Small bedroom ideas - custom built bed / wardrobes?

[Monr0e]

We are looking at houses now. We are looking in a particular area and all the houses in our price range are very similar, 2 decent size bedrooms and one small third.

We are trying to make the third room as appealing as possible to dc and make the best use of it. So have been considering the idea of having a custom built bed and or wardrobes to maximise the space.

Just wondering if anyone has done this ? Or if anyone is willing to share pictures of their lovely small bedrooms to inspire me and convince DS we are not terrible parents for downsizing his room

My three all have box sized bedrooms and love them. I actually wanted to move to a house with bigger rooms and none of them wanted it. We downsized - the elder two remember a house double the size.

All the rooms are very individual. DS1 has what we call a four storey room. On the ground floor he has his room width desk under the window, to one side IKEA expedit units running almost the length fitted right upto built in expedit height stairs leading upto his high level bed. ceiling suspended by stiff wire rods from the roof beams so no awkward posts in the way below. The bed is level 2, level 3 is a train track running around the room above door height so its a continuous loop - controlled from a panel behind his bed. Level 4 is the particularly ingenious bit. We have the stairs going right up beyond his bed into the loft space and have created an insulated space above his room for all his clothes hanging space and drawer boxes of clothes, plus other boy stuff. Its not a high loft so not brilliant for storage but this uses the space very effectively. He can stand on his top step, body half into the loft and has wardrobe to three sides .

DS2's room has an ikea malm chest of drawers with Billy bookcase above running to ceiling height, then an Ikea desk with two open shelves above on one side, built in sofa/ spare bed with high bed over on the other. The ladder for the high bed is flat on the wall at the end of the room so the bottom bed is more like a sofa. His wardrobe for hanging stuff is a converted airing cupboard outside his room.

DD's room has a wall of expedit with hanging rail suspended between 2 5x1 units, with a 4x4 below. The end of the room has a staircase going upto a slightly shorter than average high bed with bed/ sofa below. She's short and the room didn't quite fit a full length bed plus stairs. DD had delayed physical development and DS1 is dypraxic with mobility challenges so a ladder wasn't an option.

How old is your DS and how big is the garden? A lovely insulated shed with power can be built for a few thousand. Most children I know would be happy to be bribed by their own shed/ workshop/ garden caravan/ den.

What are the dimensions? Custom build may be overkill, but they can use space more effectively (eg not having a back on the wardrobe so saving 5cm or so) . There are lots of different sizes of furniture available though.

A cabin bed gains storage, high beds allow desks underneath, mirrors at a feeling of space.

If you can fit a cabin bed in with storage underneath and an Ikea Pax wardrobe you’ll be fine. Our box room has got that and another chest of drawers and is very cosy (but a bit of a storage room atm so no photos sorry!).
It’s got a sloping bit of floor where we had to have a new staircase when we extended but we chopped off one of the legs of the bed to go over it. It works perfectly!

Oh yes, half of the pax wardrobe (which has sliding doors) is mirrored which makes the room feel bigger and brighter.

Thank you so much!

IKEA seems the way to go rather than custom built maybe. DS is 13 and currently has the bigger room but we are thinking of giving DD the bigger room as she has more toys. But we would like DS to have a bigger bed as he is now taller than me 5'7 and showing no signs of slowing down.

RippleEffects, your rooms sound great
We haven't bid on a specific house yet but it will definitely have a garden
I love the idea of a summer house or converted shed for DS in the garden, this is something he has mentioned himself.

He has a lot of expensive gaming equipment so I'd be wary of him keeping this outside though.

We've done this. We went down the custom build route - we have a bulk head in ours so have maximised space over the years with a high sleeper custom fit over the bulkhead when DS was in there, and then a cabin bed ("hacked" to fit) when DD was in there. Just about to turn it into room so having built in wardrobes (IKEA Pax "hacked" by our joiner to fit the space) and a double bed.

Have a look on Pinterest, there are some fab ideas.