With summer travel in full swing, many of us will be welcoming house guests in the coming weeks. But when friends and family arrive with overnight bags, they also come with a question: Where will everyone sleep?
A dedicated guest room is the obvious answer—if you’re lucky enough to own one. But it’s not always the best use of space when you don’t have guests over. It probably won’t be able to fit a larger crowd.
Don’t worry: There are many other ways to add occasional sleeping spaces to the home.
“Since the pandemic, people have been asking for mixed-use spaces more than ever,” he said. Max Humphreyan interior designer in Portland, Oregon.
Mr. Humphrey noted that it’s not difficult to combine a sleeping space with the functions of an office, media room, or exercise room: “Often, it’s a matter of prioritizing a room for the main activity and then finding a solution a few times a year that needs to host someone.”
He and other designers shared their secrets for accommodating overnight guests when space is at a premium.
Consider withdrawing
The traditional choice for temporary sleeping space is the sofa bed, which has long been damaged and caused back pain.
“They’re like the worst of both worlds – an uncomfortable sofa and an uncomfortable bed,” said Mr. Humphrey.
But some are much better than others. The key is to try them on, or at least perceive the quality, before you buy.
Ginger Curtis, Founder Urbanism Designs In Fort Worth, he chose a velor-colored sofa bed from Clad Home To anchor the guest house’s main living space behind hers. said Ms. Curtis, who also likes to sleep on sofas from definition of interior.
When you make a sofa sleeper into a bed, add a pillow-top mattress cover. “My kids, even when we don’t have guests, will ask to take her out for a night at the movies,” she said.
There are also convertible sofas that do not rely on folding armature. Instead, they have pillows that slide or flip over to form a mattress, creating a continuous cushion for those who don’t mind sleeping a few inches off the floor. Examples include twilight Sofa Bed from Design Within Reach (from $2,795), This road From Blu Dot ($2,195), alesso From CB2 ($2,199) and vintage leather options Giovanetti And de sir.
Or try rolling
Mrs. Curtis also loves rollaway beds. She installed one in vacation cottage They rent outside of Fort Worth. One of the small bedrooms is furnished with a double bed, so she added a rollaway bed underneath.
“It’s out of the way when it’s not being used,” she said. “But you’re literally doubling the sleeping area in a very, very small area.”
Camp on a cot
Rollaway beds and air mattresses can accommodate additional guests when necessary, but they don’t exactly scream “comfort” or “fun.” If you’re going to make a makeshift bed, why not do something your guests will be happy about?
Mr. Humphrey recently published a book on the historic interiors of a National Park lodge (“The Lodge: An Inside Tour of America’s National Parks“), so it’s no surprise that he loves to offer his guests a camp-style crib. “I think it’s supposed to feel like camping when you’re staying at a friend’s house for the night,” he said. It’s more enjoyable than the average guest room pull-out.”
Bayer Maine uses Folding wooden bed (about $200) with fabric ropes. But he added a personal touch: His local upholstery store made a quilted skirt top that he placed over the crib. “This just elevates the design and gives it a little personality,” he said. It also makes the crib more comfortable.
Find a great seat
Don’t assume your guest bed has to pull out, turn out, roll out, or otherwise open. When rooms need to do double duty, many designers opt for a sofa or daybed with a deep, bench-style seat cushion that approximates the dimensions of a twin mattress.
If you have one large seat cushion on your sofa instead of many smaller cushions, you can use them the same way you would a single mattress. He said “I have this in my TV room at home” Natalia Mayer, an interior designer based in London and Miami. “I can buy sheets for her. Even my mother stayed there.”
Mark Cunningham, the New York designer, did something similar for a client in Manhattan’s West Village, installing two custom sofas, each with a double-sized seat cushion, between built-in shelving. The result: a guest room that doubles as a study.
“With this client, her kids are older, so she wanted space for when her kids and her kids’ friends come over,” said Mr. Cunningham, who added storage drawers under the sofas. “It feels like more than just a family room.”
Create a corner window
Another option is to build an oversized window seat that can be used as a place to read and daydream during the day, and as an extra bed at night.
Beth Webb, an Atlanta-based interior designer, has designed homes that use window seats to increase the number of people who can stay in one room, and create sleeping space outside of guest rooms. For a house in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I designed a window seat with a twin mattress in the middle and padded seats on the ends, in front of a window with a view of the Tetons.
“A lot of times, accommodations are empty with grandchildren who do,” Ms. Webb said, explaining that the setup allows her clients to put their children and adult grandchildren in the same bedroom. “They called this room the Little Master, because it’s so generous. In fact, the kids draw lollipops to see who gets them.”
I work with Stanley Dixon ArchitectI designed a similar window seat for this Kiawah Island, SC pool house in the hallway just outside the bedroom, for a little separation.
Either way, the window seats have built-in lighting and shelves that double as nightstands.
resize it
What if you often have large crowds of overnight guests? Consider enlarging a window seat.
When Mr. Humphrey was designing a beach house in Manzanita, Oregon Beebe Skidmore ArchitectsIt included a huge window seat that wrapped around the living and dining room, and under windows looking out over the water.
“It’s like sitting in the living room and a seat for dining,” Humphrey said. “But five kids can sleep there. It’s actually the best place in the house.”
Ms. Meyer did something similar for a vacation home she designed on the Spanish island of Ibiza. “We created this cozy room that’s both a TV room and a space to hang out and a cocktail lounge at the end of the evening,” she said. But instead of chairs, she added a built-in L-shaped bench across two walls, using French mattresses as bench cushions. The room can sleep a few people after a night of partying, but the rest of the time it doesn’t feel like a bedroom.
“I tell all my clients to design rooms for how you live 360 days a year, not just for special occasions,” Ms. Mayar said. “We come up with creative ways to transform one room into something else, so that it always has life.”
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