Many of us have downsized and require our spare rooms to be multifunctional. The spare bedroom may need to serve double duty as a home office, a craft room, a media room and a room for overnight guests. Let’s chat about How to Create a Multifunctional Guest Room.
We are very fortunate to have two guest bedrooms (each with their own bath) in our new home. One of these rooms needs to function (most of the time) as our granddaughter Summer’s room. It needs to be kid friendly but not “kid specific” when we have other guests visiting. It needs to accommodate a very active girl most of the time but act as a peaceful cozy retreat when we host visitors.
In planning the “Summer/Guest Room”, I wanted to incorporate pieces from my former home and purchase very little. I actually was very happy with the interior design, but the new owner’s wanted some of the pieces and we parted with things we thought we would never use again. We knew we wanted twin beds (we purchased XL twins) so Summer could bring a friend for a sleepover when she gets older and two adults or two siblings could sleep comfortably in the same bedroom if necessary.
This is my inspiration board for the Summer/Guest Room. At this stage of my life I prefer to keep the color palette somewhat neutral in my bedrooms. I don’t plan to change them. The bathroom off of this bedroom has a gold stripe paper that the former owners chose. It ironically coordinates with the textiles from our former guest/Summer room in our Chualar home. You can read about that in my post How to make a guest bedroom kid friendly here.
MULTIFUNCTIONAL GUEST ROOM INSPIRATION BOARD
The cheetah pillows are from her former room in our old house. The artwork was in our former guest room. The bedside table is a beautiful old drop leaf table that was behind our sofa in our former home (or more recently behind the sofa in this house. We move things around with the seasons occasionally. The drop leaf can be pulled up and Summer can use it for coloring or crafting. The lamp base is from Pottery Barn. The lap shade was custom made. They both were from her former room. All of the accessories are ones we owned previously except for the cute frame that was a gift from Mary Ann.
WHAT WE PURCHASED OR ARE PURCHASING
Custom Bedding-Summer pillows and Comforter Cover from Trish of Cottage by Design
Headboards from Ballard Designs
Annie Selke Anya Rug
Pottery Barn Room Darkening Curtains
Bamboo Shades
Serena and Lilly Quilt & leather stools
The headboard is from Ballard Designs (on sale)The Curtains and rods are from Pottery Barn. We purchased XL twin bed frames and mattresses from Amazon. The Serena and Lily stools will hold guests suitcases. The quilts are also from Serena and Lily. We do not have an official chest of drawers in the room but rather an antique blanket chest that we have owned for years. There is plenty of storage space with shelves in the closet for Summer’s toys and books as well as guests things. The room currently has white carpet (not very practical for a young girl). At some point we would like replace the carpet (in all of the bedrooms) with wall to wall sea grass. For now we are purchasing an area rug will be from Annie Selke that will show less dirt.
SHOP THE POST
Do you have a room in your home that needs to serve multiple purposes? How do you handle the transitions? Thank you for reading How to Create a Multifunctional Guest Room. I will be back on Friday with Jennifer for our monthly Over 50 Style Edit. Have a great day.
We only have two bedrooms and a small office that my husband uses. Our other bedroom is a guest room, media room, library and there’s a small desk in the corner that is my “office”. Talk about multifunctional We use a sofa bed to sit on and pull out for guests and two smallish leather chairs that we can move around with an ottoman to watch TV. It works. This is a good topic. I have a lot of friends with a grandkid’s room/guest room.
Hi Ann
When we downsized into our fixer upper we certainly multi-purposed the entire home! Now we have space again but not quite as much!!
I LOVE this room, Cindy, and any that you design! Summer has a very talented nana!
Do you have a paint color picked out for this room? I’ve got a similar color palette going on in our primary room but I just don’t seem to be able to get the paint color “right”. Thanks for your help!
Hi Barbara
I probably will not paint it for now. It is currently white and my painter isn’t out of his cast yet!
Hi Barbara
Thank you so much. I don’t know why I have had such a hard time with this room. I just wanted to use whatever I could from our former home. I hate buying “stuff”!
Beautiful!!! Love the headboards!
Thanks Mary Ann. I finally pulled the trigger
Cindy,
I love “Summer’s” room/guest room. It’s great and would work for a grandchild or guests. I’ve created a spot for my local granddaughter when she stays over. When the cousins visit from Austin, we put them all in the living room with blow up beds and it is so sweet to see them all asleep after watching a Disney movie.
I am enjoying your design/garden posts as much as your fashion posts.
xo,
Karen B.
Hi Karen
They love sleeping all together don’t they? We had a summer cottage that was filled to the brim with kids on long weekends. You had to step over the bodies in the morning to fix breakfast!
I smiled at the bandaid on Summer’s knee. That says it all! Our active little Emily never has shoes on. When Bill asked her where her shoes were the other day she answered, “I’ll find them when the snow comes.”
Hi Pat
It sounds like Summer and Emily could get into a lot of trouble together. Summer never wears her shoes either! The minute she gets in the house off go her shoes!
Cindy this room is beautiful! I am sure that Summer and her friends, as well as all of your other guests will love it.
Our guests rooms do double duty as well, one is a room I sometimes use as my office. We have a trundle bed in there because we are reusing what we had and because I sometimes like to read in there. The other guest room is my husbands former office.
Although we have frequent guests, my brother lives just down the street so the guests have lots of options for places to sleep.
Have a wonderful week!
Hi Elizabeth
You are lucky to have your brother right down the street!
Love the room. I am getting ready to finally decorate my guest room – it’s never been touched, and redo Whitten’s room, both for company and storage. Great ideas! Love the prints from Spicher and Co.
I love your choices for this room, and Summer looks like such a fun and lively girl! I have a similar guest room. I also put in 2 twin extra long beds, the only problem is finding nice quality bed skirts for them. Do you have any sources? Thanks!
What a sweet room! When COVID hit, my guest room became my office also, so I added a desk, computer, printer, files, ugh! I tried to keep it as pretty as possible, but since I still work there daily, compared to the number of times we have guests, it has become more “office-looking.” We adjust!
Hi Cindy,
What a pretty and peaceful guest room. Summer will love it. You put so much thought into creating such a relaxing vibe.
The pic of Summer on top of the burro is fabulous, she looks like she’s in her glory and fearless. Summer must be “pure joy” to be around. I bet she keeps you in stitches. Children are so honest, they just tell you straight out what they are thinking.
Nice you are finally getting some nice weather.
I love your choices! The color palette is lovely and versatile. I notice you hung the bamboo shade level with the drapery rod and not inside the window as I so often see these days. To me, it looks so much more finished than an inside mount.
What a timely post. We are moving and our new homes guest bedroom will have to be multi functional as a guest room and office. I prefer a collected look which is reflected in our furnishings and your posts give me additional inspiration. Thank you!