I don’t have a huge bedroom, but I do all my ironing in there so I can hang up the clothes in the bedroom closet when I’m done, so I need a bedroom big enough to set up an ironing board plus laundry basket plus enough room to walk back and forth without tripping, plus the dogs sleep in their beds at the foot of our bed. So we need a bedroom big enough for that. We don’t have a chair or anything in there, but we do each have our own dresser and nightstand.
I don’t want a huge kitchen because it gives people the idea they can come in there and hang around and stand behind me when I’m chopping things and taking things out of the oven and stirring things on the stove. Do not stand behind me.
My BIL wants a master suite, basically a bedroom and mini living room and bathroom, perhaps a wet bar, I’m not sure. I would say would be to have intimate adult time, but not necessarily sexual. To have a place where it would less kiddie playroom, where they can watch a movie together on a couch after the kids have gone to bed and not have to see the PlayStation and other toys, and not worry about the kids walking in on them if they can’t sleep, at least the kids would have to knock.
Thank you. This is what I wanted t say but at 2am it just wasn’t coming out right. You said it much better.
I appreciate all the answers. I like finding out why people do the things they do, partly because it helps me to understand me.
As I’m reading your responses, I can’t help but think that I feel the way I do because of foster care. Out of all 9 of my homes, only the last one allowed you to hang out in your room. I was living with a bunch of people I didn’t know and was only allowed in my bedroom to sleep. Before that, I shared a room with my 2 big (abusive) sisters. Going to my bedroom to get away was NOT an option.
I had a master suite once for a couple years. It was pretty cool–toilet closet, Shower stall, monstrous soaking tub witha view of the Rockies (mountains, not baseball team), double sinks, walk-in closet and about 25 x 15 feet of actual bedroom floor. As I said, it was pretty cool. Except my wife at the time was a total slob. Every day it looked like a bomb had gone off in there. I’m far more happy sharing a 12x10 crackerbox with a really hot, responsible adult. But I miss the tub.
Why would YOU want a gun cabinet? I thought you didn’t have any firearms.
I used to be a maid. One of the families I cleaned for had 2 parents and 2 kids. The daughter had her bedroom on the second floor. She had a huge bedroom, a bathroom, an exercise room and a hall connecting the 3 rooms which was large enough for an alcove desk for her school work. Her area was completely separate from the rest of the second floor which also contained 2 spare bedrooms (each with full bath) and a huge laundry/sewing room (also with full bath) and her parents’suite. The son slept in the basement. He had a living room bigger than the one my house has, a huge bedroom, a full bathroom, a bigger exercise room with a crapload of weight lifting equipment, a pool table, and the family hot tub was right outside his living room.
The parents actually had a fairly normal suite. It had a long hallway with the bathroom off one side (their bathroom was huge with a separate room for the toilet, a walk-in linen closet, a shower which could easily fit 10 people and had about 6 shower heads, a huge jacuzzi tub which could fit probably 4 fat people, and marble floors. Their walk-in closet was off the other side of the hall. It was actually 2 walk-in closets. The first door went in to a little sitting area (in a closet?) and had a door off each side. Each door led to a closet bigger than my bedroom now.
As you continued down the hall, it finally opened into their bedroom which had a sitting area, 2 pieces of exercise equipment, a very large bed, and a whole lot of empty space.
I hated cleaning that house. Other than the showers, the house WAS clean. I had a really hard time finding enough to do to justify the minimum of an hour I had to spend there. But, the house was super cool and it was nice to see how the other side lived. At the time I lived (with a roommate) in a crappy apartment smaller than the parents’ bedroom suite. It was jarring going to work every day.
You must not watch House Hunters very carefully. No one wants anything one House Hunters. No one wants granite counter tops. No one wants hardwood floors. NO ONE WANTS THESE THINGS. They don’t want huge master bedrooms, twin walk-in closets or dual sinks/vanities. The do not want these things. The do NOT WANT big yards, fireplaces and they most certainly and absolutely do not want any place to entertain! THEY DO NOT WANT THESE THINGS.
Heh:D I wasn’t going to comment on that because I didn’t want to seem rude to the people here who actually DO have huge bedrooms.
By the way, I have no delusions. I know the people on House Hunters are aliens trying to infiltrate our society. But, the big bedroom thing isn’t specific to that show.
To my mind, the answer is this: if you want the room for more than the obvious activity, it has to be somewhat larger. It’s a step up in size.
Think of it this way: there is a certain minimum comfortable size for a bedroom - big enough to have a bed, some dressers, and space to get dressed in. That’s if you like ‘size A’. It can be a little bigger or a little smaller, but it is reasonably standard.
It is not big enough to add another activity to the room.
Say you want to use the bedroom also for sewing, or have a desk in there for doing basic household accounts or the like. This will require a whole new area - size A plus size B. Thus, a larger master bedroom.
Well, you could have a point. But the people featured on House Hunters still seem like a bunch of self-entitled, whiny bitches to me.
I hate to sound like an old fogey with the ‘when I was a kid. . .’ stories, but seriously, I grew up in a 4BR, 1 and 1/2 bath house with four older sisters and my parents. We managed. My husband’s house (when he was a kid) was worse than my situation: six kids (five boys, one girl), two parents, three bedrooms, one bathroom. The only thing that really saved them was that two of the older boys worked night-shift, so ‘sharing rooms’ took on a whole new meaning. Just as Billy was getting home from work, Dave was getting ready for school; so Dave would finish dressing, and Billy would go sleep in that room all morning. It went like that. However, how they managed to make do with one sole bathroom and eight people, I don’t know!
Yep, it’s gonna be MINE. The thing is, my husband works rotating shifts (today he’s working a double and a half shift, or about 20 hours straight) and so when he goes to bed, he needs to get to sleep quickly. I have problems going to sleep, and staying asleep. We do share a bed when necessary…but I need a much firmer mattress than he does. If we sleep on the same bed, at least one of us will have an aching back the next day.
Another reason is that I really need that attached bathroom, for medical reasons.
And perhaps the most important reason was that Bill stated that the master bedroom was of course his. No discussion. He has a tendency to do this, to assume that any joint assets (or even MY assets) are his to dispose of without consulting me. The current house is one that we bought from my grandmother…and it had contained an entire collection of Playboys from the very first issue up til about the mid 80s, and he got rid of those magazines, as well as a great number of science fiction magazines. I wasn’t interested in keeping the Playboys, but I WAS interested in selling them. And of course I DID want to keep all of the SF magazines, to read and enjoy.
I can use the space in the master bedroom, so I’m going to take it. My reasons are better than his, and I hate it when he moves my stuff around in the house, so he’ll just have to get used to the idea of not moving my sewing machine every time he gets a hair across his ass. He just wants it because it’s the “master” bedroom. He is NOT going to get everything his way. I really didn’t want to move, but because I have IBS and other problems, we needed to get a house with at least two bathrooms. He’s been wanting to move to a house in a better neighborhood for years. I had planned on never moving again.
Ah, I’d just be happy to have more closet space (I guess in Colonial days, people didn’t have much * stuff *). And maybe room for one more bookcase.
I spend pretty much no time in the bedroom that isn’t engaged in sleeping or digging clothes out of the bureau (and aforementioned inadequate closet). But if I had kids, I’d definitely want some significant private area to myself. And I’ve stayed in houses with big suites and frankly, it’s quite enjoyable waking up and having that sensation of spaciousness. Tiny bedrooms remind me too much of my apartment dwelling days.
I’d also happily trade space in the master bedroom for more space somewhere else. My ideal master setup would be a relatively small room (big enough to house a king sized bed and a dresser/tv stand, a big ass walk in closet to keep all of my crap out of sight, and two ensuite bathrooms. I love my husband dearly, but he’s a bathroom slob and I’d love to not have to share.
I’m supposed to spend four waking hours a day, at least, with my feet raised above my heart. This is another reason why I want most of my books in my bedroom.
We (fiancé and I) are fortunate enough to have an enormous home, and we watch House Hunters together. We have everything these people “need”, but we kind of feel humbled by it. We live feeling sort of guilty. Anyway…
Maybe it’s because we realize how fortunate and how surrounded with excess we are that the word ‘need’ stands out. It’s not unheard of to see an episode with a young, single mother with a budget that would put her mortgage and tax payment below that of a tiny apartment’s rent saying she needs stainless steel appliances and a two car garage.
When they have kids, it’s a total hoot, because they make the investment of a lifetime and they picture their kids forever at the age they are when considering the home purchase. Please, your kids will grow up, and you will find out you don’t need half the crap you think you are entitled to.
That would suit me/us perfectly. Though a queen bed would be fine. I’d trade acreage surrounding the furniture for storage.
My eye starts to twitch when folks on House Hunters reject a house because of some carpeting, or the dining room wallpaper. Really? I get that not everyone wants to remove wallpaper, but there are professionals who will do it for them at a reasonable price.
My mom’s pet rant about design and remodelling shows has to do with 10’ x 12’ (or larger) bathrooms. “What the hell are these people doing in their bathrooms, roller skating?!?!?!”
I can’t really get behind that one - I’d much rather have a large bathroom and a small bedroom. My main bathroom (the one the kids use) is about 7X7 and its really tight. There’s a single sink, a toilet, and a combined tub and shower, and very little floor space. I have a little stool in there right now so the kids can reach the sink, and there is literally no room for anything else. I’d like to be able to have a little stool in there to set towels on or sit on when the kids have a bath so I don’t have to sit on the toilet.
If you’re talking about having double sinks and a tub with a separate shower, 10X12 certainly doesn’t sound large. When you consider that some people have their closets in the bathroom, that size doesn’t seem crazy at all.
I don’t think I’d want one any bigger than what we have. There’s plenty of room for two to walk around the king sized bed, an area for reading beside the fireplace and enough wall space for big windows that open onto the yard and pool. Anything bigger though where you’re inviting other activities into the bedroom I think runs the risk of having them conflict with the primary use, a place to sleep.
The master bath, walk in closets, kitchen, living room, game room, they’re all huge (5K+) and a much more useful allocation of space.
All right, I had to go and measure. Our bedroom is 13 by 14, so 182 square feet (plus two closets) – in other words, not a big bedroom. Now, it happens that I’m currently renovating it, so I can’t really tell how it’ll be when we move in. But my sense is we’ll have enough space. On the other hand, if it were 50% bigger, I don’t think I’d complain. I wouldn’t mind having an armchair or two with a reading lamp. Having a small bedroom forces you to pare down a bit, and if you’re the sort of person who hates paring – well, you want a big bedroom.
I agree that it’s a bit crazy for someone who has a huge house with a separate exercise room, office, media room, etc. to want a big bedroom. But it comes with the package, doesn’t it? Big house, big bedroom, big status.
