7 ft wide room too narrow?

Planning garage conversion which will result in 7 ft wide rooms. Wondering is this too narrow to be usable. They will be used as study and bedroom. I'd love to hear from anyone who has rooms this size. Thanks.

A lot of box rooms would be this size. Does seem quite narrow. Might be ok for kids/teenager.

I would think this is far too narrow, I have a room at home and its a little over 9 feet wide, which I find narrow (for its use) but would feel like the walls were closing in if it got any more narrow! I am not claustrophobic.

Wondering is this too narrow to be usable

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That would depend somewhat on their use eg. for utility room, toilet, small study etc. it may be quite usable. Wouldn't fancy it for a bedroom though

Thanks, its for study downstairs which I'm not too worried about but bedroom upstairs. Given that a double bed is 5 ft wide there'd be a foot on each side if we use it as a guest bedroom. In the long run I see it as kids bedroom maybe with a single or bunk beds in it. It will be quite a long room. Honestly, do you guys think its a waste of money to build this as theres no point if its just not going to be usable.

"Honestly, do you guys think its a waste of money to build this as theres no point if its just not going to be usable"

If you are considering using it as a guest bedroom with a 5' bed then I would not bother as 1' either side would be dreadful IMHO. A single bed might not be too bad.

We contemplated viewing a house for sale some time ago but when we looked at room measurements they were something similar to what you quote above and we decided not to bother. Have to say though that the house sold no bother and for quite a high price.

Thanks Suellen, It will only rarely be used as a guest room so I thought our guests could just put up with being close to the walls! I wouldn't put a proper bed in there but a double futon which folds up nicely to a sofa when not in use. In the long run as I said it'll be a kids room. Since it is quite a big room because of its length I'm hoping this will compensate for the narrowness. I hope I don't walk into it and groan once its built though!

You almost certainly WILL groan. Why are you ending up with rooms this size? Have you had any help with the design of the conversion?

Extopia, interested in your opinion, we are converting our garage with a 2 storey extension. There is not space to make it wider and still retain our side passage (which was important to us). We have not had an architect involved but I don't know what an architect could have done differently. I thought it would be quite common in Dublin for people to end up with extensions this size when converting garages. Do you not think it will work? Its costing a lot of money obviously.

I have an 8' by 11' room with bunk beds in it, a bookcase and wardrobe. Would not try & put a 5' bed into it though. As it stands, its great, and yes, it would be worth it as long as it is not to become a teenagers or adults full time room.

Toby
What are the dimensions of the space you are converting? If the garage is only 7 feet wide well I suppose you don't have much choice! Or is the garage 14+ feet wide?

Describe the space in more detail and what you are trying to do in terms of number of rooms on each floor.

If you are trying to keep a side alley, could the upper level not overhang this, thus giving a couple more feet upstairs where you really need it to make the bedroom more acceptable in size?

BlueSpud, thanks, its good to hear from someone who actually has a similar sized space. It might eventually be a teenagers room or we could convert the attic in the future and make it into a teenagers "hangout" room. Will definitely not plan on putting a double bed in there now though.

Sunnyday, I wish someone had advised us to consider letting the 1st floor overhang the side passage as you mentioned. Unfortunately none of the builders or engineers we met with suggested this and we could not justify a potentially 20K architect's fee when we saw limited options for our extension. Maybe this was a mistake?

Another concern would be that we know our neighbours plan a similar extension in a few years so if they also built up to the boundary wall we'd effectively be living in terraced housing which would surely affect property prices? Does anyone know if it would?

Extopia, we are converting and building over the garage and the stairs is on the other side of the wall so theres no way to make the room wider without building over the side passage.

Anyway, we have planning permission for our approx 7.5 ft wide extension now and unless we are convinced it will be totally useless its not worth going back to square one with the whole project. I just hope its worthwhile in the end though.

Would advise others to consider weight up pros and cons of getting an architect for extensions as I suspect in the long run their fee might have been worthwhile and might have saved us money and a lot of hassle.

One thing you might consider at this stage is getting professional interior design advise on how best to decorate and furnish the spaces to make the most of what you're getting. I'm no expert, but stuff like use of mirrors, bright colours etc. spring to mind. Good luck with the extension.

Thanks Sunnyday. Good point. Plan to put as little furniture into these rooms as possible to avoid them looking even smaller than they are and will think about using mirrors, might make the bedroom feel bigger. Wish I could see a room this size to get a feel for it but hopefully it'll be okay.

Re: Here ya go - no time like present!

Re: Here ya go - no time like present!

I don't know where you got the figure of 20k for an architect to design/supervise an extension of this type. It wouldn't (or shouldn't) have cost anything like this.

You can always modify your design and resubmit for planning approval if want to consider the overhanging passageway option. This would, however, be quite a complicated building.

Perhaps there's an existing boxroom or bathroom upstairs that can be integrated into the extension? The stairwell seldom takes up the entire length of the house.

Re: Here ya go - no time like present!

It depends what you want of course. Breaking into an existing boxroom wouldn't give you any extra rooms for use by guests,etc but it would add greatly to someone's comfort.

20K on architect's fees would be high but not unheard of. The RIAI would suggest fees in the region of 15% of build cost. An extension costing the €130k necessary to generate 20k is quite plausible.

Re: Here ya go - no time like present!

Eh, 130k for an extension over garage conversion, even in these days of rampant inflation, is not plausible.

Such an extension, including converting the garage downstairs, would be expensive at 60k.

Re: Here ya go - no time like present!

Well, perhaps you could give me the name of some builders.

I was recently quoted €135k for a 700sq ft two storey extension - replacing garage, etc. Naturally, I'm seeking alternatives, but my architect had previously warned me to expect quotes in the region of €200 per sq ft.

If you know of someone who'll do this for 60K, let's have some names. Otherwise you're just speculating.