We are building a 3500 sq ft house and the three secondary bedrooms are only 12x13, 12x13 and 12x12 (that one is the guest room.) My children are 8 and 11, and for our lifestyle, we decided it was more important to build a large (22x16) playroom/media room upstairs adjacent to their rooms. My children really only use their rooms to sleep, even in our other house they hosted sleepovers in the bonus room. I'd rather have them hanging out with us downstairs in the kitchen/family room anyway! :) Even though their bedroom are smallish, it doesn't mean they won't be nice (they each have two large windows, 8"+ baseboards, 7" crown, nice walk-in closets and a dressing area for dd in her bath.) Anyway, if you want to stay under a certain sq ft, something has to be small(ish!) :)

I've been lamenting this very thing in our new home. And I could just kick myself for not paying more attention!! Our home is a ranch with 2550 sq ft on each level. Only the master is on the main level. Basement will have 3 guest rooms. One is very large, and the other two are 12.6 X 12. What was I thinking!! It's way too late to change now, of course, so we'll just have to live with it. Guests are usually our grown children and their families. Large bedroom will be a "bunk house" for the grandchildren, and the other two bedrooms for their parents. They often stay for 2 weeks at a time when they come. I hate to see their faces when they visit for the first time!! The basement family room is ginormous, so at least they have that to spread out. This is our forever home, so DH says I should quit complaining and just accept it.

My children really only use their rooms to sleep.

Now I get it! That's indeed what our children do, even our teen daughter. (Not that I'd allow her to entertain her boyfriend in her room anyway!) And for all these years I've been larking back to my childhood, where my room was my castle with all that I needed.

Thanks for the rationale for reduction.

One person's perception (mine): most of the plans you see online are geared toward show, not practicality. (e.g., 2 story foyer but no closet in that foyer; huge second floor landing and/or 'overlook' to the first floor, but tiny secondary bedrooms; huge master bathrooms and WICs that are bigger than the secondardy bedrooms; no back door or back door opens into FR or dining area, not mudroom.) In short, many of these plans aren't made for families with active kids who play outside in the back yard. For someone who wants a pretty but also practical house, it seems like some customization is necessary.

My kids are in middle school and like to hang out in their rooms. They also hang out in the FR or finished basement, but sometimes they like to have friends up in their rooms, especially DD as she and her friends can sit and talk for ages. They each had alot of control over how their rooms look: paint color, drapes, decor, etc. I like to have my kids here with their (same gender) friends, and I like that they feel proud of their rooms and have enough room to hang out in them. We have a large M bath and WIC, but I don't spend enough time in either to want them to be bigger than my kids' bedrooms!

Chicagoans - what size are your kids bedrooms? I was always spending time in my room as a kid so I'm also trying to make sure my kids bedrooms aren't too small as we design our new house. My five year old loves to read so I imagine he's going to be like me in that way. My DH comes from a family who shared rooms so we sort of disagree on this one!

Sanctuarygirl, we had the exact same problem. Isn't it funny how you get around 2500 square feet and the bedrooms stay small but they start adding on other rooms--teeny tiny hearthrooms for instance. I'd much rather have an extra 100 square feet split among my kids' rooms vs. a 10x10 hearthroom that I have to buy more furnishings for & will never get used.

Small secondary bedrooms are fine if you don't ever decide to put a double or queen bed in there. We specced a minimum of 14' x 12' for our kids' rooms. We have a 16 year old & a 6 year old. We never dreamed our 16 year old would be over 6' tall (I'm 5'4" & my DH is 5'9" on a good day!)--a twin bed just doesn't cut it anymore. Thank heavens his room at 14' x 12' accomodates a queen bed, his dresser, nightstand & desk.

Nini804 is right--if the kids rooms are small you need to make sure they have a separate large play area for the kids to spread out & play.

If you find a plan you really like but has small secondary bedrooms look into modifying it. We searched forever and the kids bedrooms were always the drawback. I have teenagers and they like the hang in thier rooms. They have friends over to hang either in den or their rooms.(same sex friends only) You can push a wall out a couple of feet and make a world of difference. On our build we added 2' to the whole back of the house(to get a wider garage(SUV) and kitchen(4' island with the 36" cooktop I wanted-not going to work. Now the island is 7' by pushing another 1' into the breakfast area. Extended garage to make it longer.(Most garages are sized for small or midsized cars. Suburbans barely or won't fit) I'm usually toting "my" extra kids around-hence Suburban. (Dreading daughter turning 16 in May) We pushed the kids bedrooms out 1' farther onto the front porch and shoved my daughters bathroom into a void I didn;t know existed until the upstairs was framed. That gave her an even bigger room, a 4' makeup area between her bath and closet which is now a walk-in instead of a reach-in stuck on the other side of the room.

My point is, you can find a stock plan that is really close to what you want and then tweak it into your perfect plan

chris11895: my kids' rooms are definitely not huge. Our home is a reno (started as a ranch; POs put on a second floor; we did a 2 story addition off the back) so we didn't have control over all the room sizes. DD's room is from the front part of the old master BR; it's about 12x17 with a WIC; room for a queen size bed, desk, night stand, bean bag 'couch' and other seating. It's a nice size room for her, I think, esp. because the closet is big enough that she doesn't need a dresser.

DS's room is smaller and I'd like it to be bigger; it's about 12x13 or 14' but with one corner on an angle. Room enough for a single bed, dresser, nightstand, and bean bag couch. If we were to build new, I'd try to make their rooms equal size.

With the reno, we gave up the massive tub in the MB (we take showers anyway) to carve out space for a 2nd hall bath, so both kids have their own smallish bathrooms. That has been a blessing, since we have one of each gender and DD likes her privacy and takes long showers! Since DS got a smaller room, he got nicer carpeting and had more choices in his bathroom (granite, cool mirror, etc.) DD got the same cabinet type and granite as the M bath. I know that sounds like nit picking, but it did make DS feel a bit better. It's hard when there is a big discrepancy in the kids' bedroom sizes.

12x17 sounds dreamy and would be huge for most children's room in my area, most are 9x10 or 10x10. Which is far too small but average. In our new build the kids rooms are 11x14 with small walk-in closets. They will love the all the room.

Our own master bedroom is only 15x15 so it's smaller than our bedrooms in our last couple houses. The walk-in closet is really large for us it's 10x8. I regret not removing a foot or two from the closet and adding it to the master bedroom.

I think large bedrooms for children are unnecessary (but always a bonus) if a child has an ample walk-in closet UNLESS the children are sharing a bedroom. We are building and opted to do smaller bedrooms on the 2nd floor in order to keep the house under a certain footprint. The walk-out basement will have a huge guest suite and another bedroom that is 13x15 that will be utilized by my husband for studio space.

My daughters bedroom is only 12'6"x11'6", but has a large walk-in closet and en suite bathroom. In our case, I personally felt private bathrooms were more important than sheer bedroom size. And that is coming from someone who had a HUGE bedroom as a child....but no private bathroom...and four brothers. I would have much preferred smaller bedroom vs. bathroom in hallway.

I should also add that I find smaller bedrooms with lots of natural light to be more cozy than a large bedroom. Especially a large bedroom with ill-placed windows in the corner of the room, squeezed in for egress purposes. I think window placement/size is my online stock plan pet peeve!

Tinycastle: you've made me feel better. Our guest rooms do have large closets and bathrooms. And nice big windows in the middle of the exterior wall. Thanks!!

It's really about how you want to live in your spaces. Growing up, my room was large and my friends and I giggled behind closed doors. I absolutely lived in my bedroom. My husband grew up with a bedroom smaller than 10x10. He spent most of his time in the large common rooms in the house- the great room and the finished basement. These places were neglected in my home so my family really didn't mingle too much. We all had our private spaces. His family, on the other hand, really got to know his friends, hang out together and entertained more people. When we searched for our home, we opted for a similar floor plan focusing on larger living areas and smaller sleeping areas. This appeals to us. But it's really preference. There is no wrong really.

Our secondary bedrooms are about 11x12. It's true that they're on the small side, but I think they'll be adequate, and it allowed us to devote more space to the communal living spaces where we spend most of our time.

Our old house had huge bedrooms and it always seemed like a waste-- so much space getting so little use, and meanwhile the spaces we used during the day were tiny and cramped by comparison.

We thinking along the same lines as tinycastle. Our secondary bedrooms will be 12 x 12'4 with decent sized walk in closets. Our goal is to have drawers and hanging space in the closets and just bed and nightstands in the bedroom. They do not spend much time in there and we couldn't see spending more square footage in a place that is ample and used predominately for sleeping. There is a small 8 x 10 bonus space outside of their bedrooms that they also can use for lego creations, studying (yeah right), games, etc.

jasi-my bedroom growing up was very small - not even sure if it was 10 x 10. I spent all of my time in the common areas too, which honestly weren't very large by today's standards (and it never felt cramped, hmmm). I think the house was 900 sq feet total for a family of 4 and 2 dogs!

We are hoping our boys will spend more time in the communal areas also - and we'll have a nice sized basement rec room.

I think it really is a personal preference and how you live that dictates.

When we started planning our 'dream house" we started with the required bed size, added the necessary traffic lanes around it - wheelchair friendly - and declared that to be the minimum bedroom size. And it's close to the maximum, too.

The current house has an 11'8" x 14'4 "guest" room with armoires on the long wall (no closets) ... however, because of the way the door and window are centered on the long walls you can have a queen sized bed on one side and a small reading and study area on the other. My roomer likes it.

The master bdr is a bit smaller - 10'2" x 14 but again the windows and doors let us center the bed under the window with adequate traffic lanes around it

Quick comment on room shape: Our rental has rectangular bedrooms and before we put the furniture in I thought it was awkward but now I do kind of like it. Furniture lays out nicely and plenty of space.

Our secondary bedrooms are large 12 x14 plus a dormer bump out. But our house is 3800 square feet, so much larger than the 2500 range you are looking at. The master is 14x16 which may be small to some but is perfect for us.

Our previous home had 10x11 bedrooms and they were more than adequate and quite functinal. The advantage of a larger guestroom is that when you have multiple famiies visiting there is room for matresses on the floor for the kids.

I agree with the pp that I would rather have fewer, larger, better designed rooms rather than a tons of small cramped spaces. If you are not findng what you need, I would go custom.

When I was growing up, we had small bedrooms, but our furniture was also smaller. Us kids only ever had twin sized beds...now I see kids sleeping by themselves in queen sized beds which would make a small bedroom tight.

I love small kids rooms. Easier to decorate and keep clean. I love my girl's small rooms and huge windows.

I'm going to disagree. I do not want to build a large, expensive-to-build, expensive-to-keep house. Since I want a small house, I definitely want to put the space where it'll be used daily: In the main living areas.

Someone asked, "This is luxury?" That's not really my goal. I want to make a comfortable spot for guests . . . but I don't want to use excessive resources for a room that'll be empty the vast majority of the time.

For a child, I'd rather have a moderate sized bedroom and a good-sized closet. If you're able to store all the clothes, toys, etc. in the closet, the room will be comfortable.

I went 12x11 for my 12 and 9 year old girls. Room enough they can fit a couple friends for a short period of time. No TVs, laptop discouraged.

Mostly everyone is downstairs where I can see them. The bedroom as a retreat is fine for adults but not so much for teens and preteens imo.

Not sure what got folks back to commenting on this post of mine from two years ago, but your viewpoints are welcome. I pretty much still believe that 12X12 or therebouts (11X13 or 11X14) is the minimum for any secondary bedroom in a house of mine. I think a perfect size would be 12X14, a very modest size in my book.

I grew up sharing a 12x12 bedroom with a sister, so a 12x12 for one child seems perfectly reasonable to me. If you put an XL twin bed in it there is plenty of room. An XL twin is the size of bed used in a college dorm so it ought to fit all but a basket-ball-player sized teenager.

A master bedroom should be a little larger, I do agree, to accommodate a queen or king sized bed, bureaus for two, maybe a comfortable chair. But really, it is not a room for daytime use. I'd much rather put the extra space into rooms where people gather, or rooms that improve function, a kitchen or pantry for example.

Rosefolly