Have you measured a bed lately? It certainly will fit a 9 foot by 9 foot room! So will a dresser, small desk/table and chair and even a wall unit of some kind. Many, many smaller homes have rooms that size, even smaller, and people manage just fine in them, especially smaller people who haven't yet acquired a whole lot of stuff like we adults have over years. And if the time comes when your daughter wants more room, you may also want it and decide to move, or else possibly just rearrange what's there at the time.

Both of our small bedrooms are about 9x9. We went with loft beds originally, but now in one bedroom we installed some IKEA tall wardrobes in one corner and wall cabinets with a full size pullout sleeper sofa beneath, a tall dresser for clothing and turned the closet into an office area. My DD is a clutterbug and this keeps the worst of her mess behind closed doors!

For DS's room we cut his loft bed down to about 4 feet from the floor and added two low dressers beneath. His desk is a small dining table with shelving on the wall above.

Neither room feels too crowded, even with the larger beds. I think keeping things concealed rather than having a lot of stuff out helps with the claustrophobia aspect.

We had two small rooms like this, and went with twin beds until they were old enough to get into a loft safely. I'll leave a link the loft bed plans we used.

Here is a link that might be useful: Loft Beds

When we built our home in 1984 we never thought about closet space. It was a 3 BR, 3 BA bi-level with 2 fireplaces, etc.

After being in it and seeing how small everything was, we took 2 bathes and converted into 1 large, modern, beautiful bath. We are now taking the 10x9 third (smallest) bedroom and taking 3 ft along the 10' side and making another closet and it is only the 2 of us. We just don't have enough storage/closet space in a bi-level. We have already built a cedar closet in the 2 car garage...:-)

But, to answer the question........no, 9x9 is not too small for a small child's room.

Actually, my bedroom (in my apartment of 12 years) is just 10x10, and I'm an adult!

Plenty of room for a full bed, a dresser, a row of shelves beneath the windows, and a rolling cart for the sewing machine.

(Add in the two cats fighting and it gets a bit crowded, tho...)

Add in the two cats fighting and it gets a bit crowded, tho...

This is true regardless of the size of the room... imagine two large cats fighting inside the box spring.

My boys share a room just a little bigger than that, and the ceilings are sloped so there cannot be bunks or lofts. I bought them this bed from Ikea and it is AMAZING how much more storage they have than other similar beds-- since the drawers really use the entire space under the bed and hold way more than a regular dresser or poorly-designed captain's bed. Plus, they are very cheap and easy to put together and very solidly well-made.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea Brekke bed with huge storage rolling drawers

My Ds has a 9x9 room and when we remodeled my DH took the closet from his room and stole some space from an entryway closet and built a built-in bed. Then he built a small 2x4 closet with a 5' bench beside it under the window which doubles as a toy box. Its kinda crazy, but Ds has the smallest room in the house, but the most floor space since we didn't have to put a bed in there.