If you could design the perfect guest room, what features would you want? Would a dual-purpose room be an advantage?
Well, since we’re using the word “perfect,” I’d like a turndown service with a sliced Kilwins apple on the nightstand. That way I could feel like I was on vacation.
Hey, my needs are simple. Who needs a beach when you have a decadent apple slice?
With the birds no longer in our nest, we have three leftover bedrooms, and PLENTY of plans to fill them. Mr DustandDoghair would like a nice office as a home-away-from-home for his day job (there’s a little joke in there if you dig deep enough)… I’d like a project room in which to work and store supplies and tools for my Neverending (and never finished) Endeavors… and yes, a guestroom might be nice for the occasional visitor.
At the time, I thought I was just figuring out where to put a guest bed.
Turns out… I was setting the stage for my next Gee-I-Hope-This-Works project.. involving a wall mural.
Before I break out the apple slices..
Hey, I can deliver an apple slice to any room in our house…so THAT objective is easily met. The logistical considerations began with assigning which room for which purpose.
Originally, Mr chose the smallest room for his office. I painted the room a neutral color and moved all his equipment (that had still been occupying our bedroom since the covid lunacy).
The smallest room is at the top of the stairs…and It didn’t take long to realize that having Mr’s organized chaos as the first impression for the upstairs was No Bueno. Mr got the boot and was promptly moved to the room at the END of the hall…and moving him twice wasn’t a total loss because as anyone who watches HGTV knows: it’s MUCH easier to paint an empty room, so I did that before kicking him out of the small room.
I almost then claimed the small room for my project space…but Mr’s office chaos isn’t entirely different from my projects chaos…
And that’s when this epiphany hit:
Who’s actually going to USE these guest rooms, anyway?
My kiddos tend to stay over for big holidays and we LOVE that, and I would rather do my projects on the roof than discourage a family sleepover… Thus, one guestroom became two, and the project room idea morphed into a shared guest/project space in the largest of the three rooms.
Room number one was the one Mr just vacated and was freshly painted, so it was fairly simple to make that GR1. I repurposed one of the boys’ queen sized beds, bought a new mattress and some bedding, shopped the house for accessories and, Finis (well, “finis” if I ever select drapery fabric).
Also, want to know what “real life” means? TV box hiding under the bed. 🤫
Hmm..what about a DUAL-purpose guest room?
For GR2, we briefly entertained purchasing a Murphy (fold-down) bed, which would give me lots of project space and still have space leftover for a second double bed.
Reflecting on it, however. Anytime someone used the room, I’d have to pack up all my things. And since I’m always in the middle of SOMEthing…that would be annoying as hell. So this became the room layout solution:
We already had one queen-sized Ikea storage bed…which could accommodate two people… (or so I’m told. Personally, I have slept in a king-sized bed since Mr and I wrote it unofficially into our marriage vows. The occasional times I’ve slept in a double or queen involves a entire night of silently singing “There were two in the bed and the grumpy wife said, ‘roll over, roll over…’ And they all rolled over and he fell out.”)
Who me? Nope, not priveleged at all.
SO we added a second queen-sized Ikea Brimnes storage bed…which gave me FOUR gigantic drawers to store my, shi…, ahem, things.
The Ikea beds didn’t have headboards, and I thought about adding Yet Another Project to my list, until I discovered these perfect-match candidates from Home Depot.
And THAT’S when things got super easy…for about a minute
I love watching room makeovers on TV. They clear everything out and start with a blank canvas. Not sure where they actually store all the stuff they clear out off camera. Me? I just keep rotating the contents around the room and hope I don’t trip over anything.
THIS ain’t THAT!
Eventually, everything on the Guest Room side found it’s rightful place.
And THAT’s when I took the remarkably simple idea to add a wall mural and complicated the heck out of it.
I’ll tell you all about it…. next time.
Hello, Jodie…
No! Half the fun without complications, for sure!
i think I saw the video for your murphy bed! It’s really cool and unique, not to mention practical! Bonus that you don’t have to shoo Piper off of it, haha!
Ahhh, there is nothing like a good DIY, is there? We haven’t done much of anything DIY in a while, and my fingers are just itching. I’ve got ideas but need my partner in DIY to make them happen. All of our kids are close enough they’d never want to stay over so I really don’t need two guest rooms. Sooooo, I’m thinking library/craft shi ahem room! Next time you need to paint a mural, I’ve got a wall or seven!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Paint a mural, Miss Marsha?! I still haven’t finished painting the last one I started in 2019! Someday!
This particular one is wallpaper. WAY easier, faster, and actually finished (unlike the post that tells about it, haha)…and no DIY partner required.
Love how both you and Leslie picked up on the shi ahem room…that one may stick in house (full shi, no ahem).
You are so very ambitious and clever. I like this Plan B very much. Wish we had a guest room large enough for a bed and all of my craft shi, ahem, stuff, too. Love the bedding in the first room. Such restful colors. I have elephants in one guest room and a beach theme in the other. The elephant room feels a little circus-like.
Can’t wait to see the mural. Are you painting? Papering? Tapestry-ing? I mention tapestries as they were the go-to murals in all the castles we’ve visited. So. Much. Work.
Hello, Weary Traveller!
I’m excited to hear about your adventures across the pond!
The craft half of this room was originally meant to be the upstairs portion of our foyer. I thought our kids would be less likely to kill each other if they had extra space so we ditched the grand entry and added the space it to the bedroom. (It must’ve worked, because they’re all still alive.)
I bet your elephants are charming! Iris was an elephant collector, as I recall…and my grandmother was, too…so you are in wonderful company with your affection for these gentle giants!
The mural is a wallpaper so MUCH quicker than painting, and less dust than tapestry! Win win!
Will it be no fun if you didn’t complicate things.
We have one of those murphy beds, and we do love it.But I can see your point about having to move things around.
I can’t wait to see the finished mural
Xoxo
Jodie