What is the minimum size for a double bedroom?

[spiralqueen]

We are starting to look for a new house and need a 3rd room for guests - mainly parents who are likely to stay for a week at a time. Would rather give DD (22mths) a bigger room and have guests in smaller room as she'll spend more time in it and have more things to put in it, but not sure if this is practical.

Have seen a room that is 8'2 x 6'10 (2.49 x 2.08m)- would you consider a room big enough?

No, no way can that be a double room. A double bed is at the very least 1.40 by 1.90, and the door of the room will open inwards, so even if you put the bed along the 2 m side against a wall (not ideal) with the door opening there won't be room to even step into the room unless you are jumping straight onto the bed!

Should read - would you consider that room to be big enough.

Our room is 10 x 10 I don't think you could get away with much smaller.

ib could be a new sport! Seriously though - any ideas how big a room would need to be to be a workable double?

For a workable double I think you need to assume at least 50 cm on either side of the bed and 1 m at the end, assuming the door opens in one corner of the room.

So assuming a small 1.4 by 1.9 bed, then I would say 2.4 by 2.9 is the very minimum. In reality I would be looking at a minimum of 3x3m for a double room.

What about giving your dd the smaller room and having one of those beds that fold up against the wall in the larger one, so that when there are no guests it can be used as a playroom?

We lived in a new-ish house once and the master bedroom was a tiny 10x8'4, although it did have built-in wardrobes so we only had bed and bedside tables in there. Even so, we had to have the bed up against the wall so I had to climb in from DHs side.

We didn't stay there long!

But I'd say that's the smallest size you could have really.

I think 9x9 is about the smallest you could have for a double

My third bedroom is 9'11" by 8'3" (the details from when we bought it are in a filing cabinet to my right, I didn't just know that off the top of my head!) and is currently a 'double bedroom', in that it has a double bed in. The door and bed head are on the 8'3" wall, leaving no space for even a bedside table. At the far end of the bed there is a bit of space, but not a great detail. Only other furniture in the room is a child's wardrobe (large washing pile doesn't count as 'furniture', does it?) You could actually get away with the room being no longer than the length of the bed, if you had the door in the long wall, although actually getting the bed IN the room in the first place might be interesting.

You could get a mid-sizd bed (4' wide rather than 4'6 for a normal double) which sleeps two cosily, but would also free up some space in your room. I got the bed from Warren Evans which is pricey but you can get a big variety of sized beds there to suit the size of your room.

We use our smallest bedroom as a guest room and have two 2'6" beds, one of which slides under. When the two beds are put together as a 5' double there is just enough room on both sides for a small bedside table and for someone to walk forwards towards the bed (rather than creep sideways). There is also enough room for a table or chest of drawers on which guests can put their cases/belongings - and they are able to hang clothes up on hooks on the door
It isn't a proper double bedroom, but perfectly adequate for a couple for a weekend stay.

My bedroom is 2.6m x 3.4m (approx 8ft x 11ft). It has a king size in it (XP was 6ft 5) and the door won't open properly, it's a nightmare for a main bedroom but I think the size would work fine for a spare room with a double.

Thanks everyone that's really helpful.