Putting three or more children in one room may not sound ideal. Space configurations, not to mention decor choices for two genders and a variety of ages can't be easy. Take a look at different approaches to this problem featured on Apartment Therapy in the past:
Though it might not always be one's first choice, children who grow up together in this kind of intimate setting may create bonds they might not otherwise if each had their own room. There will be lots of late night giggling and raucous pillow fights. Such is the stuff childhood is made of.
Top Row:
1. Takeaway tip from Loft for Triplets, Home By Novogratz: Sometimes the best solution for small spaces is to spend your money on customizing it. Here, the loft bed and desk were built by a carpenter to maximize space for these triplets.
2. Takeaway Tip from A Small Space Triple Bunk Solution: Again, customization was key here. These staggered bunks were made just for this space and work like a charm.
3. Takeaway Tip from Simon, Levi and Josie's Shared Room: Although the configuration will have to change when Josie gets bigger, this family utilized the closet as a niche for the baby's crib by taking off the door
4. Takeaway Tip from Minimalist Bunk Beds for Four: If you're really short on space, go as minimal as possible with both furniture and decor. Many children's bedrooms are traditionally also a play area, but you may have to limit them to just sleeping.
5. Takeaway Tip from Linus, Miles, and Oliver's "Make Room for Three!" Room: Fitting three cribs in one room is a challenge. Here, they were placed length-wise next to the wall to leave more room in the center of the room. This same strategy could be used for toddler or twin-sized beds.
Middle Row:
6. Takeaway Tip from My Room: Sophia, Ava and Olivia: This mom not only tied the room together with bedding - she saved money by buying one quilt and cutting it into pieces for the bedding.
7. Takeaway Tip from Three Little Boys, One Room: Here, each brother has a magnetic board near his bed to decorate and use as he wishes. A small gesture toward giving them each a tiny part of the room for himself.
8. Takeaway Tip from A Definitely, Indisputably, Not-Girly Shared Room: Use your vertical space. Here, two boys bunked up to save space and shelves and artwork were hung high to maximize the space.
9. Takeaway Tip from A Bedroom Built for Four: "Start organized and stay organized." That's a direct quote from the mom of the four kids who occupy this room. Her best strategies are to limit kids' belongings and to invest in smart storage - even if it's bigger than you'd like. She even brought in a large dresser to replace smaller bins because using up the space was less important than keeping the room uncluttered.
10. Takeaway Tip from A Trio of Hanging Beds: There are three main tips here: go vertical, build a custom solution and keep the belongings and decor to a minimum.
Bottom Row:
11. Takeaway Tip from A Charming Bedroom for Four: Uniformity creates a cohesive look. With a few subtle differences, each child's belongings (bed, bedding, chair, hamper, etc.) are the same.
12. Takeaway Tip from Bunk Beds for Four: Another Take: This isn't a particularly small room, but it still needs to house four kids. They smartly made the bunks into a wall of built-ins and included underbed storage. The nautical nets both play into a subtle theme for the room and add a safety component for the high bunks.
13. Takeaway Tip from Meg's Room For Three: A showpiece. Not only did Meg make some practical decisions about storage and organization in this space, the memorable cloud bed and rotating gallery wall immediately draw your eye in and distract from the smallness of the room.
(Image credited in original posts)
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Anyone with enough money to do some of these treatments probably can afford a large house,so I am guessing that these are people's vacation/second homes.
I completely disagree with the pp. We can afford a bigger house, but what we can't afford is to sell the one we already have, so we make do. I'm having my 3rd little girl in a few short months and all 3 will be sharing a room. This post came at the perfect time!
I agree with PHILIBERT4.
that's shortsighted. the first image is from an nyc apartment. a 2BR costs quite a lot here. maybe they can afford to buy a house in another community, but they can't just upgrade to a 3 or 4BR. their kids are triplets: two girls and a boy and that room is about as big as what you see there. tiny. eventually they'll have to move out of manhattan or put the boy on a pullout sofa in the livingroom. but moving to a new house is not a universally simple process.
or maybe some people do not think of homes as disposable. Just because they can afford to move does not mean they want to. Maybe the house was the house they grew up in and they want to raise their family there also. My home is my home for more reasons than just because it happens to be where I currently live. If more people thought this way we would not be in the Mortage crisis we are currently in, we would not have such urban sprawl issues in our communities. Bigger is not always the answer.
Just because you can afford custom furniture (a one-time expense) doesn't mean you can afford the higher mortgage payment associated with a larger house (NOT a one-time expense). It's ridiculous to suggest that just because someone could afford something more expensive, this means they must have an extra $40,000 to spend on a larger home.
Agreed, Pi. Also, the idea of a separate room for each child is a very new, very American concept. These homeowners may believe like I do that there are many benefits to sharing a room. There is less cost, more lessons on sharing, and an environment that encourages the use of family spaces over private.
Philibert4 -- You obviously have not read the original posts about these rooms. Most (if not all) of them are the primary residence.
A little custom work doesn't cost the earth, and larger homes are often unreachable. What's wrong with spending a little money on custom design to make your space work?
@PHILIBERT4, you're forgetting the cardinal rule of real estate: location, location, location. A family might be able to buy a large home in the suburbs for the same cost of owning a 2-bedroom condo in the city.
If you look at the posts, you'll see that there are a wide variety of reasons why multiple kids are sharing a room in them: some are in a city and space is at a premium. One mentions that the poster's grandpa grew up in the room so it's clearly a family home that they don't want to leave. One room is housing triplets. One says they simply like the togetherness of being able to sing all their kids to sleep at the same time.
This is great! My mom grew up in a 3 bedroom farmhouse with 8 siblings plus a few foster kids at any given point. The two girls shared a double bed in the tiny bedroom and the boys were in barracks style 3-stack bunk beds that my grandpa built. I'll show this to my husband as proof you can keep more than 2 kids in the same room!
We have our kids (just 2 of them) share a room because we like our smaller house, and they are very happy with their shared room. Both myself and my partner always shared rooms growing up, so the idea that our kids would share a room seemed normal to us. Bigger isn't necessarily better, and creative use of space doesn't have to be very expensive.
My three kids share one room. The key is to edit belongings and only have essentials. They love it and it's so easy to put them to bed all at once. My kids are 6, 4 and 2. They love sharing a room. They're a team.
When we first bought our home we didn't have any kids.
Wonderful post! We are in NYC where 3br apartments are rare and often quite a bit more expensive (think 100-200k more to buy or 500-1000 more per month to rent vs. a large 2br). We have a boy and a girl and would love a 3rd at some point. We like our apartment other than the lack of a 3rd bedroom - it's a very large 2br by NYC standards. If we can find a nice 3br that we like & can afford we will move, otherwise we will be looking for solutions for sharing. Since these are one time costs it's not a big deal - less than movers + a brokers fee.
Now show me the same rooms without getting ready, the way they look when actually being LIVED in!!! (Lovely rooms, but preternaturally tidy!)
Ah @Sherrybinnh you took the words right out of my mouth! These places are adorable, but would look absolutely frightening if real children were allowed in them for more than 30 seconds. Lose the gazillion pillows, forget the thousands of layers of blankets. Duvet, pillow, teddy/binky, done.
Practical question for those with bunk beds: how tall do your ceilings have to be? These rooms all look pretty tall, but it's hard to tell. I have a dream of future bunk beds, but we have eight foot ceilings and I want both kids to be able to sit up comfortably with a little headroom. Is there a rule of thumb for how much vertical space is good for a non-claustrophobic bunk bed?
@SherrybinNH and @Alhal You mean these parents actually make their kids pick up their rooms? The horrors! Of course they are going to have the rooms cleaned before photographing them, just the same as you probably clean your home before having company over. I am sure there are plenty of times when the beds are unmade and toys are all over the place, but that isn't what this post is about.
@Philibert4 Even if these are vacation/second homes, aren't they all still great examples of cool design in small spaces, which is what the article is about?
That said...in my case (Three Little Boys, One Little Room), it is our primary (and only!) residence. The beds, curtains, pictures frames, rugs, and underbed storage boxes are all from good ol' IKEA. The airplane bedding is second hand. The walls (and an old bookshelf from college) were painted by me, and the bunting is a 4 yr. old leftover from the baby nursery. I did "splurge" on the round magnet boards and monogram letters, but still think it all qualifies as decent design on a dime.
@Sundaydrive00 well put.
When I was young, the thought of having to share a room with someone else was totally horrifying to me and I thought it was SO weird and unfortunate when I met other kids who had to share rooms. Then awhile after I left the nest, when I thought about all the time I spent holed up in my room as a teenager ignoring the outside world, I realized that sharing a room actually seems like a much more reasonable way to raise kids. I still think having boy/girl sharing a room (especially a smaller room) into teenagedom would be something I would try to avoid, but these rooms are all great. Even if they COULD afford a bigger house (which, as others have said, is a silly assumption to make), good on them for emphasizing the communal family structure over having your own isolated little world.
Ha ha ha ha hahahahahhah! Second home! I'm crying laughing here. (I have the triplets' nursery featured here.)
We have two 13 year old boys share a well tiny room. We have bunk beds now. Very similar to the one in picture 8. We have one big problem. The squeaking! Especially from the top bed. We now have to let one of the boys sleep on the ground (on a mattress of course!). Anybody have any ideas on how to solve this problem? Maybe some bunk beds are better than others? Maybe the Ikea ones?
I had three girls share and now I have four girls in one room! these ideas are great. currently I just have two sets of bunks. When the baby was still in the crib My other 3 girls chose to push two singles together and all three share the new 'double' bed. It was winter at the time and thought it a great idea to keep eachother warm. It wasnt a long term solution but for 8 months or so they loved it. There are many reasons why people have kids share (we rent out our third room to international students to help cover expensive city rent, location - smaller house but near work/city, unexpected pregnancy - happened to us) we too like that they actually dont mind being together. There are complaints but not too often. I think its good for them and hope to have a little larger house when they are teens - probably two to a room ( ours are 11, 9,6,3 years old) - though I pretty much squealed and called my husband over at 'charming room for four' we have always wanted a long skinny room so we could do that for our girls. That room was pretty much exactly how my husband planned out a room if we could build a house! A girls dorm room! lol
I love the ideas:) My kids share the same small room...in our small house not quite 900sq ft:) My 20 year old just moved out so now my other daughters think they have lots of space:)
@Edensoasis we have three girls in a twin above a full bunk that we got from craigslist. The 6 yr old sleeps on top and the 4 yr old twins share the full. It is not creaky at all besides the minimal noise from the mattress covers!
I had to share a room with my two sisters. It reminds me of the saying that too many rodents in a cage will resort to cannibalism.
We have 4 children and can not afford to either buy our own place or rent a bigger place. We have some very creative furniture that really maximizes our space including a bunk bed that has two additional beds that pull out from under it for a total of four beds (in the floor space that would usually have one bed) and another bunk bed that incorporates a third bed and a closet. Since we had to buy something for the kids to sleep on anyway, it was definitely worth the extra money one time to have a nice liveable space instead of trying to come up with the extra money each month for renting a larger place. In fact, this week we moved to a smaller cheaper apartment and the furniture made all the difference.
Complete agreement with Philibert4 and the rest......if you can afford this kind of stuff, you could afford another home or this is just the vacation house. If it honestly is the only house, the people had plenty of money to get a home the right size for their family since more than two kids to a room is harsh and I never plan to have more kids than I have space to give them their own room.
As someone who frequently rolled off the bed as a child, the hanging beds in number 10 make me nervous. Falling in the middle of the night from that height would certainly be very unpleasant.
I don't understand all the comments about how expensive these options are. We've all shopped on craigslist, yes? And certainly others of us have experienced a DIY project or two? The point of the post is that there are ways to use DESIGN to solve problems that otherwise would only be addressed with MONEY or SPACE. That's the whole point of AT, right? Using design to work within our lives and within our means? People have children in a whole host of constellations for a whole host of reasons. What if you knew that these were step families? What if they are foster homes? What if they are surprise (natural) triplets? Would that change your judgement of the parents/homeowners/renters featured? If so, I suggest withholding judgement altogether.
This goes doubly for those of us who have no children of our own.
All these rooms are beautiful, and I would have loved growing up in any one of them! Sharing is fun.
Wow. I can't believe how many negative comments are a part of this post.
It doesn't make any sense because these rooms are all amazing and creative.
They should be celebrated.
I am the mom of the room featured in room #9.
Yes, we have 3 (soon our 4th will be in there) kids in 1 room.
No, we don't have another home.
We live in Southern California and a modest sized home (ours is 1200 square feet) that is a suburb of Long Beach and LA is expensive.
Especially if you choose to be a single income family as we do.
We are slowly fixing our house up and making it work as best as we can for our family of 6.
We have an IKEA dresser in their room.
We have posters and hand made art gracing the walls.
We are happy to have our kids share a room because it is teaching them a lot about being better people.
The kind of people who don't think the world revolves around them, have good people skills and know how to be problem solvers.
They don't have tons of toys because there isn't room, but more importantly because they don't need them.
I work hard to help my kids keep their room clean, but they do live and play in it.
If you read the post, you'd see my son spread out on the floor with Legos.
Just because you have a lot of kids doesn't mean they destroy everything and the home is a constant disaster.
It just means there might be a huge pile of laundry to fold sitting on the couch (like there is on mine right now) and that you'll have to be extra diligent about putting things away.
All of this negativity should stop.
Instead, be inspired by people who chose to make the most of what they have rather than giving up.
Those are the kind of people who change the world!
Greta Eskridge
we live in chicago and our 2 1/2 daughter has the "big room" (which is about the size of a queen bed,dresser&a chair,if placed right) we have the small room(queen bed&dresser) we have 1 closet(for us all to share) in our 2 bedroom apartment.were going to have to get rid of our dresser in our room to make way for the new baby(not too sure how thats gonna work out yet).. but in a year or so the new baby is gonna share a room with our daughter,not too sure how were gonna fit 2kids in 1 room with all their stuff (dresser,beds,toys,etc) plus we dont have alot of money to make extravagant fixtures like the ones in the photos..their all nice but semi impractical for lower-mid class families!
GretaGirl - You say you have 1200 sq feet in a modest apartment - this should be around three bedrooms. So why not split the kids up? People need at least some personal space. How would you feel sharing your room with your husband with two other people full time?
There are some great images here. I have a 4 bedroom house, all decent sized bedrooms but had never really considered that my kids would share a bedroom in the future but I love the look of the built in bunk beds. I really enjoyed sharing a room growing up so why not do it. It's a great way to encourage sharing and tolerance and creates a special closeness between siblings too. I don't think it's a coincident that my best friend is the sister I shared with, despite our 7 year age gap! I also loved the girls dorm style room for 4!
Love, love, love these ideas. We've got 3 kids, soon to be four, and are looking to rearrange our current set-up in time for the newest. What we'll probably be doing is bunk beds with a trundle for the oldest 3; having only the footprint of a single bed is a tremendous space-saver!
@ Greenwoodgal, I had to giggle at your comment. We're a family of 5 living in a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago. We currently have a family bedroom (by choice), so my husband & I DO share a room with 3 other little people full time, and we all love it.