How To Organise And Style Your Guest Bedroom

Room Design

Guestrooms are not only the perfect excuse to invite family and friends to stay but they also provide an opportunity to experiment with your interior design. Whether you’re looking to extend the existing design theme of the rest of your home or create a unique atmosphere in your spare room, the possibilities are endless.

These are the common considerations when designing a warm and welcoming guest room and some advice for giving your guests a luxury stay.

Welcome Guests With The Essentials

A simple way to give your guestroom a hotel vibe is to provide the essentials for your guests’ stay. A full-length mirror is a key feature for anyone staying overnight and also makes the room feel bigger and brighter.

Other essentials you may wish to offer include towels, bedding and basic toiletries – it’s a nice touch to leave these on the bed to greet your guests. Plus, a reading light by the bed or nook encourages them to enjoy some relaxing downtime. A simple table lamp or a stylish sconce light adds an inviting atmosphere to the room.

Storage space is a nice luxury to offer guests, too – helping them feel at home with a designated place to keep their belongings. You can provide this in several ways while keeping the style of the room intact.

Beds with built-in compartments or drawers are an ideal space-saving option. Similar features include storage under benches (which could also be used for a nook) or desks, or even a simple chest of drawers, which is compact compared with a wardrobe.

Choose The Right Bed

The most important part of any bedroom is the bed itself – you want to give your guests a good night’s sleep but it’s also important the bed doesn’t take up too much space, as they’ll need room for their belongings and to get dressed.

Swapping a traditional bed for a fold-down model is the easiest way to free up some space in your guest room – plus they typically offer a more comfortable alternative to sofa beds. If you’re especially tight on space, choose a horizontal fold-down bed, as these are the most compact when it comes to freeing up floor space.

In rooms with a low ceiling, choosing a bed that is lower to the ground makes the room feel more open, too.

Be Sparing With Furniture

It’s likely your guests won’t need a large wardrobe or closet if they’re only staying for a few nights.

Taking away these larger items and replacing them with a small shelf or bedside table frees up space for guests to move around the room. You can even use the additional space to introduce a homely feature to the room, like a seating area, small desk or even a reading nook.

Find A Cosy Area For A Nook

Nooks add warmth to your guest room and offer visitors a cosy place to relax before bed.

You can design your nook to meet the limitations of your room – for example, an L-shaped sofa or ottoman fits perfectly in unusually-shaped rooms, or you can have your nook built into the wall if space is at a premium.

A simpler and more flexible alternative is to place a comfortable bench seat by a windowsill or a corner – with the bonus of extra storage space inside or underneath for books, bedding or for guests to put their belongings.

You could even pad out some space on the floor. Just remember, it needs to be comfortable and homely enough to sit or lie on for a few hours and unwind. This should be in an open area that isn’t blocked by furniture, making it inviting and allowing for natural light to fill the area.

Kit out your nook with books, a low bedside table or even a mini-fridge, so your guests feel at home – once they settle into the nook, they should want to stay there for a while.

Guest Room Design – Keep It Sleek, Simple And Give It Personality

You may wish for your guestroom to be in keeping with the design theme throughout the rest of your home. If so, you should maintain its character with consistent colour themes, designs, shapes and use of features and ornaments.

When designing a more neutral guest room, you should keep it sleek and streamlined, with a minimal colour scheme, including calming colours like beige shades. Bolder colours in smaller spaces can make rooms feel loud, whereas you want the room to feel soothing and welcoming, like a hotel suite. Read our paint and wallpaper guide for a rundown on different colour schemes.

Adding some simple features throughout, like house plants, also gives the room a natural lift.