Fitting families into smaller spaces

Two people can live as cheaply, and in as little space, as one. One bedroom for two people just makes sense for us.

Families, however,  need private space for their children — and space is at a premium whether you live in a condo or a small house.

When I was a child, lo these many years ago now, my sister and I shared a room for many years with bunk beds.  Eventually we had our own rooms, small spaces but completely our own with our own closets, dressers, desks and beds. But putting two children into one room is possible — and many people are doing it with style.

Apartment Therapy has some great ideas for when two children have to share one room:

Some people like to give the children identical spaces.

This room is for two sisters.  In another space (below) shelves hold the personal belongings of each child, even though the spaces look identical.

Good use of vertical spaces.

Sometimes the different spaces are indicated by colour or pattern:

And sometimes a single room can be divided by shelves or wardrobes (I did this when my kids were small and sharing a bedroom):

And you can even put up a physical barrier in the room to split it.  If the kids get along well, a curtain will be fine.

But sometimes an actual barrier will serve the purpose better (I think my sister and I would have needed something like this):

This is a good idea if one person is a neatnik and the other not so much.

Even if you can have one bedroom per child, a small space means the play area and the sleeping area can overlap.  From this Houzz Tour we see how this family fits four bedrooms into 1500 square feet.  The kids’ rooms are very small, but have beds that fold up into the wall to create more floor space for play: