ᐅ Houses Without Basements: Storage Space or Hobby Room?

I see it differently than Weimy. Obviously, 12m² (130 square feet) is not a lot, but if you have five children, you have to make compromises. You can’t allocate 100m² (1,076 square feet) just for bedrooms. Although I think 20m² (215 square feet) is also excessively large—you can create a cozy space even with less room, also for teenagers.

Actually, I would have expected even smaller rooms for five children’s bedrooms. Personally, I might have created one or two larger playrooms and then smaller bedrooms shared by two kids each.

Hello,

I was also unsure whether our children's rooms in the new house, each with about 17 square meters (living area approximately 15.5 square meters (167 square feet) due to the sloping roof), might be a bit small.

For fun, I measured my childhood bedroom in my parents' house — it was just over 10 square meters (108 square feet). Also, my "teenage room" in the converted attic was only 15 square meters (161 square feet) and was more than enough.

In my opinion, children's rooms between 15 and 18 square meters (161 to 194 square feet) are still adequate today.

At the latest, when the children leave home and possibly live in shared housing or a small apartment during university or early in their careers, they will sorely miss the previous "luxury" (and I don’t just mean the living space, but also the fact that they no longer have to constantly consider other people outside the family, etc.).

Best regards,

Dirk

Our children’s bedrooms are 16m² (172 ft²). I think that’s quite reasonable. However, I don’t find 12m² (129 ft²) problematic either. Today’s expectations are quite generous. Children usually don’t need that much space. Of course, having more is always nice, but not really necessary. The period during which children use the space primarily for playing is rather short. Often, they play where their parents are anyway. And when they reach the stage where they want to be away from their parents, they don’t need that much space anymore.

But of course, with smaller children’s bedrooms, there tends to be more toys, for example in the living room. Not everyone wants that.

Thinking back to my own childhood, I didn’t even have 12m² (129 ft²)...

We have three children’s bedrooms, each almost the same size at 15 m² (160 ft²). That’s the same amount of space I had as a child myself.

I find that absolutely sufficient.

Hello,
the size of children’s bedrooms is, of course, a matter of personal preference and taste. We looked closely at furnished children’s rooms in a modular home exhibition, and the ones we liked were around 18–20 square meters (approximately 193–215 square feet). Naturally, it also depends on the budget.

I personally had a small room as a child and hated it because I couldn’t properly fit anything in there.

But here the question is how to create storage space in houses without basements. Since we are also facing this issue and I have always been in favor of basements, I am very interested in good suggestions. A utility room of about 22 square meters (approximately 237 square feet) is nowhere near enough for us.

Best regards, Simone

Hello Simone,
is there an option for you to build an oversized garage? Alternatively, some manufacturers of precast concrete garages also offer quite practical standalone storage rooms or units that can be attached to a garage.
Best regards,
Dirk