A guest room is ideal when family, friends and relatives stay with you, but what about the rest of the year when it sits empty? Depending on how often you have overnight guests, a guest bedroom can be the perfect room to set up a home office.
The three home offices below are small, but have enough space for a desk, a file cabinet or rolling file cart and a twin bed or a double bed. Throughout the years that I’ve been designing and organizing home offices, I’ve learned that size doesn’t matter. A 20’ x 20’ home office is just as functional as a 10’ x 10’ office. It’s all in the way you use the space.
This guest room, complete with a full bath, leaves little room for a desk and file cabinet, but the small closet within the room is large enough to store supplies. With the bed so close to his desk, the owner can always grab a quick nap. Another way to save space in a home office is to do away with a traditional desk, and instead use an “office in a box” for storing equipment and supplies.
If your guest room is going to do double duty, you may want to invest in a day bed, a hideaway bed, or a Murphy bed. This day bed with a trundle below leaves enough room for a desk and a rolling file cart. A dresser opposite the window doubles as clothing storage for guests and office supply storage for the owner.
The double bed in this guest room takes up most of the space, but there’s enough room for a compact desk. The small closet in the room provides extra storage for supplies, product samples and files.
It doesn’t matter whether you use a guest room as a home office or a home office as a guest room. What matters is that you put a rarely-used room to work.
Is there a rarely-used room or space in your home that you’ve turned into a home office?
