Office Guest Room Ideas for a Cozy Temporary Sleeping Space
This post is sponsored by Walmart.
10 office guest room ideas for making an extra room in your home using an air mattress feel like a comfortable temporary sleeping space for your guests.
We pulled out ALL of the office guest room ideas we could think of to turn our home office into a guest room today. Now I’m thinking this should just be “mama’s nap space” with a sign on the door that says “Do Not Disturb”. You think I could get away with it? Kidding. Ha!
For Thanksgiving this year, we plan to have 14 people sleeping in our house all at once, so that immediately set the wheels in motion to produce beds out of thin air for all of these bodies.
Our home office was the perfect place to set up a temporary sleeping space using some strategies to make a basic air mattress comfortable and more welcoming as a temporary guest bedroom.
Here’s how our home office looks on a regular basis (except add in lots more papers and mess everywhere for reality’s sake… Marie Kondo and Martha Stewart don’t work here, okay?)
Now… can you believe this is an office turned guest bedroom using an air mattress?!
Yes, that cute bed is an air mattress. I pulled together a few basic makeshift items from around the house and a few guest room essentials from Walmart to make it as comfortable as possible for a functional space.
Really, this is a great trick to use if you’re staging a house and need to market a spare room as a bedroom too. ALL the air mattress tricks and office guest room ideas to the rescue!
10 Office Guest Room Ideas for a Cozy Temporary Sleeping Space
First of all, a moment for that DIY shower curtain art that magically works as an air mattress headboard. Happy accidents rock.
1. Use an Extra Tall Air Mattress
It’s best to use a tall air mattress that’s at least 20″ high so guests can more easily slide into bed without needing to scoot onto the floor, especially if your guests are older.
This 24″ pillowtop queen sized bed air mattress we used is the perfect height, is really comfortable, and has a convenient built-in pump so we don’t have to worry about it getting lost while it’s in storage between guests.
2. Add a Memory Foam Topper to Make an Air Mattress Feel Like a Real Bed
This gel infused memory foam topper makes such a huge difference to help the mattress feel less “air mattress-y” and aid in pressure relief for a comfortable guest bed.
3. Hide the Air Mattress Bottom With an Elastic Skirt
Out of sight, out of mind? By adding an elastic bed skirt around the bottom of the air mattress, you’re totally fooled into believing it’s a regular bed.
If you needed to stage a spare room as a bedroom when listing a house for sale, this is a great trick to use for an open house.
4. Make the Bed With Soft White Bedding
I always prefer white bedding because it feels clean (plus, it can be bleached so it actually is clean).
Walmart Home carries a bunch of my favorite affordable bedding linens and towels that I’ve used for years.
These bamboo sheets feel so luxuriously soft. These down alternative pillows and duvet insert add a great cozy “squishy” feeling (that I use on all of our beds in our house actually).
I just threw this white organic cotton comforter set on top from Walmart’s Gap Home line along with these sweater knit pillows and sherpa pillow for extra coziness.
5. Add an Extra Blanket for Needed Warmth
Air mattresses are notorious for feeling cold since, after all, cool air is underneath you. So adding an extra layer like this plush sherpa blanket helps keep guests comfortable.
6. Repurpose a Stool or Crate as a Nightstand
It’s nice having a nightstand to place glasses or keep a light handy, so use a stool or crate you might already have for that purpose.
I used this stool that I already had in our kids’ bathroom. Don’t go buying anything special. So many things you probably already have hanging around your house could work.
7. Have a Small Lamp or Nightlight Handy
It’s much more convenient to have a lamp at arm’s reach beside the bed, so look around at what you might already have that could work on the makeshift nightstand.
I used this small lamp I took from our bedroom.
8. Consider Including a Clock and/or White Noise Machine
Our family always sleeps better with white noise machines, especially in places away from home where strange sounds might keep us awake.
This alarm clock has soothing nature sounds, a dimmer, and can even project the time onto the ceiling.
9. Have Towels Handy
It’s nice having towels ready and waiting for you in the guest bedroom so they don’t have to go searching for any in a potentially embarrassing moment if they step out of the shower unable to find any towels in the bathroom.
These plush white towels are my favorites that we’ve used for years.
10. Include Toiletries in a Basket
Just in case guests forgot to pack a toothbrush or shampoo, it’s good to have some small toiletries at the ready for them. I like tossing everything into a basket like this. Whatever amenities hotels usually include in hotel rooms, I like to have for our guests too.
You can see this list of guest bedroom essentials for more items you can include to help guests feel right at home.
So now our office is guest ready! And we plan to get absolutely zero work done in here… and that’s exactly how it should be with loved ones visiting us. 🙂
Do you have any other office guest room ideas or amenities you implement in your home to help guests feel comfortable?
Maybe I should add a sign for the WiFi password because that’s always a popular guest request.
