Best guest room ever!

[Waytooearly]

My new place has a spare room which I am trying to make into a really nice guest room. I usually just buy Primark sheets etc. but thought I might splash out here to make it really nice.

Any recommendations for really cosy bed linens? Anything to make the bed nicer like a mattress topper? Any other ideas to make a guest bedroom really comfortable?

It really depends on who will most likely be using the room, and how long.
In our old flat it was the odd friends or family staying last minute or one night on the sofa bed. bedding, towels and sorted.

We now live overseas. It means most guests stay 1-2 weeks long. Having often spent a fair amount of money to fly over and hire car etc. They are close friends and family usually. With longer stays, often several times per year, then extras are nicer to make it a simpler stay.

For example we now have a coffee machine in ours, as dhs parents like a coffee in bed in the morning and struggle making it in kitchen and carrying up 2 flights of stairs. Its not essential, just makes their stay a bit simpler. They can now make a coffee at 6am if they like without panicking they will wake the rest of the house, watch some morning news, get ready in ensuite, and emerge to join everyone for breakfast.

For us, based on many travelling by plane so light on luggage, the extras that have been commented on as great have been:
1)Hairdryer
2)Chair, with lamp behind, and small side table - means they have a place to read, write, drink coffee if they want to escape the house chaos for an hour
3)Dressing gown
4) Extras pillows
5) An empty drawer or 2, or basket or similar where they can unpack suitcase a bit so they arent living out of a suitcase for 1-2 weeks.
6) Spare plug adapters as everyone forgets

I have a guest room and loved setting it up for eventualities.

I stay in a lot of hotels with work so have a caddy with sewing kit, toiletries, shower cap, vanity set (cotton pads and buds) and also keep spare toothbrush, comb, towels, flannel, good hypoallergenic bedding, bottle of water by the bed, pain killers and sanitary products. small alarm clock (non ticking) and a good reading lamp.

there is a wardrobe in there that we bought for when MIL comes to stay as she likes to hang her clothes up (we bought this after she tore the hooks off the back of the door by overloading them and we needed a new door!)

If people are staying I like to think they would ask if they need anything but don't like to think of them waking at 3am with a banging headache and too nervous to disturb my sleep to ask for something.

MIL has also got a storage box in the wardrobe with her own personal toiletries etc so she doesn't have to remember them when she visits.

Double bed
Bedside tables on both sides
Lamps on both sides
Somewhere to store and hang clothes
Somewhere to stash a suitcase
USB charging plugs for phone chargers
Extra spare blanket and pillows
Naice bedding
Cushions
Chair
Wall mounted TV
Box of tissues
Framed WiFi code
Flowers and/or a diffuser
Cosy looking fluffy rug
Bottled water
Clean towels
Mini toiletries just in case
Good black out curtains/blinds

My guest room is probably a bit extra but I love it

love the way some people are getting so wound up about such extravagant suggestions as a jug of tap water on a thread entitled "best guestroom ever" . The whole point is that the OP wants to make it comfortable and lovely and wants to put some effort into it.

Mirror close to plug socket!

The jug of water thing puzzles me though, do people actually use it?

Just read your post @BarbaraofSevillle!

Kitten spa! I'm packing my bags right now!

I think people do always need to have water in a guest room to perhaps take medicine, etc. My guest room has an ensuite bathroom, and I always put a couple of bottles of water in there. Our tap water is highly chemically treated and tastes terrible. We use filtered water for making coffee and for drinking ourselves but it is just easier to put a couple of bottles in the guest bathroom.

no artificial fragrance - bedlinen washed in fabric conditioner, reed diffusers/plugins and fresh flowers all get a thumbs down from me.

Fresh flowers aren't an artificial fragrance?

We get compliments on our spare room quite a lot. We have an Ikea topper on the mattress which is extremely comfortable, 7.5 tog duvet (so I don't need to swap mid-seasons), a throw, cotton covers, two pillows each, blackout blind, bedside table on each side with a lamp on one, and an empty rail with a few hangers on it for clothes. There's one picture on the wall above the bed and nothing else, so it's uncluttered and restful. Sometimes I tell DH he's been snoring so I can go and sleep in there

Good point. No fragrance full stop I should have said.

Think about who will most likely come to stay. Is it friends for a weekend, family who live abroad for longer visits, people with dc, a long term au pair???? How often will the room get used by guests?

Our guests get

Double bed (ottoman storage bed, it's brilliant as you can store so much stuff underneath it all hidden away!),

memory foam orthopaedic mattress (from groupon),

100% white cotton bedding (tkmaxx).

Large bath sheet sized towels and a smaller hand towel.

There is a bedside table with lamp on it, a couple of books, and plug converters for my family from Europe.

The en suite is stocked with usual bathroom stuff (showergel, shampoo, conditioner, comb, cotton buds, handwash, etc). We also have spare toothbrushes in there for people who stay unexpectedly.

As our friends started having dc we now also have a travel cot and the mattress from our dcs toddler bed stored so when they come to visit there is enough for their dc to sleep on plus a nighlight. All this is hidden in the storage bit of the bed when not needed.

We have guests visit once or twice a month so our room is used pretty frequently - however I felt it was wasted just as a spare room so we've put a projector in there and now love family time snuggling in the bed watching Disney movies. I also allow my oldest dc to build lego creations up there that the youngest can't get to destroy ... it means the room gets more use even when we don't have guests.

I get my bed linen from here.
They are a hospitality suppliers really but they sell to the public.

www.outofeden.co.uk/

This is the most Mumsnetty thread I've ever seen.

Mine has a double bed in it, dressed with supermarket bedding. If they want anything else they can book into a hotel.

This is the most Mumsnetty thread I've ever seen.

It really is.

Just to add, pillows are important. I think you should have at least one medium firmness and one soft for each sleeper.

I am perimenopausal and wake up at least three times a night needing water. In fact I've always taken a glass of water to bed.

Plus if guests have been drinking the night before they may well wake up feeling dehydrated,

The higher the thread count the better the sheets.

And Egyptian cotton is nicest.

Fair enough on the water, I didn't think of people needing to take tablets and I've never taken water to bed myself unless ill and in bed during the daytime. I really would worry about knocking it over though, I am as blind as a bat.

Lots of grumps here. Ok, if you don’t have a guest room, some people do. What’s wrong with wanting to make it as comfortable for guests as you like? I really appreciate someone’s efforts to give me a comfortable night if I stay in their home.

No need to be offended by someone else’s idea of home comforts. Some people sound quite cross

No need to be offended by someone else’s idea of home comforts. Some people sound quite cross.

Who appears to be offended @Langrish? That's a little bit of an exaggeration I think ...

Not cross, just expressing a preference for an at-home rather than a boutique hotel experience.

“ they can book into an hotel” sounds a bit offended 😁
Maybe that’s just me.

Maybe that’s just me. I think it might be.