Living in a tiny flat. Help me utilise the space please! Floor plan included

[Homefront]

As the title says, we're in a ground floor two bed flat. Been here 10 years now and as much as we've been looking, it doesn't seem like we'll be moving any time soon. Not unless we win the lotto tonight.

Situation is, 2 DC. DS is 9 and has disabilities which mean he requires his own room. He currently has the biggest room. One side of the room has a wall to wall and floor to ceiling built in wardrobe which currently houses the whole families clothes. There is also a storage area which we use for things like Christmas Decs, spare duvets/pillows etc. DD is 5. She has the other bedroom. DH and I sleep on a sofa bed in the living room. We have the sofa bed (ikea friheten), compact dining table, desk with pc and printer etc and an 8 square kallax unit.

Kitchen is tiny but has a fair sized pantry so storage wise we manage well in there.

We have a small garden. Big enough to hang washing out, seating area and the DC have a sand pit and slide.

I feel suffocated here. I longingly look at the lovely big houses on rightmove but I think I need to just deal with where we are for now. So I'm looking for space saving ideas, organising tips and inspiration really. Attached a basic floor plan, what would you do with the space?

Do you have money to throw at the problem? Would you swap the immersion heater for a combi boiler? (Expensive!!) And could you afford to rent a storage box for things you don't use every day?

What’s about a studybed? Solves the desk/bed issue - it might even fit in the gap created by taking the wall down to the wardrobe area as suggested above.

Bit out there and might not be possible with plumbing etc but could you knock through under the stairs and have the current reception room as a kitchen/diner/sitting room with the sofa staying where it is and your new l shaped kitchen going where the desk/under stairs cupboard is. Then convert the old kitchen into your new bedroom with computer desk in there (or put your daughter in there so your bedroom is the one that has doors into garden).

I would knock the wall between the living room and bedroom down as previously suggested then put a pull down double bed on the wall within the recess. I think you can get furniture that would be a desk during the day then pull down into a double bed (the desk sort of slides underneath when you pull down).
Another fan of the ikea small spaces too - can you go there and look?

WWW.studybed.co.uk

I live in a small space and the study bed looks awesome
I wonder if it really works so smoothly?

I could really use a kind of study seat option, havent got the space for this but a study table that could be extra seating would be handy for guests.

For desks, consider a fold down one that hinges from the wall. If you use a folding chair too, then then can both be put away when you don't need them.

I've got a kallax. It's very comfy but reclines slightly. So if I am eating or watching tv, I put a cushion behind my back to prop me up.

If you've got a door between your kitchen and lounge, consider taking it off or seeing if you can put a sliding door there. Then you can put furniture where the door used to swing to.

Is there anything you can store in the garden in boxes?

Can you install a ceiling clothese airer for when you dry clothes inside, so you can't take up floor space.

I feel for you OP. The first flat dp and I lived in was so small. We had to think about every purchase as space was so tight. No space to buy extra toilet rolls when they were on offer for example! We didn't even have a corner to put a mop. Our shower room was so small, it only had a mini sink.

Just think about the money you're saving not paying interest on a mortgage for a bigger place!

This is what I would do.

-Divide the big bedroom in half, with a window spanning the top of the new wall and a glass door so that some natural light can still come into the windowless room.

• Close the door to the under stairs cupboard and open it up on the living room side. Make it a build in storage and TV unit.

-You and your husband move to the small room

• Open up the kitchen and get a round dining table.

• If possible give the children high sleeping beds with desks underneath.

Combi boiler. It’s worth the extra storage space an immersion tank will free up.

Custom storage space all the way to the ceiling.

Basically, you need to throw money at this. A budget would help.

If you get rid of the old boiler, you can knock down that wall and

1/ extend your kitchen so you have more counter/storage space all the way to the end

Or build in a kitchen seating nook, so you can get rid of the dining table altogether from the living room.

I’d keep 1/3 of the storage closet to the bedroom and then create a built in wardrobe/storage space (red line) in the living room. Keep your clothes there, keep kids’ clothes in their rooms.

Or, build a wardrobe against the wall separating bedroom/t reception with a pull out desk. We had this designed by a local builder based off what I found on Pinterest.

Or... where the red lines are... that could also be a pull down bed.

Plan didn’t show up

My suggest is probably the least drastic, but shelves above doorways like this. It's extra space for boxes of things (e.g. spare shampoo) which frees up space on more accessible shelving that you can then use for everyday stuff.

I would also declutter everything. It will make the rooms look bigger, you'll have more storage and it's easier to keep clean and tidy.

Do you have any storage in the garden?

You're all brilliant. Thank you for all the suggestions and diagrams!

Money wise we don't have masses to throw at it which i think means knocking walls down is perhaps not possible. Although I'm going to look into it though as no idea what the costs would be and I really like the idea of knocking into the understairs bit.

We've got the money to be able to replace furniture and add storage. Will take a trip to IKEA and see if inspiration hits. The floor plan doesn't accurately show our kitchen layout, it's been changed since the original floor plan. But the wall between the living room and the kitchen now houses wiring and plug sockets for the kitchen and that side of the living room. I don't think there's any way we'd be able to knock that one down.

Does anyone know how much roughly it would be to put a temporary wall in the middle of the big bedroom? I've thought about it before but seeing the suggestion about a window along the top for light has got me thinking again. My biggest issue was there only being one window at the end but that might be a good solution. I could rip out the built in wardrobe and replace with freestanding in each new room.

Don't think DH is happy with you lot giving me ideas his attitude is "we'll find the perfect place soon so no point spending money on this place" but we've been saying that since I was pregnant with DD and here we are still 5 years later.

The person who said about me not having my own space. I think that is probably my biggest issue, no where to retreat to!

Illusion tips: pale walls, match / blend the colour of furniture to the walls, glass tables, mirrors reflecting window light, use roman blinds instead of curtains, light from the edges rather than the middle, lots of lights. Leave space under furniture so that you can see more of the floor. (This obviously conflicts with the need to use all available space for storage but use these tips in the lounge.)

“we'll find the perfect place soon so no point spending money on this place"

Actually there is, as maximising space will add huge amount of value. Someone with one young child and baby looking to move to be in the school catchment area will happily pay another £5-10k for a 2 bed with huge amount of storage if it looks like they can manage to stay in the flat long enough until eldest is 4-5 years. Rather than another 20-40k for a 3 bed. I’m making numbers up but you get my point.

OP when you say 'nowhere to retreat to' do you mean a space with a bed in or a space with more than a bed (armchair, book case, desk) or leaving sofabed in the lounge and creating a chill out space?

Stud wall across bedroom not too expensive (and more easily removable). Added expenses are changing electrics, windows and doors.

My MIL has a studybed in one of her spare bedrooms ( a single) I can confirm they are amazing, but of course super-expensive. Its pretty impressive how you can just leave all your stuff on the desk when you pull the bed down. DS1 has slept on it and didn't complain.

Does anyone know how much roughly it would be to put a temporary wall in the middle of the big bedroom?

Not much as long as you don't have to move radiators or add in wiring for new lights or plug sockets. Approx £1k to chuck up a wall and put a glass door in it.

When we sold a house years ago we had two bedrooms upstairs, one was long and thin, about 14ft by 9ft. We knew the buyers and I saw that the first thing they did was put a dividing stud wall halfway up the long bedroom for their b/g DC. Both rooms were obviously 7ft by 9ft which was plenty big enough and they created a bit of a corridor to the furthest away room by using a big bookshelf at the foot of the bed in the nearest room.

Actually if you are looking to sell I'd be wary of doing anything too drastic too. It's great to kick ideas around but it's basically a nicely proportioned flat with a decent amount of storage.

I'm wondering if you give up the desk in DS's room if you could have your poang or other comfy chair in there as a second living area. Just to give you a bit of a bolt hole. Chair could be carried through to main living area if needed when you have visitors. Or put the children in bunks in the small room and have a built up double bed in the main bedroom, not as tall as a midsleeper but with enough space under for DS's equipment. Beds are simple to construct and not expensive to get made bespoke eg places like oddsizebeds (if they're still going). Or is there some other bespoke solution that would work to get DC and the equipment into a smaller space? Maybe google triple bunkbeds for ideas you can adapt.

Actually if you are looking to sell I'd be wary of doing anything too drastic too. It's great to kick ideas around but it's basically a nicely proportioned flat with a decent amount of storage.

I think a stud wall partition in the largest bedroom would be the cheapest and least drastic solution of all and would immediately give the Op's family a bedroom each. A stud wall is quickly and easily removed for selling.

A cheap and easy, quick solution to divide the big bedroom into 2 for the DC would be a Japanese shoji screen wall (a wooden frame with fabric or paper panels that let the light through) with a sliding panel as a door. You can buy them or it would be easy to make your own.

It would be worth talking to estate agents about whether converting the flat from 2 to 3 bedrooms would increase the value of the property. You might find that the cost is less than the value it would add.

The kitchen could be converted to a single bedroom. You could move the wall of the big bedroom back so it is in line with the wall of the smaller bedroom and knock down the wall into the wardrobe to increase the size of the reception room to give you enough room for an open plan kitchen/diner/sitting room.

Even better, you could swap the entire flat around so you can access the garden from the living area. Create an open plan living area from the hallway and 2 bedrooms. There is just about enough space and windows to create 2 single bedrooms where the kitchen and bathroom are if you widen them a tiny bit, the reception room could then be split into a bathroom (without a window though) incorporating the "wardrobe", a small corridor and double bedroom.

If you have been trying to move for 5 years then why not bite the bullet and remortgage to completely reconfigure the flat to your family?

If it worked better would there ever be an incentive to move?

Can you use a Murphy bed ?