At the moment, our house is not set up for guests. We don’t even have a guest room. The stay guest here or there is usually forced to sleep in our eldest son’s bed while he camps out with his siblings, or they have to bring their own blow up bed. Needless to say, that we need to work on this.
Part of the problem is room. Our house isn’t very big by most standards, and the bedrooms are all taken by us and our kids. Still we have plans to make the family room have multiple purposes, one of which will be serving as a guest room.
Right now, it is mostly a family room. After the coming soon installation of a pocket door, this family room will convert to family room, plus office, plus guest room. With the room being able to be closed off, we could use it for this purpose as needed.
Of course, once this is all put together, we will have to test drive the room. I recommend this for anyone who is setting us a guest room. Spending a night yourself in the room will reveal things that may have to be changed, such as a draft window, blankets that aren’t warm enough, noises from the nearby furnace, etc. Fix what you can to make your future guests more comfortable.
Since our family room doesn’t have a closet, one thing that will have to be allowed for is space for guests to store their stuff. While I don’t see putting in a full dresser into the space, there may be some sort of furniture that could double as storage, such as an ottoman that opens. Worse comes to worse, we will have to make room in the nearby hall closet, although that isn’t an idea solution.
I would be really interested in hearing any ideas that you might have for creating your guest room space. What worked for you? Do you have any tips for guest space in a room that serves multiple functions? Please leave a comment and let me know.