Three beds in a single room.

ginvzt

Just try and do it powerpoint or similar, and scale the sizes (for example, 2m becomes 10cm), so it gives proportion. I say powerpoint, as it is easy to draw rectangles there. So, rectangle for the room, narrow long one for the window, one for the door. Also - where is the radiator? I am sure taht will be important where you put the bed, I used to hate sleeping next to one! You can colour them in different colours, and put text boxes saying what it is.

Then select all (Ctrl+A), and paste into Paint. Save it as jpg/bmp, and you have a picture.

olias

Sorry if this sounds hard, but TBH, I'm start to think the OP is being very pedantic and putting every obstacle in the way of the useful suggestions being made -

My husband doesn't do DIY
The doors in the way
I don't want the beds accross the window
My ceilings too low
My eldest won't get rid of his huge bed
I'm no good at taking pictures
I won't swop for my larger room
It'll cost too much to move
I don't want to move
I want to stay in this house which will suit once my sons have left home(!)

I have just had a look on right move, and even in central london or the most expensive parts of the home counties you can rent 3 bed places for £900-£1000. OP you really need to look at moving. I do not think you are being fair on your sons to expect them to share in these conditions when their are alternatives available. What about when they are studying for exams? Bringing friends home? Girlfriends? Coming home at 18 at 2 in the morning after a few beers and a nightclub?

Olias

petebates26

I reckon Olias is right - whatever you do is only really going to be a temporary solution - there may be enough space to sleep, but not to live.

Short term, if you've only got a small budget, I reckon the best solution would be to keep things as they are, but shorten the bottom legs of the bunk beds to give the top bunk more headroom. Then get some ladders and board out the loft to give them somewhere to store their toys and play - it doesn't have to be a proper conversion for them to make use of the space.

I know you said your fella doesn't do DIY. I didn't used to do DIY. So I learnt.

RufusForever

Doesn't seem great for your boys, all 3 trying to fit in to such a small room.
Is there the possibility of you and your OH sleeping in the living-room - sofa bed/bed that stores flat to the wall during the day - and giving your boys 2 rooms between them?

SuzieSue

I agree, it just isn't fair to expect 3 teenage boys to share a room like that. Two teenagers sharing a room that size is just about acceptable (I did with my sister even in my 20s), but I think the OP really needs to seriously consider some alternatives.

ormus

i thought it was pretty obvious that any sleeping arrangements for three in that room, were purely that.
a sleeping area.
sailors etc... have been doing that for centuries.

WestonDave

I think if we are going to solve this we need some proper room dimensions (i.e. where the door and window are in relation to the long and short sides of the room + dimensions for the other room), and more of a can do attitude. The reality is that Mum and Dad insisting on keeping their king sized bed whilst the kids are crammed in isn't fair - so if by swapping the king size for a double its more likely to make a workable solution then that needs to be considered, as does getting rid of the oversized high sleeper, and potentially putting something across the window. None of this may seem ideal, but clearly this housing situation isn't ideal, so a lot of willingness to compromise is going to be needed - the alternatives are endless rows which I imagine with an autistic kid in the house is the worst possible option.

For what its worth I would be looking (depending on the dimensions) on canibalising the existing beds (or at least the bed frames where the mattresses rest) to reconstruct with new uprights into a triple bunk where the middle (or possibly the lowest) bunk slides out into the middle of the room. Its possible to get heavy duty ball bearing drawer type runners that would do this job up to more than 200kg (30 stone) so with a bit of creativity and maybe a bit of assistance from a more skilled friend, a solution could be found. (The unused parts from the high sleeper and bunks - mainly the uprights - could be stored away in the loft etc pending a future move to a 3 bed house). Alternatively the same canibalisation process could be used to construct the sort of L shaped affair shown on one of the ebay links. None of this need be high level engineering - its just a question of measuring, sawing to length and drilling a few holes in the right places.

outofmoney

Just want to point out I am not pedantic (don't even think that word is right here) I asked for ideas, and having been given some I am mulling them over. I do need to consider safety, such as how wise it would be to put a bed across the window, plus I need to consider the cost.

Whilst the loft bed is huge I am trying to use as much of the existing furniture as possible to keep cost down so am considering everything suggested here. I realise the loft bed will probably have to go but do need to consider the fact it would mean my youngest would no longer have somewhere to 'escape'. He may be the youngest but also the only one without special needs!

As for moving it really isn't an option. As I said before we have been on the housing list for 11 years and nowhere near the top. We currently rent a 3 bed house. The third bedroom is no more than a cupboard and belongs to our teenage daughter. Most Landlords don't want to know us as we are DSS due to being Carers for our children with special needs. Even if they did, the rent starts at around £1000. The highest we would get for HB is £700.

Haven't got a clue how to do powerpoint, might ask my son, but will see what I can do on paint.

outofmoney

Sorry, can't work out how to make it bigger.

Our bedroom is same width, except for where the chimney breast is. It is 304cms in length.



I have just measured our bed and it is 152cms wide and 210cms long. Whichever way we put the bed we would only have around half a metre either side. No room for wardrobe, chest of drawers etc. These would then have to be in the boys room. If we swapped to a double we would only gain about 8cms extra.

WestonDave

The obvious answer is the L shaped bed on ebay, with the middle bunk coming down towards the door. Order it with 2"6 mattress sizes all round, and with the middle bunk trimmed down in length as much as you feel you need to open the door as much as you want. At 180cm you'd pretty much be able to open the door nearly fully (which you can't currently anyway due to the book shelf). You can use the space under half of the middle bunk for storage - even if its plastic stacking boxes for toys. The little one could have some small lockers put on the wall at the end of his bed where the corner is and have this as the foot end of his bed. You'd lose the bookshelf space but gain the under bed storage under the mid bunk, and you'd lose the loft bed storage but replace that with some wall lockers/cupboards. It would open out the floor space due to cutting back the area covered by the high sleeper.

The cheaper way of doing this for a similar effect is to dump the high sleeper on ebay to get a bit of cash back. Buy a new narrower one to put in its place, and then swing the shorty bunks round towards the door. In this case you wouldn't have the under bed storage, but you could put some kind of cupboards or shelves under the part of the high sleeper not taken up by the foot of the shorty bunk.