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okmoreh

Guest room layout, part 2

18 years ago

As I mentioned, there was no bed in the guest room yet, which made it easier to move furniture but harder to see what the effects would be. I didn't have to make up my mind immediately, but this week it became important because the new bed for the MBR is going to be delivered and the old one from there will move to the guest room.

So I used some empty boxes to occupy the space the bed would require, and even draped a bedspread over them. I found that placing the bed on wall A made it seem like a barrier just inside the door, and moving it down the little that I could didn't really help. Wall B would have the best flow in the room, but the assymetry relative to the window bothered me too much, so the bed is going to be on wall C, centered under the windows. There is just enough room on the B side to get into bed or make it.

I'm going to remove the large bookcase and put in two smaller and lower ones. This will allow the cedar chest to go on wall C next to the closet, and the crib quilt will probably hang above it. The Shaker chair will move to the A-B corner, with a lamp on that end of the cabinet.

So here's the arrangement:

Here is a link that might be useful: The original discussion

Comments (7)

  • 18 years ago

    Looks good to me.

  • 18 years ago

    It is hard to tell from a drawing but my thoughts would be less is better. Think of it as an upscale B&B. You would want the amenities but you would also want it to be spacious.
    I see in your drawing... the bed, not one but 2 bookcases, a chair, 2 nightstands, a long cabinet and a cedar chest. That's a lot in one room. I'd hate to be the guest sleeping on the wall side of the bed and have to navigate that room in the dark! Unless you plan on your guests being there long enough to read two bookcases full, I'd at least get rid of the large bookcase. Keep in mind you might also choose to use a nice basket with a few choice magazines, maybe a bio or two and a children's book (Narnia's 7 tales?) instead of either bookcase. I'd get rid of the cedar chest and use wicker stackers and plenty of hangers inside the closet. That allows you to position your bed in front of the cabinet and still have ample room on both sides of it to walk. Then I would put your lamp on the nightstand instead of the cabinet so it can be used if someone wants to read in bed. Moving the chair to where the chest was, adding your warm crib throw, the lamp and the book basket should make that area very comfortable for any guest. A flower or two on the area where you orginally wanted to put the lamp will make your guest feel special and show nicely from the hall entrance.

  • 18 years ago

    Er, um, I said before that having large furniture below a window but not centered relative to it bothers me too much. So much that I would prefer to have no furniture in the room than to have the bed off center.

    And I did not mean to suggest that the lamp on the cabinet would be the only lamp in the room. To my mind it goes without saying that there are bedside lamps, both for reading in bed and for getting in and out of bed safely in the dark, but I did say in the previous thread, "I would like to have the cabinet away from the bed since the cabinet and the night tables are the only places for lamps." I only meant to say that the lamp on the cabinet, which is the third lamp in the room, would be at the end near the chair.

    As for bookcases - both are small and neither will be completely filled with books. The one that is being removed, on the other hand, is seven feet high. However, any guest of mine will be comfortable in a room that has books in it - none of my friends would go along with the proclamation of certain "organizers" and "designers" that "no one needs more than 10 books total" or "there should not be books in this room."

    To be clear, I am not trying to imitate an upscale B&B - or to charge like one. Just in general, I'm also not enthusiastic about imitating hotel practices. I am old enough to think that a guest room should offer the comforts of home, not necessarily the amenities of Marriott. For example, I place water and glasses in the room because guests might not be willing to take them from the kitchen, but I wouldn't set out a basket of mini toiletries. On the other hand, I always have things like new toothbrushes on hand if anyone happens to need one.

  • 18 years ago

    If it works for you, that is what counts! Since you are in the real space, you can judge best what works for you.

    I think I would slide the cabinet down and put the small bookcase next to the chair - seems more logical to have the larger cabinet away from the bed in the more open floor space area, and the bookcase next to the chair where someone might sit and read.

    I guess I am sympathetic to the symmetry thing, as that can drive me nuts, too, but in this case I am not sure it matters. No one will be standing at the end of the bed judging whether it is centered under the window, but people will likely be trying to get around the bed on the wall B side, and between the chair in the corner and the bed having 'just enough room' to get in or make it, I think I would have to sacrifice symmetry for comfort.

    I also hate sleeping in a bed where the windows are over my head, but that is just me. I want the air to flow across the space so I can feel the breeze, etc rather than have it flow over top of me so that I am less likely to feel it. I also prefer to be able to lie in bed and see out the windows. But again, that is just me - what matters is what you like.

  • 18 years ago

    My guest room has remarkably similar challenges. The "best" wall blocks the doorway (way bad feng shui) and the other two have off-center windows shoved up into the corner. (What was that architect thinking??) I have also settled on centering the bed on a window with about 24-30 inches on the far side of the bed. Not great, but it works visually for me. I think the only way to get away from that is to start playing visual tricks with draperies and walls of fabric and that kind of thing, which is IMO, too pricey for a guest room.

  • 18 years ago

    Sorry Okmoreh, my intention was not to offend. I'm sure your guestroom will be filled with friends and love.

  • 18 years ago

    Kats, I wasn't offended - I just happened to think of various things that make me uncomfortable, and wrote what first came to mind.

    Your post was absolutely correct about the need to create an air of calm and repose, and it led me to think of the guest rooms in which I've stayed in the past year or so:

    :: One had an exceptionally comfortable new bed, but wasn't restful, because it was so full of other stuff. Some of it was understandable since the owners had a new grandchild and had added a crib and some stuffed toys, but there were also stacks of things that were just being stored. Lesson: limit the contents to the things you intended to have in the room.

    :: Another was a very small room, sensibly furnished with only a bed, one nightstand, and a lingerie chest. What it lacked was a bedside lamp. Lesson: furnish the room as if someone is actually going to stay in it. Oh, and there was absolutely no room in the closet.

    Years ago I hosted B&B - not as a business, but in the old-fashioned way (that is, taking in paying guests a few weekends a year when hotel rooms ran out). That's when I started placing glasses in the room: my friends wouldn't have hesitated to look in the kitchen cabinets.