The Average Width of a Room

Create Ample Bedrooms

• Various rooms fit different standard dimensions. A living room is typically larger than a bedroom, for example. However, the least acceptable width of a bedroom -- not a living room -- is 9-feet wide for many builders. Keep in mind, though, that a bedroom that is at least 10-feet wide lives much "larger." In a 10-by-12-foot bedroom, you can move around easier than in a 9-by-12-foot space. That extra foot makes a big difference. Designers often state, however that the perfect bedroom size is 11 feet square because a king size bed will fit in it easily.

Make Living Space Wider

• Living rooms are built every day in homes that are only 10-feet wide. A living room is better, however, if you can spare 12 feet of width, which comes from the practical aspect of walking around furniture with ease. Avoid constructing a living room that is only 9-feet wide, or you may subtract market value from your home. Making a porch more narrow or borrowing a foot from a laundry room to create a wider living room is best.

Break Rules for Baths

• Small bathrooms are built under different rules. Plenty of homes have 5-by-8-foot bathrooms that were constructed from the 1950s until present times. A tiny 4-by-6-foot bathroom, serving as a powder room, may fit into even the largest homes of today. Bathroom space is defined for a toilet and pedestal sink only, for example. You have plenty of reasons to squeeze a small bathroom into a hallway off the kitchen or living room -- regardless of its limited floor space. Home buyers seek the convenience of several baths in a home.

Build Dining Rooms for Groups

• Consider a room 14-feet wide big enough to accommodate a party group. For instance, if you have a dining room measuring 14-by-18-feet, you can hold holiday buffet dinners there easily for 30 people. A more limited room that is only 12-feet wide will work, but two extra feet of width helps diners move in and out of the room more easily to find a place to sit in other parts of the house. Family meals will work well in a dining room that is 14-feet square because of ample room to move chairs and walk through the space.

Take Down a Wall

• Certain changes can help expand room width. If your kitchen is 16-feet long and 14-feet wide, for instance, you might want to yield some of the space to a narrow dining room. You can take down a common wall to increase space, or you can build the kitchen more narrow in a galley-style fashion to use 2 feet of its width for the dining room. If your job requires entertaining clients or coworkers, a good-size dining room is probably more important than a large kitchen.