Would you convert a 5 bed to 4?

[Alexahelp]

We’ve seen a house we like, in budget. It’s a 5 bed, but the 5th room is a box room and really only appropriate as a study.

it’s a classic modern build where they’ve loaded up the bedrooms but none are huge. We don’t need 5 rooms, but if we knocked the study into the bedroom next door to it we’d end up with two decent doubles and two small doubles.

Would you do it? Five piddly bedrooms feels like no one’s ideal.

I would. I agree 5 tiny bedrooms is pointless.

How long are you planning to live there? If its long term I say do what makes it most liveable for you - you can always rebuild the wall at a later date for sale as it will probably be more marketable with 5 beds.

If you are only staying for a few years it might not be worth the cost of doing it and undoing it.

I would I think. Especially if you're going to be in there for a while. If it's your home, then really you need to adapt it to what suits you best.
Only other option would be to use the 5th room as a kind of walk in wardrobe for the other smallest room. So they've got the same space but in two separate rooms. That would be easier to revert back when selling. Maybe have a Rightmove stalk to see what 4 beds go for?

Is there an alternative study space?
We have been looking for somewhere with 4 double bedrooms, and have ended up with a 5 bed to get the space we need. It was quite a jump up in price tho, so make sure you are not devaluing the house if you are looking at moving fairly soon.

Thanks all. It’s a 10-15 year house all being well and no reconfiguring required to convert so I’m leaning towards it being a good shout…

Absolutely. We turned a 6 bed into a 5 bed by turning a bedroom into another bathroom.

I bought a 5 bed, in 2019 and I couldn't see it so had to pay my deposit and wait. They squeezed 4 bedroom and EnSuite and bathroom into 500 sq feet. We have 2 smallish bedrooms - one I use for my wardrobe and office, the other my daughter wanted to punch through to make it 4 bedrooms. I've no probs with doing that - we haven't yet, but when she returns home, I will do that and separate area from the rest of the house so she has her own flat within the house or will convert the garage for her and add a conservatory to it so she has a decent annexe. I think the former will be much cheaper, though it's likely to take value off the property or put future buyers off. If your wondering the 5th bedroom is the master suite - 2nd floor room 500sqft which my DS occupies!

Another vote for yes, do what works for you. We had 5 doubles but really only would ever use 4 so the smallest room that backed onto main bedroom was knocked through to create a walk through dressing room. Much more useable space. Yes on paper probably devalued the house but it works 100 times better for us now so that’s all that matters.

We did.

Different sort of design to your - a 60s chalet bungalow. When we first bought it we had main bedroom and one other upstairs plus 2 or 3 bedrooms downstairs (the advantage of the flexibility of a (chalet) bungalow.
We had 3 DC so they each had a room plus a guest room.
Now 2 DC have left home we need less bedroom space so knocked around a few rooms and converted what was a bedroom, small study and small WV into a wonderful modern kitchen dinner. We now virtually live in it all the time.

I don't think it would have devalued our house at all and suits us much better at our current stage of life.

I'm planning to! It has 4 double bedrooms and a long single 5th bedroom which I plan to turn into another bathroom. It makes more sense than a 5 bed 1 bath to me.

We're trying to do that now. Going through planning to convert the loft and change 5 smaller bedrooms into 4 decent ones, plus loft room. Much more practical, I think.

I’m turning a 6 bed into a 4 bed. One to an office and one to an ensuite. 6 bed house and 1 bathroom doesn’t work for us and I need a wfh space

Absolutely. It’s sq.ft that counts. Not how many crappy stud walls a developer or owner has managed to add to a house. A bedroom is not a bedroom unless it can hold a bed and wardrobes and the bed isn’t bushed against a wall. Houses keep getting smaller in this country because the emphasis is on bedroom rather than sq.ft.

I would - not many people need 5 bedroom and it will appeal to more people in the future if you have a bigger sized bedroom or more bathrooms

We have. The 5th was small and attached to the master bedroom. We knocked through and have it as a walk in wardrobe. The difference between the 5th room and the others was so ridiculous that no one who genuinely needed 5 bedrooms would have wanted the house anyway.