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

Yes, definitely! What a shame if the in-laws couldn't stay...!

This issue came up recently precisely because we're replacing the carpet on the landing and I don't want to do the bedrooms as well right now if we're going to move things around. Thank you for the advice.

Is that the only bathroom?
Another option could be to make a shower room in that place and move the wall to allow the back bedroom have more space.

But even with the current layout I’d probably give them the two rooms on your second picture, leaving the larger one for you and DH - the smaller room a study/homework space for both of them.
With two rooms being slightly different sizes you could have a cabin bed in one with desk/den underneath?

well you wouldn't need to recarpet larger bedroom you would just be cutting a piece of carpet out but it would require extra skirting

you could fit a double in smallest room right under window as room 6'6" wide though one guest would have to climb over other to get out of bed a guest room doesn't need full wardrobe etc small chest of drawers next to bed make desk along side for home office space shelves on wall above stairs for small boxes with home admin stuff in, on wall at foot of bed a small rail for guest hanging space room for about 8 hangers

How often do you have guests/inlaws stay?

I'd be looking to leave it as is and switch the guest bedroom to the small one with a 4ft bed (potentially sofa bed with desk/office)

Realistically you're fine to be creating more hallway (wasted space) to get the door placement.

We have a shower room/ cloakroom downstairs so wouldn't want to lose the bath.

I'm not bothered about having a guest room at all, we do have in-laws to stay sometimes but I just want the house to work for us.

Currently we actually sleep in the middle double room rather than the bigger one at the front, just because the view out of the back is prettier and it's quieter away from the road, but we could easily switch to the front room if it made more sense.

You may potentially need permission to change the front window. This could be planning/permission from original building company (under a covenant) or both. Depends if you have permitted development rights for the house or not.

Cost can range and whilst it's just a bit of plasterboard, you'd probably be looking at having electrical work too.

I would never plan on carpets surviving building work.

Wouldn’t changing the windows make the house look odd from outside?

I’d also use all the bigger rooms (one for you and then one for each child)- they are all decent sized- and then have the small single as a spare. You’d definitely fit a double bed and hanging rack in there which is really all you need.

I can’t comprehend why you want to give one of your kids rhe small box room. No work is needed at all. You’ve three decent sized rooms, use them for and keep the small one as the spare.

Could they have all their gaming stuff etc in the bigger room and desks under a bunk in each small room. Less distracted for study with no temptation to game and also could hang out with their friends in the bigger room. I am a great believer in teens being in living areas as much as possible for family reasons so never worry too much about having great bedrooms. A den would be that extra bonus.

We have similar set up and decided to give two teenagers the big rooms and we have the two smaller rooms....I actually love it! One has out king bed and tv basically and the other is a proper dressing room. I love the fact that if one of us is going to work early it's easy to creep out the room and use the dressing room!

Thanks for all the comments.

The back room is definitely not comparable with the middle double, maybe the dimensions are taken from the doorframe, not taking into account the bathroom bit, but it must be closer to 2.5x2.5

I suppose we felt that because we use the smaller of the doubles, it wouldn't be fair for one of them to have a really big bedroom and the other one a single. I have visions of life-long resentment and claims of favouritism! But that may be in my head and they'd be fine.

We could move to the front room of course but the middle double is still a much better size than the back room. I must check the dimensions in the floorplan because it feels so much bigger in real life!

Our eldest has always been in the small room and definitely sees it as his room. We asked if he wanted to move to a bigger room when his sibling was due to arrive but he wanted to stay put.

They do actually love sharing/having sleepovers so we have discussed putting them both in the big room together, but I guess at some point they'll still need to separate.

Also a very interesting thought, thanks for this idea!

Even as a child, I longed for a bunk bed over a desk, so I'd give each child a small room with a high bunk bed over a desk

Put a sofa bed in the 'spare' room and let them use it as a playroom then den depending on their age. Keep the living room as adult oriented space free of toys.

We did this to make our bedroom bigger and get full sized wardrobes. My husband took down 2/3 of the dividing wall, built a new stud wall and fitted wardrobes into the 2/3 opening into our room. The other bedroom had a wall contracted 2/3 of the new stud wall then a alcove for 1/3 of the original wall, this then became the wardrobe opening into the second room. It really did not cost much.

in your case with the windows, you might not be able to use the whole wall but could create a large alcove, possibly fitting a high level single bed in. Then you would have plenty of space for other furniture or play space. The larger room would have a small nook between the new wall and the window which could be used for toy storage, a book case, window seat etc.

Go for it! It worked for us.

How big is the window in the front large bedroom? If it's a large window, I wonder if the easier option would just be to reduce the size? No structural work would be needed then to the front wall as the lintel would still be fine. You could then move the stud wall over.

We are doing this to a back window and architect said as we're going smaller, we don't need any planning. However I'm not sure if that applies to the front of the house also

Thanks so much, that's really good to hear. What a handy husband you have - I think we'd have to get someone in!

That is very true - it is s big window so we could just reduce the size (depending on if we need planning to change the front) Thank you for the idea.