There’s something a little sad about the concept of a guest room. It’s a room that goes unused for the vast majority of its life. The decor you choose, the style you infuse into it, the furniture that you buy and painstakingly put together – it rarely has a chance to shine. Only on the occasions when you have company can it step into the spotlight.
It also has a tendency to feel like a huge waste of space. Houses tend to be calculated on square footage in terms of their volume, yet for some reason, we write a huge chunk of that off for occasional use. It’s less than ideal, especially if you find yourself pressed for space in other areas – not making use of that spare room just isn’t sensible.
So rather than taking any unused upstairs room and automatically declaring it a guest bedroom, why not think about the other ways it could be put to use?
Home Office
It’s an obvious one if you work from home; chances are you have already considered it. And if you don’t work from home… there’s no point in having an office, is there? This is what we’ve done with our spare bedroom, and I’ve just finished decorating it. Want to see what it looks like? I’ve just posted it on my recent blog post here.
There might be. Think about the paperwork that goes into managing a modern life. You pay bills, write letters to companies, research out insurance policies – hours tied to a computer just busting through the red tape. Might it be nice to have a separate space to do this in? You could store all of your life-related documents in one place, so if you need something at short notice, it’s right there waiting for you. It’s definitely worth considering a home office whether you work at home or not.
Games Room
Why not inject a little bit of fun and excitement into a room that would otherwise have been unloved? Tables from the likes of Birmingham Billiards, darts boards, and even standard consoles can be difficult to fit into the style of your main living room – so why not give them their own space, where they can shine?
This preserves your living room for relaxation without anyone having to give up a hobby. Not only that, but you can install hard-wearing flooring and paintwork, all necessary for those dropped cues and errant darts!
Room of Storage
When we think about storage, we tend to consider how we can cram it in with the rest of our decor. Sometimes it works; an ottoman can be attractive while still housing a multitude of objects, for example. However, this is more the exception than the rule, especially if you’re living in a confined space.
So why not dedicate one room of the house solely to storage? You can link shelving along the walls, add a couple of filing cabinets, and then some deep drawer units. You could even add a few clothes rails if you’re struggling for wardrobe space. We have a huge wardrobe which is almost 6ft wide, with sliding mirrors and two rails – and I absolutely love it – storage doesn’t have to be ugly!
