It may not seem important, but making good use of your spare bedroom can provide your home with a real asset. It is all too easy to use a spare room as storage space for disused furniture or old clothes, but with a little time and effort, your spare room can be converted into the perfect extra space for invited or impromptu guests to come and stay.
The more time you spend clearing, redecorating and dressing your room now, the easier it will be to accept requests from family or friends who want to visit. Having guests to stay should be a relaxed affair for all concerned. It shouldn’t involve you spending two days before their visit manically cleaning and stuffing things into the loft or cupboards, while not being able to find decent bedding and worrying about whether or not the dilapidated single bed is good enough.
Clear Out the Junk
First of all, clear out all of the old junk. Anything you haven’t used or worn in a year is unlikely to serve a worthy purpose for you again, so throw it out or sell it if it’s in good condition. Car boot sales, online auction sites and local paper small ads are perfect for this. Any money you make can be ploughed back into redecorating the room, thereby reducing your costs.
Once the room is clear, give it a lick of fresh paint or strip and replace the wallpaper, whichever you prefer. Calming, neutral colours are best. Think swish hotel bedroom and you won’t go far wrong. Check the carpeting or flooring. If it’s a garish 1960s’ nylon nightmare, change it for something more plain and conservative.
Comfort and Style
Perhaps the most important feature of a guest bedroom is the bed. Invest in a new bedstead or divan base and a good-quality, comfortable mattress, preferably a double if space allows. Make the bed and give it a trial run yourself to test for comfort. If you sleep well in it, it’s likely that your guests will too.
Purchase quality linens for the bed, together with comfortable pillows. Make sure the bedlinen is freshly laundered and keep it in a storage box so that it stays fresh and ready to use. Make up the bed with fresh linen each time a guest comes to stay.
To make sure that your guests are not woken early by too much light coming into the room in the summer months, it may be worth fitting a thick window blind or heavily lined curtains.
To provide an added touch of comfort and luxury, you can provide fluffy towels or bathrobes for your guests and fill a basket with some mini toiletries, just like a good hotel would. You can probably get away with not adding tea and coffee making facilities, though, as this would seem a little too over the top!
While your guests may thoroughly enjoy your company, they will most likely need a little time to themselves as well, so consider providing a seating area in the bedroom, if you have the space. It needn’t be a full-sized sofa and chairs. Just a comfortable place to sit and read or write their postcards home. Cane furniture for your home could be the perfect choice here, as it tends to be more compact than lounge suites, but still adds comfort and style to the room.
Preparing the perfect guest bedroom is not rocket science. Create a haven for your guests and they will want to come to stay again and again.
This guest article was written by Francesca on behalf of 2Furnish. If you are looking for unusual yet stylish pieces, such as furniture made from banana leaf, she recommends visiting their website.