Box room options: Ikea stackable bed or narrow trundle or something different?

[Crampulet]

Hello, we have a box room that is 1.7m x 3.2m and trying to figure out our best options for it to function well as a home office/guest room for the present and as a teenager's room in the future. It has a built-in wardrobe, so no need for additional wardrobe. The door is at one end of the long room and the window is the opposite end. We would like to have a single bed and a desk as the main things, with the option of creating a double bed for visitors. Due to the shape of the room and the doors of the wardrobe, the only configuration is to have the bed lengthways and the desk next to it under the window. Likely would opt for a foldable desk to make it easy to get it out of the way when double bed is needed. The options we are considering are:

IKEA stackable bed (https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/utaker-stackable-bed-pine-00360484/): this is 83cm x 205cm per bed, when placed next to each other it would just about fit. Advantage is that it allows for a 85cm wide desk next to it, but in the double-bed configuration it is a very low bed, not sure how comfortable that is.

Single bed + narrow trundle: A normal single is approx 100cm x 200cm, so two of them wouldn't fit next to each other. I reckon with a bit of diy we could make the trundle narrower (70cm) to fit the room exactly when in use and cut a foam mattress into this narrower width. Main disadvantage is that only a smaller desk would fit next to a standard single.

Narrow single + trundle: diy-ing both the single and the trundle to be approx. 85cm wide each. Would still be an acceptable size as a single bed and would allow for a decent sized desk, but would mean significant extra work from us to modify both beds (although I believe doable).

What do you think about these options, would any of them work you think? Or do people have other inspired thoughts? Cabin bed is not an option due to mobility issues. Thank you!

Thank you, I do like the look of this one. In your room was it also pulled out all the way to the wall? Was it okay to manouver that, especially closing it back in to single?

Thank you so much, this is super crucial information I needed to hear! The mattress width of the stackable bed is 80cm, the same as the pull-out day beds, so considerably more narrow than a standard single. The main user of the guest bed is a tall and large male relative, so I would want it to be comfortable for him and it sounds like the 80cm bed may not be. (I thought it might as we use a double bed with my partner which means 70cm each, but I know it doesn't exactly translate to the single bed).

Thank you! We have the same radiator problem too, which will be another thing to factor in, but for the moment I am ignoring it. Arghhh, I hate how this room is being configured!

What about something like the argos jay - be folding bed or dreams meadow folding bed while it is mainly an office and part time guest room. Then when you need it to be a permanent teenager's bedroom get a standard single.

You could either sell on the folding bed or store it elsewhere and continue to use it for guests.

Thank you for the suggestion. Would these function well in double-bed configuration?

We've got the IKEA stackable beds and they're great. Single visitors sleep on them double stacked. Couples turn into double. All our guests said comfortable nights sleep

We have the ikea vimle sofa bed. They do a two seater. It’s really comfy for a sofa bed, folds out easily and away and it’s high up enough for older adults.

Dh, myself and toddler have all slept on it at a squeeze ( when our main bed was apart for decorating)

Ours is also in office and we have the sofa opposite a large desk and there’s just enough space to open bed out and walk around

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/vimle-2-seat-sofa-bed-gunnared-beige-s89545234/

Very interesting second opinion, thank you! Would you say the stacked mode is a good enough size for a larger adult to sleep comfortably? Now that I come to think about it, all my friends that use the daybed in its single mode are slim females, so may not be a good reference for general comfort! 😅

Is the stacking/unstacking doable if you can only stand at and lift from the shorter end of it?

This is more or less what we have in the room at the moment, just a different brand. The problem is, when it is open, we cannot fit a desk in the room as well as open the wardrobe. Relative that stays often with us needs a workspace too, hence my preference for the default room setup to be a single bed and a desk. Would also give us the option to easily sleep in there if someone is ill or something without having to open sofas and things.

https://www.bedkingdom.co.uk/flair-aurora-cream-boucle-daybed.html

how about this?

I'm afraid this does not fit into the room. It is basically like a single plus a trundle.

Thank you, I do like the look of this one. In your room was it also pulled out all the way to the wall? Was it okay to manouver that, especially closing it back in to single?

Haven't bought it yet, but have it earmarked for DD. The size, storage and radiator covering headboard have made it the lead option for us.

The video on the webpage makes it look very easy, but I appreciate that's not necessarily truly representative. It might be a q for @SquireMcDoll to kindly investigate!!

Bold fail! The first paragraph was quoting @Crampulet reply to my first post.

This one is cheaper from ikea
But same size as hemnes.

Ikea also do a fold down wall attached table that could do as a desk. Or a smaller wall mounted fold up desk with shelf space above.

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/brimnes-day-bed-frame-with-2-drawers-white-00228705/

We've also got the stacking beds. We had them in a box room that basically only fit the beds as a double with little extra space and it was ok to lift the bed to double mode. A bit tricky to join them together with the velcro clips, but not impossible (just required a bit of acrobats in sitting on one of the beds). We used them like you're suggesting, either as a double when we had two visitors, or as a single with one. We had a folding desk too, which my partner used as his home office. The desk folded up so it could go under our bed when we had visitors. I've slept on the beds myself, they are quite low but honestly found them quite comfy and had no complaints from my parents either.

For our teeny tiny box room we got something like https://www.dreams.co.uk/dreams-workshop-guest-divan-bed-base/p/363-01646-configurable?variant=363-01648&utm_content=unassigned&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAopuvBhBCEiwAm8jaMXPJcBhJcg_95924RmoYquUcwpq9xe8Lykrl2twv_w2z5RyHOm2JKBoC_1YQAvD_BwE. (Ours was from John Lewis but they don’t seem to do it anymore) it’s a proper single so very comfortable and really easy to pull out and make a double (also comfy) added bonus is you can use the pull out bed as a single in a different room too if you need flexibility. We had a Hemnes but sold it as it was too imposing in the small room - the drawers were handy though and I found it easy to pull out.

Is the built in cupboard worth keeping? I’d be tempted to turn that into a desk nook if it’s a suitable width, with a desk and then shelves above. You’d have much more freedom then with a bed - could even have a permanent small double set up.

Or have you considered the Aerobed type options for when you have guests? They’re raised airbeds.

I've got an IKEA Hennes and it's a total pain with fluffy carpet. It won't roll back under without a heck of a lot of shoving (& sweat).

Or keep it and adapt it into a workstation?

Could you just get a small double
135cm x 190cms

@Crampulet and @MaggieFS we have the IKEA Flekke bed and the mechanism for getting it in and out is basically the same as the Hemnes day bed - it takes a bit of a shove to get it in and out and I'd say that if you pulled it out all the way to a wall it would be difficult to get back in. We've had it as a single bed for my eldest for about five years and it's been fine - he finds it really comfortable. We bought it because we planned to pull it out full size for visits from grandparents, but have only used it for that a handful of times for various reasons. If I was buying again for DS I'd probably go for this one due to the infrequency of using it as a double: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/slaekt-bed-frame-w-storage-slatted-bedbase-white-s29291956/ (but that's not much use for you Crampulet!) The other thing to bear in mind about it are that if you end up using it as a single bed longterm you can't have a bedside table beside it and use the drawers without moving the table (we've gotten round it by putting a tall chest of drawers to the side of it so DS reaches over the headboard to use it, but you obviously need room at the end to do that). Also if you want the headboard in a certain end read all the way to the end of the instructions and make sure you are following the right section - my OH didn't bother with that and I was stuck under a cluster feeding baby so wasn't able to check in so he assembled it the wrong way round, and I'm still waiting for it to be fixed five years later (baby has thankfully stopped the cluster feeding though 😂)

PS - have also used the stacking beds in a holiday home and they were really easy to lift on and off (you buy a lightweight ikea mattress obviously). They were also very low when separated, but as long as your guests don't have problems getting up and down I think they'd be very comfortable, and perfect for the co-sleeping mama. If I were you Crampulet, I'd probably go for these for now, and consider selling them on to replace for something like the Slaekt or a high sleeper when converting to a teen room.

We have a small room like this, mostly an office, occasionally a guest room, we’ve found the aero beds are really comfortable and durable. So they just live in the cupboard and come out as needed. The desk can be folded away and stored in the cupboard as needed.

Yes, my husbands 17stone friend has slept on the bed and said it was fine..

Lifting from short end I've not tried as I can walk round, but they're definitely not heavy.

@GlasgowGal82 Thanks for all of that info, very very helpful.
We actually have a slightly wider room than OP, so I think we'd be able to push it in.

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be too tricky to add some straps to that one or Hemnes, to be able to pull it in from sitting on the permanent half, for the OP.