Anyone fancy a "boxroom inspiration" thread?

[AllRoadsLeadBackToRadley]

I have DD's new high sleeper dumped on the kitchen floor...the start of a very busy fortnight ahead!

She's 11 in May. This will be her first birthday in the new house, so she's having a room makeover.

Her room is TINY! 2.6 x 2.7m, with The Dreaded Corner Box in...erm...the corner!

She's not the tidyest of people, and a bookworm, so I have a feeling it will never look minimalist in there 😂

Anyone else trying to spueeze an ever growing child into a cupboard?

I'm up for this! We've just converted an even smaller box room (2.06 x 2.8) into a bedroom for DD. We had a brick-built cupboard around the DCB, so there was literally only one place to put a bed once you took window, door, etc into account.

We got a builder to remove the cupboard and build a platform bed on top of the box. Obviously, the box itself took up some of the underside of the bed, but there was enough room underneath to put 2 x 2 drawers - easily enough for DD's clothes and a few other bits and bobs. On the other side of the room, she currently has a play kitchen, a Billy bookcase full of books and board games, and a teepee (she's in reception!), but there's enough room there to put a desk and some extra storage when she's older. By putting the bed on top of the box, we left the only useable wall free for storage.

Oh, and the best thing we did was to take out her swinging door and replace it with a pocket door. It meant losing 10 from the depth of that side of the room, but the room looks so much bigger without a door swinging into it and cutting off the view, iyswim.

We had a very small back bedroom next to a good sized double.

I know it's not always going to be possible, but Dh spent a weekend moving the stud wall to make 2 more equal sized rooms, one really good sized single and still a fair sized double.
Why on earth the builders didn't do this in the first place, I will never understand.

I'm interested but have nothing to show! I've a 2.4 x 2.4 box room but DD whose room it is is only 4 months old so not much in there yet

This is currently my 4 year old daughters, she has a book storage from Ikea under the table but hoping to get a wall mountable one, and change the star lights underneath to just fairy lights so they sit flatter under the bed. We are moving next week (still to a box room unfortunately) but hoping to have a move around! Ideally I would get rid of the buggy and have the house underneath too! Her clothes are stored in our chest of draws in our room.

Well the bed's up! We bought this one...

www.argos.co.uk/product/8100067

DD's room is awkward! The longest wall is the one by the door, and it would be impossible to swap the hinges around. So we've had to put it up against the window! Luckilly the bottom half of the window isn't covered, so she still gets some light!

DH made a wardrobe at work to fit in the corner, and tomorrow we'll set up a small desk and chair in there. I wish I'd taken before pics now!

Omg...and when DH was fixing the metal slats that hold the mattress, the stupid idiot managed to trap his head!!!! Hard to explain...He's about 5'8, and he was standing under the bed with his head poking out, and realized after he'd fixed the last one that his head would no longer fit through the gap!!! I may have taken the screw driver and buggared off to play on Rollercoaster Tycoon 😂😂😂

I'd like to get a bed built over the box, or a cabin bed, but we're still at the stage where I have to lie down with ds and I wouldn't fit!

I have a box room too that's my DS's room. I found the corner pax Ikea wardrobes really good. You can fit loads in them and takes up half the space. Next to that I have a kallax with the cheap fabric drawer things and two sets of drawers. Again, I can fit quite a lot of toys tat in them too.

Then he has his bed and his tent. Still enough space in the middle to play and stuff.

If she's a bookworm, then extra shelves on the walls would be really helpful - I lived in a box room at university and had shelves above my chest of drawers for all my books. It saves floor space! Admittedly, I also had piles of books on my desk and the floor but it helped keep it in order.

I was gutted to find out we had box room.in our house. Until I went to view it and saw they had built a wardrobe over the top of it. I would have never have thought of this. When I was a kid my tv went onto the random box in the corner

There is a wardrobe over our box too.

Because she wants a lot of black, I've tried to fit as much lighting as I can in there. I've even bought one of those tall lava lamps that fits perfectly under the steps of her bed! She'll open that on her birthday though.

Ive always thought box rooms were so called because that’s where you stored all your boxes of stuff!

What is this weird box that people are talking about? We also have a box room , with no box in it!

Our box room is 2.86 x 2.86. We also have the stairs bulkhead. We have this - usually it has drawers and a pull out desk underneath, plus shelves at the end. We just have the drawers underneath next to the ladder & shelves at the end but the desk is on the other side of the room. My (DIY savvy) H has altered it so that it sits on top of the bulkhead.

Curly in lots of 30s semis (and other style houses) the slope of the stairs is in the box room, a bit like this, but its usually boxed in which impacts on where you can have furniture etc.

Ah we had something like that in the box room in my childhood home. A shallower angle though so our bunk beds fitted over it fine, I recall.

Do some people actually make it into a square box then? I went to an acquaintance’s house last year and thought it was hiding some kind of tank!

Yes , they're often like this (built into wardrobe) or just box.

I would agree though that a bedroom with the bulkhead in it is not a box room! A box room is a small room that has no window. The room I've posted about is simply bedroom 3 with a stair box in it!
Mine is currently just a platform for all the toys.

I think "box room" just meant a room for storing boxes in olden times, not sure it had to be windowless, but its commonly used now to describe the 3rd / small bedroom in 3 bed houses. Traditionally they've had 2 double bedrooms and a small 3rd single room (box room).

In years of renting flats it always meant a windowless room - usually enough space for a bed and no more! But I don't think there's an official definition. I certainly wouldn't call a single room a box room if I was selling! We had a large cupboard in our last house (about the size of a small ensuite) and had to stop the estate agent calling it a box room.

We have a box room (1940s semi, over stairs bulkhead within room) and I'm.trying to find a joiner to build in a bed/desk to make the most of the space.

Will post pic later but I’m over the moon with my DD’s Neely redone box room

My recommendations are:-

Buy a shorty bed (we got the Kayla from Argos)
Nail wardrobe flush with wall. Looks almost built in and no wasted inches behind the wardrobes
Built in desk and lots of shelving
No curtains. Go with blinds or shutters

While my kids are small we got a shorty bed, 4ft6 long so it still leaves room for toys. No clothes storage in there though. We have a square kallax on top of the box. I think long term we’ll have the kids in the bigger rooms and DH and me in the box room, we don’t need as much as space as they do it’ll literally just be a bed and whatever clothes storage we can fit in.

Crocus i think our box room (as above is 2.86 x 2.86) was described in EA speak as 'spacious double' when we bought the house . You can just about get a double bed in there but 'spacious'? Hmmmm

@namechangedtoday15 I’ve got a double bed in my small 3rd room with the stairs bulk head box.

It’s got a double bed (just) under the window, a chest of drawers on the wall by the door and the wardrobe is over the stair box.

Rented it out as a ‘cosy double’ :-)

Photos as promised

Shorty bed and built in furniture.

Having said that, we do have very high ceilings, which gives the illusion of lots of space!

What do you people with shorty beds plan on doing when your kids grow into great lumbering teens? Ds1 is only 14 and already 5ft 8, his feet already touch the end of his bed (ex bunk bed) so he’ll have to get a divan soon as he’s still growing. He’s in the bigger bedroom so ok but I’m praying DS2 doesn’t grow quite so tall!