I recently moved into a new apartment and for the first time, my husband and I will have a second bedroom! This is going to be super necessary down the road with our new addition to the family. But since the baby will sleep in our room for the first little bit and we’ve got a while before he or she arrives, we wanted to think of a few guest room ideas that would work for us in the meantime. I’ve been researching this for several weeks now and have come up with five solid ideas for what we could do to create a temporary guest room solution.
*Note: We decided on a queen size bed because we often have couples that come to visit and our bed is a queen so we’d be able to use bedding that we already have*
Really Nice Air Mattress
In our first apartment, we only had one bedroom so when we had guests stay with us, their choices were our living room couch or an air mattress. I don’t love having guests stay on an airbed because I personally find them uncomfortable. But since it’s what we’d been used to, our first idea for our guest bedroom was to upgrade our air mattress to something that would actually be comfortable to sleep on. After quite a bit of research and review scouring, I found these three options that seemed to fit the bill.
SoundAsleep Dream Series Air Mattress (Amazon, Queen Size, $94.95)
King Koil Luxury Raised Air Mattress (Amazon, Queen Size, $119.95)
Noble Comfort Raised Air Mattress (Amazon, Queen Size, $79.95)
Bean Bag Chair
I am actually not kidding. This incredible bean bag chair becomes a full, queen or king bed! I was a little skeptical at first but after seeing the reviews on Amazon, I am a believer. This could be a very cool way to have a guest bed that doubles as something else.
CordaRoy’s Chenille Bean Bag Chair (Amazon, Queen Size, $309.99)
“Den” with Pull Out Couch
There are endless options when it comes to pullout couches. I am always a bit skeptical of them but my friend has this one from IKEA and I’ve slept on it several times and had a great night sleep. I particularly like that this one comes with a chaise that doubles as a guest bedding storage compartment.
FRIHETEN Sleeper sectional (IKEA, Queen Size, $599)
Low-Cost Bedroom Set
I’ve found a few posts on Craigslist, OfferUp, and Nextdoor for cheap (or free!) bed frames. While I don’t want to buy a used mattress, a pre-owned bed frame feels ok to me. I was impressed by the multitude of good reviews for this queen sized mattress and it’s a pretty great price point. I am sure it’s not a great full-time mattress but seems like it would do the trick for a guest bedroom.
Linenspa 8 Inch Mattress (Amazon, Queen Size, $189.99)
Foldable Bed Frame + Foldable Mattress with Case
I love this option because everything can be folded and stored in a closet when not in use. Honestly, we might even be able to fit these folded pieces under our bed to really keep them out of the way.
It gets a bit pricey once you buy everything, but I think I could keep my eye out for a deal and have this end up being a good option. The best version I found of this was in a full size, not a queen.
Foldable Bed Frame (Amazon, Full Size, $142.98)
Foldable Mattress (Multiple Amazon Sellers, Full Size, ~$300)
Mattress Case (Amazon, $27.99)
Convertible Daybed
This is our current front runner of choices that we have because it seems so practical for our future selves. This twin sized daybed becomes a full-size king when you pull out the trundle and line a second twin mattress on it. The twin mattresses can be stacked on top of each other when the trundle is not pulled out. We like that this doubles as a separate piece of furniture that we could use down the road and also something we could use when we don’t have guests staying with us.
Our only hesitancy is the price. The twin mattresses don’t come with the day bed, so you’ll be adding to the cost once you factor in those purchases. And we currently have a queen bed so all of our extra sheet sets fit that size mattress. We’d need to invest in both twin and king sized sheet sets which will also add to our overall cost.
Alaterre Melody Day Bed with Storage (Macy’s, Twin/King Size, $494)
We are still mulling over our choices for this room but I feel really good about my research so far and we are going to make a decision in the next week or so because our first round of guests will arrive in July!
Has anyone else created a temporary guest room in their home? What are your tips and tricks for doing so successfully? Let us know in the comments!