Siblings sharing - room layout ideas needed!

[MovingToPlan]

Moving house soon, and playing with the floorplan to decide the best layout for the 2 DDs sharing. They both have double beds, I'd like to keep them as they'll only get bigger anyway! This is the biggest bedroom, too.

One of the issues is there is a sink in the room, which is useful for makeup etc and not taking up precious bathroom time, but limits where you can put furniture.

I've attached the floorplan from rightmove with and without my ideas. (Original floorplan doesn't show the sink!) I've put a line between the two beds showing where a screen divider might go, for privacy, and the rectangles are rough ideas for where drawers could be.

If anyone fancies playing about with it for different ideas, I'd be interested to see! The girls are 3 years apart in age, younger one about to go into secondary school.

I'd give them single beds so you can fit in a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. They are not going to have partners staying with them if they are sharing.

It would also be relatively easy/ cheap to remove the sink or put an extra sink in for the other one.

Hmm. Yes, we may have to rethink things!

Why is the divider at a funny angle? There are small double beds (4ft) that might work. But since you already own doubles it's a big expense to change that.

Can you do something like this: https://pin.it/5Q7BG5xmg

Assuming you'd be up for selling the double beds.

I’d put them both up against the external non window wall - with feet facing towards the divider, so one head on the window wall, one head on the ?hall wall. Use chests of drawers as bedside tables. Do you need a wardrobe? Could arguably put on the right of the sink (as a payoff for the one on the window side getting more privacy and the window). Eldest gets the window side on the basis they give it up at 18, whether they move out or not.

Btw mine have 4ft doubles and are young (primary and preschool), my mum finds it quite shocking but tbh it’s a dream for sleepovers or when they’re poorly and want one of us in with them. We all love piling onto them for chats before bed :)

Turn the beds round so that the foot face the divider

What else needs to go in the room? Do they need somewhere to do homework, wardrobes, etc?

You can't give one a room with no window! That is basically like living in a cupboard. Can you split the window in half?

Apologies, I wasn't clear. The divider will be movable and won't go all the way to the ceiling, so won't block the light.

The sink gets in the way of having a bed on either side of the window. We may need to remove the sink once we're in there and have furniture in place.

Other options, one being to remove sink.

Could you put in a 2nd door so that the split goes along the door wall?

Have the doors as sliding ones if it gives more room in the space

That way they each get half a window

Friends of mine had a really similar set up growing up and had both options below.

The first option would be single beds (orange), toe to toe with a divider and then red storage/drawers/desk/wardrobe each. The blue bit is the sink and shared toiletries/make up space.

The second worked when they were older (there were 2 years between them so this was more like 17 & 15) and started having boyfriends and friends staying often. Instead of dividers, they used the chest of drawers (tall ones) as dividers with each having one facing to them. Anything immediately left of the window would be a shared area.

That looks like an amazing amazing idea - never seen those before

How many others are there in the house sharing the bathroom?

Do you have an ensuite for yourselves?

If they have a dressing table or desk each why do they need a sink as well?

I would get rid of the sink as it will make the space much bigger and more even

How big is the room?

Have they asked for a room divider? As that seems to be complicating things.

Room size is 4.53m x 4.32m

2 adults, 2 teens, 2 primary (the younger teen and older primary/nearly secondary are the ones who will be sharing)

We'll have a family bathroom, an ensuite for the parents, and a downstairs loo. Sink possibly unnecessary in light of that.

The girls would like the privacy of a screen/divider.

Their bedroom furniture at present is a double bed, chest of drawers, and bookshelf. We have a separate homework space.

All good ideas here, thank you.

Here's an ikea Kallax unit being used as a room divider. They could have drawers/doors on opposite sides for each to use, and maybe a box they could pull out for bedtime chats!
(I'd want it secured to the wall at the end though)

Forgot picture

We've used kallax cubes as dividers for my DC here.

I think it'll feel cramped with two double beds and a divider. My DDs bedroom is slightly smaller and they each have a single bed with a small bedside table inbetween, and it doesn't feel cramped but it's not super spacious either. We also have a 'playroom' so lots of their books, musical instruments and art materials (DD1 is doing GCSE Art) are there., you need to think about how much stuff they need to store in their room.

I'd swap them to single beds and let them play about with layout, my DDs tried two layouts with their beds as far apart as possible before ending up with a very traditional twin room layout.