Spare room help

[dontcallmeduck]

We have a spare room upstairs and are deciding what to do with it. Do we:
A - keep it as a spare bedroom for guests but redecorate - we have family 2 hours away but they come only 4/5 times a year however are in their 60’s
B - make it into a home office and playroom -DH wfh 3 days a week currently from the kitchen at a breakfast bar

YABU choice A
YANBU choice B

B with a sofa bed/day bed if possible

Home office with a sofa bed (if there is room)
Office and playroom would never work

What Lionel said ^^

Should have said don’t really want to buy a new bed as in a few years one of the DC will want the room and we’d have to get rid of the sofa bed so it’d feel like a waste of money.

If DC are going to need it it's not really a spare room?!

There are loads of vids on youtube re creating a usable home office that's also a guest bedroom. E.g. get an Ikea day bed with mattress under that goes to a double or 2 singles. Or get an expensive sofa bed that's good enough for use as a bed primarily so you don't need to buy twice. Again some Ikea ones offer a choice of mattresses so you can spend more to get a more robust mattress.

Depends on size of room and budget

I built a house 5 years ago which included a comfortable guest room. At some stage it occured to me that it was crazy to have a room (and bathroom) dedicated to 10-15 days use out of 365. We adapted an adjacent playroom and created a self contained one bed apartment which we now rent out through Airbnb. It is available to friends and family with due notice but it is earning its keep in between visits and friends and family are not as keen now they have to plan in advance.

If I were to build from scratch again i would definitely have less bedrooms and more versatile rooms. So a tv room or home office which can be used for guests or, a guest suite which can be rented as a whole.

So I am voting for home office with good sofa bed. It will (probably) be more used as office than guest room.

Office and spare room. Nice daybed would work for one of your DCs. Ikea do ones that you can make into a double.

Definitely an office, working from home can be a pain when you have not got a set space.

Our office was a god send to me and now my DH works from a home a day or 2 a week so it keeps him reasonably organised.

I’ll have a look at the daybeds as that could work when one of the DC move in there. The DC have their own rooms but I just know when they get older one of them will want that room instead as it’s bigger.

Office for sure. It will be used 3 days a week rather than a spare bedroom which will be used 3 times a year!

Get an air bed for when people come to stay. We recently bought an areobed which is inflatable but as comfy as a real bed and kigsize. Only cost about £50 so much cheaper than a sofa bed or day bed ans takes up less space and is more comfy than a sofa bed. Also portable so could be used in other rooms or if your DC wanted to stay at a friends house or something

I would go with the day bed option. Where would your relatives sleep otherwise? I wouldn't put family in a hotel when we have a spare room.

I'd go for a home office
You could by a single bed that has another underneath that coverts to a double
This would be handy when it's a children's room and they have friends to stay

Home office with either a day bed or one of those beds that convert to a double

I’d just buy a sofa-bed - even if it’s just for a few years, you can sell it on then. Or donate it. You’ll use the room so much as a study / guest room when needed in the interim, that you’ll have covered the cost of the sofa as such.

We had an IKEA hemnes daybed in my home office, ostensibly it was for guests (although we also have a proper guest room so it only got used pulled out about 8/9 times in 4 years), in reality I used it for naps when I was working from home ... That room is now the nursery and we sold the day bed on a local selling page for £40 less than we paid for it. They have huge storage drawers that would be ideal for a playroom and it was really comfy of you wanted to keep it and use for a child.

I’ll be had a look at daybeds and the IKEA hemnes is nice looking and quite reasonable.

Would it be totally unreasonable to expect visitors to sleep on an air bed like an Aerobed??? I’ve had a look and they get good reviews and are quite raised so visitors would be sleeping really low.

I’m just worried about dedicating space to a bed that will be used only 5-10 times a year when it could be better used as empty floor space for train tracks etc.

DH wants to go air bed option now but I worry what (his) family will think of us by not having a proper bed for them.

You could sleep in the spare room and guests have your room if you're worried what family would think.

I would move children now and use smallest room as an office.

We have three bedrooms but it's only us two so one is our room (obvs), second room is guest room although DH often sleeps in there as he doesn't sleep well and I snore (allegedly). We also have quite frequent guests. Third room houses DH's cross trainer and the ironing board (always up) and linen cupboard. Our "office" is one of these shelf/desks on the landing.

www.futoncompany.co.uk/storage/collection/home-office/oak-leaning-ladder-desk.html