Sleeping coves betters than medium sized bedrooms?
I redesign old homes and rent them out. I found hallways are your worse enemies in use of space. It was not until this last year that I noticed hallways in my rentals that I didn’t mean to make.
Lets take a bed of roughly five foot by seven foot for example. If I put this bed in the middle of the room with the headboard on a wall and put three feet around the bed I get a 11 foot by 10 foot bedroom. A typical bedroom size plus or minus. In this typical bedroom I have a roughly five foot by two foot closet.
Current Rental / Bedroom / Square Footage
Bedroom / 110
Bed / 35
Hallway in Bedroom / 65
Closet / 10
Total / 120
Proposed Rental / Sleeping Cove / Square Footage
Bedroom / 70
Bed / 35
Hallway in Bedroom / 35
Closet / 49
Total / 119
I put a walk-in closet of seven by seven foot. Ups the linear hanging max from 10 foot to a max of 38 foot for each bedroom. I still have 35 square foot of hallway in the bedroom but legally I can not count it a bedroom at a lower number. The hallway area is neccesary for the tall window egress, door and closet door in any case.
For those looking at bedroom designs consider a Sleeping Cove instead of a medium sized bedroom. Four times more usable space is considerable. Most of these medium rooms are for children. The current hallways around their beds might be a reason why so many children play with toys outside of their bedrooms. It also explains why children’s room are usually a mess. Their toys are in the medium sized bedroom hallways.
The Sleeping Cove addresses the ability for children to organize their toys using the same square footage. Teanagers for clothes and shoes. Beyond this people sleep better in smaller rooms. For example who would want to sleep in a basketball court?
As far as Sleeping Coves replacing master bedrooms I’m personally in favor of. I believe more space should be allocated to the living/kitchen rooms. Most of my rentals are old houses so making all bedrooms sleeping coves works out better with the older designs. For those counting square footage I can fit three Sleeping Coves with walk in closets each at around 360 square foot. Lets say I put two bathrooms and a huge kitchen/living room at around a thousand square foot. I’m roughly half or less the sqaure footage of the mcmansions and still have more usable space. Means the rentals cost less in utilities as well more useful to the tenant.
PS. I know its more of statement than a question. Could not find the way to post on the guest blog area.
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Replies
It's an interesting idea, but one that perhaps precludes a lot of people from using the bedroom or using the room for other purposes.. As soon as you don't have access to both sides, people with any mobility problems can have difficulties both using and maintaining the bed. Why not get the same benefits for children by simply moving their single bed up against one wall? It's a good idea to design second and third bedrooms as a bit more generic spaces so that they can be re-purposed as the number of occupants changes over time.
S.E.,
Changing the sheets on a bed built in an alcove is a real pain. And if you like to sleep with your partner, it's nice to be able to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom without crawling over your bed mate.
True on the bedmate thing. Good reasoning. The master bedroom would need to be a large bedroom with kids bedrooms as coves. The raised beds in the coves could offer more room during the day as with any room.
The main reason for such a Sleeping Cove is to organize space to be useful. Hallways being the worse use of space alongside stairs. Followed by dining rooms and then medium sized bedrooms. A bedroom that is large can have more uses but at 11x10 a bedroom might as well be small given the waste of space. This is general thoughts because design is specific to the house as a whole.
In rough drawing of a design including this principle.
The question of corridors is one I've been struggling with in designing a home for retirement. I've reached the conclusion that corridors exist, and have to exist, whether or not they have walls. They're the routes that are used to get from place to place. Given any specific number of places that we want to be in a house then there will be a number of 'corridors' to get us there. If they are defined by walls then you can use those for hanging things or, if they're a bit deeper, storage. A completely open-plan layout can have more lost space because there may be more than one route (equally attractive) between two destinations.
Stairs and hallways? Make them 1 or 2 feet wider than usual, and line them with bookshelves.
Display areas in stairways would work. Lot of the older remodels have 45 degree on the stairs which makes things interesting. Especially with nine foot ceilings. Going wider would be nice. I do that on outside porches. Allows for extra seating. Played with idea of shelving on the tall wall of staircases for displays. Limitely I could but I worry about tenants getting on ladders.
As far as lost space in open areas. I consider those areas as flexible. Need a large dining table for the holidays; you can set that up. Watch the fire in the EPA wood stove on blanket. There is enough space to arrange that. Its not possible in all designs at all. A struggle for sure.
The main thing is get rid of McMansions. Having 2000 square feet of floor space is hard to justify outside of luxury. Financially the 30 year and even 40 year loans allowing these to be built is insane. The banks get richer and people poorer. Energy being more expensive over time. People having careers lasting a few years at a time. Creating a stable home is not McMansions for the average family.
I know you included the floor plan as an illustration of how sleeping coves might work, but in your quest to eliminate corridors the plan may well have ended up showing why they are usually used. One of the main functions of space planning is to divide houses into public, semi-private and private spaces. The architecture comes in in how they relate to each other. The plan has all the bedrooms, which are private spaces, opening onto the large public living area, without the buffer that a hall would provide. The occupants also have to cross the public space to get to the washroom. So children would have to wander through their parent's dinner parties in their pyjamas. No one is afforded any privacy in their movements, even though the house is quite large.
Minimizing circulation can be done, but what's involved is a bit more complicated than just eliminating corridors.
My thoughts about privacy are similar to Malcolm's.
Now if you really want to save space ... forget about private rooms altogether
And there is also the Pullman Concept
I love single story home designs. The privacy issue would be easily solved by moving sleeping areas to a second floor. An easy fix. Personally I see no privacy concerns at all at a one story place. To each his own. I personally like having a walkin closet and private porch for each room.
Getting rid of Sleeping Coves and not having any bedrooms does not make sense. Sort of a smart allack response from a person who believes in the fallacy of McMansions.
As far as the children interupting dinner parties with hallways. That really work? I have yet to see that. I understand the socialogy behind that reasoning though. More theory than practiced. It comes down to actual lifestyle verses desired lifestyle. Also a nudist has much different views or privacy from a nun like person. Both are correct, but unique to them.
In the example plan, I gave parents privacy to their own restroom. I put their privacy above those of the rest of the family. A value judgement but in line with current trends as well. I would changed the Master bedroom to be a large bedroom because of climbing over issue that was pointed out ealier.
I'm pretty happy with the "bed coves" I designed for our renovation.
My husband and I have been living in a trailer with a wall-to-wall bed (about 7'8") for a few years, so I knew it would work for us. I like the security of walls beside the bed. I always loved those Scandinavian bed-closets. Because our feet point into the room, either of us can get out without climbing over the other. Changing sheets is a little more athletic, but that's not a bad thing until it is.
Whoops, meant to include this.
Reanna,
It looks like the bedroom doors are hinged on the wrong side of the door.
So first something like 70 square feet is a minimum for a bedroom, so you do not have bedrooms if that is ok
Second, while resale value is not the be all and end all, it is something a bank lends on, so if you are not paying cash for a house, this is a problem.
Third, adults sleep in bedrooms, kids live in them. As someone who grew up in a 9'6"x 9'6" bedroom I can tell you that that is not a whole lot of fun. I consider the minimum for a bedroom you expect a child to be able to function in is ~140 Sq ft[12x12] After a bed, bureau and maybe a chair and desk, you have enough space to setup your hot wheels, train set or what have you. I swear architects must all be only children or had that piece of their brain removed...............
Now, a guest room is another story. Nothing says 'go home' like a tiny bedroom
Keith,
I'm an architect and...
1. We are supposed to keep it secret but yes, we do have part of our brain removed during schooling.
2. I can't understand most of the floor plans or details posters put up on GBA.