Guest Bedroom Decorating Ideas for Dual Use

The best guest bedroom decorating ideas allow you to use one room in two ways, without clutter or ugliness. On the one hand, you organize a room that serves your own needs, like a craft room or game room for the kids. On the other hand, you create a guest room that can be put together at a moment's notice. Visiting my family in Spain recently I encountered charming guest bedroom decorating ideas for dual use, and I'd like to share them here.

Guest bedroom furniture

Even without a bed frame, a guest bedroom can look beautiful. Simply cover the spring box with a skirt (if you have one) or with a blanket that matches the colors of your room. Then look for small tables at garage sales. Paint them to match the skirt or duvet and you'll have bedside tables that seem to match your bedroom perfectly.

Guest bedroom niceties

Decorative items that made my stay more special impressed me as the nicest guest bedroom decorating ideas. My brother and his wife left me a folded silk robe with disposable slippers on the bed. Once I hung the robe on the ornate iron hook fixed in the wall behind the bed, the robe became a decorative element. On the nightstand was a small vase with flowers, an alarm clock and the end of an extension cord, should I wish to charge my cell phone or music player.

Guest bedroom art

Above the bed hung a canvas poster that matched the colors of the duvet. Seen together, the poster and bed created a separate visual space. I almost felt as if the guest bedroom was inserted in another larger room, which showed on the periphery only where the toys were stacked on shelves.

Guest bedroom lighting

On the wall behind the bed was a slim Japanese lantern. Overhead a matching, larger lantern hung. To make the light switches easy to spot even in the dark my brother painted a thin line around the light switch in glow in the dark paint, a fact I appreciated in an unfamiliar home.

Guest bedroom fresh seating

There was a beautiful armchair in the Spanish guest bedroom of my brother's home. The kids would use it during their play, but when a guest came my brother's wife would cover the chair with a fresh slipcover that matched the colors of the room.

Guest bedroom hidey-hole furniture

In Martha Stewart's Living magazine I found a charming idea for building your own dual-function furniture. If you connect two bookcases face-to-face with piano hinges on one side, you can swing one bookcase toward the other like a door. When the bookcases touch, they look like a giant upright box. But when you swing them open, you'll have two large bookcases full of your things. Paint the bookcases in colorful hues and use stamps to imprint floral or leaf images over them.

Guest bedroom alternatives

In my brother's house, the guest bedroom doubles as the children's game room. In my mother's, it doubles as a library. Guest bedroom decorating ideas should divide the space between two purposes. Shelves on the walls are great for stacking toys, books or craft materials. Decorative baskets keep things hidden when guests arrive. Chairs, which you may use throughout the year, can become suitcase benches when set side-by-side, as can a closed toy chest.

Guest bedroom bed

My mother opted to invest in pullout furniture. Since then, we've learned that pullout mattresses are far from comfortable. To keep your guests happy, place a twin bed in the room and decorate your guest room by sewing a duvet to cover the bed with matching curtains on the windows. Then sew colorful pillowcases for old pillows to add spots of color to your decor.

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