Why Our 7th House Won’t Have a Guest Bedroom

May 21, 2018
IN: bedroom, decorating, guest bedroom, guest room, our seventh house

As much as I’ve loved decorating our guest bedroom, our next house will not have a whole room dedicated to being used a few times a year. In fact, call me crazy, but house number seven will not have any rarely or barely used square footage at all. House number 7 will be smaller on square footage and much more efficient in the layout department.

I’m saying no to any and all square footage that only exists to collect dust the majority of the year. Which means no guest bedroom, no formal living room and no formal dining room.

(embroidered quilt, upholstered bed)

While we host overnight guests quite a bit, because both sets of parents live out of state, our guest bedroom remains vacant the majority of the year.

But even though we won’t have a room dedicated or specifically designated as a “guest bedroom” we will have a nice, private space with its own bathroom for guests to use when they come to town.

(desk, teal velvet pillow, blue water art, round mirror)

The plan is for guests to stay in what will be used as my husband’s office the majority of the year. It will be a multi-functional room with its own private bathroom. Instead of setting it up as a bedroom with a desk, it will be an office that can easily transform into a bedroom.

(rug)

I’m thinking of going with a really great leather chesterfield sofa bed. Although, I’m also considering a murphy bed.

Either way I’m done having a room, or any square footage for that matter, that is only used a few weeks a year.

At first I wasn’t sure. Since our families and many of our friends are out of state, I initially thought we’d need a guest room in the next house. But when I sat down to count up the number of weeks our current guest bedroom was occupied over the last year I came up with less than 8 weeks. Do I really need a whole bedroom that is only going to be used 8 weeks a year?

What are your thoughts on guest rooms?

Every house we’ve called home since we’ve been married has had a guest bedroom because it’s always been important to me that we have space for our parents to come stay with us. But given the opportunity to build, it just seems like it makes much more sense to have a multi-purpose office/guest room and combine two spaces into one. Bigger isn’t always better. And as I’m getting older lots of square footage just means more places for dust bunnies to collect. Ya know?

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we just ditched our guest room with the arrival of the baby, and i feel so much better about our use of the house! it really felt like a wasted space and only got used once every 2-3 months. we got bunk beds in the playroom so now the kids move there when we have guests and i love this so much more.

I agree! I’ve never understood the reasoning for a formal living room and have never liked a formal dinning either. Less space, less cleaning, more peace of mind! 🙂

Two of our bedrooms are now office space for my husband and myself. We still have one guest bedroom should anyone come visit. So, yeah we agree with you on being more efficient with our square footage.

A murphy bed would be awesome. My question is, if your husband works at his desk as my husband works at his, how would you hide the piles of “trust me, I know where everything is” piles of papers? Or your confidential financial papers?

We got rid of our guest bedroom, or rather we moved the nice “guest” bed to our daughter’s room when we redecorated for her. Now we have an empty room and are waffling with what to do with the space! Murphy Bed is a good idea…I have also seen nice daybeds but we have not firmly decided yet. Good luck!

We’re househunting right now, and with a baby on the way, I know that we have to factor in guest space since both sets of grandparents live out of town. But it pains me to think of dedicating a room to a space that is used so little (like our current guest room)! I love the idea of a sofa bed or Murphy bed. I lean towards the sofa option since it’s located in the office; in our case, I know my husband would stretch out on that while doing some reading for work.

My husband and I used a bedroom as office space for both of us and moving out for guests was not really practical. We wound up using one of the kids rooms for guests. Having them bunk together for a few weeks was far less disrupting than moving out of the office. My husband works from home full time like your husband, so having his own space is really a necessity. Just my thoughts.

We have downsized to 2 bedrooms which makes any space precious to us so we have a sofa bed in the second bedroom along with the television. This is our guest room/tv room as we only have one living area and decided no television in this room. Our children have grown up and moved away so it works for us.

Young House Love podcast was just talking about this last week, how they have too many rooms. You might want to listen!
Our house has 4 bedrooms, all small, our bedroom, son’s room is quite good, an office/changeroom for hubby since our bedroom is too small to fit his dresser! And then 1 room which could be a guest room but as of yet has no bed or sofa or whatever, is full of my craft room junk totally unorganized and so messy and the main floor is covered in train tracks. So I now simply try to avoid going in there 😉

Every family lives differently, and only you can judge and ultimately choose what you prefer for your family. That said (and *only* because you asked), while I am with you on the additional space to clean, etc., I think you would enjoy a dedicated guest room for quite a number of more years. Consider when your children bring home friends from college (which you want to encourage!). Even more fun, consider when they are married (eventually with children!) and will hopefully come visit for holidays, etc. Your guests (even when they are family) would be more comfortable in a dedicated guest room with a real bed rather than on a home office sofa bed (insert sad face here) where they can’t help but know their very presence is disrupting your husband’s workday routine. Just my 2 cents, but I do realize we’re all different! (My sweet Mama used to remind us, “that’s why there’s chocolate and vanilla…”!)

I definitely agree with no formal dining room or living room. I’m all about downsizing a my kids fly off on their own. I like the idea of the office serving multipurpose as a guest room but my hubby has papers all over his office so hopefully your hubby is neater 🙂 Also, your eldest may go away to college in a few years, so you’ll have that bedroom freed up–as sad as that sounds!

When I go to stay at friends’ houses, it is uncomfortable when I know I have displaced children or am in the middle of a make-shift guest room with tons of their personal stuff everywhere I turn around. It makes for a bad night’s sleep and then I feel like maybe I should have just gotten hotel room instead. When guests stay at our house I want to make sure they never feel the way I have, so we have a dedicated guest room. BUT, it has a little extra space tucked away that I use for my office space. It is past the guest space, and if it were a kid’s room I could see a small media wall and some cool bean bags in there. I am all for less sq ft and efficient space, so I am curious how you will pull off an office/guest space. The extra bathroom is right-on, so I can’t wait to see it all come together!

Deb, I had to laugh at your comment. My husband just recently started working from home. And while we haven’t completed an office space for him yet (he is using my craft room)…I get the piles of paper. Of course, he says he knows where everything is! :-0

Carmel, I totally get it. We have lived in our current home for 26 years. And rooms have changed identities lots of times in that time period. Rooms that serve no purpose other than to collect dust drive me crazy! I can count on one hand the number of times we have used our formal dining room and living room in the last year, maybe even two! We have 4 bedrooms upstairs. Our master, our oldest daughter’s (she sleeps in when home at Christmas), our youngest’s (she is currently living at home) and my craft room (now somewhat turned hubby’s office). Once the youngest moves out, we have will have no shortage of space for guests. However, we don’t really ever have any. The majority of my family live here, hubby is an only and his parents are no gone…so that only leaves when the girls come home (or one’s bf stays the night). So, I too will be doing some rearranging in the coming years as we plan to stay. If money grew on trees…just sayin’…I would knock the wall down between our kitchen and dining area and make it one large space and turn the living room off of it into a keeping room. The only one who truly uses our dining/living room is our 14 pound Cairn, it’s her space to escape my daughter’s 85 pound overly affectionate Golden Retriever. LOL

Alternative idea for you since as many have said upstream that the office may not be the perfect room for double duty. My friend finished her basement and put in a bathroom with a shower down there and a murphy bed for when guests are in town. The rest of the time it is the kids hang out space with a TV, couch and pool table. The murphy bed is more comfortable for the old folks than a sofa bed.

Here is something to think about, I agree it becomes a waste but when either my husband or I are ill, one of us(ususally me) leaves and goes to other room. Even sometimes my I have a twisting turning night and leave to not disturb. This way we get good sleep and don’t become sick. So if you do the office combo make sure you have an awesome mattress! Lol! Will your husband mind when he needs to get into his office and someone is still sleeping?

Completely agree! We have a bonus room over our garage (accessible from inside our home) that serves as a play room and hangout space for the kids. I placed a day bed in a corner up there (with a trundle mattress underneath) that functions as an extra couch for day to day. It easily turns into extra sleeping space, along with a loveseat and oversize chair/ottoman (my smaller kids love sleeping in the big chair). My kids often abandon their own bedrooms in favor of this space for sleepovers or just sister time on weekends. So, when we have guests, the kids use the upstairs and guests get one of their rooms. It works really well for us….especially since I can just close the door to the upstairs and keep the kids’ mess contained.

We have a fairly large home, with 3 teens that each have their own room. No formal living room, no formal dining room. Large informal dining area, and large informal living room (you know, it’s the typical all one big “great room”). What would have been a formal dining area (or “parlor” as our house plans stated lol) became our home office. Since we finished the bonus room above the garage, we do have a spare bedroom with it’s own bath. It’s kind of an “everything” room – secondary office, craft room, teen hangout/game room, and I guess guest room (as we have a sleeper sofa in there). We don’t refer to it as a guest room, and well, we don’t have much out-of-town family, so it’s not necessary anyway. We live in an area where homes have basements, and we have a full UNfinished basement. We definitely use all of our house!

So yeah I agree that there’s no need for a dedicated space that would only get used here and there.

We have a basement with a full bath and a Murphy bed for our guests. Otherwise, it functions as a teen hangout space with pool table, air hockey table, and a big TV. I think it would be hard to have an office you had to move out of for guests, even if it’s just eight weeks a year. If it is normally your husbamd’s Only work space, I think it really needs to be a dedicated space. We are in our seventh house currently and have had every variation of guest rooms. This one seems to be the most efficient use of space. Perhaps if you plan a kid hangout space above the garage or something, that room could serve double duty.

When we moved into our current house just over a year ago I ditched our guest room furniture and built two twin Murphy beds. Best thing ever. They are closed most of the time leaving plenty of room to use the bedroom as a craft and yoga room. When guest come the beds easily pull down and we’re ready for company to spend the night.

I agree with your thinking. We currently have rooms that we don’t use at all either. I turned the formal living room into more of the extension of the foyer with a bench, coat rack and a whole wall of billy bookcase for storage and it is the room that everyone compliments the most when guest come over (no one every complimented my living room, lol). I built this house a couple of years ago but there are so many things I would do differently (but I am not moving anytime soon). It is great that you are building the house for how you and your family live and not what others feel what rooms your house should have.

Yes, we have the exact same set up and it has worked wonderfully for us as well.

I’m with you completely! I have never had a guest bedroom in any house, my parents never had a guest bedroom and when we had overnight guests the children slept in the living room on the floor and we loved it! We always begged our mom to let us sleep on the floor in the living room just random nights but she never let us!
My husband and I built a house 3 years ago and we have no wasted space, every inch of it gets used and even that is almost too much to clean.?

Our guest room is a bedroom downstairs, and while it pretty much never gets used for guest we use it all the time. I am a horrible sleeper and it helps so much to know I have an alternative when I am having a bad night. Eventually one of our kids will probably take the room and I might cry when I have to give up my sleep option!

Certainly different stages of life bring with them different space needs. When my kids were in college, I loved that we had a guest room so they felt like they could bring home all their friends (and they did)! Now that they’re getting married, our family is only growing and when I have grandchildren, I want to have plenty of room for everyone! I relish a house full of people I love!

As your kids leave home you will have plenty of room to convert their rooms into guest rooms for your parents and your kids when they have their own families. The murphy bed option sounds like a good transitional option, but one that can even be used down the line in the event that your kids plus their kids need that extra room but you don’t want to have several extra bedrooms that are empty most of the year. My brother built a huge house when his kids were teens and they didn’t leave for many years. We saw that and got the smallest house we could (three boys in one room and two girls in another) to encourage our kids to make their way into the world sooner rather than later. Two down and three to go.

It’s a little different for us. There are only 2 of us (we don’t have children). I would never build a house with less than 3 bedrooms (thinking of resale). We have a “guest room” although it is very rarely used (like 2-3 times in 20 years LOL). But I do have my grandparent’s first bedroom set and enjoy having the room set up and of course we have stuff stored in that closet. It’s nice if it ever is needed, if someone is sick and needs to sleep alone, etc. The third bedroom is an office but could be quickly converted (staged) if we decided to sell. We built our house a little over 20 years ago. We do have a dining “area” as we enjoy entertaining, hosting family (especially holiday) meals, etc. We have a smaller table that will expand and a hutch in there (what else would I do with my collection of ironstone LOL). Our home is an open concept in the main rooms, so kitchen, great room and dining room do flow and therefore the dining room is used a fair amount. We having a nook off the kitchen where my husband and I most often eat. Our home is fairly compact with good size rooms, no hallways, etc. so I think we make pretty efficient use of our space. Our outdoor space (sunroom used every.single.day, patio with pergola and large fenced back yard was just as important to us and planned out for best use also.

I understand, but could never give up our guest bedroom! My entire family is out of state so when my parents come in town, they know they have a room to call their own. (But when I was a kid, I was simply kicked out of my room and onto the couch so my grandparents could have my bed)! But as a lover of design, I also like having a room that is always pretty. Same with my dining room. We don’t use it much, but it sure is gorgeous and the first room people see when they come to our home. I am probably just too superficial. Lol! But I will say that a formal living room just seems outdated to me….I’d add french doors and make it an office. 🙂

I feel like I need a guest room because both sets of my parents live out of town and they don’t like to upset the routine of the family or take one of the kids’ rooms when they visit. The majority of the time, the guest room is the ironing room, or wrapping room, or junk-that’-needs-to-be-put away room , or whatever I need it to be at that moment. When guests are coming, I just quickly clean up the mess and it’s good to go!

In the past 2 years, my guest room was used for 8+ months each year. Now that I have grands out of cribs, they stay in the guest room (with my doggie), plus 2 dear friends moved more than 3 hours away, and we love to visit. So, I will keep a guest room. I do have another friend with a hide-a-bed, with what used to be a great mattress, but is now horrible to sleep on more than one night. I don’t think she’s thinks of replacing it like one does their own mattress. Just a little FYI there. The Murphy bed sounds very interesting.
One more room smaller in my home, using it as an office/craft/”me” room – which will not change..

Our whole family lives out of state too! While the next house will have an office/guest room combo it will still be a space for guests to call their own when they come to visit. My hub uses a laptop so it’s no big deal for him to move out of his office for a week or two when we’ll be hosting.

Yes, exactly! Crazy to think that by the time this home is built we’ll be just a few years away from being empty nesters! That is if our kids go away to college. Since both kids will have their own rooms, that’s just another reason why having a guest bedroom just doesn’t make a ton of sense.

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