Tell me about your guest room - long

katiewhompus

It seems like a slow day, so let's talk guest rooms.
Scott really wants us to have a formal guest room. Nice bed, dressers, empty closet, etc. Personally I don't want to spend the money on one (we would have to furnish a bedroom from scratch) or give up one of our rooms for the maybe once a year that it is used. We currently have the rooms assigned as a nursery, sewing/chinchilla room, and our own bedroom.
I am thinking of designing the nursery to be used as a guest bedroom if necessary, and we currently have a futon in there that does double time as a couch or full size bed. I slept on the bed for over 10 years, so I think it's fine as a bed if I add my mattress pad to make it a little squishier. If we turn it into a formal bedroom (bed, dresser, spare closet, etc) then we would have to relocate the chinchilla, all of my sewing stuff, and (at least in my mind) devote a room to "looking pretty".

We also have a couch downstairs that pulls out into a full sized bed. There are doors which close off the upstairs from the downstairs, so a guest would also have privacy if they slept downstairs. We would just tell them to open the doors when they were ready for the day and we would stay upstairs otherwise. There is a bathroom downstairs.

So...give me your opinions. Is it worth spending a couple grand to make a formal guest room that will be used once a year, if that, or as a guest would you be ok with a futon/couch bed in a private portion of the house?

stinkerbell6879

We have a room down stairs with it's own bathroom, so we did turn that into a guest room. It has been great when my BFF comes into town w/ her husband and for my parents. It's nice to have an area where you know it will always be clean and ready to go. But if I only had so much space I am not sure if I would have? KWIM? But it is a nice option.

Knittibell

Do you ever sew anything FOR the chinchillas?!

I don't have a guest room now, but we'll probably have 2 when we get a new house. One will have a queen bed, and I'll put twin beds in the other. I'm going to search out Craigslist for the twin sets and some furniture I like, paint it all white, and put it in the spare room. The queen set I already have.

I'd say wait until you have a need to replace your current bedroom set (although, did you JUST buy it?), and then make your old set the set for the spare room.

But the futon setup is fine, especially since you don't have guests all that often!

SarahPLiz

Our guest room has a blow up mattress, a rocking chair, and is currently filled with wedding crap. 

I think that a pull out couch is fine if your guests only stay a couple of days. In fact, the reason we have the blow up mattress is so our guests don't overstay their welcome

I have seen sewing rooms double as a guest room. You'd just have to relocate the chinchilla. 

kd.joseph

We actually have two guest rooms upstairs, with a full bath. My DH bought this house a few years before I moved in. So at first glance, its a rather large house for just the 2 of us. But in a few weeks we'll actually have so many people here that we'll be on the floor, on a blow up mattress.

So guests rooms can come in handy.

zippityb

Our guest room has H's old bedroom set in it. It also has my sewing machine. It has been really nice having a legitimate guest room. His best friend uses it so much that we just call it his room.

I wouldn't spend the money on bedroom furniture, though. What you have now should suffice. And if y'all decide to get a new bedroom set for yourselves down the road, you can always use the old stuff for guests.

stinkerbell6879

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_tell-guest-room-long?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:eabd7d80-c32a-4284-a846-f555900bb86fPost:a82fad81-8a4e-49a1-a791-b90df810d45e">Re: Tell me about your guest room - long</a>:
[QUOTE]We actually have two guest rooms upstairs, with a full bath. My DH bought this house a few years before I moved in. So at first glance, its <strong>a rather large house for just the 2 of us</strong>. But in a few weeks we'll actually have so many people here that we'll be on the floor, on a blow up mattress. So guests rooms can come in handy.
Posted by kd.joseph[/QUOTE]
Yeah we get that comment all the time. But the market was to good to not buy. I think we might also make one more guest room/workout room.

katiewhompus

I do sew for the chinchilla She gets little hammocks, tunnels, and sleeping bags.

We've had the bedroom set for about 5 years now, but aren't looking at replacing it anytime soon though. That is something I could bring up to Scott though. Maybe we wont' have his dream room now, but in a few years who knows what could happen.

Sarah, that is part of my thought process I'll admit. When we bought our house bil goes "Oh great, now mom can live with you guys". Um no. I'm terrified that if we have a nice set up she'll go "Oh I'm going to stay with you guys for the next week, month, year". I love her, really I do, but I'm really enjoying living an hour away from his family for a change. That and there's a big difference between their situation ( mil lives in her own house with it's own kitchen, bathroom, living room, phone line, etc which is connected via a hallway) verses her moving into our house where we would be sharing everything.

Loopyseven

We have a formal guest bedroom with a bedroom set (I bought it off Overstock for $1000.00, we already had the extra set of queen mattresses cause both FI and I had a set when we moved in together.  The dresser is used for our sweaters, movie storage, misc junk storage.  The closet is the "dog closet" for the travel crate, baby gate, extra toys, leashes, etc and our winter coats, hats, gloves, ski equipment.  

It's also on the first floor and it's been so hot the A/C can't keep up with "our" bedroom upstairs so FI and I have been sleeping in it the past 6 weeks. LOL.  We're actually having a guest next weekend, and the following weekend as well so FI and I will have to go back to our room .  

Knittibell

Awww, I would like some pics of the chincis, when  you have time.

One of the things I really want when FI and I start the house hunt is a seperate in-law apartment for exactly that reason. If no one needs it, we can rent it to one of our many friends who are always on the hunt for a pad, or I can make it a studio.

Loopyseven

Oh yeah, and once or twice a year when we go out of town without the dog, a friend of ours will stay at the house with her so it's nice to have a room ready and not have to worry about changing sheets or something as soon as we get back from a trip before we can go to bed.

kd.joseph

And we used most of our old stuff to furnish both rooms. I have bought a few new things recently, sheets, comforters,pillows. But we aren't going overboard, when we buy our new bedroom suite, we are moving the old one upstairs.
 
But I'm with you, don't let people get to comfortable, they may want to stay.

katiewhompus

See that's the thing, in the 3 years we've lived together we have never once had someone stay the night. So I find it hard to give up precious living space for a guest room.

Holy windstorm! Goodbye trees

pooh8402

we have a guest room with a double bed, nightstand, dresser, lamp, and half-empty closet. it's furnished with my old furniture from my apartment I lived in during college, and the bedding is my old bedding. so it's kinda beat up now, but at least it's a private comfortable bed. we're planning to get better furniture later and change the bedding, but it's serviceable. so we didn't spend any extra money on it. if that were the case (if we had needed new furniture/bedding) we probably wouldn't have a proper guest room and guests would stay on the pullout in the living room. I almost wish we didn't have the extra room and furniture, because it means that the ILs will be staying with us during visits instead of getting a hotel room.

meganyani

hmm why does a guest room need a dresser? I've never stayed at someone's house, even for a week, and put my clothes away in one. Wouldnt a nightstand suffice to set things on?

If you don't have lots of guests, then I think it's unnecessary. Then again, we never have guests and I wouldnt spend a ton on making a room 'pretty'. Our only extra bedroom is for FI's kid when she comes on the weekends so I dont get to worry about such things!

Sheets, some pillows, and the mattress you used should be fine i would think.

pooh8402

you're right, a guest room doesn't need a dresser. I had a dresser that was an heirloom, I'm not going to donate it or sell it, so that's where it goes. we store the extra bedding for that room in it, as well as out of season clothing for us. so right now, one drawer holds the bedding, one drawer holds like ski socks and winter hats, scarves and gloves, another drawer holds thermal underwear.

when I stay at someone's house for a weekend and they have a dresser (especially one with a mirror) in the guest room, I use the top of it to hold my purse and my makeup bag and hair dryer and stuff like that. I get ready there instead of the bathroom.

[Deleted User]

We only have 1 spare room. The house has 3 rooms, but past tenant converted a bedroom right against the master into a closet, so we have a master room and a bedroom-sized closet that is also H's office.

So, the guest room is also my office and our exercise room. We have a bed in there, a dresser, desk, and exercise machine. I don't see the point in a formal guest room. There is bathroom right across the hall from the guest room and our room is on the other end of the house, so there is plenty of privacy. We also have a pull-out couch in the living room. But we rarely have guests anyway, so it would be a waste of money.

vegasgroom

I have enough couches for friends to crash on but I don't have a guest room, so no family ever asks me if they can come stay. :-)

kimheartsscott

We have an extra bedroom, but we will probably never make it a guest bedroom.  I've always thought they were frivolous.  Right now our extra bedroom has our bookcases, filing cabinet and will have a desk eventually for our printers and computers.  I guess it would be called a home office.

thesuninherhead

We have a four bedroom house. The main room is ours, obviously, and one room is the study (which is actually starting to more closely resemble a study after I spent the weekend cleaning it out!). We have two rooms which we jokingly refer to as the kids' rooms. One has a single bed, a bedside table, and (randomly) our ironing board. The other has a futon and a bookshelf and not much else. We use both as guest rooms. I don't see any need to create a full-on guest room at this stage given that we only ever have overnight visitors and what we've got is fine for that purpose. 

thesuninherhead

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_tell-guest-room-long?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:eabd7d80-c32a-4284-a846-f555900bb86fPost:63454091-2d6b-49f1-9ded-1b60c0cdfc7c">Re: Tell me about your guest room - long</a>:
[QUOTE]See that's the thing, in the 3 years we've lived together we have never once had someone stay the night. So I find it hard to give up precious living space for a guest room. Holy windstorm! Goodbye trees :(
<p>Posted by katiewhompus[/QUOTE]</p><p> </p><p>Lol, if you haven't had one guest in three years, I am finding it difficult to believe that you need a hotel-equipped guestroom!</p>

barbbhoww

Our one and only guest bedroom is a guest bedroom-but also our office.  There is furniture you can get to use the rooms as different things.  You can get storage space for the closets to put your sewing stuff...I hate to dedicate one room to only one thing.

katiewhompus

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_tell-guest-room-long?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:eabd7d80-c32a-4284-a846-f555900bb86fPost:a6d89500-8666-4fe8-a614-e7b352cc93a6">Re: Tell me about your guest room - long</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Tell me about your guest room - long :   Lol, if you haven't had one guest in three years, I am finding it difficult to believe that you need a hotel-equipped guestroom!
Posted by thesuninherhead[/QUOTE]

Exactly!

nda_roxybabe

I say its fine the way it is. I wouldn't spend a lot of time, money and energy on making it a guest room when it will soon be the nursery.

If there some way the sewing room could fully double as a guest room?

katiewhompus

Not really, I mean, it could, but I would have to move all of my sewing stuff to the living room, along with the chinchilla. We would also have to move the massive wardrobe somewhere else because we couldn't fit a bed in there with it.

nda_roxybabe

Would the futon fit in there with it?

katiewhompus

Possibly, if we moved out the fur ball.

nda_roxybabe

Haha that wont work then. I say leave it the way it is.

brookelynpaisley

We don't have guests often and we haven't put a real bed in it until we have a house (when we do, our current queen will go in the guest room and we'll get a CA king). We currently have an actually decent futon, computer desk, and bookshelf in the room. The walls are covered (and I mean covered) in DH's framed tattoo art and some of our art. On top of the bookshelf is a 3 foot Virgin Mary statue. It also houses all the stuff we can't find a better place for, though we try our best to conceal it under the futon and desk. It's your typical junk room

brookelynpaisley

Oh, I didn't answer the question. Yes, if room allows, we'd like to have a designated guest room. It make have to do some double duty as creatively concealed storage, but we would like to have a nice space for guests. We'd like to have two kids, so we'd need a 4 bedroom house to make that work.

jemmini6

we probably should make one of our rooms into a guest room.  BF's family lives 3 hours away, but they come up quite often for the weekends.  right now, they set up air mattresses in the living room and the empty room.  the other room is my office and has a futon in it, which his dad likes to sleep on, but his mom doesn't like it.  it would be nice to eventually offer them an actual bed to sleep on at our house...guess i should start watching craigslist...