Tag Archives: downstairs bedroom

Upstairs, Downstairs: The Bedroom Debate

Fair warning, this post is exclusively about the two least decorated, completely un-styled rooms in my house.  If you’re not a big before + inspiration post person, feel free to skip this one.  But if you relish in blogger’s shame, read on as I lay mine bare before you:

As I’ve mentioned before, this house is full of pint-sized rooms and quirky angles.  I love it for that, but I wouldn’t be furious if there was also a closet big enough to contain the clothing of two adults.  As it is now, our bedroom is a bitty little thing on the second floor.  The room is bright and spare and right across the hall from Opal’s room, but there isn’t enough closet space for both my clothes and Chester’s and there’s no space to expand the current closet or add another one.  As a stopgap solution Chester keeps his clothes in the guest bedroom, which is less than ideal.  When we have guests staying with us Chester has to keep piles of his clothes on the floor in our room, which pleases no one, and if and when we have a second kid something will obviously have to change.

Luckily we have two possible options to remedy the situation, and I go back and forth about which is better.

OPTION 1:  We could make some changes to the room that is currently the guest room and claim it as our bedroom.  The room is small, but bigger than our current bedroom, and it has decent closet potential.

Red House West

Red House West

Red House West

Standing at the foot of the bed looking right.

On the opposite side of the room there’s a long eave where the closet currently is, and we could make it into a more substantial closet that could work for both of us.

I think we could build something similar to this:

Here are the pros as I see them:

1. I have a general preference for upstairs bedrooms.

2. I love the angles and tucked in nooks in this room, and I think that with a fresh coat of paint (wood paneling, I’m looking at you) and an overall freshening up it could be really sweet.

3. Under the carpet is finished fir (except in one small area that would need to be patched).  I know many people like carpet in bedrooms, but I’m a fan of hardwood with a rug.

Here’s a honey of a bedroom that makes me think the upstairs room is the right choice:

OPTION 2:  The room that we currently use as our playroom/craft room/office could become our bedroom.  Except for the living room, this is the largest room in the house.

I am judging myself so that you don't have to.

I am judging myself so you don’t have to.

This room already has a decent closet, and there’s space between the walls where the closet could be expanded to a walk-in or a second closet could be added.

The sad truth about this room is that we really don’t use it very much.  Chester ends up working on his laptop in the breakfast nook, and I typically work at the desk in the upstairs guest room (see the second picture in this post if you want to know where the RHW magic happens!).  It’s a great room, but without a well-defined purpose or any sort of design, it ends up being a dumping ground.

The pros of converting this room into our bedroom are:

1.  It’s the only room where we could fit a king bed.  Chester and I are both all shoulders, so a king bed is VERY appealing.

2.  This room has a nice view out into the backyard, which is lush and beautiful thanks to years of tender care by my mother-in-law and in spite of several years of utter neglect by me.

3.  Right now while Opal is still little it’s nice to be close to her, but as she gets older some distance might be welcome.

4.  There is one bathroom upstairs, and one downstairs.  If we stay upstairs we will be sharing with Opal, hypothetical future human, and any guests we may have.  If we’re downstairs we would pretty much be the only ones using this bathroom.  It wouldn’t be like having a “master bath” where you can leave your unmentionables strewn about, but it would probably be an improvement over sharing with a teenager(s).

5. If we go with the downstairs option and turn the upstairs bedroom into the office it will require very few changes to either room.  If we choose the upstairs option we have to devote that whole eave to becoming a closet, which means that if we decide later that we’d rather use that room as an office we will have put a lot of time and effort into building a closet that we no longer want or need.

Here are a few generously sized bedrooms that make me lean toward the downstairs option:

Image Source (via Bohemian Vintage)

Image Source (via Bohemian Vintage)

a70abe518b485d3d853ab272c590a141

From Elle Decor U.K. and found here.

Red House West

From Domino.

So dear readers, I put the question to you:  Which should we choose?

Thanks for reading, and for casting your vote!  Katie’s back on Wednesday with a post from her red house.  Have a great week everyone!