How to make a temporary bedroom out of this space (that can be restored)

[Dsl]

Living in a 1.5-story house originally designed with 6 bedrooms. Downstairs, 1/3 of the bedrooms have been sacrificed for a decent living room, and upstairs, 1/3 has been opened up to create a nice family room.

Now, we suddenly have 2 children, the youngest of whom will soon need their own room, and we need to sleep on the same floor for the coming years. Thinking of trying to create a temporary bedroom for this purpose. When the children are older, they can occupy the 2 rooms downstairs. We would like to keep the family room since this is where we have our TV, and we think it might be nice to continue with that when the children are older.

The floor plan looks as below. The former wall has been replaced by an arch (2m high, 3.5m wide).

We've considered a few different options so far:

• Put up a thin gypsum wall with a door in the archway. The floor beam fastened with double-sided tape and held in place through a press fit.
  
• Folding door in the archway
• Partition off with a large bookshelf or similar and perhaps a thick curtain to create a nook where a bed can be placed (not necessarily right in the archway).

How would you do it? Grateful for tips and suggestions both on the floor plan and for the practical execution.

 

[Silver78]

A curtain involves the least intervention. Taping a wall usually doesn't work well. Gluing is what's needed in that case and it's hard to remove. You need to at least screw near the door and wall. But these holes are easy to fix. Use short mounting screws if you don't want to damage the floor under the parquet. If you're only planning to tape a wall, I would skip the door.

 

[BirgitS]

You don't mention how old the older child is, but if the children are close in age, it often works well if they share a room during their preschool years. Preferably, they should have a shared bedroom and a shared playroom or play area, for example, on the lower floor or in the family room.

 

[Dsl]

A curtain entails the least interference. Taping a wall usually doesn't turn out well. Gluing is the way to go in that case, and it's hard to remove. You at least need to screw near the door and wall. But these holes are easy to fix. Short mounting screws if you don't want to damage the floor under the parquet.
If you're just thinking about taping a wall, I would skip the door.

Ah, maybe it's just as well to abandon the taping idea then. The floor is original herringbone parquet nailed to rough boards, so I'm not worried about the subfloor. However, we sanded the floor a few years ago, so I'd prefer to avoid screw holes (the floor can't be sanded again), but if it's unavoidable, then I guess I'll just have to accept it.

 

[Dsl]

You don't mention how old the older child is, but if the children are close in age, it often works well for them to share a room during the years they go to preschool. Preferably, they should have a shared bedroom and a shared playroom or play area, for example, on the lower floor or in the family room.

Thanks for the input we hadn't even considered. The little one is 1 and big sister 3.5, so neither of them would probably mind sharing a room. Unfortunately, it's extremely rare for either of them to sleep through the night, so for us to get some sleep ourselves, we don't think it's possible to have them in the same room as they'd wake each other up.

 

[Dowser4711]

But if you just tape the floor rule and screw it into the walls and ceiling, it can sit pretty well under pressure.
If it moves too much due to slamming the door, you can fix that side via the door frame with a long, really thin screw around 3mm, which will then be easy to conceal with an oak plug.

 

[BirgitS]

Thanks for input we hadn't even considered. The little one is 1 and big sister is 3.5, so neither of them would probably mind sharing a room. Unfortunately, it's extremely rare for either of them to sleep through the night, so for us to get any sleep ourselves, we don't think it's possible to have them in the same room and risk them waking each other up.

Sometimes children become calmer by sharing a room with a sibling, allowing them to fall back asleep on their own. Try it for a week.

 

[saiter]

It is fine to build a temporary wall.
On the floor, you place one like this:
1


Plåtregel layout. (but the version with foam on the underside.)

You can screw it with three small screws which won't leave visible traces once you dismantle the wall.
Then place the wall studs in the layout and fasten the boards.

//AA