Choose a traditional style of bunkbeds. On the lower one add a piece of plywood to one side. On the upper one add a piece of plywood to the opposite side that reaches to the ceiling. The room is now divided. If your building skills are lacking you can hang curtains instead. You would have to attack them to the bed for the lower bunk and the ceiling for the upper bunk. Or you can arrange the beds so that they are perpendicular to one another. If you use this arrangement, a dresser or a desk can be placed in the excess space underneath the raised bed. With either arrangement, choose a bottom bed that has built-in drawers for storage. Either choose a theme they both like (outdoors, skating, etc) and paint the walls accordingly; a neutral color is best...or you can paint the walls behind each person's bed in a color that she chooses and make each bed with different linens. Allow each girl select an area rug she likes and place the rugs on their respective sides of the room. If you already have 2 beds in the room put them on the 276m wall right next to each other with a room divider (or screen.) You could put the beds against the walls with 2 narrow bookshelves or dressers (side by side) between them. Have one facing toward one bed and the facing toward the other bed> I wish you all the best!

Hi Penelope, Congratulation in your new home project, alway a great and existing time even if sometimes it can strain communications and not to mention the budget. In the end, it will all be worthwhile especially if you can get good advice and make good decisions.There may be a few things that you might like to consider in the proposed design; Show the north point, I know you stated that north is at the back but it would be and advantage to know where east and west are (Morning sun and setting sun). You gave a good description of your family but not som much of the area where you are located. Small town, provincial, City, traffic at front and neighbors location and noise sources would help. Required planning setbacks - if any - are unknown they may be of use and also the neighbors, house line setback. Ground Floor: It appears you are building Boundary to Boundary at the front, and space for the entry may be limited, however, this is where you come to and leave every time you interact with your house. I would allow more design opportunity to the front entry, at least a bit more width - rearranging of the bedroom might help. The Master bedroom seems to be of good size but the relationship to the bathroom and robes means that you may get mold in your robes - warm long showers on cold winter days even if you have a good exhaust fan you will still get mold in your shoe, suits and linen over the long term. The laundry space seems to large, and badly arranged especially with a flow through from the garage. It might be an advantage to redesign the laundry to take advantage of the space under the stairs and provide an airlock from the garage to the main house. The garage at the moment has a door into the main house - this is great for convenience but a potential health hazard fro small children and pets as car exhausts fumes will come directly into the main living areas (Car exhaust fumes are heavier than air and tend to linger close to the floor). These fumes are toxic and will build up over time on any absorbing surface like walls, curtains, small children and pets The garage door seems rather small, considering that you may buy other vehicle types in the long run like bikes, bicycle, and lawn mower. The pantry is a good size, but as a walk through pantry, you loose a lot of space and functionality, also human trafic in pantryes seem not to aid in good food management. There seem to be no space for a freezer, either in the pantry or the kitchen, you mighty resolve this with a large fridge but a separate freezer can be an advantage. The arrangement of the kitchen in relation to the lounge and the dining area might be improved to have the dining area where the lounge is - seems odd having to walk across the travel zone with the plates to get to the dining area, you may have to rethink this area. There seems to be a lot of glass (windows and doors) in the living area - energy costs will be high in the long run and you may have difficulty in achieving the correct star energy rating for the house. I like the fact that you have a good, children and adult separation by having the main bedroom downstairs, but if you have a lot of use for a downstairs office you may need to rearrange this idea or redesign to squeeze some space downstairs. This would depend greatly on the priority the office was given in the brief and your lifestyle. First Floor area All your bedrooms upstairs are double bedrooms, this might be your specific requirement but, on a small site where space is at a premium it seems overly generous. From the top of the stair to the entry of the two front bedrooms the circulation space is excessive - waste of space, you should redesign this to get back some of the space for other areas - at the least a closed off office. Also, an office in the current location is to exposed to do any meaningful work, there is the potential for too much visual and noise exposure and human interaction. Your upstairs toilet has a door opening inwards, this is illegal unless you provide panic hinges, inward opening doors in toilets are not very comfortable to use especially if you are young. old, disabled or pregnant. The upstairs bathroom has really to much waste of space for two appliances, some redesign would help greatly in getting back some space. Your retreat area upstairs certainly is of good size, but it might help you to show all the furniture layout, so as to see which is functional space and which is circulation space. There may be other areas that may require rethinking, it might help to have some 3D's of the spaces showing the furniture layouts so as to gain a better understanding of the functionality of the whole area. I hope this is of some help, it would be interesting to see the elevations and how the house develops its character, considering what may be your intention. I think to get a better understanding you would need a few 3D views so as to fully understand how the house may look from the outside, after all this is where you come home to when you are happy, sad, tired and all the other emotions one life experiences on your way home, and you would like the entry to be welcoming to you and your loved ones. I would be happy to further comment on your proposal. Michael Manias - mm407p@gmail.com

Airbnb is a great income earner and you sound very positive, having just stopped dealing in holiday accommodation which included Airbnb. Very good friends have a newly built smallish two story house which they use the lower level for Airbnb and any family and friends to visit, it can be securely closed off for Airbnb guest. I suggestion to you is to use the front of your house for Airbnb keeping the rear private. Your Airbnb accommodation can be 1 -2 bedroom with kitchenette, we always locked the 2nd bedroom when not required, saved on extra linen and unexpected guests. If you leave the second bedroom open and not included in the rate the guests will always use it, from experience. The kitchenette only needs a bench under the window with a small fridge, MW , sink, and small table and chairs for cold days. Your new master and ensuite next to the new deck, you walk between the robes which have a joining cabinet above when entering the ensuite. The laundry separate with or without exterior access, you could even have the laundry opening through the kitchen wall. The family bathroom has a bath with shower over. A large linen/storage cupboard in the living room, this can also be used to help separate the guests wing from the private. Guests could have the under cover front verandah for Alfresco dining along with a small portable electric BBQ oven.

Nothing wrong with the bed, but of course it may have been better in cranberry or teal for a boho look. However there are things you can do, yes even with a dark grey buttonback bedhead. Some of those things are scary and some less so. Depends on what boho style she likes. There is the colourful kind..... and the far more boring naturals kind. 1. You can paint fabric. You can in fact buy car upholstery recolouring spray for this exact purpose. Say goodbye to grey, say hello to cranberry. It will change the feel of the fabric by making it stiffer. But since it's on a bedhead and not say a lounge chair it's very likely to last and not look rubbish once it wears. Bear in mind you won't be able to make the bedhead lighter this way. There is also the option to paint it with acrylic wall paint. You will have more latitude to change the colour since it's solid but it will also take on a stiff and somewhat waxy look and feel resembling leather. 2. buy a morrocan or some kind of intricate pendant for the room. 3. Choose patterned cushions not plain. a trellis design, a velvet, a paisley will all work well., Focus on colour palettes involving orange, fuschia, teal, cranberry, turquoise or pastel versions of that. 4 The side table lamp is fine. You might want to paint or wallpaper the bedside table however. 5. You need voile curtains and a velvet or silk-look-a-like drape. Voile is also excellent to make a bed canopy for a very dreamy and aircon friendly look. One of those oversized mosquito nets above the bed does the trick for $20 and you can even string a set of fairly lights in it for an ethereal look. 6. Get a patterned rug. One of those faded and distressed persian styles is perfect.