Can you use a sunroom as a bedroom? (What’s required?)

Using a sunroom as a bedroom is a great way to add a bedroom to your home at a reasonable price. Some steps need to be taken to ensure that the room can be counted in the home’s total occupiable square footage.

The first steps are that it needs to use the home’s HVAC system. The room needs to be integrated with the rest of the home. Bedrooms require an egress exit that most sunrooms will have, but I include it for the sake of completeness. Finally, bedrooms also need some area for storage such as a closet, although the exact requirements for closets are pretty flexible.

Many prospective homebuyers filter homes by the number of bedrooms. The number of bedrooms will be determined by the family size so some people will only be looking for 3 or 4 bedrooms. If you have a 2 bedroom house that you can successfully add a bedroom to you can immensely increase the value of the home.

Furthermore, extra bedrooms aren’t going to filter people out. For our current home, we were looking for a 3 bedroom home, but we are open to anything above that number. In the end, we ended up in a 4 bedroom home.

Another benefit of the spare bedroom is that it can be used as a quarantine space. Our family uses our spare bedroom when we have guests. We also use it if either my wife or I feel sick so that we don’t wake the other up with our coughing.

Another use for a bedroom as a sunroom can be a spare bedroom that can easily be rented out via Airbnb. It will have its entrance, and it can be separated from the rest of the house so the guests will have some privacy.

One other benefit is that the sunroom will have a great view either in the evening or morning. The scenic view can be a great selling point to either people who want to rent the room for the evening or to potential buyers when you want to sell the home.

There are four items that you’ll need to have in a sunroom so that you can count it as a bedroom.

Sunroom must have heating and cooling

The sunroom must have an egress exit

The sunroom must be integrated into the home

The sunroom must have a closet

The sunroom must have a door for privacy

First, you will need either a bed or a futon. I would suggest going with a smaller bed either one or two twin size beds. Going with a queen or king-size bed in the sunroom is going to make it feel quite small.

Futons are also very popular in sunrooms. They can be used for seating during the day or when it is not being used as a spare bedroom.

I also like having a chest of drawers or other storage space in the room. TVs and other electronics can be set on the chest of draws. Many people also want a desk in the room so they have a place to use their laptops.

At a high level, there aren’t a huge number of disadvantages of converting a sunroom to be able to be used as a bedroom even if you never utilize the room in that manner. The extra storage space from the closet can be used to store patio-related items.

The single only true drawback is that the extra requirements of a door and closet will add some expense, but that’s the limit. For us, I strongly prefer having the addition to the home have the option to be counted as a bedroom as I feel it is well worth the extra money.

At a high level, there aren’t a huge number of disadvantages of converting a sunroom to be able to be used as a bedroom even if you never utilize the room in that manner. The extra storage space from the closet can be used to store patio-related items.

The single only true drawback is that the extra requirements of a door and closet will add some expense, but that’s the limit. For us, I strongly prefer having the addition to the home have the option to be counted as a bedroom as I feel it is well worth the extra money.

When it comes to window coverings for a sunroom that’s going to be used as a bedroom, we highly recommend going with something that offers the best room darkening features.

I would start with blackout curtains and look for reasons to choose anything different. Blackout curtains will ensure that all the sunlight from the many windows won’t create an unwelcome space for someone trying to sleep.

Blackout curtains will also do a reasonable job of dampening some of the sounds from the outside in case of heavy rain or cicadas. Also, blackout curtains are a solid fabric that will add to the room’s overall insulation factor which will make the room a little more consistent temperature which will also be important for some who want to use the room for sleeping.

For a general use sunroom, were fans of open concrete with area rugs or LVP. We’ve written a full guide to sunroom flooring if you’d like to read more about that topic. For bedrooms specifically, though, our top choice is carpet. The reason is that either concrete or LVP will be cool to the touch. Putting your foot on a cold surface can jar some people awake and make it hard for them to get back to sleep. If you are going with concrete or LVP, I recommend keeping some nice slippers next to your bed. This is what we used to do when we lived in a space with hardwood floors that would get cold in the winter.

With these tips, you can convert your sunroom into a bedroom for an affordable price. If this sounds like something that might interest you and make sense in your home, we’ve got the full guide to sunroom . As our normal disclaimer, remember we are not licensed construction professionals or general contractors. The authors and editors at Newawning.com are simply average homeowners who enjoy DIY projects. All our posts are intended only to be general information and entertainment for people new to DIY projects. If you have specific questions, we suggest hiring a licensed professional who can provide precise answers to your exact situation and needs.