How far are your kids bedrooms from the main bedroom?

HouseOB · Jan 06, 2013 11:37 am

Hi all,

In one of our designs we have the master bedroom at one end of the house, up a hallway that is around 12m from the start of the stairs, then the stairs go up to 3 kids bedrooms on the second floor.

The front entrance is halfway between the master bedroom and the stairs on the ground floor.

It's kind of good since they are so far away and wont be disturbed when we get up during the night, but it would make it difficult to hear them (nothing a video monitor wouldn't solve) and getting to them a little slower.

Traditional design is usually that the master bedroom is next to the front entrance, I guess so you are closest to any intruders - but a lot of new building designs I am seeing don't follow this practice.

Is it strange to have kids so far away?

kek · Jan 06, 2013 1:25 pm

I think that ideal placement of bedrooms really depends on the age of your kids, or whether any of them have special needs.

Our kids are at the opposite end of the house to our bedroom, we have a retreat and a lock on the door. Can you tell mine are in their teens and twenties?

If you have young children who are likely to need attention during the night, I think it makes more sense to have them reasonably close to you - although as they grow up, it might not suit. I've seen some 2-storey home designs with basically two master suites - one upstairs and one downstairs. That could work really well - while the kids are little, the parents use the upstairs room and when they get to their teens, parents move downstairs.

The extra room could be used in a number of ways - as a guest room, as an office or study or some other use, depending on needs.

Building in the G · Jan 06, 2013 3:28 pm

If you have young children I would definitely have their bedrooms closer to the main bedroom, especially if you need to tend to them during the night. I would try and have them on the same floor as you as well. We have been living at my mum's while we build and our bedrooms are upstairs while the main living areas are downstairs. I found it a bit of a pain at first (son was 18 months when we moved in) as I was constantly up and down the stairs to change him, dress him, etc. Now he is quite quick on the stairs so it's not such a hassle getting him up and down.

selina2106 · Jan 06, 2013 5:48 pm

I think it depends how long you want to be in your house. If its only a couple of years then maybe having them close will suit you. We have 3 young kids and our room is at the opposite end of the house. We want to be here for a long time and wanted our room as far away as possible for when they're teenagers! We don't have any issues with them being so far away, we still sometimes wake up with an extra child in the bed

PaulMac · Jan 06, 2013 5:54 pm

How far are your kids bedrooms from the main bedroom?

Not far enough!!!

HouseOB · Jan 06, 2013 8:18 pm

Is the main reason for wanting to be far away from the kids so that the kids don't hear the parents... er... wrestle?

Or is it so the parents don't hear the kids fight?

selina2106 · Jan 06, 2013 8:22 pm

HouseOB

Is the main reason for wanting to be far away from the kids so that the kids don't hear the parents... er... wrestle?

Or is it so the parents don't hear the kids fight?

Haha... both??

Pellana · Jan 06, 2013 9:26 pm

In our house once it is finished the kids bedrooms will be at the top of the house and the master is at the bottom. Given the house is 3 storey we will be a long long way away from them with 2 different flights of stairs to contend with.

However given our kids are only little (under 5) we have also designed our house so on the same level as them is a guest room with ensuite that we will be residing in until the youngest is a little older.

Our master bedroom is also part of the pre-existing house that we didn't knockdown so we aren't planning to renovate that until we are ready to move into it, plus we have to save our money to be able to afford the reno. But we are replacing the roof and windows in that part of the house so the reno will just be paint, new bathroom etc.

bbuilder2012 · Jan 06, 2013 11:02 pm

We had the same dilemma, we have two young(ish) boys and weren't sure what plan would best suit our needs. It came down to how long we were planning to live in the house.... as it was a long time - us downstairs and kids upstairs was the best option.

We also lived in single level house where we were at the front and the kids were at the back - didn't worry us in the slightest! When the kids were babies we had them in our room which meant no walking at all!

I also liked being at the front of the house as I felt the kids would be more vulnerable if they were at the front. Which turned out to be the right choice as we had two people try to break and enter through the front door when we were fast asleep! I would never have heard them if i had been at the back and god knows what would have happened if they had gotten in!

Good luck with your decision!

kek · Jan 07, 2013 8:58 am

HouseOB

Is the main reason for wanting to be far away from the kids so that the kids don't hear the parents... er... wrestle?

Or is it so the parents don't hear the kids fight?

Also so that we don't have to hear the death metal/dance mix crap music they play. Or be within earshot when they bring a lady home... :roll:

We go to bed early; they stay up late. We get up early; they get up late. Nobody disturbs anybody. We planned it this way, because our boys are apparently never leaving home.

Privacy on both sides is a good thing.

HouseOB · Jan 07, 2013 9:12 am

Yeah fair enough, although I doubt my kids will want to live here forever, not with the exponential increase in the board they have to pay each year

KnockItDown · Jan 14, 2013 10:59 am

We have been in our house (EB Memphis 28) for 3 years xmas just gone, and our twins have just turned 5. Master Bedroom at the front and kids bedrooms at the rear. It took my guys 1 night to learn the layout of the house.

AKB · Jan 14, 2013 12:13 pm

In our new build we are building a guest room next to our master - we imagine our son will want to be next to us for a little while (9 year old boy) although that may change we imagine he will them move back to his existing bedroom which is approx a 25m walk away

HouseOB · Jan 14, 2013 12:23 pm

Yeah with our current design we are looking at, 3 bedrooms upstairs far away from master bedroom, but we actually have a small bedroom next to the master, and a bath nearby. Eventually we will turn that room into a WIR but it could be used for years until then.

astark · Jan 14, 2013 12:31 pm

Separate Quarters

kylie40 · Jan 20, 2013 6:27 pm

As said, it depends on the age of the kids, which makes it difficult since that changes!
Shopping for a house 10 years ago when I had a baby, I wouldn't buy a 2-storey house because I would have been running upstairs 50 times a day to get him up, change him, put him bed, resettle, resettle, resettle, check him, rinse & repeat...
With the baby & toddler stage over, my new house will be 2 storey but I still wouldn't want the kids bedrooms very far from ours. Our current house is single level but with the kids' rooms at the far end, so my daughter's room is 16-20m from ours. At 8 yrs old she can still need us suddenly in the middle of the night (nightmare, vomiting, too cold...) and I find this distance a pain. It is difficult to hear her, especially when we're sleeping. We've gone through several monitors which all stopped working or gave too much background noise. And although it's not really far to walk in the daytime, when you've been woken in the middle of the night, it seems like a long way!

Deemaree · Jan 20, 2013 7:13 pm

We have ALWAYS had kids' rooms away from us-mind you, we have only ever built single stories because we lived in a 2 story at one point whilst building and it drove me nuts having to go upstairs to clean! :roll:

kek · Jan 21, 2013 6:24 am

Deemaree

We have ALWAYS had kids' rooms away from us-mind you, we have only ever built single stories because we lived in a 2 story at one point whilst building and it drove me nuts having to go upstairs to clean! :roll:

Us too, Dee...even though our old place was small, we were at the front and the kids were at the back. When our first baby was born, I worried I wouldn't hear him :roll:

so put his cradle in our room. That lasted one night before he got moved to the adjoining lounge room. :shock:

That lasted less than a week before I shoved him back in his own room. :lol:

kyton · Jan 21, 2013 3:28 pm

Our bedrooms are all up one end. Our house is approx 30m wide so all living areas are down one end and sleeping up the other. Although our kids are all under 7, I can't see why it matters about separating when they get older. Both my and DH's childhood homes had the same setup and he was at home until 30yo and I was 26yo.

Deemaree · Jan 21, 2013 3:40 pm

Maybe your parents were quiet? ::stop::