Spare bedroom or home office?

[Dasher789]

I have moved house recently ish and the layout isn't really working that well for us. I have attached the upstairs floorplan. Master bedroom is used by DH and I. Bedroom 3 is currently the junk room but we hope to start a family soon so all being well, it would become DC room. Bedroom 2 is set up as a spare room and bedroom 4/study is used as a home office. I currently WFH and DH is moving to WFH 2 days a week so we really need two desks in the office room. There is currently my desk, a book case and a piano in the study. We could fit two desks but would need to move book case and piano - not sure where to. We are thinking about making bedroom 2 the study and having the study room as the spare room. I have measured it and our double bed will fit in what is currently the study, but it is quite tight, we wouldn't get much else in other than bedside tables and potentially only one. The spare room will only be used by family a handful of times a year though so I am thinking it is silly for us to cram into a small room and under utilise a good sized room. Bedroom 2 would have lots of space for 2 desks, piano and book case We also thought we may air bnb the spare room a few times over the summer, would a v small room be an issue? Can't decide whether to leave as is or swap rooms. Another option is to partition off a section of the garage and put the 2nd desk in there for DH but he would need to share it with shelves of tools. Any thoughts?

Bedroom 2 measures 3.82x3.12m
Bedroom 4/Study measures 3.04x2.67m

Is the wfh going to be ongoing long-term?

I’d be tempted to have bedroom 3 as your guest room for now, as a DC won’t need its own room for ages. You could set up room 4 as a nursery and then, if things change in the future and you aren’t both wfh, it then becomes the study again.

I wouldn't recommend both of you WFH in the same room - it's really distracting.

If he's only WFH two days a week, is it possible to have a desk in one corner of the lunge or dining room? I'm just thinking two of you on Zoom/Teams at the same time would be impossible. Might not be doable, but if it is, it would also simplify your office options upstairs in terms of space.

*lounge

I'd definitely make bed 4 the junk room for now/future nursery. And maybe de junk as you make the switch!

But yes, two people WFH at the same time might be disruptive if you're both on calls during the day. Or might be nice if you're not as sitting in a room on your own all day can be lonely.

You have 4 bedrooms.

Make 2 separate offices with beds available in 3 of the 4 bedrooms if you think you'll need them. Maybe day beds?

Worry about a nursery when the time comes. You need to be comfortable now. Things can easily be adapted and changed as time goes on

Yes, DH will be WFH 2 days a week permanently. I no what you mean about it being a distraction having us both in the same room but we both previously worked in open plan offices so are used to having people talking in the background. We have headsets so it does minimise it a bit. We currently have DH desk in the living room but it isn't really ideal long term.

The junk room will take a while to de junk. We plan to extend the house in the new year so it is boxes of items we can't unpack yet.

I think suggestions of bedroom 3 being the spare room for now is a good one, even though it will mean a lot of upheaval short term.

We had a shared office in our old place, before moving house recently and now having separate offices. We both WFH most days. I have to say, both working in the same room actually used to help me to concentrate and get stuff done - we thought we needed separate rooms because videocalls often overlapped, but I'm starting to regret it now.

It will be disruptive, but try both. Leave the nursery planning for later, just use the house the best way you can for your current circumstances.

I would use the study as a study.
Then make bedroom 2 a study, plus a sofa bed for guests.
Bedroom 3 can stay the spare/junk room until it will become a nursery.

Another solution is a small desk downstairs.

We are pretty much in the same situation, and I was skeptical about how a desk would look like in the living room. But I found a slim and stylish one that I really like and it just complements the rest of the furniture so well.

A dedicated room for visitors to use a couple of times a year is a waste of your space. I did that for years before moving my desk into the guest room. Much better utilisation of space! My desk looks like a cupboard when closed up, so can be easily "put away" when I have people stay. I recently got an arm for the laptop, but it's easily detached. Printers etc sit on the bottom shelf, just off the floor

Could you keep bedroom 4 as the "main" study and set up a desk that doubles as a dressing table in the current spare room? My spare room is 7*13 and easily fits a double bed, chest of drawers, book case and desk in. You could even use a fold down desk that could go up and away when you had guests perhaps?

Agree with others re use of rooms - do what suits you now and don't worry about nursery until nearer the time.

To answer the point about the Airbnb thing though - your Bed 4 is similar size to our bedroom 4 and the thought of charging someone to sleep in a room that size is funny - no way could you do that. If you definitely want to AirBnb that needs to be Bed 2 or 3 (albeit I think most people expect ensuite and only your master has this).

There is no point living your life now around a DC that won't be born for probably another year and will probably sleep in your room for a year after that (NHS recommends at least until 6 months). Presumably you will be on maternity leave so won't need a workspace for all or part of the first year anyway.

Clear the junk room and use that as the second home office until you have a DC that needs a bedroom. In the future, get a good quality, daily use sofa bed for the spare room/2nd office or a trundle day bed or desk that converts into a bed.

Google Studybed. Bed turns into a desk. Not cheap but excellent space saver. Other wallbeds (also called Murphy beds) are available with desks too

Thanks all, going to swap bedroom 3 and the study for now and will revisit in the future, as required.

Do you actually use the piano?

Could you fit a desk in the spare bedroom? We got rid of the wardrobe that was in ours and put a desk and some tall drawers in the space. I use it as an office a couple of days a week. I also use it as my dressing room and have all my skincare and hair stuff in there. We only have guests for a couple of nights at a time so I got some folding hooks from IKEA for the wall where they can hang clothes if they want to.