Do we have to have a spare room?

[muddleduck]

We live in 4 bed house with 2 ds's. The 4th bedroom is a combined office/laundry/spare room. I work from home alot and DH uses the PC in there a lot in the evening. It is the largest bedroom in the bouse, but it is a shambles.

AIBU to get rid of the double bed in there? My view is that it is no longer a proper spare room so what is the point having a double bed that takes up so much room.

MIL is our only regular overnight visitor. Would it be unreasonable to put the boys in together when she is here and put her in DS1's room? DH things this is unfair on her. He also thinks that it is unwelcoming for others who might want to visit if we don't have a proper spare room. He has suggested a sofa bed, but I don't really see the point.

(We have a double futon mattress in the loft which we could bring down for the very rare occasions when we have a couple come to stay.)

We've never had a spare room. Poor DD gets booted out of her room and goes to stay with her Dad whenever we have guests - far from ideal.

So yes, I think your DH is right - get a sofa bed, make it into more of a room than a bedroom but with the potential to house a guest.

Decent (ie metal action with a thick mattress) sofa beds are huge, unwieldy & weigh a ton - even if you had delivery men take one upstairs you'd have to pay someone to get it down again!

\link{http://www.sofabed.co.uk/products.asp?rId=4\clic-clac type might be better} (sorry if someone's already suggested it) - they stick out from the wall quite a bit though

We have a sofa bed in the living room & tend to put family on that & any guests in one of their rooms, but our kids are quite old & used to sleeping in random places

How about this one? It's usually a single, so you wouldn't have to open it most of the time, but will also flip out into a double, or alternatively two singles if you unzip it.

Out of stock at the moment, but presume they'll get more in?

i loved being turfed out of my room when we had guests when i was little - it was like camping.

but depends on the child i guess.

You could get a good old Z-bed...

\link{http://www.sleeplandbeds.co.uk/double-folding-guest-bed\this one is 4' wide & looks like pretty good quality} - £287 though.

But they take up very little space when not in use & you could keep it in a corner (with a throw over it maybe, so it looks less mechanical & stays clean!)