Small bedroom - wardrobes...over the bed or small gap at the end of the bed?

[TheAirbender]

We've just bought a new house - yay! It's perfect in almost every way apart from the master bedroom...which is fairly petite - 11ft10 by 9ft6. We are both 6ft tall plus so really need a 180x200 king bed.

At present the room has wardrobes up and over the bed, which look very dated. We plan to have an ottoman style bed for bulky stuff and folded things (jeans, jumpers etc) and then...DH and I disagree. I would like to create a more modern, look for the over bed wardrobes, whilst he wants to rip out the current wardrobes, and build a long back of wardrobes along one wall (probably the shallow Ikea Pax type). This would mean that we would only have 28 cm to pass at the end of the bed.

Neither of us ever spend much time in the bedroom, so I am happy for the room to have some compromises, especially as the house otherwise works so well for us. But which compromise is a step too far? A narrow space to pass (which would look sleek and neat) or up and over wardrobes (a bit 1999?).

@VioletAlder

The only thing with the knocked through from the stairs idea (which I agree is genius!) is that then your bathroom is off your living room not bedroom.

Would it be annoying to have to head from your bedroom through your living room to shower in the morning, go for a pee at 3am & so on?

I think I could live with it but it's a consideration.

I think we could just swap the door into the new bedroom and wall over the current door - I think it could work and DH likes the idea too!

didn't read the whole thread before my comment doh! and stuff walking was meant to be stud walling! double doh!
Sounds like master suite is way forward,think it will be lovely!

Not irritated. But you are looking ast trying to make a tiny bedroom into something that is virtually impossible. It will end uo looking like a shoe box. I also do not see the point in asking for design help when you do not want to hear any alternatives to the big lounge idea.

It is easy to change the en suite around so it has a door into the other room. I would make it wider (a better shape - less like a corridor) at the same time and have the excess space that would create as a built in wardrobe. I would then have built in furniture for storage in the smaller room and lots of people these days want computer space and offices. So a fold down desk woud be important. We have settees in bedrooms where they are bigger. Like hotels do. I think luxury is a bigger bedroom with a lovely en suite and seating.

Yes the en suite should be fairly easy to change - you would just need to swap the sink and the door. However I don’t know if you have extensive tiling etc that this would ruin.

I have a narrow gap at the foot of my ottoman bed and it makes it difficult for me to open up the bed. I don't have quite enough room to crouch down to reach the handles unless I twist which is not good for my back. Fortunately I use it to store spare bedding, towels, etc. which I don't need to access that often, but if I had to open it every time I needed a t-shirt it would be a right faff.

I think if the en suite was not a corridor and was better designed it woud look much more luxurious and that would involve rejigging and retiling. However for a better end result that is not a long thin space, It is surely worth it?

@NothingTraLaLa

I have a narrow gap at the foot of my ottoman bed and it makes it difficult for me to open up the bed. I don't have quite enough room to crouch down to reach the handles unless I twist which is not good for my back. Fortunately I use it to store spare bedding, towels, etc. which I don't need to access that often, but if I had to open it every time I needed a t-shirt it would be a right faff.

That’s really helpful, thank you!

@PresentingPercy

I think if the en suite was not a corridor and was better designed it woud look much more luxurious and that would involve rejigging and retiling. However for a better end result that is not a long thin space, It is surely worth it?

Thanks, I’m not too worries about the en suite, it’s just a functional space to me. Appreciate you commenting though.

@ramblingsonthego

This is very outing as I have showed so many people my new wardrobes but I will name change afterwards lol.

We have just had these installed as we have a teeny tiny bedroom. We still have a very small gap at the end of the bed but we now have so much storage. I was worried about them being old fashioned but I have to say I love them. They have turned out way better than I ever thought they would.

Thank you for sharing, I think your room is almost identical, and this is a great design. I am sure the end result will look great.

We used to have a small bedroom and I had overbed units. I loved them. So much that they now live in our spare room where there is plenty of space but I think they're just such a great feature. Personal opinion, but I'd definitely get some decent overbed storage!

@Dinosauraddict

We used to have a small bedroom and I had overbed units. I loved them. So much that they now live in our spare room where there is plenty of space but I think they're just such a great feature. Personal opinion, but I'd definitely get some decent overbed storage!

Thank you! A bit of positivity for the overbed look! I think we will swap rooms and either open up the new lounge room (worried about it being cold and load bearing walls though) or keep as is and try and have some sleek design overbed storage. This thread has been great.

Don’t forget to come back and show the end result!! I love a makeover.

Thanks - I will! We are just waiting til quarantine ends to finally get to our lovely little house now (currently overseas!).