You can not have a bedroom be accessible from another room. It must be accessible from common space, usually a hall. Because no one wants a bedroom directly off the great room. This is the simple type of code requirements that architects learn in first year classes. Are you working with a pro? Or are you in classes yourself?

@Strawberry Patch Designs

Thanks!

I neglected to explain that I like to design houses for fun, but I try to make them realistic enough so that if I do decide to make one of my concepts a reality, that the professionals I hire don't have to change too many of my design choices. I'd rather nix my ideas now if they can't be done rather than when I have a design I fall in love with. I understand I'll come across a lot of those changes, regardless, but the more realistic I make my concepts now, the hopefully less changes will need to be made in the future.

I don’t see how your idea is any different than any hallway or staircase leading to a bedroom. After all, if the office has an egress window or door to the outside and a closet, and you put a bed in it, it’s a bedroom. And don’t people have sitting rooms leading to bedroom beyond?

@bpath

Thanks for your input!

When it comes to the likening the concept to a sitting room, most sitting room concepts I've seen are open to the master through an archway or large doorway (without a door installed). My concept would be a closed door separating the office from the bedroom, and another closed door separating the hallway from the office.

@bpath

Lol. I suppose. I just thought having closed doors to the office would be better. I considered having the office an extension of the hallway and act sort of like a loft space, but I didn't want people to have to see the mess of papers when walking in the 2nd floor hall. I also considered having the office completely open to the bedroom, but figured a privacy separation was necessary, but perhaps not.

You can have an office off of a bedroom, but not a bedroom off of an office.

You can call it whatever you want. It's essentially a bedroom with a sitting room attached. Of course you can have a bedroom off of an office. If it makes you feel better, call it the sitting room of the bedroom. What you can't have is a bedroom that is only accessed by going through another bedroom (which the total area then legally becomes one bedroom), or a house with multiple bedrooms and only one bathroom and that bathroom is only accessible by going through one of the bedrooms.

Yes… with some caveats.

Some jurisdictions will define spaces but the general rule is that bedrooms must be accessible from non-private spaces. Non-private spaces is only vaguely defined, which can be confusing, made more so because offices are intentionally omitted from many examples. That is because offices can be either private or not.

At our (inherited) farm the office is a traditional wood wainscoted office that is obviously meant to be a private space where actual business is conducted. At our residence the office is a communal work and study space and doesn’t even have a door.

A good rule of thumb… if you are standing inside the front door, you should be able to reach the bedroom without passing through any lockable door.

If there is doubt, simply omit the door into the office and call it a work/study/play space.

You have to get into a bedroom. When you are in the bedroom, if in the event the way you came into the bedroom is not usable, you have to be able to exit the bedroom directly to the exterior of the structure through an opening that needs to meet certain size requirements.

Obviously comply with any building / fire codes, but go to New Orleans if you really want to see some "creative" non-traditional layouts...

I don't know what your jurisdiction is, but basic egress codes require two ways out of a sleeping space. One way is the door to the room, the other way is a window which complies with egress codes. If there is a fire outside the bedroom door (in a common space, hallway, or even an office), then the way out of the bedroom is thru the window.

What is the distinction that is being made between a "hallway" and some sort of anteroom? I'm not understanding what the difference is-- presence of doors? Furniture in the space? I've certainly seen many pretty obvious hallways (eg long and narrow) that were fully closed off with doors, and also very wide spaces that functioned as both rooms and halls with seating, tables, maybe a piano, but also providing egress to other rooms as in an 18th century center hall colonial.

In design discussions I've had the only egress questions have ever been about the direct exit to the exterior from a bedroom.

For a single family house the unamended IRC requires "a means of egress that provides a continuous and unobstructed path of vertical and horizontal egress travel from all portions of the dwelling from all portions of the dwelling to the required egress door without traveling through a garage." It also requires one "emergency escape and rescue opening" in each bedroom. These requirements are in separate sections of the IRC and are independent and unrelated. Windows cannot be part of a means of egress although window manufacturers confuse the issue by using using the generic term "egress" for their emergency escape compliant windows.

Some states require two means of egress from a house but only one from each room or additional level of the house.

If you want to learn how to design houses you should buy a copy of the code and note the amendments in the margin .... then ask questions about specific sections of the code. And to get useful responses, you should to post a plan and identiify the applicable code or at least the state.

Since the IRC only requires a means of egress to have a continuous and unobstructed path and only eliminates a garage as part of that path, the use of other ICC code wording is often considered acceptable for clarification subject to the building official's opinion.

The IRC is the commonly used code for 1 & 2 family dwellings & townhouses and the IBC is the commonly used code for multi-family dwellings.

IBC Section 1016.2 Egress through Intervening Spaces says, in part:

"Egress from a room or space shall not pass through adjoining or intervening rooms or areas, except where such adjoining rooms or areas and the area served are accessory to one or the other, are not a Group H occupancy and provide a discernible path of egress travel to an exit."

The basic issue is whether or not someone might become confused or lost when exiting the house in an emergancy. This is where a designer must use their judgement and where the building official will then use their's.

Without seeing the plan and knowing the location I can't advise you.

I understand what is generally meant by a "common area" in a single family house but I haven't seen it used in a building code except for multi-family shared tenant spaces.

This is largely a non-issue... Label the space playroom on the plans and have a bedroom off of it and just be done with it. No one is going to come into your home and tell you that your playroom is a private office unless you are renting it out. My experience comes from 30 years in rental properties and it does matter in rental properties and they actually do check.

I don't see how any code enforcement official is going to establish whether someone will get confused or lost when exiting the house in an emergency. That might well be what good design should accomplish, but there are certainly legal apartments near every major college campus that are nothing short of warrens. E.g. I have been in a converted home where the bedroom for the second floor apartment, must enter through an exterior stair to the third floor, then make their way down a winding hallway to a stairway to the second floor.

Again, I am not claiming to be an expert, but I have had to endure inspections on rental properties from code enforcement many times, and the rule that is typically used is no private spaces exclusively off of private spaces. Maybe other people have different experiences, but rather than asking here, call your local code enforcement or permitting office and ask them. In my experience, they can be quite helpful.

ETA: Just for further clarity, my experience is mostly in single family homes and not in multi-family units.

As shown above, the basic IRC code in the U.S. for single family dwellings is fairly lenient (when compared to egress path distance or total inches of exit width for occupancy loads in other types of classifications). Your jurisdiction will either have more stringent amendments, or when nothing is published locally, your inspector's personal desire is what will ultimately rule on the egress path from a bedroom.

I would say that in a simple residential floor plan, if you need a precise ruling and interpretation of the letter of the law for the basic bones, it is emblematic of a larger issue with the concept, layout, or unconventional personal imprint on the design.

If by rental properties you mean multi-family apartments, the code requirements usually include fire rated apartment doors and dividing walls as well as enclosed stairs, emergency lighiting and voice/light/horn alarms, pull stations, standpipes and, for tall buildings, stair smoke evacuation and automatic sprinkler systems.

In a single-family home, the limited protections are smoke detectors, some bedroom windows large enough to crawl out of and a continuous, unobstructed path to an exterior door.

Try blindfolding yourself and crawling from the most remote bedroom to an exterior door in your home. Did it feel continuous and unobstructed?

This is not a non-issue. NFPA reports that in 2021 "One of every five fires (20 percent) occurred in one- or two-family homes, yet these fires caused nearly two-thirds of the civilian fire deaths (64 percent) and over half of the civilian fire injuries (54 percent). The 6 percent of fires that occurred in apartments caused 11 percent of the civilian fire deaths and 21 percent of the injuries.

Egress is about windows all homes have spaces of a halway what is different if the hallway goes to the office and the office goes to the bedroom I actually would not do a door between the office and the master but that is just personal . I honestly cannot think of why this can't be done but if you really want help you need to post to scale floor pland here in a a comment in jpeg format.

Just read this to understand the source of the self created issue. Different for the sake of difference. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6382336/i-have-a-unique-bathroom-concept-how-would-i-count-it

"Egress is about windows ..."

This is how code confusion is perpetuated.

A window cannot be part of the code required "means of egress" from a single family home as described in IRC Section R311 - MEANS OF EGRESS.

Emergency Escape and Rescue Openings like a bedroom window is required in Section 310 where the term "egress" is not used. It's where you sit and wait for a fire department ladder or jump. Calling it an "egress window" is a seriously misleading misnomer.

Another and perhaps more important question is whether or not a fireman or neighbor would have difficulty finding the bedroom door in a smoke filled house. A door in an office might look like a closet.

If you're concerned with fire safety, rather than parsing building code wording, ask a fireman.

The OP's original idea was a not uncommon arrangement in even upscale homes in our area in the 1930s. The houses are now marketed as having "junior" bedrooms.

Speaking of unique room combinations. Is this a living room, bedroom or bathroom? (Or simply bed, bath and beyond.)

LOL