Splitting one bedroom into two? Floorplan help.

[Hopefulmama21]

We're expecting another baby and hoping to make our 4 bed into a 5 bed. I was wondering if anyone can help with a floor plan and what the estimated room sizes will be once complete. I've attached our floor plan, although it's not exactly to scale which is frustrating.

We have 4 good sized doubles currently, and hoping to split bedroom 4 which is the biggest in the house into a double and a single.

The room is roughly 5.1m in length, and 3.5m wide (starting from the end of the little corridor).

My thought is that we extend the corridor by enough to add in one door to each room and then separate with a stud wall.

Ideally this would leave us with two rooms which would be roughly;

Double room - 3.5m x 3.2m
Single room - 3.5m x 1.9m

Is this doable?

Can you annotate the floor plan to show what you mean? I can't see how you'd extend the corridor without making one room super narrow?

Could you sketch out what you mean by we extend the corridor by enough to add in one door to each room and then separate with a stud wall.

ETA: I'd mark your ideas out on the floor with masking tape, not forgetting the width of the stud wall and room to open the doors, and take measurements off that.

1.9 is very narrow for a room... could you maybe stagger it so that the smaller room opens out to be a bit wider once you come through the door, you'll have to have that width room to fit the second door in...

Is that a dropped eave on bedroom 4? Consider how that will impact 2 small rooms if they don’t have full ceiling height.

Okay I've just remeasured rather than using the floor plan and the length is 5.9m total.

I've sketched out roughly what I have in mind.

I should also mention there are eaves boxed out on the floor plan but they dont encroach on the floor space, just slightly sloped ceiling.

I actually got chatgpt to give some ideas on a similar problem. Some were wildly unworkable.
The lack of scale and the eves are making me unsure what would work.

That room will be really small then... i think a chunk out of the other bedroom and not make MORE hallway... which id say is just wasting space.

@MagpiePi the masking tape is a great idea thank you. @Kidsandhouse i also like this staggered idea. Although the width is wider than i thought as the total length is 5.9m vs 5.1m

So would give the smaller room a width of around 2.4m

Given the eaves, would it not be less complicated to split bedroom 2 in half? Both rooms would get a window each, doors onto existing corridor? Bit tight with airing cupboard but doable?

Yes I’d be tempted to turn beds 2 and 3 into 3 bedrooms if you can get the windows to work

If we split bedrooms 2 or 3 up we'd lose 2 double bedrooms and each would be a single room then which wouldn't work for our family unfortunately.

Those two rooms are currently roughly 3.5m x 3.2m so would end up with 3 tiny rooms if split up.

Is the wall between 2 and 3 load bearing? I’d be more tempted to make 3 smaller, and turn 2 into 2 rooms. I’d make 2 wider near the door and cut in so that the new room can have that window. Maybe the alcove could be desk space with the window to the right of it? That would also create room for wardrobes in 2 as needed.

I think @Kidsandhouse idea is better, but can you remove a corner of bedroom 3's wall without adding in structural support, looks to be a supporting wall? Whatever you do seems to be creating a lot of corridor!

Plus the window spacing would make it tricky to make 2&3 into 3 rooms. I think your suggestion is probably doable - the smallest room would end up 2.4 x 2.4 I think, which isn't terrible? And then you could possibly put a built in wardrobe in the little cut out by the new corridor with the sloping ceiling.

This is a much better idea. Assuming rooms are for your kids isn't it better that they all have roughly similar sized rooms? How long are you intending to stay in this house?

The attached photos show an idea which may give a little bit more space, place the beds one above another. Essentially bunk beds but the lower bed is in one room and the upper bed in the other.

Similar to your idea but just borrowing a bit more from the larger room. One of the doors to open outwards into the extended corridor might give a bit more space.

Not sure how you could do it, but that ensuite is a massive space. Can ut become a sleeping space?

Could you make bed 1& ensuite a space that would work for 2 kids with wardrobes and furniture making privacy for current bed 1 occupant?

Extending corridors is wasting space...

Eta, I appreciate that it might not always be possible to avoid, but id try hard...

Or take a chunk out of bed 3 to nake the entrance to the split bed4?

I honestly think 4 make ve too small to split given the low ceilings.

Do you have enough furniture you could move into bed 4 for an afternoon to see how it would fit with the tape in the floor? Ie 2 single beds, 2 wardrobes, 2 desks.

You could extend the corridor into the corner of bedroom 3 and put the door to bedroom 3 and 1 of the new rooms off it. That would give a little bit more room to the 5th bedroom and make them all a bit more even. Bedroom 3 could afford to lose a bit of space as it's bigger than the 2 new rooms would be and you'd have a useable wall for furniture where you blocked up the door. Excuse the poor editing on the plan!

I agree with @DandelionClockSeeds - it is not just the bare space, you have to fit furniture into it and that's when you realise you can't get the wardrobe in because of the sloping ceiling or you can't open the wardrobe doors, or get round a bed to change the sheets!

Thank you everyone for all the ideas, unfortunately the wall between bedroom 4 and the rest of the house is load bearing so I don't think we can take a corner of bed 3 or bed 1 to make the doorway.

I absolutely agree the corridor is a waste of space it's pretty frustrating.

I like the idea of moving the furniture into the proposed spaces and making the walls/doorways on the floor using masking tape.

The head height clearance isn't too bad, I'm arpund 5ft9 and can stand at full height around 40cm from the wall in the eaves area - I was thinking the cot could go here, and the single bed in future perhaps but will definitely need to try this out before committing.

I've used a floor planning app to map this out.

Love the idea of building a wardrobe into the book behind the door too!

Our ensuite is really big @DandelionClockSeeds but in an awkward location floor plan wise for us to change it into anything else I think. Also, selfishly I love that space as my little sanctuary with no kiddies in there 😆

Age wise we have a pretty big gap, 1 teen, and we will then have a 5 year old and a baby and want to retain a guest bedroom as we regularly have people over to stay.

I’d take walls down between 2, 3 and 4 then rezone the open spaces as 4 equal(ish) spaces. All will have a window to the front.

You can cut out a bit of the load bearing wall but would need to put a steel in. It might be worth considering if it creates the best use of the space - ask a builder's advice. The baby won't be in a cot for a long and that 5th bedroom would b a lot smaller than their siblings' rooms.