Tell me about about you 2 bed+ box room home

[ShimmyingThroughTheChaos]

Currently house-hunting. Most of the 3-bed housing stock in the area we are looking in (which is in zone 3/4 London) that is within our budget is 1930s built and consists of 2 bedrooms and a box room which is literally only big enough to fit a single bed (at a push) or a desk.
Does anyone else have a home that is similar, and how do you manage if you have more than one DC? Or relatives who come to stay?
Any inspo about how to configure the box room so that it could be a bedroom? or anyone who can tell me that I wouldn't be a monster for expecting two children to share a bedroom, and could share some positive stories of family living in this kind of set-up?
We just have the one DC at the moment and it's not certain if we will be able to have another... but hypothetically I would like to think we could have another and still fit in the house!
Houses with a more sizeable 3rd room or a 4-bed are stretching our budget a bit more than I'm comfortable with what with interest rates and cost of living ATM so I've made my peace with going for a slightly smaller home. We love the area because the schools are really good, there is loads of green space and family are close by. Doing a loft conversion in a few years is definitely an option.

The third bedroom in my current home was no bigger than a large cupboard. Ended up converting loft and using the box room for the staircase. I know this is not a solution for everybody and my ex-h had a construction company so costs were fairly minimal in comparison to getting a contractor in.

My friend has a similar sized room for her 9 yo. She got a small single bed with under bed storage. The room has a built in wardrobe so that has helped. All other things are above bed with lots of shelving and storage boxes and he can just about have a chest of drawers next to the bed that doubles as a bedside table. When I lived in a smaller house I had a cabin bed with princess curtains for my DD so that made a massive difference for storage as it freed up most of the floor space. Other storage was shelving and baskets. I also got a net thingy to hang from the ceiling that contained the millions of cuddly toys!

Does anyone consider that if you have guests you might be happier (them too probably) to put them up in B & B or local hotel for a few nights rather than spend $100s for a bigger house for a few nights per year?

With a small family I'd opt for the small house (and small bills) unless there is a really good reason not to do that. Save while you can! Even when another child comes along it's a while before they need their own room

Thank you SO much for the suggestions, everyone.
This has been a really useful thread and I truly appreciate your answers.
The house has potential for a loft conversion and the box room could potentially be knocked through to accommodate the stairs. The building is wide enough for this to work. We viewed an almost identical property on the same road that has been extended into the loft, and which was on the market for £50k to £75k more. It was still within budget but we turned it down because the quality of the extension was highly questionable 😕 however it did serve as a good example of how the house I like could be extended of we wanted more space!
With regards to guests, unfortunately it's never just a few nights of the year, when MIL comes it's always for a month (we are a British-Asian family and cultural norms around acceptable length of stay are different. I slightly envy those who can put relatives in the Travelodge or stick them on a sofabed for two nights of the year but I'm going off on a tangent). However... I'm thinking we could get a bespoke cabin bed or folding bed for the box room which she could sleep on... she is only 5ft tall and it wouldn't bother her. It means we would be squashed at certain times of the year but what to do? 🤷‍♀️

Anyway... I'm rambling now. But thanks again, everyone!

the box room is not a bedroom. it's false advertising. these 2 beds + box rooms are just "larger" two bed homes. i think EAs and sellers who advertise these homes as 3 bed should go to hell.

My indirect experience about these types of homes. well, my friend when we were kids lived in one. four siblings (two boys, two girls), mum and dad. parents took the main room and gave the other double to the older girls. the two boys shared the box room (they just about fit a bunk bed in there that didn't let the door close). anyways, children obviously got older and they needed a bigger house but their dad had an injury and wasn't able to work, their mum had been STAHM all that time and struggled to find work (she did eventually but wasn't great salary). this is all before 2008 btw. then the house crashed along with the value but they managed to scrape by desperate to keep the house. the two boys eventually left for uni, but imagine two grown boys living and growing up in a box room like that?? no privacy, no space, no space to study. they grew up really angry and blame the parents to this day as far as i know.

i don't know why they built and continue to build these shitty houses esp in england. putting a growing person (or two) in these spaces in awful for mental health!

I have our box room myself. It's wide enough for a double bed, and I have to turn sideways to squeeze out so I'm guessing the room is 5' wide. I have a chest of drawers at the end. It's fine, I'd rather do this so my DC can have a decent size room each.

Our first house was like this
our DD had the box room. Back then Argos and ikea both did shortie beds, she had a shortie cabin bed from Argos widthways, under the window. It had drawers etc underneath, we put up wall shelves and toy nets, no other furniture.
we were in the bedroom which that room was off. The front bedroom was a play room/ guest room.

@whyisitallsohard yikes your friend's living situation sounds horrendous 😬 two kids in a bunk bed in a box room is pretty extreme though, definitely not our plan!! It's one thing raising one or two children in such a house, but four is a whole different ball game.

our box room is a bit bigger (7x8.5) but I’ve two kids in it! In a 1930’s two bed plus box room (and am due a third). Baby will stay in with us for a few months. The kids share a mid sleeper shorty bunk in the box room. One on a full sized single mattress and one on a toddler floor mattress with the additional space used for clothes storage. The second bedroom has a high quality sofa bed, storage and a desk (to allow for WFH and guests).

We are hoping to do the loft in the next year - but downstairs also has a sofa bed sofa. So short term guests can stay there.

Honestly; yes it’s not the largest of spaces but it works for us and means we get to live in a location we love. Toys are stored downstairs or on wall shelves and hung baskets at the end of their beds.

Ps. Mine love it. We did have one in each room and they asked to share! I know that may change in the future but the house has potential to do the loft. Tiny homes and boats/mobile homes are fab for ideas on how to make best use of storage spaces.

Also, just to counter another poster. I grew up in a two bed (with a big family) and wasn’t resentful for it. I knew my parents loved us and provided as best they could in tricky circumstances.

In terms of my own family: We live in an expensive area of London. The kids benefit so much from being in a safe area, with access to good community resources. Maybe I’m naieve - but having a room to yourself as a child is a privilege. There are lots of ways to have kids feel safe and secure in a space - and allow them to have the space to study/see friends - that doesn’t have to mean they MUST have a bedroom to themselves!

We live in zone 3 SW London and had exactly this set up. In fact our box room is 1.9m x 1.4m so absolutely tiny!! For the first few years, when my parents come to stay they stayed in our room and DH and i slept on a fancy airbed in the lounge. Our neighbours invested in a high quality sofa bed for the lounge to solve the same problem. Obviously it isnt ideal but we all lived with it for the odd weekend.

After we had built up some equity, we did a loft conversion and its made a huge difference! But we got a good deal and i think I'd have to do the sums to make sure it would be worth it if it costs £100k+ as im hearing from friends now.

After we did the loft, the boxroom is now an office that DH and i use to wfh, loft is spare room + storage room, and then DH & i and DD take the two doubles on the middle floor. Im currently pregnant with DC2 and we'll be making the two DC share for a few years to try and keep the spare room as long as possible and then eventually, we'll move up to the master in the loft, each DC will have a double in the middle and i guess my parents will be back on the sofa bed!! 😳

Following. In a house like this with 1 pre-tween DC and TTC #2. Box room currently has a single bed as well as a desk for WFH but it is a squeeze. We needed to cut the bed down to fit it in and move a radiator.
Many houses near us convert the loft (£50K) and we are planning to convert the detached garage so that is the home office/guest room and should come in at under £15-20K. Loft conversion might be nicer but we simply haven’t got the budget. Box room should be OK for a young child hopefully!

My 3rd bedroom is that size. It's frustrating, it would be so much better if the house was even 50cm wider!
Anyway, it's my daughter's room and we get by with a shorty mid sleeper (15cm shorter and narrower than a regular single bed). It leaves some space underneath for storage and playing. It's undeniably a tiny room but the extra visible floor space does make it feel more spacious than it did when we had a cot in there.

following cos i am planning on 1 child and hoping to get a bigger flat (my flat currently has 1 double bedroom and 1 single bedroom- though it can fit a double at a push) but all the bigger flats are flats with two big bedrooms or a 2 bedroom and a box room.

Is the box room worth it?

yes i wanted to buy a 3 bed flat but then Dh said these are mostly just two bed + box room? he said just count the bed rooms that are at least 3 m by 3m (to be fair my current second bedroom is 3.8 by 2.4 but can at least fit a single bed, wardrobe and desk with lots of room to spare). It does make me feel silly thinking of spending so much time and effort trying to 'upgrade' when all i might be gaining is a box room? Dh says just go for the big 2 bedroom flats that are 1000 square feet; at least they feel spacious and are a real upgrade. But at the same time, housing orthodoxy here says that the value seems to be decided by the number of bedrooms.

I have the front double and my two under 7 love sharing the second double.

In the next couple of years I plan to do a loft conversion, at which point I'll go upstairs and have my own bathroom, and DC will split into their own double bedrooms.

Box/single room will stay as guest room/office.

Hi OP we are in a similar position

House hunting in SE London zone 5 for the elusive 3 bed semi...and so many are just as just as you describe!

We currently live in a 2 (decent) double bedroom split level maisonette with direct private garden access...but we're looking for the extra bedroom so the 2 DC can have a bedroom each.

But what we've seen so far just makes us wonder if it's all really worth it. So many 3rd bedrooms are just box rooms!

And the overall floor space in quite a few of the houses we've seen is not much bigger than where we are now.

We're looking at around between 250-300k extra expense to enable to get that 3rd (tiny) bedroom....looking at 3 bed semis up to £650,000...and this is zone 5 suburbia!

I'd love to say to DH let's do a loft conversion...but it's not possible in our maisonette and we'd need to get the £600,000+ 2 bedroom plus box room semi before we're even in a position to think about a loft

I grew up in the box room of a 1930s London end of terrace. I loved it! It was my own, cosy space. It was never a hassle to redecorate as it was so small. I went through about four changes of wallpaper as I grew. I was careful with what I kept in it but I've always tended towards having less stuff. My DB got the bigger room as he was older. He tends towards being messy and disorganised even today. I'm more of a minimalist. It may be due to our room sizes growing up? It may not. Although the shared toy cupboard was in his room, I don't remember any other negatives.

You could look maybe for a maisonette where you can convert the loft? And which also has a garden. It would be cheaper than a house probably. They have quite a few where I am but DH only likes purpose built flats.

I kinda agree, why are we spending so much money on a box room?!

My mum's house is a typical 2 bed + boxroom semi. The boxroom is 8' × 8' has a single bed, wardrobe & desk that has a chest of drawers under it. When ds & I lived there it was ds room & he used the desk for his Xbox & television. There isn't room for a bedside table, just a chair for the desk, which is maybe 5' long & 2'6" deep.

Is your box room next to one of the bigger bedrooms? Might be worth checking if the wall between them is a supporting wall or party wall in case you can move it further in to the bigger room to create two single sized rooms.

this is what we plan to do with ours soon - but the house was originally a 2 bedroom and a box room was created off the larger room, so it is only a party wall. They stopped short of the window in the larger room when putting the wall up but we are planning to have the window taken out and made smaller so the party wall can come further in.

I doubt that the OP would be at all concerned if it was an 8' x 8' 3rd bedroom. That's small, but not sure it's what most would consider a box room, is it?

My bedroom as a kid was small. I just checked Rightmove and apparently it was 6'8" x 7'2", so still bigger than the one the OP is considering. It was at least long enough to fit a single bed in either orientation, which gives you more options.

If extending in a few years is a real possibility, I certainly wouldn't rule out an otherwise great house because of a small 3rd bedroom.

Most of the houses in my area are like this. I bought a 2 bedroom end terrace and built an extension on the side to give a third bedroom, but the people I know who have box room houses and wanted a third big bedroom all did loft conversions. The.box rooms were fine as a nursery with a cot, and for young children with storage under the bed, but didn't really work for older children, although you in the rooms in my street you can fit a single loft bed with a desk underneath. Having said that, a lot of people I know moved out of the area when their second child was at toddler/preschool age, and most of the families on my street have only one child.

I lived in a house like this when I was in London.
My suggestion would be to have the largest bedroom as a bedroom/playroom for your child (otherwise the whole house gets taken over by toys, and if you have a second they can share the playroom area whilst they’re little).
If you have a second then they’ll be fine in the box room until they’re 3ish (a cot or toddler bed will fit easily along with a small chest of drawers, some wall shelves and storage boxes under the bed for bulky stuff like nappies).
Then have a plan and start saving towards a loft extension. The house I lived in had a lovely master suite up there with a dressing room and en-suite. You could move up there and then DC2 could move into your bedroom downstairs.
That would free up the box room for visitors (it might be a bit cramped but it’s probably the best solution for your family). Obviously if you don’t have a second child then you’ll have a spare room from the beginning and then a much nicer spare room if you decide to extend later.
It might be difficult for a few years if you have a second before you’re ready to do the extension though and I’m not sure there’s a perfect solution.