Property - Do-it-yourself tips

One of the best ways to make your home more suited to your needs, especially if you have a growing family or want to work from home, is to add a bedroom.
A loft conversionA loft conversion
A loft conversion

Increasing the number of bedrooms can also put your home in a different price bracket when you come to sell.

The most obvious place to put an extra bedroom is upstairs, with all the others, and sometimes it’s possible to use the space you already have.

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For example, if the main bedroom spans the front of the house, you may be able to divide it in two, as long as each room has its own, separate window. This may not be as satisfactory as adding space, but it can work well if your home’s big enough and you’re on a limited budget.

When you come to sell, remember that couples and sharers will probably be looking for good-sized double bedrooms, while families may be happier to have more, smaller bedrooms if it means one for each child.

When rejigging the existing space isn’t an option, consider converting the loft into a bedroom or bedrooms instead. If you can also fit a bathroom or shower room up there, and built-in storage, you’ve created the perfect master or guest suite.

The cheapest and easiest loft conversions are ones with skylights (eaves conversions), as the line of the roof is unchanged. However, this isn’t ideal if the loft has limited space.

Building out the roof to create more useable space inside is often necessary, which means a (more expensive and complicated) dormer, mansard or hip-to-gable conversion.