We bought a new house last year and have put dd1 down stairs into the formal dining. This room had the 3 walls with a wide opening, we put cheap wooden bifold doors on for privacy.

We are now looking for a better solution as these are not noise proof at all and the younger boys keep entering without permission.

We have a plasterer coming in a few weeks and the plan was to add a wall and door.

If we close this off, later on it can be used as a media room or similar. But now i'm thinking how sellable the house will be if we do decide to sell, (which we are likely to).

Thinking of other options but all i can think of is

1. stronger wooden bifolds that we can remove so the house can sell with an open formal dining or

2. a wall and would have to sell as a 5th bedroom, closed formal dining or possible media..

I thought others might have other ideas.

I'm guessing a 5 bedder might be harder to sell?

The house would still have plenty of other living spaces and does not need a formal dining as such.

Currently we are using the house as 5 beds, study, formal lounge, kitchen, dining, family and rumpus.

Any ideas or thoughts would help.

What about getting some office style partitioning installed?

It should removable at a later date.

Could you shuffle the sleeping arrangements? If the younger boys are making the room unsuitable for DD, then put one of them in there and give her a regular BR?

I would go ahead and put the permanent wall in, but have a double width doorway to retain some of the open feel when you sell.

Since you are building the wall from scratch, I'd opt for pocket doors like this
http://www.frontdoordesigns.co.uk/wp-conte...rnal-Doors2.jpg
ETA hinged doors could also be removed when you sell

If its cost effective i would make it into a fully functional 5th bedroom especially if there is already a dining room. In the future when selling i think it would only be benefical to have the extra room. If its away from other bedrooms it would be great for older teens or as you said a media room, office.

I work for a property valuer and from what you have said I think turning it into a proper 5th bedroom would in actual fact make it even more saleable...
If you didnt have the living areas that you have (ie the study, formal lounge, dining, family and rumpus) as well and were lacking those areas it would be a different story but I honestly think these days a lot of people dont want a formal dining room in addition to an everyday dining area.
As you have said, it could also be marketed as a media room.
perhaps put double doors to this room instead of a standard single door, but again I really think the 5th bedroom will only benefit you in the end.

Like a pp said, I would go for double width doorway with cavity sliding doors.

gosh that's plenty of rooms as it is!

I think 5 bedrooms would increase sale-ability.

Unless you're doing anything drastic, anything you do will change the sale-ability of a house - but in the meantime you have to live there too... iykwim?

So I'd go midway and make it double doors - lovely for a formal dining and quite regal for a bedroom

I'd make it a proper room with just a normal door as well.

I don't think it will make a difference to the ability to sell and the new owners can also tear down the wall that you put up if they want to open the space up again.

We arent currently using our formal dining for its intended purpose (its the kids play room). Ours isnt open plan, it has french doors that may be an option that you can consider.

Thankyou for all of the replies. Definitely helps getting others opinions.



I prefer the boys being up stairs as they often make middle of the night/ early morning visits to my room.



We were originally thinking this but when we recieved the quotes the pocket doors made it quiet a bit more. We have a fair bit of other work we are are doing on the house so are on a strict budget.
But i really do love the look of them.



Thankyou for that. I have just searched recently sold houses in my area and it actually does seem 5 bedroom houses are on the market for shorther periods than 3/4 bedrooms, so maybe my area does have the market for this.



It is actually very cost effective as the plasterer is a father from the daycare i work at and has given us a really good quote.



We were actually looking at french doors before we got such a great quote for an actual wall but i think we will again consider them as they look really nice. Lol ours would of been the play room had we not decided to put dd in there. Does anyone seriously use a formal dining room for dining?

My double door formal dining room has this w'end been turned into a study and excess toy play area,because my old study room is now going to be a nursery for our unexpected third child!

This is what we would do too

This is my vote too. I know you said it cost more, but this is what we did with our lounge/formal dining room. We closed in the walls and put double cavity sliding doors in there. This means that we can have the doors open and it doesn't look so closed in, but we can also close the doors when the tv is on (we're using it as a formal lounge).

If hinge doors make it significantly cheaper then go with them, but I would want double doors on a room so large. I would also build in a wardrobe if funds permitted, as I think a 5th bedroom would significantly increase your market. Main bedroom, 3 kids and a study/spare room and bang! - all of the rooms are gone. If someone doesn't want the extra bedroom and there's a wardrobe across one wall then that makes for one great playroom/study/sewing room.

To answer your last question about using a formal dining for dining - they've usually got carpet and there's no way in hell I'd have dinner in there, let alone with kids! I don't know anyone that uses their formal dining room for eating in...

Another voting for turning it into a dedicated bedroom. How many people actually use formal dining rooms these days anyway? You've got enough living areas for the house to still be in proportion.

If you are planning on making it a 'proper' bedroom, don't use cavity doors. In my experience, they are not as good with sound proofing as regular swing doors. Plus, they let in more light. Not a big issue for TV room or a study, but I think it's more of an issue for a bedroom.

I would turn it into a dedicated bedroom with a BIR, if that's how you are using it now. When are you looking at selling? If that's not planned for a few years, get it made up for the use you want.

If you want it to have dual purpose, don't put in BIR and put in double swing doors.

Thankyou to everyone who replied. It gave us a lot to think about.

We are having a full wall put in tomorrow and will have a single door, so looks like we will officially have 5 bedrooms. We haven't decided as yet if we will put a built in wardrobe in.

Fingers crossed i love it.