How can we even up these bedroom sizes??

[Strikeitlucky]

Hi,

We live in a house with 4 bedrooms: 2 doubles and 2 singles. As our 2 children get older, we foresee a problem! The front two bedrooms are massively uneven in terms of size and we thought it would be ideal if we could even then up to make two reasonably-sized bedrooms, rather than 1 big and 1 small.

However, the windows are a problem as they go right up to the wall splitting them (the floorplan image is misleading). Would it be a nightmare to try to move that stud wall over if it involved moving and replacing the windows? The other option is to do a loft conversion but I've seen that the prices are astronomical at the moment.

Any tips or ideas would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Can you leave the doors and windows where they are and install a cupboard in the big bedroom but then knock through from the small room so that it belongs to the small room? Sorry that doesn’t make much sense I’ll try to upload a pic. It wouldn’t make the small bedroom any bigger per se but it would provide storage to enable better use of the small room.

How about this?

This is what I mean, maybe with a sliding door or something from the small room.

Or this.

Thank you - we hadn't considered this. Could the stud wall go right up to the window? Would that look weird from the outside?

Bedroom on the right needs its door to open against the wall to opposite side.

I once lived in a flat where two bedrooms shared a window. They’d literally stud walled right up to window which had two opening windows one belonging to each bedroom. You wouldn’t have known from inside. Outside was a balcony both bedrooms shared. It was completely inaccessible as you’d have to climb out the window. A dog leg cupboard as suggested previously would also work.

Hi, thank you for your suggestions. The floorplan in the picture is misleading - the windows actually go up to the dividing wall so I'm not sure what we can do with that.

I imagine it was originally one room and previous owners put up a stud wall where the windows ended to make an extra room. I've doodled on the floorplan to show the windows in red.

What's the layout of your other two rooms? Would it be easier to move yourself into the front big bedroom and try splitting the back rooms?

open up space to make large storage space big enough to be fitted out as wardrobe chest of drawers some shelves for books and toys then a desk that doubles as bedside table and still room for small space in corner for playing or if older a beanbag chair

Ok, this? Room on left has a cute window nook.... for a desk or chair.

Thanks so much for all of these ideas. We can't do anything about the other two bedrooms - see attached pic.

Would anyone have an idea of how much work/money it would take to create something similar to the wardrobe idea above? Is it a major hassle or relatively simple?

Would offering your kids the option of having both small rooms or the big one be an option? So one kid could have eg a separate dressing room or gaming room that's just theirs? I was really arty and would have loved a separate arts and crafts type room for all my painting stuff, photography kit and crafts projects as a kid, and would probably have preferred that to one bigger bedroom!

Yes, maybe, that's a really good idea - something else we hadn't thought of! Thanks

Depends if it's a load bearing wall. If it's stud then should be straight forward. A few grand maybe with plastering included.

Very simple unless it's a supporting wall. Knock on it along the length you wish to cut. If it sounds like plasterboard/wood (hollow-ish) you're good to go. If it sounds solid (brick) you can still do it, but will need a grown-up builder to insert a supporting beam.

I'd give the children a small bedroom each, and set the large "spare" up as playroom when little, changing to a "den/hangout room" as teenagers.

That's how we have it at the moment, but we were worried about them both having their own space for studying when they get to secondary school etc. But sharing the big space for that may also work, thank you.

The floor plan for the other bedrooms didn't upload before so I'm just attaching it here.

It's definitely a stud wall, a pretty flimsy one at that I think! Good to know it shouldn't be too complicated, thank you.

what is the function of the other spare single room if it is home office, could child with small room use it after 5pm as a homework space or even have their clothes stored there
but if you knock out space for a large wardrobe and fit out inside floor to ceiling you would get an amazing amount of stuff in it , a high bed won't really work in small room because of the two windows

the 3.3 x 3.2 bedroom and 3.6 x 2.5 bedrooms are much more evenly matched at 9sqm and 10.5sq m and easily big enough for a bed some storage and play space to be replaced as chill out space when older

you and partner have large front room, kids have the 2 medium bedrooms and make small room an office space with two desks at right angles ( one under each window) also enough space to use for home admin etc filing cabinets and bookcases for books now and homework stuff later, and when homework finished could use the two computers for gaming etc

Really bad drawing, but what about adding in a squarer door entry along with the wardrobe alcove.

Could you move the big window

This isn't as expensive or difficult as it seems.
Then move the internal stud wall

Wondered this myself. Two new windows and opportunity to have equal halves.

That's what we were wondering - how much hassle/cost is involved in moving windows? Would we need permission for changing the look of the front of the house?

It would definitely then be easier to split up the rooms but I'm not sure if it would be really expensive.

At the moment, they each have one of the single bedrooms, we have a double and we have a spare double. The back bedroom has much less usable space than the middle double bedroom as the bathroom juts out into it. But I agree, we could use the smallest front bedroom as a study area and use the other 3 bedrooms.

Thanks so much for all of your ideas so far, they've been really useful and I feel we've got some more options to explore already.

No point having a spare double room for guests if your own family’s needs aren’t catered for. Turf guests out to a hotel!

If you do move the wall, don’t forget to factor in the cost of re-carpeting both rooms and new skirting etc.