Sunday, August 22, 2010

Transforming the Guest Bedroom into a Study

Our house is too small. Actually it's a great size for us and 3 cats, however, all our furniture seems too big for the space we have.

We have a guest room which had a Queen sized bed, vanity, cedar chest, night stand and a small wire shelving unit (small baker's rack) in it. It was all really squished in there and the room wasn't being used. Maybe (MAYBE) once a year someone would stay overnight in there. I decided I wanted to move some furniture around and make it into a study/sitting room. It would be a cat-free area where my allergic friends could hang out. And the sunshine in there is just wonderful all day - it's on the south-east corner of the house.

So we took the queen sized bed and put it down in the basement - in storage. We moved an old antique table (my grandmother's dining room table with leaves that fold down), a wood bookshelf, and a lazy boy in there. I then bought queen sized futon from Craig's list and stuffed it in there. I wanted a queen sized bed in there so that my taller family would have plenty of leg room on the bed. (My feet hang off the end of a full sized bed, and my mom & brother, who live out of town, are both taller than me.)

However, we've come upon a glitch. Turns out the queen sized futon is wider than the queen sized bed - giving us even less room than what we had before when the bed is pulled out. So in order to use that as a sleeping room, we'd have to move the lazy boy into the living room and probably get rid of my grandmother's table and the cedar chest all together.

So I'm stuck. Keep the queen sized futon and just move furniture around when friends stay overnight? Or sell the futon on craigslist (we'll get at least what we paid for it) and buy a smaller full-sized futon that will fit with more furniture. I'd rather have queen sized, since all our sheets are queen sized, but that room just seems to be too small for a queen sized anything. However, we won't be in this house forever and then will I regret not keeping the queen sized futon? Also, what if we end up having a baby, that futon will have to go elsewhere. The finished attic is huge and would accommodate a queen sized futon very well.

Btw, taking it to the cabin isn't really an option. If we ever find a truck big enough we'll take the queen sized bed downstairs out to the cabin and hope that one doesn't get stolen too. I'd also like to take my grandmother's dining room table out to the cabin, but I really don't want to risk having that one stolen like most of the furniture that we left there a year ago.

So what do you think? Live for now and get rid of the queen sized futon and get a full-sized one? Or make do with what we have and keep the queen sized futon - and just move most of the furniture in there into storage?

Edit - we have a queen sized hide-a-bed in the living room. I forgot to mention this. 

5 comments:

  1. My opinion is to keep the futon. Especially if you will only use it maybe once a year as a bed. If you were using it as a bed every weekend or something, that could be very teadious.
    Our guest room isn't very big at all and we have a full size futon in it. Pulled out, we have to move a bookshelf, so I get what you're saying.
    The ease of having extra sitting room for guests would outweigh the lack of room when it's needed for a bed. Besides, if it's just one person, who says they need to necessarily unfold it into the bed??
    That's just my opinion though...

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  2. My opinion - keep the queen sized futon, and rearrange the once a year you have company. OR ditch the futon, and consider a sleeper sofa for the living room, and don't have a guest room at all for company. :)

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  3. I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that we have a queen sized hide-a-bed in the living room. We also have two queen-sized air mattresses. So lots of sleeping options around here.

    Thanks for the input. I was leaning towards the full-sized futon but now I'm starting to think I should just keep it and shove it in the corner of the room.

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  4. I vote to get rid of the futon and buy a smaller one. If you keep it the room is probably just as crowded as it was and won't get used anyway. I think the futon would be easier to get rid of than the family heirlooms (in my opinion). If you have other beds to accomadate your taller family members you really don't need the queen size futon anyway. You'll enjoy the room better if you are comfortable in it.

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  5. I vote to not bother with the futon. I had a futon in my 2nd bedroom for years, and had MANY people stay over (singles, not doubles) and NEVER did they ever feel the need to use it as a futon, the mattress that was on it was apparently comfortable enough that they never wanted to move it from how it was. Matter of fact, I eventually got rid of the futon when I bought a king sized bed in my bedroom and needed somewhere to put my full size. The mattress lives on with my best friend in her NYC apartment on her futon frame as her living room couch. :-) Futons are a great idea in thought but not so much in practice.

    I'd get a pullout sofa bed, or just forego sleeping space in that room and just get a loveseat or daybed type sized thing.

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