How to make your spare bedroom work for the everyday, for the odd occasion, and for the future too
Written by Sophie Clemson
I’m in the process of purchasing my second home with my fiance, Liam, which is very exciting, but it does come with lots of design decisions that we will need to make. Even as an interior designer, it can still feel overwhelming when you have lots of rooms you want to tackle and put your own stamp on. One of the reasons we’re moving is that we need more space because we have quickly outgrown our lovely two-bedroom terrace. I am going to miss it for its Victorian features and as our first home, it holds a lot of memories. With that being said, I’m super excited to move on to our new home and to start designing the rooms (I’m sure you’ll be seeing lots of moodboards from me soon!). This time around, we’ve opted for a newer property that only needs cosmetic work. As we will be staying here for several years, the house needs to grow with us as we go through different life stages.
One room in particular that will need a lot of consideration and planning is my home office. As Liam has his own business working from home too, we need separate office spaces; otherwise we might not make it to the wedding! The plan is for me to have the second-biggest bedroom and for this to be a multifunctional room. I would love to have a space for guests to stay, and doubling up my office as a guest bedroom seems like the best solution. We have designed several home office/guest bedrooms for customers, as so many family homes now need to work harder than ever before. I would like this room to also be future-proof. When we have a family this would most likely be the nursery too so selecting furniture that could still be used for future events is on the list.
In this week's blog, I am going to go through some tips and advice I have learned along the way when designing home offices and guest bedrooms that need to work for the everyday, for the odd occasion, and for the future too - not much to ask?!
Colour schemes
As it's a home office and guest bedroom, choosing a calming colour palette is a must. I want the room to feel inviting and cosy, but also to be a calm environment for me to work. We recently designed a home office for our customer who needed a spare bedroom, but also wanted it to work when they started a family in the near future. They didn’t want to have to completely redecorate the room again. We opted for a beautiful, soft, soothing green paint colour, Green 01 by Lick. We chose this colour because of its longevity; it brings a natural feeling to the room and brings the outside in, which is a timeless look. You could of course opt for a warm neutral paint colour on the walls and bring in colour with the larger pieces in the room, or go for a tonal textured look, which can always make a room feel cosy.
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Multifunctional furniture
Sofa bed
I want my office to also be a place for guests to stay (mainly my mum!). I will need to think about how this will look in the room. After all, I don't want a bed behind me for my video calls, but equally, as it will be used only for occasional purposes, a bed isn’t a must in this case. A sofa bed would be a good option, as it won’t give the room the overall appearance of being a bedroom but will still soften the room and take it away from just being office furniture.
If you haven’t seen it already, we have a Youtube channel that I film weekly. A sofa bed will be a brilliant place for me to sit and film. I will think of it as my new set! There are lots of really affordable sofa beds available now that simply fold out. I particularly love Habitat's ‘Roma sofa bed in sage green’ but I am a sucker for anything olive or sage green.
Here's an example of a customer's home office/guest bedroom, where we chose a grey sofa bed from Homebase which works perfectly in the space and the accessories bring a cosy feel with the cushions and rug.
Storage
Storage is a big must for us and something we need more of in our new home. Luckily, with more space, we will have more areas to store things, which will probably mean we also acquire more things to have to store! As I want to purchase items that are going to last and come in useful for future purposes, I need to carefully consider my options. Being an interior designer means I have lots of paint charts, samples, and camera equipment for social media content therefore a storage cabinet, whether that's open shelving with drawers or a sideboard, will be really useful.
We helped one customer with their home office, which was soon to become a nursery in Scotland last year, and they had some existing white IKEA storage shelving, which they wanted to keep. We managed to weave them into the scheme after fitting in all of the nursery furniture that was needed. As you can see from the visualisation below, it worked brilliantly to display some beautiful wooden toys, nursery prints, cuddly toys, and baskets, along with hidden storage with two drawers for nappies and baby clothes, etc.
Do you struggle to visualise how your room could look? We can help you, click here.
Side table
As an interior designer, I love to style the room with all the accessories and finishing touches. I want the room to feel as cosy and homely as possible. That's where all of the small pieces of furniture and accessories come in to bring it together and make it feel complete. A side table will be a good addition next to the sofa, just like you would if it were your living room. It can be a place to pop a plant to add greenery and some height. A side table can also act as a bedside table for guests when they stay for a glass of water and their belongings in the evening.
We did exactly this for our customer’s home office/guest bedroom. Side tables can be really affordable - this particular one was from Habitat and was only £45. Alternatively, IKEA has side tables for as little as £19. When designed correctly, mixing more affordable pieces with higher-end pieces can work really well to create a room that is within your budget.
Artwork
I can’t wait to buy some new artwork for our new home. I have some lovely prints already from H&M Home, Homesense, and JYSK, to name a few! But these are smaller pieces that I have leaning against the shelving in my living room or on a sideboard, therefore I’m ready to invest in some new larger pieces! I love how you really don’t need to spend the earth on artwork for it to still make an impression in your home. As this room will evolve with us over time, I’m not planning on spending a fortune in my home office/guest bedroom, because when it's a nursery, it may not work with the design and feel of the room. A great place to find really beautiful artwork is Etsy. They have downloadable versions that are really affordable for you to get printed yourself, meaning you can print to any size. They even do gallery wall packs, which makes creating an amazing wall full of interesting artwork really easy to achieve!
Top tip: The frame is just as important as the artwork itself, and when framed with a mount, it can make the artwork look much more expensive.
Window treatments
As the room will be used occasionally to sleep in, I will need a blackout option at the window. This is important to remember if, like me, your home office is also a guest bedroom, as you don’t want your guest to be woken up at sunrise! As I want the room to feel welcoming and cosy, I think curtains or a Roman blind will really help to soften the room. It's all about longevity in this space, therefore, I don’t want to scrimp on the window treatments and will most likely go for a made-to-measure option to get exactly what I want (Blinds 2 Go is a fabulous company that I have used before). As it's a room with many functions and uses, I will most likely go for a textured linen-style fabric or a subtle pattern that will work as the room changes through the years. A Roman blind really suits an office, as it feels smart and quite timeless, but the colour, texture, and pattern will add interest to the room.
An idea that works well is to double up with curtains or Roman blinds on the outside of the window and a blackout roller blind inside. Roller blinds are a good option to block out the light, but they don’t always help to give the room the look you’re going for. If your window frames are white, my advice is to opt for a white roller blind as it will blend into the frame. Doubling up with a Roman blind or curtains on the outside of the window will instantly soften the window.
Room dividers/screens
I love the idea of room dividers, mainly because you can hide anything messy that's going on behind you - the perfect disguise for any video call! If I were to opt for a bed over a sofa bed, this would be a great solution to divide the room and make it feel less like a bedroom when it's a working space.
We did this for our customer who wanted to break up the areas in her home office/guest bedroom and wanted an attractive background for her work video calls. There are some lovely dividers that have rattan or woven details, which will add texture to the room. The best thing about the dividers is that they can easily fold away when not in use.
Seating
Depending on the layout of the room, there may be space for an armchair. This is another piece of furniture that may come in handy in the future as a nursing chair, and an armchair could be a great place to sit and write this blog. I love to get comfy and in the zone when I'm writing! The other chair in my office will, of course, be my desk chair, and now that there are so many attractive office chairs available, ugly office desk chairs are no more!
When I move on to the next chapter and start to settle in my new home, I will be keeping you all updated with before and after photos, my best home finds (I’m a lover of Facebook Marketplace), and filling you in with another blog on how it's all going! Fingers crossed it will all be happening in the New Year!
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