31 Days of Hospitality: Day 7 - No guest room? No Problem

Yesterday I talked about overnight guests.  Holly had a question about how to make an office with an air mattress and inviting guest retreat.

We all can't have that dedicated guest room.  What a luxury.  When we bought our house it was just my husband and me - and 4 bedrooms.  Plenty of room for a guest room and it was nice.  Then the guest room became a nursery and we had that, a master, a game room and and office.  At that point we moved the bed into the office.  Looking back I am not sure how we accomplished that.  But I know we didn't have as much stuff then so we had the room. Now the bed is in the shed and in it's place is 2 bookcases and scrapbooking cubbies.  What about our guests, you ask?  The guests now reside in the playroom (used to be a game room) on an air mattress.  How do we make that comfy?

The principles are the same as when you have a dedicated guest room.  Clean sheets, clean towels, blankets, toiletry basket.  When using an office as your guest room the first thing I do is put away all the stuff.  No one wants to see your bills, checkbook, etc. so put it away.  Make sure there is plenty of flat space for your guests to use for their personal things.  It's all about keeping the room clutter free, or at least making it that way for your guests.

Next, invest in an air mattress. They are fairly inexpensive so look around for a queen size one that fits into your space.  If not, a double will work.  Most of them are high enough now that you don't need the 'legs' but if you want one you can get a portable bed frame to raise up the bed.  Make the bed just like you would a regular one.   Try to have the bed close enough to a lamp so your guests don't have to get out of bed to turn off the light.  Sometimes office lighting is harsh so a nice small lamp is a good investment, even if you just take it out for the times your office becomes the guest room.

Finish off the room with a small bouquet of flowers.  This will soften the room a bit and take away a bit of the office-y feeling.

If you use your office as your guest room do you have any secrets to share?

If you've missed any of my 31 Days posts you can find them here:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I do something like this when we have guest. Recently we were able to set up a real bed in the office but until then it was an air mattress. In a box in the closet I kept an old cream sheet, small table lamp and a nice smelling candle. I used my filing cabinet and the things in the box to make a nice bedside table. I also set two towels, a face cloth and a basket with soap and travel sized bathroom goodies in it. Great post!
October 7, 2011 at 4:06 PM
Holly said…
Thanks for all the ideas, Debra! I will definitely be implementing your ideas next time we have an overnight guest!

We paid a lot of attention when we bought our air mattress. We actually found one that has an inflatable headboard, which I think is a nice touch.
October 7, 2011 at 6:32 PM
Sandy @ RE said…
Your series is great! Thanks for joining in! :)
October 7, 2011 at 9:34 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Favorite Things....

Image
Join Melissa @ 320 Sycamore for her My Favorite Things party. Here are my favorite things: David Cook. The CD. Still lovin' it. Listen to it a lot. It's good. Very good. Philosophy Lip Gloss. I have the melon daiquiri flavor and love it. It's shiny AND stays on. Tastes good, too. About $12. Electric Pepper Mill. How did I live without this? Really. You can find one like this at Crate & Barrel for about $40 or so. Peets Coffee . I talk about Starbucks a lot because we don't have a Peets here. It's really the best in my opinion. Luckily you can find it in the grocery store for about $14/lb -or less when it's on sale. You know that's when I buy it! :) Measuring cups. I have these from Williams-Sonoma. I love them. I think it's my favorite thing in my kitchen. At least one of them. And one I use almost daily. It took a while for me to break down and buy them but I have to admit that it's the best $30 I have ever spent. When Little Miss moves us...
Read more

Monday, Monday...

Image
Monday's are usually my favorite days. Everyone is back to work and school and I have the morning to gather my thoughts and eat a leisurely breakfast before starting my day. My friend, E, who I carpool with has her husband take the kids to school since he is off on Mondays. Today, however, has been a bit odd. We had a new dishwasher delivered this morning and my husband uninstalled the old one last night. This morning I wake up to a leak in one of the dishwasher hoses - thankfully just a slow leak but still an inconvenience. My husband had to come home and semi-install the new dishwasher to stop the leak. I have been washing the dishes in the wet bar sink instead of the kitchen sink since something is turned off there and the hubby said not to use it until the new dishwasher is totally installed. I am thankful to have a wet bar sink and not have to resort to washing the dishes in the bathroom - something I am sure we've all had to do at one time. I have some things in t...
Read more

Changes...

Image
I posted some photos of my living room a while back. I realized how blah and boring it looks. I appreciate the suggestions I was given. One of them was 'paint'. We had the walls painted a couple years ago so I really didn't want to do it again just yet so I had to figure what else I could do to get some color in there. I thought about painting a canvas red to match the chair ( below). After talking to my sister she suggested dipping cool whip containers in paint to make the circles and an idea was born. I bought the 3 canvases (20" X 20") at Michaels at 50% off - the three cost $21. I got a quart of paint at Lowe's ($12 - Martha Stewart's Cranberry something or the other). The blue paint was a sample size of Olympic that someone didn't buy -$1. Cool whip container and little round container I had in the kitchen - free. Fleur de lis printed off computer, traced on canvas and painted - free. So for $34 I got this new look. Very David Bro...
Read more