DD’s old bedroom

[BuddhaAtSea]

So it finally happened. My DD moved out out and I have a huge spare room.
I have 2 bedrooms and a living-kitchen, quite small.
My bedroom is a comfortable double, it’s cosy and lovely. I also like having all my clothes in one room.
So what do I do with DD’s old bedroom?

I have lined the entire hallway with shelves, so all my books are there, don’t need a library as such.

DD’s bedroom has a double bed, a 3 seater sofa, a chest of drawers and a built in wardrobe and still plenty of floor space. It’s vast.

My living area is half the size of her bedroom.

Do I turn it into another living room? Do I move in her bedroom (if I do, I’m worried I’ll not use the smaller bedroom at all)?

Ideas, please?

I'd have her room as yours and yours as a spare room or study.

Are you on one floor? If so I would have a separate living room.

I would turn the living space into a formal dining room with a sofa/sitting area for guests to use when I am entertaining and turn the bedroom into my main sitting room with a TV and a sofa bed for guests.

It depends on your lifestyle though - do you WFH, have hobbies that you do at home eg crafts, music, writing?

I think it depends on the layout. If you could use it as the living room and turn the living room into a spare guest bedroom / study then that might give you the most useable space. If your living room is attached to the kitchen then that's not really an option so I'd probably swap the bedrooms over. Is she likely to return and need to stay over at any time?

Lodger?
Personally I would fill it with dcat beds and buy dcats to fill them!

It’s silly to not use the larger room in case you don’t use the smaller bedroom.

Either use it as a separate living space and keep your bedroom small.

Or

Change it to be your bedroom and make the smaller room a guest room or office/hobby space.

@dotdashdashdash if I move into her room, there won’t be a lot of space in mine for anything but the double bed and the chests of drawers, it’s got like 1 1/2 m around free space. So it’ll just be a room with a a bed in it. Unless I get rid of the bed?

@Maggiesgirl yes, one floor. That’s what I’m sort of thinking, but the bed makes it a bedroom, iyswim. The more I think about it, the more I’m thinking I need to get rid of one bed, get a sofa bed instead:)

@chesirecat99 yes, that’s what it looks like I’ll have to do. The living-kitchen area has a sofa, an extendable table, the TV (but that doesn’t get used much in fairness). So a good call there, I could bring the TV into her bedroom, get a sofa bed...
I don’t work from home. I do exercise at home, I read, write, take photos that I then edit, I’m big on entertaining, when it’s allowed:)

@emmathedilemma the likelihood of her coming back to live with me is rather slim. She’s properly flown the nest. Having said that, you never know, but I’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.

@Aprilshowersandhail lodger is an option, but not one I would jump at. I’m in my mid 40s, I have never ever in my life lived alone. I spend a lot of time over at my DP’s house, so it would be nice if the house wasn’t empty. But, although I could do with the money, I think I need to enjoy a bit of space for a while. Lodger was the first thing I thought and then it filled me with dread at the thought of someone else in my space. No cats, I have a dog 😂

@AvantGardening I agree! One of the things I always wanted was a dressing table. There isn’t enough space in the small bedroom for bed and a dressing table. Equally, to waste all that space in the big bedroom just so I can put a dressing table in seems a bit ...wasteful 😁.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to run me through all this, it’s really helpful!