Tiny third bedrooms

[mnahmnah]

Hi

Every house we look at has a tiny third bedroom. Some tinier than others, but all small. We have found a house that is otherwise perfect. We could convert the loft, but obviously until we moved in we couldn’t get a quote to know what the cost so and whether we can afford it. So just in case we can’t…

Have any of you made a room work as a bedroom on the measurements of 2.34 x 1.7? It would be for a 6 year old. Hopefully by the time he is bigger we could definitely convert the loft!

Layout

Are the stairs eating into the usable space? Thats another consideration. How does the current owner use it?

I think this sort of bedroom is doable until the end of primary and then the space requirements increase as they then want to spend more time in their room and have friends over in a private space. But likewise many children share and its hardly child abuse. If the houses all have similar design and its what you can afford then its what
You can afford.

Have you stood in the back garden and looked up at the back of the neighbors houses? Have others done it. Before we bought ours a-lovely Neighbour let us in to see theirs fully done that was helpful. Or historic rightmove is your friend.

I would choose a house where some space from the neighbouring bedroom could be taken to make it larger. That size room really is very small even for a single.

DH and I had the middle sized room, 2 sharing the largest room and 1 had the single but it was 6' wide by 7' with the bulkhead in it and but it was a decent single.

An extending bed from ikea would mean it could go across width and make better use of it.

We have the bulkhead from the stairs in our small room so we got a carpenter to build a single bed over that. It's higher than a normal bed but not as high as the high sleeper bunks.

Underneath the half of the bed that isn't the bulkhead has storage boxes, useful for toys. We then had shelving along the one wall, going over the foot end of the bed, with a single wardrobe on one side, and had space for another wardrobe in the other corner.

Also where would the staircase go for the loft, how and where would it "compromise" the current rooms etc. Not all lofts can be converted- again check what neighbours have done.

I think that room size is fine for a 6 year old (ours had similar) but you’ll need something bigger long term.

We have a tiny third bedroom (2mx2m), all the houses in the area have the same layout. We’re using it as an office, previous owners and other houses we’ve seen use it as a child’s bedroom- single bed and a small wardrobe. Nothing else

Use it as it is whilst child is young and then use it for the staircase to loft and storage later on - if you can get 2 bedrooms into loft with a shower room will greatly increase value too.

Can you put a high bed with desk and chest of drawers underneath to maximum space?

My DD bedroom is slightly larger, she has a mid sleeper and one small chest of drawers at the end plus a hanging rail under bookshelves, and another dresser on the landing outside.
I don't think she's likely to want to hang up loads of full length dresses but we'll either get her a high sleeper or move her into the fourth bedroom (currently spare room/study) and put a pull out single and desk in her bedroom. It's not ideal though currently she likes playing under it (she's 8).

Dd is a teen and has a teeny, tiny bedroom by choice. Admittedly one of the dc would have had to have it unless they chose to share but she wanted it. It is 190cm by i think 220cm so just the width of a single mattress and a little bit longer.

When furnished well it actually feels like it has plenty of space. We got a joiner to make a custom bed (sounds expensive but isn't) so that she has a standard single mattress across the width under the window with large storage drawers underneath and at the end of the bed are book shelves all the way to the ceiling. So here is no wasted space. Then there is space for a small desk and another book shelf along one wall and at the other wall an ikea stuva wardrobe and drawers.

It sounds a lot but when your walk in you walk in to floor space so it doesn't feel cramped. She has space on the walls for pictures to plus more shelves etc and a display cabinet.

Before the custom bed we had the bed the other way round because the width is literally enough for the mattress so you couldn't fit a bed with headboard etc across. With the bed lengthways it did feel cramped as you opened the door and basically walked in to the bed.

So it does work, you must need to really think about furniture. Our main issue is books as she's a mega book worm but she's got plenty of space for the important ones and we've got book cases around the whole house so now she's older her books kind of just mix in with ours anyway.

"2 beds + a box room" is a very common design for a house.
Millions of people have grown to adulthood having that as their bedroom.

Of course it 'can work'.
Like all things - with a much bigger budget, people would usually try to find somewhere with more space, but you could look at it the other way of if you had a smaller budget, he would be sharing with his siblings anyway. How lovely for him to be able to have his own room

It will be fine, you'll make it work. Small kids don't tend to play in their bedrooms much and big kids tend to sit in them and stare at a screen!

Many more high sleeper options these days and plenty of hacks online to even build your own, with lots of storage.

Our previous house had a very similarly sized 3rd bedroom. Admittedly we bought the house pre kids and didn’t really think it through. Was fine as a nursery and toddlers room. Things got trickier when DS got older. We couldn’t extend into the loft as wasn’t enough headroom- did consider extending over the garage but in the end we were in a position to move house.

we maximized the space - the stair bulkhead was in the room so we used it as a changing space during the nursery years. Then my dad built a cupboard above it to reduce wasted space.

we positioned the bed across the room underneath the window - just about managed to fit a single bed across but wouldn’t have had enough width for a headboard although we did consider just building one to attach to the wall. We fitted a wall mounted TV so he was able to spend time in his room. He used this room until age 15. The only downside was that he had no desk or space to do homework.

pics attached show how we used the space and the built in cupboard we created to add extra storage space. It’s definitely do able but you have to plan the layout carefully because if limited space

Thanks everyone! You have reassured me.

Our boys currently share and it’s worked great so far. But they’re ready for separate rooms now - the eldest is starting high school in September and finds his 6yo brother very irritating! He wants privacy too.

Lots of other houses on the street have converted the loft. They put the stairs where this box room is.

I’ve seen a midsleeper that isn’t too high off the ground, which would give him floor space to play with Lego. He would have space for a set of drawers too. He wouldn’t need anything else. Uniform that needs hanging up can go in the wardrobe in his brother’s room.

@mnahmnah there’s always a way around small spaces. Just takes a bit of planning. If they’ve been sharing rooms then he will be over the moon to have his own room I bet. FWIW DS2 loved his little bedroom - good luck!!

@RM2013

Thank you! We will be getting a proper garden too, which we don’t have now and the 6yo is more likely to spend his time out there with balls, bats and the like then in his room!

This house also has two reception rooms, so there’s space there to hang out with friends too

Oh you'll definitely be fine with the extra reception room then. Toy storage and a desk if need be!

Youl be fine! My box room is 5 foot 11 x 6 foot 9. Not going to lie I was hung up on it for ages but we've recently made him a kallax bed under the window and big set of malm draws behind his door and I love it. I often sleep in there myself.
If you go on diy on a budget on Facebook and type in box rooms it gives you so many fabulous ideas.
My child is 8, we would like to possible move when he is 12 but if not it is what it is. he's got his own space and when they hit teenage years all they do in their room is look at a screen. We have two living rooms if they want mates round!

We are going to take some of the bigger second bedroom and add it to our tiny third. So two small doubles rather than a generous double and a tight single. Is that an option? Loft conversions round here are very expensive so I'm unlikely to be able to afford it (and I don't want to take on any more mortgage debt).

DS has this and is happy with it

Yes easy I got a special small space bed from IKEA all the shelves were wall hung and I put a clothes rail at one end with a small chest of drawers under it for folded clothes and underwear. DS loved it. If the stairs go into the room build a bed on them. That works really well. By the time he grew out of it we had moved.

Hello, do you have the link to this bed? I might need sth similar very soon. Thanks

Our third room is so small and awkward due to a long corridor and bathroom cutting into it. It can work my step daughter has our very teeny box room and she was desperate for a double bed with lift up storage I said no way it would fit and she brought me the attached photo!
So we went ahead it's not how I would have it but her choice as she's in there :)

We plan to build a bed into the stair bulkhead in ours 😍 we’re doing a massive extension but just no way we can afford to make a bigger third (will be 4th) bedroom or do the loft.