Whether you are starting from scratch or trying to add some luxury to a tired spare room, here are some the best ways to create a luxurious guest bedroom that your friends and family will never want to leave.
Guest bedroom bed ideas
When it comes to choosing the bed for the guest bedroom, it all depends on the space. If the room is on the smaller size, choosing a fold out bed is a great way to maximise the space you have. If this isn't the case, and you have plenty of space to play with, a beautiful full-size bed will last you for years to come.
Bed in a Bun foldaway guest bed
Buy bed in a bun foldaway guest bed from Loaf (from £595)
Chamonix reclaimed platform bed
Buy chamonix platform bed from Wearth London (from £1,095)
Patrick two-seat sofa bed in Canary cotton matt velvet
Buy Patrick two-seat sofa bed from Sofa.com (£2,223)
Hamilton iron bed with brass finials
Buy Hamilton iron bed from The Original Bed Co (from £499)
The Small Biggie Chaise Sofa Bed in Pine Green
Buy the small biggie chaise sofa bed from Snug (£2,919)
Best guest bedroom duvets
The bedding you offer your guests will make all the difference to their stay. Bedding with natural fibres will add a touch of luxury and ensure that your guests sleep easy.
Gingerlily silk-filled side-by-side duvet made from 100 per cent cotton sateen and filled with mulberry silk
Buy Gingerlily silk-filled duvet from Luxdeco (£276)
Luxury duvet filled with 65 per cent cashmere guard hair and 35 per cent British wool, encased in certified organic cotton
Buy luxury duvet from Ava Innes (from £245)
Pure silk duvet filled with premium-grade long-fibre Tussah pure silk with 300 thread-count pure cotton sateen casing
Buy pure silk duvet from Cuddledown (£84.15)
Organic wool duvet with British organic wool filling and 100 per cent cotton cambric casing
Buy organic wool duvet from Naturalmat (from £100)
Guest bedroom bedding and accessories
No guest bedroom is complete without a few accessories. New bedding, lighting, towels, and accessories are fast fixes for a tired spare room.
Society of Wanderers Peach Lemonade check sheets
Buy Peach Lemonade check sheets from Antipodream (£169)
A Modern Grand Tour Oyster Pink mini feather lamp with gold base
Buy mini feather lamp from Sweetpea & Willow (£1,900)
Coniston 100 per cent pure cotton towels
Buy cotton wash cloths from Designers Guild (from £5.60)
How to make the spare bedroom welcoming for guests
Kate Watson-Smyth of MadAboutTheHouse.com explains how to make your spare room welcoming for guests, as well as useful all year round.
For most of us, no room is actually ‘spare’, but is more of a multi-functional space where guests may sleep occasionally. For this reason, I would always invest in a good-quality fold-out sofa bed with a pocket-sprung mattress. This will not only give a good night’s sleep, but also make for a comfortable sofa if this room is also used for work or television most of the time.
A table with a couple of drawers can be either a desk or dressing table. Keep a mirror and make-up in one drawer when using the room as an office, and swap your computer and notepad over as required. Pair with a pretty, but supportive, chair and you’ve covered the basics.
The joy of decorating the spare room is that you aren’t in it every day, so you can afford to be bold and experiment with colour. I painted the ceiling of mine gold and loved it so much I turned it into my office. This isn’t perhaps the ideal outcome, but you get the idea. Have fun in here – even seeing it through the open door as you walk past may give you a mood boost.
The quickest and most transformative way to revamp a room is always paint, but replacing a tired carpet with something soft and luxurious or buying a new rug will also make a room feel new. Changing the curtains, swapping lamps or updating lampshades will complete the revamp.
The current fashion for maximalism is perfect for spare rooms, as you can layer up colour and pattern and textiles,and create a space that looks cosy and inviting for your guests.
Layering the bedding is essential. A flat sheet under a duvet, with a throw over, gives everyone’s personal thermostat a chance to find its optimum. Likewise, make sure you offer two pillows. If crisp cotton sheets are your thing, look for percale – the thread count should be no higher than 400 or it will be hot and heavy. For something softer, choose 600-count sateen.
Make sure the bedside lights can be turned on and off without having to get up. Lighting is an important part of a great guest room, and a single overhead pendant isn’t good enough.
Take inspiration from hotels – after all, they are entire buildings of spare rooms. Think about how they bring a sense of comfort to a small space: a scented candle; a small posy of fresh flowers; good towels; magazines to read. Add a carafe of water and a couple of glasses, or even a coffee pod machine.
Few house guests stay long enough to need a wardrobe or a chest of drawers. Instead, fix a row of hooks and add some pretty hangers. I have a vintage luggage rack for a suitcase, and this can double up as a shelf or storage for things that don’t need hanging. In a larger room, a comfy armchair will allow guests to escape the hurly-burly of family life for an hour or two.
A successful spare room should feel like your home, only better. The mattress should be comfier, the bed bigger and the towels softer. But, above all, make it tidy – even if this is your office or laundry room most of the time, your guests don’t need to feel that they are camping inconveniently in your space.
