When I first started planning to turn my small guest room into a functional space (after the initial excitement wore off) I quickly realized I had no idea how to plan a space with limited square footage and no budget to speak of. There are so many terrible ideas floating around online that promise to magically expand the size of your room with new furniture, rugs and colors, but most of these ideas simply won’t work.
I tried buying the cheapest possible double bed frame I could find and jammed it into the smallest room in my house. The problem with this approach is that the bed completely blocks the path to the window and leaves literally zero space for anything else. What’s worse, is that guests have to climb over the side of the bed just to get to the window. This looked utterly ridiculous. I sold it on Facebook Marketplace for $25 and bought a standard single mattress. At a local car boot sale, I found a great wooden bed frame for $35 that came from the daughter’s room of the vendor. I sanded it down and painted it white and then purchased a memory foam topper from Aldi while they had it on sale. That topper has totally changed the way I sleep.
Storage is another area where you will either make your little room work or you will destroy it. I tried installing shelving high up on the wall once – what was I thinking?! Guests would have had to pull themselves up onto their tiptoes just to hang a shirt on the shelf. Totally crazy. Everything in my room now sits at regular height, so people can reach it easily without doing gymnastics.
I inherited an old ottoman from my grandmother who recently downsized to a bungalow. My grandma was going to donate it to a charity shop, but I thought it could possibly work at the foot of my bed. It’s likely from the 1970s and covered in faded brown velvet, but it’s solid as can be. Guests can use it to sit on to slip their shoes on and underneath there is plenty of space for additional blankets, pillows etc. I spent hours cleaning the dirt off of it before using it.
Hooks were the real game changer. Okay, it sounds silly, but when you’re a guest, you need somewhere to put things. Your jacket, purse, towels from your shower, clothes that you’ve worn but haven’t washed yet…and so forth. I hung four hooks on the back of the door – plain, cheap hooks from B&Q – and all of a sudden, guests didn’t drape all of their belongings over the one chair or pile all of their dirty laundry on the floor.
Lighting almost drove me mad. When I originally decorated the room, it came with this awful fluorescent light in the center of the ceiling that made all of my guests look like they’d died. Absolutely ghastly. So I replaced it with a simple pendant light ($30 from a lighting store), and added a small bedside lamp that I picked up at a local thrift store. The whole atmosphere of the room changed overnight. From looking like a hospital ward, to being pretty cozy. As cozy as our small box room ever will be.
Curtains were the other thing I messed up royally. Originally thought I was being sophisticated by purchasing large navy blue curtains to “make the room feel more refined” — instead, they made it look like a cave. Returned them to Dunelm and ended up with two simple white ones that allow natural light in during the day but still provide some level of privacy. A million times better, and they also help prevent the room from feeling even smaller than it already is.
Everyone rants about mirrors helping make rooms appear larger than they are and that’s true; however, placement is key. Placed a very large mirror across from our minuscule window, and it truly does make the room feel less cramped. Purchased it at the local British Heart Association shop for $12 — a bit rusty around the edges, but you wouldn’t even notice unless you were specifically looking for it. The reflection allows us to utilize what little natural light we receive within the room and helps take away some of that prison-cell feel.
Wasted so much time debating what color scheme should go in this small space. Read article after article about “the best colors for small rooms”. Ultimately decided to go with standard white — not bright white, because that’s too harsh, but a softish white that won’t drive anyone insane. Cost $28 for enough paint and took me a full weekend to finish correctly. Used some of our favorite throw pillows & blankets to add color to the space rather than painting anything too vibrant.
Found a small plant for the windowsill since some genius on Instagram said plants add warmth & welcome-ness to a space. Picked one of those super-hard-to-kill pothos plants since they’re supposed to be impossible to kill (which worked out well). Love having something green in there — it adds life & personality to the space & makes it feel like it hasn’t been forgotten.
Temperature-wise, small rooms can become swelteringly hot in the summer and ice-cold in the winter. For when it becomes unbearably hot, I bought a fan from Argos for under $20. Leave an extra blanket folded up somewhere for guests to grab if they want/need one. There’s nothing worse than being too hot or too cold when you’re sleeping in someone else’s bed.
It’s those little details that will make the biggest difference in creating a comfy guest room experience. And trust me, none of these things will break your bank. Place a small bowl of loose items (jewelry, coins, etc.) on top of a dresser. Always keep glasses & bottles of water next to each bed (learned this trick from staying in Premier Inn hotels). Leave your phone charger plugged-in where guests can access it easily. Grab some mags from the Co-op discount rack & leave them on the bedside tables.
Of course, my personal favorite item in this whole setup is this basket of miscellaneous stuff that I threw together with random items I had lying around: travel shampoo, extra toothbrushes, phone charging cables, packets of tissues, some quality biscuits & actual coffee sachets (instead of disgusting instant crap). The total cost for this basket was approximately $15. Every time guests see this basket, they always seem impressed & happy about it.
