4 girls in a 15x15 bedroom

15x15 = 225 sq ft. If a twin bed is 4x7 ft-ish, that's 1/2 your floor space in bed. Add another 30 or so for door swings, and there will be no place to walk. I'd try to place the furniture at the proper scale and try to swing doors, etc.

I will look at that, but I really would like some opinions on the laundry.

Is there an issue with where it is now? It seems to be nicely centered in the bedroom wing.

It's hard to comment on the execution of a laundry room when this plan isn't particularly finished or executed to scale.

Well, the main part that isn't to scale is the size of the living room and possibly the kitchen. Otherwise it's fairly close. I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with where it is. I was just thinking we could get some more closet space there and wondered what drawbacks would be with it near the mudroom.

I think it all depends on how you "live". My laundry is near the kitchen because I spend most of the days in this part of the house so doing a load or so is convenient. I also don't have kids - so it's not necessary to have hampers and drop off locations for multiple folks.

Good point. We spend most of our day in the main living areas and kitchen so I could see how it would be convenient to be right there. Although, it's not terribly far away in the bedroom hall. It would be super nice to not have clothing come out of the bedroom end of the house ever though. LOL

What do the elevations look like? They really need to be developed together.

Here's a link to the original plan. https://www.allamericanhomes.com/floorplan-detail/gentry/

What if you added some of those feet to the right side, to have a little bigger laundry room (room to soak, sort, and fold) and maybe swap it with the hall bath so it's more central? (How will the dryer vent, by the way?)

not a fan of the new bathroom plan, it's basically a bathroom, and an extra sink.

And, you didn't ask, but what if the girls have the master? They'd get a big closet, a bathroom where one girl can use the toilet privately while another is in the shower, and plenty of counter space?

A twin bed is 39" wide by 75" long. Are you expecting the four girls to also be able to do homework in the room? Where will they have their clothes? What are the ages? What happens when they become teens?

bpathome: I don't think I have the option of adding any more to the right side. It can only go as wide as 15'. The hall bath I was picturing has a sink on one side and counter on the other with just an open doorway from the hall. Then a door into the full bath with sink, shower/tub and toilet. My thinking was that someone could be brushing teeth, fixing hair and showering at the same time.

cpartist: There is an office where school work can be done. Clothes would go in their closet. That was one of the reasons I was considering putting the laundry near the mudroom to allow more closet space for them.

To get back to your original question, I think I'd be fine with the laundry on the left end of the house. It gives you plenty of room to spread out, sort multiple loads, etc. And if you spend a lot of time in that end of the house or outside, it's fine. And the girls can carry their laundry back and forth.

In the modified bathroom, where are the bath towels hanging?

There are two trains of thought on locating a laundry room. Locate it close to the clothes to be washed or locate it close to the person that will be doing the wash. The former will locate it near the bedrooms, the latter will locate it near the kitchen.

A lot depends upon the entire house layout and the person(s) doing the wash.

Good question about towels. We could probably do two on the door. Then maybe others on the back of bedroom door? Another, not so great option, would be on the wall in the hall on either side of the bathroom doorway. I don't love the idea of that but if it works it works.

What he said. :) I want laundry near the bedroom since I'm usually sneaking a load early in a.m. or when I get home in evenings. My mother wants it near kitchen since she spends time there. I think space is priority though - and I like room to sort, etc. You might want to opt for the bigger space since you probably have a lot of it.

I agree with bp about the laundry. :) One has to decide where it works for them best. For me I prefer it near my bedroom, but I know lots of folks prefer it where they spend the majority of their time.

Yeah, the more I think about it, I think I would prefer it in the mudroom with more space for now and near my bedroom when I'm old. LOL I will see if we can get the mudroom to work. Thanks all!

tammyte, what I would do is try and figure out as much built in storage in every room in the house now before starting to build. I think if you can arrange for space for everything and can arrange it all to be organized well, you can get away with smaller rooms easily. Think under bed storage, headboard storage, builtins in the closets, etc.

Still thinking about the towels. If I move the sink to the left wall of the bathroom, along the same wall as the shower, then that might give me space for towels and a hamper in that corner.

I may even have the space to put the toilet along that wall as well. The room would be 12'. If I have a 6' long tub, allow 3' for the toilet area that leaves 3' for the sink. I would probably have a little less though depending on the waterwall at the end of the tub right?

Oh shoot. I think it's only 10' wide. The 12' dimension was the other way.

Our current laundry room is outside our master, not a shared wall, and it is too noisy if I have a load in the washer or dryer as we are falling asleep. Especially if the buzzers go off to say "done" They are front load and it sounds as if they are "beating" the clothes clean. My husband did a delayed wash setting and we were awakened to the thumps and thuds of the washer starting. Which made me realize it is easier to fall asleep to a noisy washer than to sleep through one being started. So, not in hearing range of my bedroom is my choice!! It also depends on if your laundry room will serve any other purpose such as hold an extra freezer or pet supplies. I prefer a laundry room on an outside wall for easy venting to the outside and a window would be a plus. Though my last 2 houses have both had interior laundry rooms, not designed by me. Think of how you live and where you want to be going to deal with laundry. For me carrying laundry in is the easiest part. Dealing with a done load takes me the most time. So if at times you might be cooking, would near the kitchen be easiest? While I am at it, consider putting the foyer/entry door to the left of the ? living room so there is a view out the back windows rather than a solid wall as you enter :) There should be a way to have a closet by the door. Of course 4 kids can fit in a room 13x15 or 15x15. But I agree with playing with actual furniture sizes to see how it would fit. A room that fits 4 children will be a cramped dormitory room with 4 teens. But certainly can be done. 2 smaller bedrooms may allow more privacy and future flexibility. I would shift the door to the bigger bedroom for more privacy from the living area and not a straight view in. lafdr

lafdr: Thanks. All good points. Yes, I would love to have the front door open facing the dining area. That would also help with flooring but I'm not sure I can do it. I'll have to ask the builder. Although, one thing I like about where the foyer is now, is that it gives me a place to put the piano. I was considering shifting the door on that bedroom. I need to see how the bathroom actually lines up in the hall as I think it might shift a bit, then I can see exactly how that falls. I sort of wanted a little room behind the bedroom door. I was thinking I could put the closet door in the middle of the wall and possibly fit a dresser on either side of it. I guess I'll have to make a note to look at that more closely. Yes, it will be dorm style. We would use bunks as long as possible. Right now olders can sleep on top. When they are bigger and don't want to be up there then youngers will be old enough for top bunks for a while. If we absolutely had to I'm pretty sure we could get 3 twins coming out from the right wall and then one twin along the left wall. That would leave about 3' of space in the middle and allow a foot or two between the 3 beds. Not great, but would work.

As someone else said, people hold varying philosophies on "best" when it comes to laundry. I adhere to the idea that it's best to consolidate all things laundry near the bedrooms. As others have said, clothes come on and off in the bedrooms /bathrooms and are stored in bedrooms -- it makes perfect sense to me to wash them near the hampers and closets.

The one downside to this idea, of course, is noise. So the question is, when do you tend to do laundry? If you do it all day long, no problem. On the other hand, if you like to wash clothes at night, laundry in the current location will be noisy in the girls' room.

A completely different thought on laundry: With so many kids, you must have a great deal of laundry. I'd consider two stacking machines. That's a sink in the laundry room? I'd ditch that in favor of a solid countertop for folding and space underneath for waiting loads.

Like others on this thread, I think you need to revisit the girls' room -- where are you going to put those clothes once they're washed? Here's a 15x15 room with two sets of standard sized bunks and a 3' dresser for each girl:

The girls'd have 7' between the bunks for play space. They could have boxes under the bed for toys. So, yeah, it's possible, but this is about the amount of space they'd have at summer camp -- they don't have room for desks, no space for a chair to sit in and read. I'd move some other things around to give the girls more space.

Their closet is also very small for four girls to share. Options: Steal some space from the laundry room to widen the closet by 2'; that'll give you 50% more hanging space. OR steal closet space from your own generous closet for the girls.In other parts of the house, I don't think a whole lot of this is working well:

- You have two living areas, right? I'd rearrange them so that they aren't so narrow, and I'd place a double pocket door between the two. This would allow you to open the doors and use the rooms as one large space, when you want --- yet use it as two areas when it suits you:

I think you'd appreciate a wider space by the back door for coats.

How wide is the dining area? Especially since this area houses the only door to the back yard, I think it may need some extra width.

And the kitchen could be better. A U-shaped kitchen is ideal for a single cook. When you insert an island, you take away the kitchen's biggest asset: Lots of countertop space at your fingertips -- instead, see how the island is in the way of your work triangle? Consider what happens if you make the island into a peninsula:

You have the same amount of counterspace, but your work triangle isn't interrupted, and you're not constantly walking around the island ... all your major players remain in the same positions ... but now you have a peninsula where you can have a couple bar stools for kids to sit while they read or help you chop vegetables. It gives you extra seating space when the kids have friends over. The peninsula is a perfect place from which to serve food. I should've drawn the peninsula a foot deeper than the rest of the cabinets, but that's easy to visualize. You do have three corners to deal with, but I think the improved function is worth that small headache. I'd consider a corner pantry; it'd be on the back side of the kitchen and wouldn't intersect your main work area.

I have a couple ideas that may or may not be food for thought for you.

We have two girls in a small bedroom. They have extra long twin bunks in a framed in alcove. Each bunk has a reading light, a tamper resistant electrical outlet, a book rail and will soon have a curtain. Our intent is that this will be their sleeping room until they're launched from the nest. By using extra long twins, adults can sleep comfortably (their latex mattresses are super comfy) so I highly recommend planning with xl twins.

We homeschool and we have another small room that houses the bookshelves, printer, office supplies and a desk, so I don't really think of bedrooms as needing desk space. Our house is only 1200 square feet so we don't have the space, but I love the idea of a family closet/dressing area off the laundry room and keeping clothes out of the girls' bedroom. Right now our girls share a small closet and dresser and dress in their bathroom. Our laundry closet is in the bathroom (sink and laundry closet are separated from toilet and shower by pocket door) so it's easy for them to put dirty clothes on the laundry sort shelf when they're in the bathroom changing, avoiding the need for hampers.

Anyway. I think four sisters sharing a bunk room is a great idea, but I'd look to making it an efficient, minimal space with a walk in closet/dressing near a full bath.

Thank you both for these ideas and thoughts. The living space is 17x15 then there is a smaller (sorry it looks bigger on my horrible drawing) room that is 15x11. The smaller room is for school. We homeschool and have a ton of books plus computer time that needs a quiet space. The dining area is supposed to be 12' wide. Ideally we would make it wider but I don't know where to take the space from. I love the idea of the dressing room connected to a bathroom but we also have a son that will need to use that bathroom. Right now we only have one bathroom and it's not fun but we manage. So this will seem like a dream. ;-) I plan to re-read ideas here and talk to the builder.

I personally prefer to have my laundry away from the bedrooms. I've had laundry in the basement, in the garage right off the kitchen, and currently in the kitchen (in a closet with bifold doors). I have never wished that the laundry was closer to the bedrooms, including when I was washing cloth diapers for my two children. We run alot of loads at night, after the kids are asleep, so having that noise by the bedroom would not work for us. Plus we hang a lot of things to dry and there is room for the drying rack in the kitchen- which would not be the case if we had a small laundry or a laundry closet by the bedrooms. It is not hard to bring a basket of clothes down the hall to our kitchen. But, that is just what works for us.

Plans by Marcy

I am thinking your want to split your bath, since girls like to primp and they tend to tie up the bathroom that others might need for other purposes.

Having said that, if it were me, I'd contemplate adding a sink, or possibly two directly in the girls bedroom, possibly backed up to the master bath & let them primp in their bedroom.

The main draw back to this layout is that you'd be doing laundry in the hall, thus I have shown the same drawing allowing the washer & dryer to be accessed in the bathroom.

Both of these layouts will save money, if coupled with adding sinks to the girls room, but may not offer the space you will need to accommodate large volumes of laundry. ... but they do offer options, which is what it appears you are looking for.

Best of luck with your new home.

Thank you. I figure they can do hair and make up in their room if needed but I don't know about putting an actual sink in there. I actually had that in a room of mine as a teen. It was okay but not fabulous. I have thought about a laundry closet. I do love the idea of saving space and money by sharing the wall but you're right, we need more space for all of it. I'm sure I could make a hall access work but I can also see baskets constantly sitting in front of it. LOL

This layout looks like a good use of space, and it's convenient both to the bedrooms and the public rooms. I'd take in the linen closet to serve as a part of the laundry room. You could do a tall, skinny laundry basket stacker next to the machines and have shelves above for soap and clean linens.

I figure they can do hair and make up in their room if
needed but I don't know about putting an actual sink in there.

The girls are already short on space, and now they're going to do hair and make up in their room too? I wouldn't put a sink in an already small room.

Let's look at it from a mathematical point of view:

- You and your spouse have 236 st of bedroom (118 sf each) and 25 linear feet of
closet; okay, I get that -- parents are paying for the house, and your
bedroom is also serving as an away space from the kids.

- Your son has 168 sf of bedroom and 11' linear feet of closet. That's a big, generous room for a child. Note that he has more space than the parents!

- Your daughters each have 56 sf of bedroom and about 3' linear feet in the shared closet . If I were one of the girls, I'd definitely feel slighted when I saw my brother with 3Xs more space allotted to him. What about moving the girls to the basement? They'd have loads of space to spread out in comfort.

Your daughters each have 56 sf of bedroom and about 3' linear feet in the shared closet . If I were one of the girls, I'd definitely feel slighted when I saw my brother with 3Xs more space allotted to him.

Plus the fact that four girls have to share one tiny bedroom and the boy gets his own.

When you consider that boys actually need less room than girls, you are really doing your girls a disservice.

Personally I would rethink it and divide those two bedrooms into three spaces with the boy's space the smallest. At least then 4 girls don't have to share. You can do that by giving up 2' in your bedroom. 17'9" is a big master. You can get a king bed, two nightstands, a dresser and a chair in a room that's 2' narrower.

What are the ages of the four girls? What happens when the older ones become teens? Are they still stuck sleeping with the babies? What happens when their sleep schedules are all not the same?

The girls are stuck with absolutely no place for alone time yet the boys are?

We are taking 2' from the master to make the bathroom bigger. We are considering taking another 1' or 2' off the master to save on sf in general but not sure if it would work. We are taking 2' off the boy bedroom to make the hall bathroom bigger. By adding that 4' to the hall bathroom we should have at least a 10'x10' space possibly a 10'x12' space if we widen the bedroom sections. We'll have to see how the budget looks for that. We are also taking another 2' off the front of the boy bedroom just to save money on sf to utilize elsewhere. Depending on budget the boy bedroom may either be 12'10" x 10'7" or 14'10" x 10'7". I don't want to make it any smaller because that would be bad for resale. My girls have always shared a room and don't think a thing of it. My boy has always had his own room because he is the only boy. That's just how it worked out. No one thinks a thing about it. It is what it is. Growing up I had my own room because I was the only girl. All the girls all share a room now. There are plenty of places for them to go for some alone time. I'm not at all worried about this set up.

I haven't checked the actual sizes of closets. I'm sure extra things will be stored in my son's closet that aren't his. That's what happened to me growing up because I didn't have to share with anyone. LOL The girls already share some clothes so I see no problem with them sharing a large closet. I don't want the girls to do hair and make up in their room. I was saying I didn't like the sink idea but that there could maybe be a mirror with a shelf or something if they want the option of using that space for that purpose. But I picture the bathroom as being the primary space for that. Heck, right now they do each other's hair in the middle of the living room. Because they can watch tv while getting their hair done. The basement will most likely be partial and used for hvac, some storage and storm shelter if needed.

How old are your girls right now?

I reread your thread because I was feeling like I missed some important info. I do think--especially if you're concerned about resale--cpartist's suggestion to create three kids rooms is worth reconsideration.

Below is part of our floor plan. It's not perfect; it's a renovation of a 1200 sf house. You'll see in bedroom two we framed in a bunk bed alcove for two extra long twins. The nook at the end of the bunk has Elfa closet organizer from Container store. I'm thinking of adding a ceiling mounted curtain on a track to create a private changing area in front of the closet nook.

We originally planned to put a barn door opening between bedroom 2 and 1 and give each girl her own room, but our girls didn't want separate rooms and we decided against it. However, two 11x11' bunk rooms with a barn door between might be an idea for your girls.

If you're looking for places to steal square footage, maybe you can shrink your master a bit more. I'm really happy with our bedroom size at approx. 13x12.5'. We have a king size bed and three drawer malm dressers as our night stands against the 13' wall. We don't have a chair or anything in there, just a TV across from the bed.

Since you have a bathtub in the master, I don't really think you need a tub in the kids bath. I certainly don't think you need a sink in the tub/toilet room; you've created some wasted square footage with those corners. Our bathroom/laundry shown below is working very well, but if we had more than two kiddos, I'd want at least a 6' vanity with two sinks.

Thank you. They are pretty fun kids, most of the time. ;-) Afa the sink in the bathroom, I think there should at least be a small pedestal sink in there. With girls they might need it at certain times of the month, iykwim. We could do a shower only in their bath I suppose. I'm trying to stay within the parameters of this plan. We are going with this mod company to move in sooner so I'm sort of stuck with the 15' mods and such. Of course there are better plans but those also cost more.

I always find concerns about room sharing very interesting.

I don't have any problem with kids sharing rooms -- I'm one of five, and I shared a room part of the time growing up (we switched around rooms occasionally). My comments are about the strong inequity between the rooms. Mom and Dad have a large bathroom and a massive closet, while all five kids are sharing one bathroom and the girls are sharing a medium-sized closet. The girls have no choice but to use bunk beds, while the boy has a room that can easily hold a king.

Personally, I think I'd handle it like this:

- Keep Mom & Dad's bedroom "as is"

- Give each two girls a moderate-sized room, probably 12x12ish -- these are blue and red.

- Reduce Mom & Dad's large bathroom and closet, which at this point are larger than the space allocated to the girls, and carve them into a laundry room (brown) and a small room for the only boy -- kind of a bunk room for him. (purple). Consider this room kind of a "flex room". Right now it can be his room, but it's connected to the master bath in such a way that in the future it can become a larger closet, once the kids are out on their own -- or it can become a sewing room, or a pocket office.

-The bathrooms are in yellow; Mom & Dad's is more of a plain bath instead of a large, luxury room with separate this and that. And the green spot is Mom & Dad's closet, accessed through the bathroom.

Mrs. Pete - I was talking about the general concerns about room sharing, more specifically teens needing their own rooms that I see peppered throughout building a home discussions.

I was not referencing inequality. Inequality is a reasonable observation.

I don't think the walk in closet in the girls room is the best use of space. I imagine it would be awkward getting clothing in and out for four girls. Here's the idea of eliminating the walk in and just putting freestanding, efficient Ikea Pax system in the girls room. You could put the laundry where the WIC is and change the girls' door orientation so it doesn't open to the foyer, unfortunately, it would then open to the master, though.

(eta) twin bunks on the exterior wall kind of like this (except closets would be on the right):

Client Home - Gull Lake, MI · More Info

Pax closets on the opposite wall like this that "The Ranch We Love" did last year:

Plans by Marcy

@ Tammie, Quick thought in response to your reply in regards to having your laundry facing the hall (referencing the drawing I posted earlier) ...

YOU >>>> "I do love the idea of saving space and money by sharing the wall but
you're right, we need more space for all of it. I'm sure I could make a
hall access work but I can also see baskets constantly sitting in front
of it. LOL"

I was looking at the marked up plan that you originally drew, and it seems to me, should you choose to put your laundry in the hall as shown, you could divide the closet in your son's room, so that part of that closet serves the hall instead, leaving your son with a smaller closet, while allowing for a more 'public' closet for everyone's use. Thus you'd have storage across the hall from the laundry, while leaving your linen closet in tact for blankets and towels and such.

You could also split the bath as I drew it to divide the sink from the tub/toilet area to allow for multiple use, similar to the way you had it drawn in your bathroom schematic. ... Ah! decisions, decisions ... but it is a lot cheaper to look at your options on paper than once you've begun construction.

Hadn't thought of utilizing the hall closet across from laundry that could work.

Interesting thought about the flex room with two larger bedrooms. I could see how that might still work for resale. I appreciate all the ideas.

Plans by Marcy

Tammie, another thought ... you'll have generous head room above with a 30'-0" width across your wing. You could cut a set of stairs in the girls bedroom, allowing access to an attic area above and finish off one section at a time as money allows by using attic room trusses, depending on your roof pitch. You can also 'stick build an attic, but I am showing a truss as an example. While the lower level bedroom would be lessened, you'd pick up more space over all. As your girls get older, it would give you room to expand, already under roof. The drawing I am attaching is from another project I was working on, but should give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

To determine height, using the following ratio and proportion equation: pitch*/12 = height/15. pitch* is the roof pitch you have in mind, and 15 is 1/2 your span (or wing width). This dimension will give you a ball park height, since the over-the-wall height (the heel height) of your framing member needs to be taken into account and varies with the material and pitch you employ.

I will ask how much prepping for a future attic would add. Thanks

You misunderstood. I don't have a problem with children sharing rooms. But I have a problem with four girls sharing a room that is so small and if there is a large discrepancy in age when those 4 girls share one room that is about the same size as the one boy's.

I agree with everything that mrspete suggested.

Plans by Marcy

@ Tammie, keep in mind you have to add a roof anyway, you may as well make use of the space. When you compare, compare roof trusses to stick built framing. You should be able to stick a 12' - 16' wide room upstairs to run the length of your wing if you use trusses. The room size will depend on you knee-wall heights. You'll probably want 5' high minimum knee walls, with a min 7' center ceiling height (preferably 8') ... Once you decide what you want, you can ask you local truss fabricator for a price. Tell them to include sleepers for insulation, and a minimum 2x10 Bottom chord through the room area of the floor if you don't intend to finish it right away. That will give you a more accurate quote and save having to prep the area later. You can always add a little plywood here and there and use the area for storage until you finish it.

Here's the idea of eliminating the walk in and just putting freestanding, efficient Ikea Pax system in the girls room.

That's a very good idea. Reach-in closets are more space-efficient than walk-ins.

That green and blue bunk room is really pretty, but note that it contains NOTHING but beds. In real life, kids need room for their stuff! This'd be great, say, for a guest room or a grandparent's house.

Tammie, another thought ... you'll have generous head room above with a
30'-0" width across your wing. You could cut a set of stairs in the
girls bedroom, allowing access to an attic area above and finish off
one section at a time as money allows by using attic room trusses,
depending on your roof pitch.

Moving the girls upstairs is a great idea. Even with space lost to the "edges" of the roof, they could have a very large space with plenty of closet space. Even though you're building this area anyway, it wouldn't be free, but it wouldn't cost as much as a first-floor room. By moving "up", you'd be able to give the girls a much larger, nicer space.

What about....

• Move the master closet to inside the MBR
• Have only a shower in the master bath
• Convert the current master closet to a closet/bath combo for the girls

Something akin to this

When I was planning our renovation, I wanted to make the most of our limited space and I was concerned about how our girls' rooms would grow with them. I searched google images for dorm room floor plans to get a sense of how universities' spaces are designed; that's how we ended up with the xl twin bunk alcove. Perhaps a similar search would be helpful to you, tammy.

I don't really understand how mods work, but I'm wondering... can you put two fifteens together, but create three small bedrooms within? Kind of like this? One boy, two girls, two girls: