Beds for teen and younger child who share a room

[LucyStoner]

My sons are 8 and (almost) 14. Thus far they have insisted on sharing a room. We even moved my older son into a different room when he was 12, and that lasted all of 3 weeks. We do however have a third bedroom if the time comes they want to be separated.

Their twin bunk bed, which was cheap to start with and a hand-me-down when we got it, is reaching the point where I think it is toast.

I am trying to decide between replacing it with another bunk bed (twin or maybe twin over full) or perhaps separate loft or captains type beds (something with some storage built in). If we did twin over full, little brother would take the top bunk and big brother would have room to stretch out a bit (he's in a growth spurt.) My thinking with the loft or captains beds is that if they do want to move rooms, whoever takes the smaller room is going to need something company and multi-function. Even if we move, basically all of the places we would be moving to would either have small bedrooms or a third bedroom that is tiny. They will not have room for a big dresser like they have now or more than a small bookcase.  That could go under a loft bed.  

So have your previously bent-on-sharing-a-room teens suddenly asked for their own rooms? What sort of beds have worked for your teens in small spaces or kids sharing rooms in small spaces? What would you buy in my shoes for your children?

Edited March 23, 2017 by LucyStoner

[JudoMom]

My boys all have loft beds. Oldest and youngest share, and middle 3 share. It's nice because they each are able to have their own space/desk/shelf.

[KungFuPanda]

I'd get them both loft beds. It'll give them room to have a really cool hang out spot without crowding.

[Laura Corin]

Ikea had Captain beds that you could turn upside down to make low level beds for guests. My boys had those until they got enormous.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ikea+captains+bed&safe=off&client=ms-android-google&prmd=simvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL6ICSmezSAhVrC8AKHa8ODfAQ_AUICCgC&biw=412&bih=604&dpr=2.63#q=ikea+captains+bed+turn+upside&safe=off&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CVOjiCJUdPl7IkD4RNzUYj9mhH1HMNfQZbckjjdMdOmruOcC8FdosRwtGDvucZprEPWqlBg2lox818qq58EULBDYMXdY3H3C8fjoKhIJ-ETc1GI_1ZoQRd-bZgWNPB58qEgl9RzDX0GW3JBE-VOqk9vpzeyoSCY43THTpq7jnEXfm2YFjTwefKhIJAvBXaLEcLRgRk6VRscY8ZMEqEgk77nGaaxD1qhGcRbLbm5D1dSoSCZQYNpaMfNfKEZxFstubkPV1KhIJqufBFCwQ2DEReAbxSuXWUoQqEgl3WNx9wvH46BF2d8jBqb7gxg%3D%3D&*

[Katy]

My only comment is that they might like extra long twin loft beds over the long term if your family is particularly tall. The plus to this is they can take the loft kits to college if they plan on living in a dorm (assuming you build them to be easy to take apart). Plus, these are cheap to build, there are plenty of free plans on the internet to loft college beds.  They can build them themselves, together as a project.  As long as no one is allergic to pine it's probably healthier than commercial beds, chemical wise.  If your budget allows you can also put a futon under one or both of them so they have a place to hang out or play video games.  Or desks that fold down or move around, depending on how they'd like to build them.  Showing them different options of fold down furniture and how tiny houses do things, and they could probably come up with their own idea of what they would like, and design, build, and finish themselves.

 

ETA:  the other benefit of this is that two extra long twin beds pushed together make a king size bed (someday when you have grown kids and guests).

Edited March 23, 2017 by Katy