Layout/furniture help

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We live in a 2 bed house, with 3 DCs (same sex, so no issue with sharing). It’s unlikely we can afford to move any time soon as the house prices keep going up, so we need to make the house work for us now.

Luckily the bedroom they use is quite big, but I need to figure out how to make it work as they get older. We’re already having issues with clothes storage, and I think it’s going to get worse as they get older. A lot of the layouts I’ve seen on Pinterest are for the DCs are much younger, so I don’t think they’ll work too well for growing DCs.

As we’re planning on staying put, I think we can afford to spend some money to make it work long term, but I don’t want to spend money for something they’ll grow out of soon.

I’m attaching a diagram with the current layout and current furniture, but am looking at ways we can replace things if need be. We thought of partitioning things, but the window and heater would get in the way, so it doesn’t seem to be the way forward. They also have the biggest room, so swapping rooms wouldn’t help.

DCs are 9, 6 and 1. (DC3 is actually still in our room, but I’m hoping to move them soonish to the other room, but we need to sort out the shared room before making the transition)

How high are the ceilings ? Can you get 3high beds with storage underneath

Ceilings are 2m25 ish (approx 7’5”). There doesn’t seem to be much space above the bunk bed, but maybe if the lowest bunk was on the floor there would be more space for a third bunk.

Oh, did you mean 3 separate 3 high bed? Yes, I was thinking that may be the way to go, but then was worried they might not have much floor space, but maybe they’d have more than now.

What's your budget? Can you get a joiner to build in beds surrounded by storage on either side and leave the middle free for playing?

Something like this?

What about a bunk bed thats an L shape, and has some storage built in?

www.furniturevillage.co.uk/cameron-bunk-bed/CMROBBED--001.html

There is a lot of empty space above the furniture, so that could definitely be a way of gaining more storage space. And those build in beds seems a lot sturdier than the current bunk beds. Great ideas, thanks!

That bunk bed would help with storage, as I think we keep losing space when we have lots of free standing furniture. I guess that’s where a built in option would be the most space saving.

Take bookshelves out. Put them in the hall or living room. Re-hang the bedroom door so it opens out into the hall. Turn the single bed round so it is in the left hand corner the way the bunk bed is in the right hand corner. Put toddler bed behind door on left hand side. Foot of toddler bed pointing towards window. If you can get wardrobe right along into left hand corner,good. Otherwise,use the space between the bunk bed and door wall as wardrobe. You could curtain that area off and use hanging rails or rotating clothes rack. Long term, replace beds with high sleepers or mid sleepers with storage underneath. You could use curtains or office style partition screens of around four feet high to partition each child's bed off to give them some privacy, Window seat with drawers under or lift up seat. Wiring? DO you need more sockets ? Consider wiring for wall lamps for each bed. You're going to have to be ruthless about "stuff" or find other space in your house. Toy boxes, suitcases in loft for out of season clothes,shoe storage in hall,toiletry storage in bathroom;stationery crafts storage in lounge or hall.

I really like the idea of wall lamps for everyone, I hadn’t ever considered that.

Unfortunately we have no space in the house to put the bookcase anywhere else. But if we replace the beds with high sleepers, we might be able to get rid of the bookcases.

I don't know how big the bookcases are but you could try placing them at the ends of beds. You would need to weight the bottoms and secure to walls to ensure they don't topple but it would also serve as a form of partition. I've cut bookcases in two when they've been too big! I think what you need is an ingenious cruise-ship carpenter. Look at really shallow storage like bathroom cabinets.

How big is the room? I'm guessing about 15ft by 9ft?

They’re kallax, one is 4x4 and the other is 2x2.

Room is just over 14ft by 10ft.

I thought all built in like a narrow boat might be the way to go!

Do they need room to play, or do they need storage and desk space and privacy? What’s most important?

Both (I know, makes things really tricky)

Room to play at the moment, which is why I’m not sure the traditional high sleepers would work at the moment, as they are so big.

But it won’t be that long that they’ll need desks etc...

www.bedkingdom.co.uk/julian-bowen-trio-triple-bunk-bed.html?fo_c=264&fo_k=639fdfaa7dc4738dec802506ecd843ec&fo_s=gsuruk#80=23

Triple bubbles if possible. We want one but unfortunately our ceilings a bit too low sadly.

*bunkbed not bubbles!! Fucking kindle hates me

I like the idea of triple bunks, it would definitely be the most space saving, but I don’t think the DCs will like it as they grow into teenagers.

I’d give your 9-year old the space to the right of the room. High sleeper with desk.

Then I’d put the bunk beds on the left, 1 year old on bottom & 6 year old on top, where the wardrobe is currently. Put the wardrobe next to the window where the single bed is.

4x4 Kallax stays where it is. Get rid of the smaller one perhaps, or place next to 4x4.

I wouldn’t go for triple bunks. And I’d only buy 1 high sleeper right now.

I think your 9 year old will like it until about 13 ish? Then they might outgrow it and need a single bed. At that point you might need to give it to your DC2, and rearrange again, when they’re at slightly different stages. So I wouldn’t invest heavily in new furniture right now but keep in mind you might need to do it again...

Do they really need a wardrobe? Clothes all folded in drawers is a much more space efficient storage method (Marie Kondo says so )

You can get triple offset bunks so the middle one is at right angles to the other two so each child has more head height.

Wardrobes- we had 2 rails one under the other so you had double hanging space. We had 3 sharing a standard double one that way. We had the highest 6 drawer IKEA malm drawers.

Basically you have to use the height of the room for storage.
Cabin beds are often badly designed unfortunately.

Thank you! Those ideas make a lot of sense, and I can see it working. We’d have to probably buy a thinner but better wardrobe as the current wardrobe is too big (but with lots of areas of wasted space). And the high sleeper would create more storage space too.

Not the best example of offset bunks there were more options when I looked 10 years ago!

https://www.bedkingdom.co.uk/flair-furnishings-oscar-triple-bunk-bed.html?foc=3456&fook=dea4ba9e7c7d3b6bae9f769946aea82f&fos=gplauk&utmmcampaign=CJ+-+Google+Shopping+%5BS%5D+Flair+Furnishings&utmsource=adwords&utmmterm=&utmmedium=ppc&hsaaad=425025484702&hsagrp=97931359166&hsaakw=&hsaver=3&hsaanet=adwords&hsaacc=4446093862&hsaasrc=u&hsacam=9603851735&hsaamt=&hsatgt=pla-818349881963&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7sGg2euK7wIVjpntCh0fDQfYEAQYByABEgKAovDD_BwE

@BewareTheBeardedDragon we’ve actually just started hanging more up as the drawers were overflowing (I don’t think our DCs have too many clothes, but between uniforms and every clothes, we look like a clothes shop!)

@RandomMess yes, I’m thinking of adding lower rails, as the 2 youngest can’t reach the top rail, so we need to have something at their height. And yes, I’ve been scrolling through all the high sleepers and mid sleepers and none of them seem to quite hit the right layout (in our budget)