Has anyone split the main bedroom in a mid terrace into two smaller rooms?

[planthenact]

I would like to split the main bedroom of my 2 bed mid terrace into 2 smaller rooms by building a L-shaped stud wall down the middle and creating a small corridor so both rooms can have private entrances.

I want it to look something like the attached image.

The room is about 14ft by 12ft and already has two windows. Walls to be insulated and plastered. Each room would need to have new radiators fitted (there’s a long single radiator currently), new ceiling light(s) and new wall switches and sockets. Also, internal bi-fold doors to each doorway need to be hung.

Has anyone done anything similar? How much did it cost? Were the rooms spacious enough? Did it impact sale value if you sold later on?

Two reasons.

In most house rooms ajoin via wall room meaning its likely thats a room not a hall but even if it is (our new house it is a hall) knocking in a new door is expensive and messy work that requires engineers, permission and strong boys + possible RSJ to take to load etc...

You can do a loft conversion cheap, we where quoted £11.5k but it would not be a LEGAL conversion. To legally have a bedroom you are looking at £40-100k which for many people is a large % of the whole cost of the house.

Looks your most sensible option.

But in terms of wardrobe space, I wonder if it's worth building this in as part of the stud walls.

My terrace is built (originally) so that the wall separating the rooms is basically one long cupboard, divided into two with one accessed from one side and one from the other.

They are not overly deep but hold loads as they are full height. You could have one of them built to allow for the bed underneath so the door is higher (like you often get in box rooms where the bulkhead for the stairs comes in).

While you are already paying for studs and plasterwork is the time to do it.

This is what a lot of terraces near to me have done: 2 bedroom terraced house for sale in Albany Road, Windsor, SL4 (rightmove.co.uk) i.e. split the large back room into small third bedroom plus a small bathroom. You lose the "wow" bathroom but gain a useable bedroom.

Could you use a bi-fold door to help give you a little more space?

Houses in this area (London, lots of small terraced houses) with that original layout tend to have the Windsor solution above, as most people do want at least one decent sized bedroom and the plumbing is at least adjacent. A few have reverted the big bathroom to a bedroom and sliced bedroom 2 up into a smaller bedroom and a windowless bathroom between B1 and B2. The snag with that is it's expensive and tricky to move plumbing.

Do you know about Quinetic light switches? They are wireless and work on Quinetic energy ie a little click made with the Quinetic light switch so no batteries needed. The light in the ceiling has a small receiver wired to it that will hide in the ceiling with the rest of the lighting wires. So no cable runs, no chiselling out walls. Just worth looking into whichever route you decide to take rejigging the rooms around.

@Waspie I’ve seen this type, but the kitchen in this house is much longer.

@ScroogeMcDuckling There are alcoves in what would be room 2 so was thinking of using those for wardrobe and shelving spaces.

The wardrobe idea in your sketch is a good idea, but I want maximise the space as much as possible in the rooms.

@bilgewater It’s the plumbing logistics and lack of window that made me wary of switching the bathroom to the middle of the house.

If you moved the bathroom you would end up with a very large main bedroom and a pokey 3rd one and a small shower room. I think splitting the front will be fine and it's easier to change back in the future.

They will be decent singles.

@Thepartnersdesk Storage is something I need to think carefully about. I want to try and give flexibility for a single bed to be able to fit across and sideways though, so maximising floor space is a priority.

@RandomMess I really don’t even want to think about what it would mean to move all that plumbing to the middle of the house!

For storage use the height of the room.

Get the DC to have a thorough declutter!

Decent underbed storage.

@caringcarer Thanks for this. £4k sounds reasonable. I was thinking £2-3k at first but with all the different parts plumbing for new radiators, electrics etc I think around £4k is more likely.

a pocket door or sliding door (single door slides onto a wall) would take less space from the rooms

It will depend on the area of country you live in.

A local builder may have done a similar job splitting that type of room before. You'd be able to get a better idea of price and what's possible.

How about like this? The rooms have the same floor area but the wall isn't in the middle

Can you make the door slide into the wall? Would reduce the wasted floor space.

I’d do raised beds, particularly for the younger child, maybe in the smaller room.

Why don't you just give one of the kids the front lounge

@fivelittlespeckledhogs I do like this, but I’m concerned that the door opening outward is a safety issue. I even googled to see if it’s allowed. It appears to be, but with another room so close by it may be just a little too risky!

@Lilly11a It’s a through lounge on ground floor.

@ACynicalDad I did consider this, but it looks like to reasonably be able to fit a single bed across the room I’ll have to minimise the width of the stud wall. I’m hoping beds will go like in the photo to maximise floor space.

@planthenact my grandparents did exactly this for the grandkids to stay. We had beds with storage under, wall mounted tv and high shelves all around the room for storage. He build a small double wardrobe in each room that had a big drawer underneath and I had a desk. We had pocket doors that slotted into the wall also.