“Hatchet Bedroom” Have you heard this phrase before? I’d be amazed if you have because I made it up (™ pending) but it is possible that you have your own name for this condition. It has to do with bedroom design, specifically where the bed is placed in the bedroom.
Let me get a few things out-of-the-way:
- I wasn’t traumatized as a child
- I am not a gun advocate
- I don’t have any personal experience that would reasonably explain my rationalizations
- You won’t change my mind
It would appear that most speculation home builders are not using architects on their projects, architects who would take the time to actually lay out and draw furniture into their plans because if they did, I don’t think I would see as many “hatchet bedrooms” as I do. A “Hatchet Bedroom” is a bedroom where the head of the bed is placed on the same wall as the entry door into the room. Most people will psychologically attempt to arrange their bedroom furniture in a way so that the door into the bedroom is visible while they are lying in the bed without being aware of that they’re doing it. Don’t believe me? Just put it on your mental radar and see how often this happens when there is an option.
People don’t want to be surprised by having someone show up in their bedrooms right by their head. It’s disturbing and most people unknowingly try to avoid it.
I’ve sketched up a typical bedroom to help illustrate what I mean. Let’s go to my favorite educational design technique – the “narrative”.
[scene]
Night time, new house, couple sleeping in their new bedroom for the first time
Future Victim A: Don’t you love our new bedroom? It’s perfectly sized and I love being able to look out the windows.
Future Victim B: I do love this room but since it’s night-time, uhm … there isn’t really all that much to see out the windows. I told the movers to put the bed on the other wall between the windows. Wonder why it’s over on this side?
Future Victim A: Yeah, well, this seems okay for tonight … right?
Stranger: It’s perrrr-fect … Ka-Chopey!!
.
Okay … maybe that’s a bit dark but you probably understand my point. You’re lying there in your bed and someone can just show up immediately into what is your most personal of personal space (other than perhaps your crotch – but that’s a different sort of website).
Here is the same room – the architecture has been unchanged. In this sketch, I’ve rotated the bed 180° so that the head of the bed is opposite the entry and when the occupants are lying in bed, they have a clear view of the door. There are other furniture driven reasons why this arrangement is better but that’s not really the point of this post.
I think it’s really, REALLY important that furniture is drawn into the plan when designing the rooms. Thinking about how the room will work is paramount to its success as a space and without considering the furniture arrangement, you haven’t really addressed all the possible concerns that might exist. I also think that if you design a bedroom with its entry door, closet and bathroom doors in such a way that you create a “hatchet bedroom” you haven’t designed a very good bedroom. I would like for everyone who ends up reading this post – whether you agree or not – to think about how their bedroom is configured. I am 100% positive that the vast majority will have their beds in a position where they can lie in their bed and comfortably see the entry door.
It’s all about options buddy and I opt to keep my head attached to my shoulders. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking; if someone is coming into your bedroom with a hatchet, maybe it’s better to NOT see that sort of thing coming. That’s a reasonable conclusion to draw, but … 1) it’s just a phrase and there are other reasons having someone just show up by your head is bad, and 2) that’s what “pulling the covers up over your head”* is for.
Good night, Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs chop your head off,
* “pulling the covers up” over someone else’s head is also a different sort of website
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New to your site and I loved it. Your term hatchet bedroom is hilarious 🙂
Cheers!
Hey Bob,
I’d be interested in your opinion about how/if the “hatchet bedroom” principal applies to toilet placement in a bathroom?
Hal
I have many thoughts – and posts – about toilets. You should use the search bar on the right-hand side and look for them. You will learn more about what I think about toilets and toilet placements than anyone should really want to know.
Is there possibly something “Freudian” in your labeling the bedroom door as “The Point of Entry” and your concern regarding bed placement? There is/was for me (especially as a teenager.) And I always preferred that my unmade bed be the focal point of anyone’s initial view of my bedroom (along with a SNCC poster hanging above my bed.)
And unfortunately, I have seen too many scenarios in which there is too little space for the King-sized bed (mirrored headboard preferred), 2 faux Ethan-Allen nightstands with the requisite 2 brass lamps atop, to fit between the 2 windows in a manner such that the disproportionately-draped windows are not obscured. See, I believe that noisy A/C units will quiet themselves down if they know their owner is watching from behind the drapes.
Bob, another great article. (By the way, my wife, who is THE writer, says it is “lie in bed.” Lay is as “lay an egg.”) Gotta go adjust some furniture…
One way to survive interior decorator warfare:
I prefer to sleep hanging from the rafter beams with one eye
open, the bed is a decoy because no one ever thinks of looking up…
As for watching TV in bed…no obvious comment.
Hi Bob. New to your blog. I’m an interior designer who also space plans for renovations etc. I’m totally confused why anyone would put a bed on a short wall with a door (your hatchet scenario) instead of the longer wall!
Not only does it feel better to enter the room and see the bed, there is more space (love the bed between the windows with nightstands below them) for furniture and traffic flow.
Plus I would design wonderful built ins for the opposite side for TV (gulp) and sitting area.
So I’m agreeing with you completely…although it was a very long winded “interior designery” type response. 😉
Never thought about having someone come at me with a hatchet in the dark hours but I will certainly use that in my next floor plan pitch to a client. Fear is always helpful in getting my clients to see the correct way. (Wink).
Cheers
Hello Bob, I am a new reader of your nice blog here. I’m a young architect and actually the hatchet bedroom is the most layout plan I would do. it’s what I think, from the stranger’s perpective they will see the whole room (on the window’s side) first before they see the bed. So I think it feels more private for placing the bed there… just my opinion 🙂
How many visitors are coming into that bedroom? Design it for the people that use the space, not for the tour of the bedroom that they have when guests come calling.
That’s why the “hatchet bedroom” is also a big Feng Shui no no. Yes many architects don’t seem to take furniture OR cabinetry layout into account when planning walls. Great post, thanks!
Thanks Gloria!
I’m working on apartments this week (drawing furniture of course) and all I can think about is crime scenes in the bedroom because of you. I hope you’re happy Mr. Ka-Chopey!
Look at it this way – if you are thinking about it now, someone else won’t have to think about it later. [fingers crossed, the power of architecture]
Amazing! Never thought of it before. Both husband and I are architects by trade and our brand new master bedroom is a hatchet! There is an alcove entry into the room though, and maybe living in little old Perth, Western Australia doesn’t give rise to too many hatchet incidents for consideration….
In reality it was designed this way as the bed wall is a shared face brick feature wall with the adjacent living room. Also I didn’t want the bed to be seen from the open door.
Nope hatchets are not a problem for me. Sorry Bob, can’t agree with you on this one….
I agree with her. Seeing the entry from the bed & vice versa in a Master bedroom seems a bit cliche. I prefer the head rest be hidden from view plus I rearrange the furniture of the bedroom depending on the Season every year. I like to keep it fresh.
That’s okay, you don’t need to agree. Most of the things I bring up on this site are really more “guidelines” and as the expression goes, there is an exception that defines every rule
Ah but now that I’ve had a closer look at your plans…of a squarish room…yes I too would put the bed as you suggest, and rearrange the closets as suggested by others. When designing a bedroom, always design a “long wall’ for the bed.
Second drawing takes care of the door issue, but a view of the commode? I usually like to avoid that view.
Yes, flip the bathroom around. This also makes the filled-with-clothes closet a sound buffer to the hall/rest-of-house.
Even better, flip the bathroom off the outside wall, and to the interior one, to be a buffer between the rooms.
I live in an apartment and the wall with the door is the only one wide enough to fit the Cal King bed and be able to have our dresser drawers open (opposite).
that would eventually drive me crazy. If part of the circulation path involves rolling over the top of the bed, I think there might be other considerations before the “hatchet” bed layout rule comes into play.
Totally!
From my bed, I not only can see the bedroom doorway, but thru it to the front door and the patio gate. It also allows the morning sun to reinforce the effect of my alarm clock. Sure, I’m probably paranoid, but I like the first rays of daylight and want to move closer to the Equator.
sounds about right
Bob- It never ceases to amaze me what we can learn about our clients. We had one who had a ‘friend’ who wanted to, in addition to seeing out the bedroom door, from the bed, as you describe, see into the master shower. But, that may be for a different website.
definitely a different website … and when you figure out which one be sure to let me know (for research purposes)
I agree with no hatchet bedrooms. They are a pain to photograph too!
you mean for crime scene investigations? 😉
The point of your post is absolutely correct about planning the furniture for the room. I had meticulously laid out the furniture in my house, if nothing else just for the purpose of locating receptacles, TV’s, coordinating door swings, etc…..however my wife loves to rearrange our entire house on a bi-weekly basis (just to keep things interesting) so I’m not sure it was the most productive time I could have spent.
On a related note, there was an episode of “Big Bang Theory” where Sheldon similarly explains to Penny why we don’t sleep with our heads toward the door (to defend against intruders).
There’s a reason that Sheldon’s the smartest one on the show …
I get your point and my current bedroom is perfet – for a stranger with a hatchet 😉
Ah, that’s too bad … nice knowing you
I completely agree with your post! But you shouldn’t read the comments without a warning label…tonight I’ll be checking the place for pysco hatchet killers, creeping clowns and a stray dragon before I go to bed! Only one quick comment…I like my bed so I can see the door, but at a 90 degree angle to the windows so I can get the breeze across the bed in cool fall and spring evenings.
don’t forget about Captain Hook … rumor has it that he likes hiding out under the bed
My atomic wall clock collection ticking away is how I deal with the bad Captain.
Bob thanks for bringing a somewhat sardonic smile to my face. By the way, you can use me as a testimonial that this is true and not mere speculation. While living in Panama my wife and I did have an intruder enter our bedroom in the middle of the night, and trust me, it was very fortunate that I could see him by raising my head because the bed was on the opposite wall. Ka-chopey.
yikes!
As much as I like validation, in this instance I would have rather “assumed” I was right. Glad you are still here to share your experience. [shudder]
You’ll have to fill me in on the details next time I see you
A word “circulation”. I always visualize how furniture will go in a room so I can understand how the travel path will flow in that space. “Privacy” is another word, whether it is how comfortable you will feel in your bed based on what YOU can see or which way to swing a door to a bathroom down the hall so there are no surprises at the dining room table, privacy should always be given consideration when laying out a space.
Thanks Tim.
Circulation and viewing corridors are both considerations that it would seem that people tend to overlook at times
And not to sound snobbish, but unless they are an architect (or designer), most of the time they are not even aware of those considerations.
I agree with the meat of your argument (that we need to design our rooms with the function and furniture in mind) but one must consider the windows as entry points as well. I feel much safer in my house with my head towards the center mass of the house then it out towards the periphery.
To my mind, this is an excellent argument for having a “bed wall”–a partition against which to locate the bed. The opposite side creating a buffer space, one which can be an excellent location of using a high-dollar closet system, one without the need for the constraints of too-tight walls and difficukt inside corners.
For those that contend thay closets are inherently messy, I will assert that is a result of poor design, and not a fait accompli. That a mis of door, and drawer units and quality shelving will be neat by nexessity.
interesting – I’ve never heard someone make that comment before. I wonder why this is for you?
More an issue for first floor bedrooms, I would guess. (Meat of your argument – and hatchets. Now I’ll have nightmares.)
You got this one right Bob! Nothing worse than a bed on the door wall. For those who practice the moon and stars lining up thing, a bed on a door wall is also bad Feng Shui as you never want someone to sneak up behind you. 🙂
In addition to just making sense, there’s Feng Shui as well to support my position!
Although he didn’t directly say the same, Christopher Alexander would agree with you. In A Pattern Language, he refers to several patterns related to resolving universal building issues related to sleeping. Privacy, security, creating intimacy are issues shared by all. Using ‘protected alcoves tucked into private domains’ out of view of corridors and doors, he shows an essential way of timeless building practiced across cultures to resolve this. Distilled into modern architectural forms – the least we can do is avoid the hatchet.
Anytime A Pattern Language confirms your position, that’s all I need to hear
#scoreboard
Thanks Elizabeth!
what do you do when your boss [old school architect] does this ALL THE TIME? I try to move the furniture when talking with our clients and they like the “right way”, but he is still put off. Can old dogs learn new tricks?
Yes, an old dog can learn new tricks but there is a limit to how many times you can try teaching them before you get bit!
Sometimes it’s easier just to get a new old dog.
The tougher sledding, to my thinking, is when one’s employer/boss will design only one wall for the bed, and only for one size of bed, and without specific direction by the client to do so.
People /like/ to rearrange rooms. Also, houses last longer than clients (this can be difficult to discerne with some tract houses). The “california king” bed size is only around 40 year’s “old.” “Adult” bedrooms a mere 50 years’ ago would be designed for a full, perhaps a queen sized bed. Now, a king is about the minimum. But, I feel it’s important that our bedroom design accompdate different sizes of beds, rather than forcing people into very-expensive purchases.
I’ve walked into my fair share of bedrooms where you’d be hard-pressed to put the bed on ANY wall. Clearly, no thought whatsoever was given to the furniture layout.
unfortunate, and good luck to the person who buys the house without realizing the lack of planning will make things a bit more difficult when they really didn’t need to be
This reminds me of a friend who father was, uh…
*pushes finger to nose*
My friend would only eat at restaurants where he could sit with his back to the wall and an eye on the door.
well … that’s just solid advice
[wink]
this is so true, old plans and some old houses have the same problem. and also experience sleeping on the same bedroom layout but smaller and without a private toilet. it annoyed me so badly, so i rearranged it.
but one worst layout i’ve experienced is the image i’ve attached. the problem at that time i just finished watching a horror movie. (if i remember correctly it was the grudge.)
thinking about it now this would be a best haunting room for the ghost in the conjuring movie… just saying
but i’m glad that this is a problematic layout. (kinda worried that i was just paranoid.)
great post.
That’s a plan that screams (sorry, had to say it [g]) “use a ‘captain’s bed’!”
And, really, what that really needs is a “pilot’s berth.” Where there is casework defining a desk * lounging area underneath a built-in bad above.
In the simplest sense, a “bunk bed” with no lower.
this was my old room, when i was still high school. the one you suggested is good (it would be a perfect fit for it. i’ll take note of that maybe sooner i’ll encounter a bedroom with the same layout.), but our old whole house was renovated and well planned now, thanks to my uncle who is also an architect.
Thanks Glenn – trying to stave off nightmares one bedroom at a time!
not anymore a problem. those bedrooms were all history. i have my own place and better bedroom now. haha
As a final touch, I’m sure you’d move the door to the Toilet Room away from the end of the bed so that you have a nice clear wall beside the bed and that there is a free flow from the bedroom door to the toilet room door?
you would think – but I wasn’t going to sketch up a revision once that occurred to me
Well, how about moving the entry door in line with the right-hand window, flipping the bathroom arrangement so that the closet doesn’t take up the most valuable space (the corner of the facade!) and putting the bedhead against the wall on the left? Gives us minimal and double loaded circulation space with window at the end and light from two directions in the bathroom. And most importantly, a “sheltered” U-shape to put the bed in…
Never ceases to amaze me how fluent/flexible/viscous/gooey paper architecture is… and then thnking on site “this room can be here, these windows longer… oops, no they can’t anymore! …”
Cheers,
gt
yes – that is a better layout. I probably should have thought about the people who would be reading this post and spent more than a few minutes diagramming the bedroom (and here I was thinking I was just adding the bathroom and closet as entourage…)
Thanks
Pays to always remember one’s audience.
If only in that one can commuicate in some depth tersely by way od specific argot and jargon.
It never ends…shared the post with the folks here in Ireland on my houseology Facebook page. I never cease telling clients how important drawings are!
One must remember to consider the other point of entry, the closet. We all know that moment, eyes wide, when we remember we hadn’t checked it before getting into bed.
and everyone knows that stray clowns tend to show up inside closets.
If it’s not one thing, it another
great Monday am post… waiting for you to upgrade with a sound-track! (I could hear the theme music from Psycho playing in the background) 😉
As an aside, I have a 1910 3BR home – all bedrooms lay out as ‘hatchet’ due to the center-wall locations of traditional windows on adjacent exterior walls, plus those inconvenient hot-water radiators preventing furnishing any other way. So…thanks, Bob… as if just being an Architect didn’t already give me enough reasons to lie awake at night…
and here I was thinking I was providing a reasonable service. Maybe you could stack cans up against the door …
Have been aware of this since I was a kid. Always noticed that most beds were either far away from the door or behind it, so that you could react to it opening. It was a reasonong I followed since I was a bit afraid of Lions breaking into the house and eating us (I live in Norway, so it was a bit far-fetched)
that is completely reasonable …
for my sisters, they were convinced that Captain Hook was under their bed, so every night, when they were lying in bed, they stayed away from the edges so they wouldn’t get “hooked”
I used to never let my legs or arms hang over the side of the bed in case a monster would grab it! Glad to know I wasn’t the only over-imaginative child.
I did the same thing.
Just last night my son slept half in the closet and half in the bedroom because he watched Monsters Inc and was afraid of them coming into his room.
OK, that post needed a warning. I almost choked on my coffee. So true and so funny –
next post: The Perils of Drinking Coffee
I hear that according to Feng shui principles, you should have your bed as far away from the entry as possible, but still be able to see the door when lying in bed.
Just thought this concept would reduce the number of ‘hatchet bedrooms’ 🙂
make sense to me … anything we can do to reduce the number of hatchet bedrooms is a very good thing