...

I would suggest paying a professional to come and do some drawings for you - they use space in amazing ways, e.g. change layout of landing, airing cupboard, etc. Worth the investment.

The big room is 3.53 x 3.45m wide. We couldn't split it due to the bay window and it wouldn't have a window if we split it the other way.
Not sure if its structural as we haven't bought it yet so can't check, I don't think it is. Am doing my own head in going throigh various scenarios/permutations of how we could use the space!

How big is the bigger bedroom ? I would be inclined to divide it rather than use steels if the box room wall was structural , get a good local builder to have a look

If you haven't yet bought it look at previous sales of local same build properties see if they have altered the internal layout on their floor plans ,

I’ve thought about doing this too. But I think both bedrooms will be too small if I ever wanted to sell on.

I’ve accepted my younger child will have a box room until a time I can ever afford an extension (unlikely). DC has a mid sleeper and bookcase in their room. Clothes are in my wardrobe to free up floor space for them to play.

It could be doable if it's not structural. If it isn't I would invest in some really cool furniture for the smaller room (like a raised bed) to maximise the space.

Could using the larger room as part playroom help?

Another option I’ve considered is swapping round the box room and bathroom, as the bathroom has larger footprint.

Yep, I've done it in 2 houses.

If yours is the same as the ones I've done it isn't a structural wall, so it's a fairly simple job to remove the wall, build a new studwork wall and replaster. Obviously get someone in to check this though.

It made a huge difference to the box room in the houses I did, allowing the bed to go along the end wall and freeing up a lot of floor space, but they were quite a bit smaller than yours to start with. The loss of space in the master really wasn't noticeable as we only moved the wall about 30cm to take us up to the edge of the bay.

To see if it is really worth doing I would spend a while playing with room planning software (or pen and paper) to see if you gain useable space because the furniture will fit better or if it doesn't really help and you would be paying for dead space.

if your six year old wants privacy, I’d spin the big room as a shared room where your son sleeps and the little room is her room for privacy. So she can keep toys in the shared room if not enough room in the little room. You could partition off a sleeping area for your son in the windowless bit of the room using these www.diy.com/departments/karalis-room-divider/1012710_BQ.prd

If you’re doing a loft conversion at some point then moving walls now seems a bad idea.

We have a playroom downstairs and my (only) son in a box room, it’s loads of space of all you do is sleep / get changed in there!

We put the youngest in the box room till we could afford the loft conversion. She was fine and got some other perks to make up for it. Then put an ensuite in the box room for us. That made more sense for us than two lots of disruption and altering the proportions of the room.

we very nearly did this, but moved house instead as there were other issues with the house.

We knew the dividing wall wasn't structural at all so it would have been very simple in the house we had. We were also going to build a wardrobe over the stairs accessed from the box room.

We figured if it was bizarrely hard to sell it on, we'd just rebuild the stud wall back in the original place.

I think it makes sense if you know you are staying for a long time and you aren't planning more children as its better if they have even sized rooms.

We had same layout. A slight wTch put - our house is/was a fairly dinky 30s semi and we lost much of the box room for the stairs for our new loft conversion. Box room had been ds1's bedroom for 5 years (approx 6 feet square I think).

Reduced size box room is now our (slightly pretensiosly named) book nook!!

Thanks all for your replies, some food for though. Love the room dividers idea for the big bedroom so could be an option. Good to know it has been worth it for those that did it - its a family home so surely most families would want more equally sized rooms for kids if we resold? (Although I swear I am never doing this again!)
If we converted the loft other houses in the area have managed to keep the box room and fit the stairs in off the landing so hopefully it wouldn't mean two lots of disruption to walls etc. Although the book nook is a great idea and may have to steal it!
Ps AlannaofTrebond - I so loved those books!

We looked at this over and over a few years ago when ds's wanted their own rooms. In the end we squeezed one d's into the box room (just - it's only 6' x 5'!) and when it came to re-mortgage we borrowed more and converted the loft. Ds1's up there now and very happy. They managed to put the stairs outside of the box room and our house is small so it's definitely possible. The box room now will become a study for dp so I'm really glad we waited and did it this way.

Yes I’ve done this. It was only a stud wall so we took it out and moved it back a bit, replastered and carpeted. We now have room for a 2.5’ high sleeper bed where we didn’t before and it’s made no difference to the other room other than having a very short dog leg into it.

It cost about £800 and has given us an extra, usable to room. I’m near Bedford.

If you are planning to do the loft I wouldn't bother.

Put the eldest in the small room as she won't share. Get decent storage etc. Can you build a raised bed to go over the stair head?

If you aren't going to do the loft and it's a partition wall (go back and check!) then I would totally move it to create a decent single.

We did it - or rather Dh did. We had one very small bedroom with a much larger one next to it. The wall between was just stud - Dh built a wooden frame and then nailed plasterboard both sides. Plus painting, of course. Now we have 2 more equal sized rooms. TBH I can't think why the builders didn't do it in the first place - much more sensible.

If the walls are just stud, it's not a massive job even if you have to pay someone to do it.