When you invest in a house or an apartment, usually, the three-bedroom model is the most popular as it has a master bedroom, a children’s room and an extra bedroom for guests. Therefore, you might wonder why you need a house with four bedrooms, especially since it will significantly increase the amount you need to invest.
The thought of the additional cost might deter you from opting for a four-bedroom house or apartment, but it can turn out to be one of the wisest decisions that you make, especially if you have more than one child or have elderly relatives who live with you.
As your kids grow up, they will want privacy and won’t be happy about sharing their bedroom with a younger sibling. Even if you are a three-member household, the extra bedroom will be useful when the extended family comes to visit during vacations or if your parents reach an age when they find it difficult to live alone.
Since the square footage of a house with four bedrooms is larger, irrespective of whether its layout extends over a single level or on multiple floors, the additional space will allow you to play around with the design. For example, you can have a formal living room for entertaining guests and a cosy family room where you and the children can relax and bond. Similarly, until your children are old enough to want their own space, you can use the fourth bedroom as a study, a media room or even a home office.
You might wonder whether a four-bedroom house is essential, since your children will leave the nest sooner or later. However, the fourth bedroom will continue to be useful even when you are an empty nester, as you can convert it into a home office or a craft room to keep yourself busy.
Most modern houses in India have an open-plan design when it comes to social spaces such as the living room, dining room and kitchen. The layout of the house should be designed so that the bedrooms have sufficient privacy and are set back from the social areas. This way, you can ensure that your children sleep undisturbed when you are entertaining. The fourth bedroom, which is usually reserved for guests, should ideally be away from the other bedrooms so that your guests have privacy.
A problem that some four-bedroom homes face is that the rooms are too small, giving the house a cramped look. Usually, this happens because an extra room is fitted into an area that is meant for three-bedroom house. Before designing a four-bedroom house, it’s best to analyse the requirements from all the spaces in your home to get an idea of the areas which ones need to be larger. For example, if you entertain regularly, you will need a formal dining area, and cutting down some of that space to accommodate a fourth bedroom won’t meet your requirements.
Similarly, if a maid’s room or a pantry is a must-have space in your house, then you should make sure that these spaces are included without taking away the space from one of the bedrooms or a social space.
It’s best to consult an architect to explain your requirements so that they can draw a plan that includes everything you need. This will also help you to decide whether you need to build an extra floor to ensure that all the rooms in your house are airy.
Get ideas for designing an open-plan home.
Once again, this depends entirely on the layout of the house. If a garden is a priority for you, make sure you mention this to your architect so that he can retain an open space for it at either the front or the back of your house. Instead of building everything on one level, your architect will design the layout so that your social spaces and guest bedroom are on the ground floor, while the remaining three bedrooms are on the first floor. This design is perfect as it separates the family spaces from the social ones.
While it is convenient to have a bathroom attached to every bedroom in a four-bedroom home, unless you have space to include an extra bathroom or powder room for visitors, it’s best to have at least one of the bathrooms detached from a bedroom. That way, it can double up as a common bathroom for visitors.
With space coming at a premium in India’s urban areas, you will need a large plot for building a spacious single-storey four-bedroom house. Alternatively, you can design a multi-level house with four bedrooms on a smaller lot. Your budget will determine which of these is a viable option for you, but don’t forget to think ahead. As you age, climbing up and down the stairs several times in a day can become a challenge, so you should make sure that you have at least one bedroom on the main level. Another option is to plan the layout with the master bedroom on the ground floor so that you don’t have to worry about navigating the stairs when you are older.
Every family has its own requirements, and the location of the master bedroom will vary depending on that. When your children are younger and need easy access to your bedroom when they have nightmares, it makes sense to place the kids’ rooms close to the master suite. However, as they grow older, this will cease to be a priority. Four-bedroom layouts should be designed to be flexible. An uncomplicated way to achieve this is to have two bedrooms in one wing and the remaining two in the opposite end or on another level.
When you are designing a four-bedroom house, customization is vital as needs vary from one home owner to another. Depending on the size of the family, the age of the children or elderly relatives and other factors such as your lifestyle, you will need a plan drawn up to suit your requirements from the house as well as from each bedroom.
If you have seen a layout that you love, make it a point to share the design with your architect as it will give him a better idea of what you expect from the house. In the initial meeting, the architect will try to understand your lifestyle and get details about your family. This is the right time to mention any specific requirements that you have in mind, whether it is the design-style or the priority that should be given to a space in the house. Based on this conversation, the architect or interior architect will draw up an initial sketch of the layout and present it to you. Following this, any changes that you request will be incorporated into the revised plan, after which the final plan of the four-bedroom house will be drawn for approvals and sanctions from the local authorities.
Get tips on how to read an architectural floor plan.