BS: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom

26 Jun 02 - 11:35 AM (#737393)
Subject: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: GUEST,JTT

Sorry for the OT post. Quick question. Anyone know of any good designs for a really tiny bedroom? It's six metres square, with a fireplace taking a chunk off one corner, and a door blocking the diagonally opposite corner.

Yet I slept in it when I first moved in. How did I fit a bed in there?

Anyone know any boat architect sites or the like that might give me some ideas?

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26 Jun 02 - 11:38 AM (#737397)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: Mr Happy

what's the height?

is there a widow?

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26 Jun 02 - 11:41 AM (#737402)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: MMario

Six meters square or six square meters? Which?

Because if it is six meters square - it's about three times the size of my bedroom!

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26 Jun 02 - 11:50 AM (#737411)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: GUEST,JTT

Two metres one way, two metres the other. If it was me, I'd throw a mattress on the floor, but I want to insert one student and extract one rent.

No widows, but there's a window on the outside wall.

Look at the square below this, the one you'll write your answers into. Take a triangular slice out of the top left corner for the chimney (which has a nice upside-down-U=shaped theatre mirror over the small fireplace). The window is a big one that can open slightly by leaning in from the top, or swing right in like a door, depending on which way you work the handle.

The door is just to the right of "Clear Entries", and opens inwards.

The room isn't that high - maybe seven-and-a-half feet.

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26 Jun 02 - 12:26 PM (#737445)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: Deda

Off thread entirely, but here's a song about it:
Click here for "The wee room underneath the stair" (If the event of a Blicky failure, try The Wee Room underneath the Stair in the DT.)

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26 Jun 02 - 12:54 PM (#737467)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroo
From: Mickey191

Hi JTT, Seems like my first move would be to get a futon OR a daybed. They both would serve as sofas during the day and beds at night. The futon unfolds into a double bed. Is this to be an all purpose room or strictly a bedroom? If it's all purpose-you might try a draftsman table. It folds flat and swings up easily for dinner for two hearty diners, or 3 dieting munchkins. Best of luck! Mickey191

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26 Jun 02 - 01:09 PM (#737486)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: Mrs.Duck

Our smallest bedroom is somewhat similar but we have turned it into a room for three children by building in bunks. The top one is about 5' high and then there is an L shaped lower bunk for the twins. You could put in an upper bed and have the space below for storage, or a desk or even a chair or two.

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26 Jun 02 - 01:16 PM (#737489)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: GUEST,JTT

I can't quite see where to fit bunks, though, and still be able to open the door.

They won't fit on the chimney walls.

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26 Jun 02 - 01:38 PM (#737515)
Subject: teeny tiny bedroom/Little Bitty Gun
From: SharonA

A must-have for a teeny tiny bedroom is a Little Bitty Gun: http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/l/litbitgu.html

Okay, that's two songs so far. Can we be considered to be "on topic" yet? *G*

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26 Jun 02 - 02:55 PM (#737565)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: wysiwyg

My sister made a sleeping/TV/guest room from a space so tiny that we called the result "The Columbarium," and yet my 6"+ son was perfectly at home in it. Of course he now serves on a submarine, so I am not sure if he was warped before or after using the columbarium!

The space had been reclaimed from under a high and wide stairway leading to the upstairs of the house, a tall Queen Anne set on a very high foundation. My sister occupied the garden apartment (ground floor) and the stairs led to the landlady's house above. So the space was slanted, high where it joined her apartment just inside her front door, and about 24" tall at the very back. The floor space was about 5' wide by 7' deep. It was all finished out with drywall and painted white, and carpeted. The doorway into it was a beautiful bi-fold door, mirrored-- a closet door, actually, and people visiting never knew there was a "bedroom" there unless they were clued in. (I used to sleep in there when I visited and feel perfectly safe because if the bogeyman came into the place, he would never find me!) It had a tiny, functional, octagonal porthole window. There was room for a single-size futon bed on a frame about 12" off the floor, a narrow, low shelf under the window, duffle bag space at the foot of the bed, and, next to the entry into it, a recessed closet space with installed cabinet and clothes pole. Because the bed was so low and the rest of the furniture was smallscaled, it did not feel claustrophobic. There was plenty of room to stand in the front third of it and it felt quite roomy when one laid down or sat on the bed. She decorated the slanting ceiling with poster-type stuff. The whole thing was white, with accents in primary colors. There was a 10" TV in there, a boombox stereo, books, and so forth.

Another person I knew made a sleeping space out of a large walk-in closet. He was too broke to heat his whole house adequately, so he set up a double bed in that closet and heated it with a lightbulb. It was cozy. I believe there would have been room for some shelving over the head of the bed, and there may have been room to walk along the bed on one side.

We have a small (about 7' square) space at the top of our stairs, outsidie our bedroom and before the door that leads to the hall for the rest of the bedrooms. At one time I am sure it was used as a nursery, handy so parents could hear baby at night. I have laid out sleeping space there for visiting adults. It also has a chair and a long, low cabinet like a dresser. I had another landing space like that in another house and we made a sitting room out of it for sitting up to wake up in the AM and look out the window, or for reading late at night without going downstairs.

The trick to making small spaces work is getting multiple uses out of any furniture in the space. A captain's bed with storage drawers under it, or even a loft bed that lets you put a desk or chair or dressers below, can make a lot of storage with only a little footprint used up. Shelves running a foot below the ceiling, all the way around the room, can provide more storage without crowding the living part of the room.

I think one of your best sources for ideas, where you can see a range of solutions, would be to visit an RV sales outlet and cruise around the inside of various kinds of campers. Free gawking.

There is a US cable-TV show called This Small Space. Maybe you can be on the lookout for that. At our house we joke that one of these nights they will do a feature on custom-decorating your prison cell, and "personalizing" your space there.

I have heard that the trend "for the millenium" is moving away from large sprawling homes and back to small, functional, affordable housing beautifully trimmed out. (As the baby boom families become empty nesters, retirees are looming as a big market share on the horizon.)

~Susan

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26 Jun 02 - 02:57 PM (#737568)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: MMario

can you rehang the door so it opens out?

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27 Jun 02 - 12:58 AM (#737941)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: Liz the Squeak

We have a similar sized room for Bratling. I put her bed on long legs, and the chest of drawers under it. She sleeps at my chest height now, and it's a lot easier to put her into when she's asleep and you don't want to knacker your back by carrying her up and dropping her in. The step ladder doubles as clothes rack and book shelf!

This leaves a little space under the bed for a play area (her trampoline fits nicely, but she pulls it out to use), space to get to the window (yours open inwards? Strange windows....) with a book shelf where your fireplace would be,a tall shelf unit and small bedside table behind the bed, shelves on the wall, she has room to play, a whole wall free for chalking and pinboard, and plenty of wall space for more shelves should we feel so inclined.

LTS

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27 Jun 02 - 05:33 AM (#738010)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: GUEST,JTT

Yeah, that's right, Guest, I'm hoping to emulate Rachmann!

Unfortunately I don't make a great slum landlord; so far all of the students from language schools who've stayed the summer with me send me Christmas cards and occasional loving letters.

Customising your prison cell - did you see Modern Times, WYSIWYG, where Charlie Chaplin has a cosy cell with a portrait of Lenin?

I think you're right about doubling-up the use of furniture. What I probably need is a chair that folds out to a sofa. There wouldn't be room for a futon that folds to a *double* bed, though.

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27 Jun 02 - 03:21 PM (#738401)
Subject: RE: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: Liz the Squeak

Get one with a metal action then, because the sponge ones last about 5 minutes and are the most uncomfortable things to sit on.

LTS

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27 Jun 02 - 06:45 PM (#738498)
Subject: RE: BS: Help: OT: teeny tiny bedroom
From: lady penelope

Our spare room is approx. 7" by 8" and we got a double bed ( 4'6"x 6'3" plus metal frame ) and a large wardrobe. Ok it was a little difficult to get to the window, but that was partly because my friend ( who was staying for a while ) refused to have the bed anywhere else in the room. I can't emphasize under bed storage as a total plus, enough. A folding bed loses that advantage. You may be able to go with a large single, with drawers underneath as WYSIWYG said.

You can either buy or make quite easily, a table top that bolts to the wall on hinges so you can drop it down when it's not in use. A folding chair for somewhere to sit that's not the bed.

Is the fireplace used, a feature you like or would it be possible to enlarge the opening to make into further storage space.

Little things like hooks on the back of the door and around the room ( e.g. to hang the folding chair from...) can make a big difference. Keeping as much floor space free as possible is also a must ( I know this sounds at odds with trying to cram stuff in )but it makes a huge difference if you're not constantly banging you toes off furniture.

Mainly it depends on exactly what you want put in the room.

I like the idea about scouting out caravan outfitters.

Good luck!

TTFN M'Lady P. ( who only acheived a bedroom bigger than 8'x10' when I finally left home at 27! )

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