Stair bulkhead in kids room

[Reluctantadult]

Hi, anyone like playing around with small bedroom design, or offer any insights that would help future proof the design?

My sons room has the stair bulkhead in it. I can't decide whether to build a wardrobe on top, and keep an on the floor or mid rise bed. This frees the opposite wall for a desk in the future eg Lego!

Or build a bed over it with pull out storage under.

Or a bed with desk under.

Room dimensions :
256m wide (window wall)
278m long

Ds is 5 now, in trying to think about what will last though.

I'd go for storage above the bulkhead purely because changing the sheets on a raised bed is a bugger.

Is that an Ikea Kallax by the bed? Have you seen the bulkhead/kallax hack? There's more information on any Ikea Hack site - or the Ikea Hacks Facebook page - but basically you create a mid sleeper bed using a board and bed slats on top of the bulkhead and one or two 2x4 kallax.

I’d put the bed on top with storage under it.

Like a cabin bed type arrangement.

Hard to tell from the photos what the space is like. Could you draw a rough floor plan with dimensions?

Can we have a pic of the bulkhead?

Don't go as far as a cabin bed, but use the height of the bulkhead as the height the mattress is, with drawers or bookshelves or kalax style storage underneath the rest.

I'll draw a plan when I get home from the park! And take a photo of the bulk head. It's behind his bedhead in the second photo, with the hotwheels garage sat on it. His bed is standard length but narrow so he'll outgrow that at some point as well. And his wardrobe.

We've got this, had various options over the years. At first, we had a normal bed over the bulk head - we just took the legs off the bulkhead end so (with appropriate support), one end rested on the bulkhead and we adjusted the height of the legs at the other end. H made custom sized storage underneath.

We've also had a high sleeper with desk underneath - the desk bit sat on the bulkhead.

Now We've hacked a PAX wardrobe to fit over it - with the shallow drawers you can get, it works brilliantly and provides lots of storage - my DD also has a single bed with drawers (IKEA Nordli) on the window wall and we've built a desk that attaches to the end of the bed to use the gap at the end of the bed on that wall. Think this is the best use of the space & makes the room feel much bigger than it is. It also feels more grown up so we'll put a small double in there at some point so it can double as a guest room.

Just checking I follow, wardrobe on the bulkhead for the win?

Just seen your update - you'll probably find if you take off the plaster board/ whatever is covering the bulkhead at the moment it is smaller / shallower than the boxing in suggests.

Have a look on Pinterest. There’s loads of great ideas there.

Yes it definitely is.

Yes I have saved a board full! My problems not ideas it's knowing which is best! 🤔😉 I don't want to say go cabin bed then have a teenager who says it's babyish and i have to change it all...

I always think, as a general rule, with a room like that you should put the bed under the window. It makes the room seem bigger IMO, but that does not address the problem of the bulkhead.

Photo and plan

A raised bed is going to block light from the window. I'd put the bed under the window and have storage around the bulkhead

In our room there is a cupboard where the bulkhead is. Full length door where the room door opens onto so no space is lost in the room.
It had a rail for clothes and a shelf.
Doing that in yours would mean you could keep the payout the same and not need the freestanding wardrobe.

My Dad built a wardrobe over the one in my bedroom. It's still there and in use 40 odd years later.
Practically all my friends who lived in the same style house had wardrobes built too.

Yep I think wardrobe for the win!

Nephew had a mid sleeper with hacked ikea kitchen cabinets as storage underneath. He happily used it until he left home, but if he'd wanted to ring the changes he could have changed the cabinet doors for a cheap update.

This was my exact set up growing up. My dad built a full height wardrobe over the bulkhead, the top was too high for me to use but could be used to store long term things. The then built a frame to raise my bed to about mid sleeper hight (these were not a thing when I was a child). I used under the bed for toy storage.
by the time I needed a desk, we had a loft conversation and I had my desk up there.

We have a wardrobe built on top the bulkhead at my parent's house and then the bed along the wall next to it. It's the only place you'd get a wardrobe in that room so from that perspective it's good but it does mean that the wardrobe door open over the bed and you need a fairly low bed to accommodate this.

Due to the door and window placement I don't understand why the bed isn't infront of the door, with the headboard on the window wall. We have that, with a bunk bed that helps with sleepovers and family visits. Wardrobe on the bulkhead, desk where your son's bed is. Allows light through the room.

I don't like beds (or any furniture) under a window.

I think the OP means the whole of the wall is 256cm long (the wall between the door and the window), not 256cm plus 66cm as it kind of looks from the floor plan (see the original post).

If the bed was along that wall - a single is about 2m, there wouldn't be room to open the door (a standard door is between 70-80cm).