Bedroom sizes - what do you expect in a 4 bed house?

[Livingonthecoast]

About to start work renovating our existing bungalow into a beautiful 4 bedroom home by going into the loft do a large box dormer. The aim is to put three bedrooms (plus bathroom) upstairs and one downstairs. If you are buying a 4 bed home, would you be happy having two of the smallest bedrooms approximately 3.25m x 3m? We have small children so those room sizes would work for our family and of course you can get a double bed in them (but not loads else). OR would you rather make one of them a little bigger (3 x 4.5m) but sacrifice some living space downstairs?

Best advice that I can give is to make it work for you.

If it works for you it will work for someone else.

Well the very original plan was to do a very small loft conversion and simply have the master bedroom upstairs with two bedrooms and everything else downstairs and it would still presumably be sold as a three bed bungalow conversion. So I’m not sure why bedrooms downstairs would necessarily affect the price.

Thank you. This is great advice.

The sizes sound fine BUT, I wouldn't buy it if I wanted 4 bedrooms. The downstairs room would be a playroom/office/extra living space not a bedroom to me.
Same here and I ruled out some extended 4/5 bedroom houses because one or more of the bedrooms was likely to be more of a downstairs living room when looking at the floor plan, but calling it a bedroom added £££ to the asking price.

It could work depending on the bungalow floorplan but I'd have reservations.

I’m glad it’s helpful. Someone said it to me when we were having sleepless nights over the options. It was true. When we sold up, it was just a case of the right buyer! Good luck.

To be fair, now thinking about it, I do understand what you mean. Like when the original dining room is converted to a bedroom and a table is put into the kitchen instead but they want premium prices for the extra “bedroom”.

This is the trouble with selling houses by number of bedrooms. What really matters is the floor area and if some people want to use a downstairs room as a bedroom and some people want to use it as living space does it really matter? It's the same sized house. For me if a house has 3 bedrooms on the first floor and 2 bedrooms on the second floor but only has one living room on the ground floor that is not a house for a large family, I'd want multiple reception rooms for a family. I think for a house to be balanced and work you need the same or more living space than bedroom space, whether that space is up or downstairs. So that might be aquestion to ask yiurself @Livingonthecoast , although since the downstairs room is going to be a guest room and you mentioned having a possible playroom, that means you can get away with smaller children's bedrooms because their toys when young and their socialising space when older is downstairs in the playroom not in their bedroom.

To be fair, now thinking about it, I do understand what you mean. Like when the original dining room is converted to a bedroom and a table is put into the kitchen instead but they want premium prices for the extra “bedroom”.
Yes like that, or they've converted the garage to another reception room and it's in an awkward position at the front of the house, but in the listing it's apparently Bedroom 3 in a 5 bedroom house and marketed as a double bedroom.

Instead of trying to sell it as a 4 bedroom house with a playroom/study, they're trying to market it as a 5 bedroom house with the associated hike in price. It was a mid size 4 bed house with a garage conversion, not a 5 bedroom house.

That’s really helpful, thank you. I completely agree about all the rooms being balanced. The upstairs floor space is two thirds of the space downstairs (as the roof is a little unusual which stops us from doing a full length dormer) so hopefully it means the guest room downstairs won’t impact on the living area too much. I’ve never drawn so many floor plans in my life (pretty sure our architect hates us by now 😅)

3x3 is quite generous for a smallest bedroom now. 2x2 and it really is a box.

We wanted all proper doubles because our dc are adults, if aimed at the family market then it's different 3 have 3 large doubles and a small double (bed has to go against the wall)

Yes that’s naughty but I assume people must actually pay those prices otherwise agents would stop doing it? You’d hope so anyway. Maybe at the height of the house buying madness but it sounds like buyers will be a bit more savvy now.

What @Overthebow said.

Yes that’s naughty but I assume people must actually pay those prices otherwise agents would stop doing it? You’d hope so anyway. Maybe at the height of the house buying madness but it sounds like buyers will be a bit more savvy now.
It's a while since I was house hunting but they didn't seem to sell as well as 'proper' 4 or 5 bedroom houses. For a while it seemed that odd extensions, boxy extra bedrooms over garages, loft conversions of mixed quality and garage conversions were quite popular home improvements, but all we saw was the extra cost required to make them workable.

When I watch Kirsty and Phil's Love it or List it with couples who find they have corridor rooms or have bought a house with an extension that looked good at viewing but doesn't work in daily life I'm often reminded of some properties we ruled out.

Agree 2 x doubles and 2 x singles. No point in a huge bedrooms. In fact it puts me off a house.

It sounds fine to me OP. We seem to have a very similar chalet house. Most chalets have a downstairs bedroom, it’s not quite the same as having a downstairs bedroom in a detached house where it could be a living area. Your house will have a flexible layout and if you sell in the future, you can market it this way. Then people can use the rooms for office/playroom/bedroom etc. I much prefer larger and better living spaces than bedroom space. Our DC have small-medium sized rooms but our living space is vast so they have all their toys in the playroom and do their homework in their own lounge downstairs, where they have their own dedicated workspace. There’s no need to have sufficient space in their bedrooms for a desk or toys, and it means the DC aren’t couped up in their bedrooms over the weekend and evenings. They are with us downstairs as a family and I love this about our layout. It’s totally changed our family dynamics

Our plan is to turn the house we are buying into a 4 bed too by splitting 1 of the big rooms in half.

We will end up with a double bedroom (master), 2 single bedrooms and a box bedroom.

Bedroom will be approx:

Bedroom 1: 3m x 3.4m = 10.2m squared
Bedroom 2: 4.35m x 2m = 7.9m squared (as theres a chimney breast)
Bedroom 3: 3.8m x 2.1m = 7.98m squared
Bedroom 4: 2.1m x 2.65m = 5.56m squared

I would say 3 x 3.25 is pretty big for bedrooms.

I have to agree that I discount random downstairs rooms as bedrooms. There is a local house listed as 4 bed and its constantly top of the 4 bed search and it drives me nuts its clearly a 3 bed house. Upstairs its a standard 3 bed and bathroom then down stairs there is a living room, kitchen and then an extension through the kitchen with patio doors onto the garden its clearly a dining room/garden room NOT another bedroom. Been on the market ages as clearly anyone looking for a 4 bed does want this random garden room as a bedroom.

Same. I think many people would look at it as a 3 bed with extra living space.
I'm not sure about the practicalities of a downstairs bedroom with kids. Even when they're a teen I imagine it would be a bit of a pain if you had TV/music on at night etc.

Having a decent size bedroom downstairs with an en-suite or nearby bathroom would appeal to older couples thinking ahead to when they may have mobility problems so future proofing.

I am looking to move in the near future. I would need (3) double bedrooms, as children are grown up and married, but would actually like a fourth bedroom downstairs because a)I frequently have a disabled relative to stay and b) I really don’t want to move again and a downstairs bedroom would future proof it for me, so if you squeeze a shower in downstairs so much the better!

This sounds like I’m offering to buy your bungalow! 😁 I’m really just thinking about covering all bases.