Bedroom Tetris - If you are into interior design, please help!

Parent Cafe
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I’m hoping for some advice. This is kind of a long post, but I want to explain the back story and help visualize it.

Dilemma 1: My friend gave me a Sleep Number bed a few years ago when she moved in with her fiance. She asked today if she could possibly have it back. Her and her fiance split up and she’s moving. She’s willing to buy me a new bed to replace it (the money is not really needed, but I thought the offer was nice. She’s spending way too much money buying a house right now in this market.)

Dilemma 2: I 100% hate having my office upstairs. I hear a ton of road noise during the days as we live on a busy road and it’s super distracting. It’s much less noticeable on the first floor. As a result, I’m trying to play musical rooms and re-arrange things.

Dilemma 3: My master bed is getting a bit old. It’s been around for 15 or so years at this point. I’ve been contemplating replacing it using money from a bonus I recently received.

I have a 4 bedroom house. Layout is as such:

Currently Master Bedroom #1 is downstairs has a queen sized bed (super comfy, but at this point it’s > 15 years old and idk how many years it has left) and the room has 3 different dressers in it.

Bedroom #2 is downstairs and has her Olympic Queen sleep number in it. I hate it. Thus why it’s in my guest room. Guest room also has a desk and a dresser in it. It’s not used that often by actual guests. BF sleeps in there occasionally when he’s snoring loudly. :slight_smile:

Bedroom 3 is upstairs and used as my office and craft room. It’s the 2nd largest room in our house. Aside from my large L shaped desk, it has 4 bookshelves, printer station, craft area, a new-ish couch in it that my boyfriend brought with him from his apartment when he moved in here and a 3x3 ft coffee table in the middle of the room.

Bedroom 4 is upstairs and is used as boyfriends office and our game room. It’s the largest room in our house. Aside from his desk and big bookshelf, there is a 20 year old futon, a TV with video games, a wall of board games, several bookshelves of movies and cds, and a portable kitchen table that we use to play games & do puzzles on. We’d rather have a board game table (we’re game nerds) but don’t have room for it.

I’m trying to think of a way to tetris all of these rooms into something that makes sense. Would love to know your thoughts. I really don’t want to re-arrange furniture across multiple floors of my house and wind up hating it. I have the money from a bonus that I received, I just can’t make up my mind. What would you guys do? Let me know if you have an idea that I didn’t think of.

Idea 1) Give her the bed back, move my desk and bookshelves downstairs into bedroom #2. Move board games into Bedroom #3, move the coffee table into Bedroom #4, and buy a nice board game table to put in the middle of Bedroom #3. This idea results in guests needing to sleep on the futon in Bedroom #4 which isn’t desirable. Pros: Everything else.

Idea 2) similar to #1, but buy a full size bed and try to tetris it into Bedroom #2 along with my bed. Probably a tight fit, but at least there’d be an actual guest bed.

Idea 3) similar to #2, but move my bed from Bedroom #1 into #2 and tetris that with the desk. Probably a tighter fit. This results in me buy myself a new bed (maybe a king).

Idea 4) similar to #2 but buy a sofa bed to put in Bedroom #2, this way it can double as seating in the new office and be converted to a full/queen bed when guests are here. Probably not as comfy as a regular bed.

Idea 5) Give her the bed, forget buying the board game table, move my office down to Bedroom #2, buy a new bed and put it upstairs in Bedroom #3. Con: I don’t get the nice table, but I get a full room as my office.

Idea 6) get rid of 20 year old futon in Bedroom #4, move bf’s couch from my office over to replace it. Buy new sofa bed and put it in Bedroom #3, move my office down to #2. Con: We have occasionally used that futon as a backup guest room when we had multiple people spend a weekend (usually friends with kids)

Idea 7) leave my office where it is, buy a new bed for guest room. Con: I keep having loudness, and we don’t get our table.

Idea 8) leave my office where it is, move my queen bed into guest room, buy myself a new bed (maybe a king). Con: similar to above, except I get a new bed as a pro. :wink:

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I like option #5 with a twist…

Can you use your bonus to buy a Murphy bed and the nice game table and set them both up in room 3 (current office)? Sounds like if you move all your office stuff down bedroom 2, you might have room for both.

I’d also get rid of the 20 year old futon and move the newish couch in there if you don’t have room for it in your new office space.

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All I know is that 15 years isn’t that old for a mattress. Every mattress in my house is older. One is over 25 yo. Don’t fall for the marketing hype like the 3k oil change.

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give her the bed. move your office downstairs.

then . . . just think about it. no hurry to get new furniture, right? think about what you really want once your office is downstairs. sometimes less is more. … .

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You mentioned that when there are multiple guests, it’s often families with kids. Kids aren’t as picky about bed comfort since they are so light, so sofa bed not as “rude” for accommodating them…but…if you don’t actually need another couch, then I’d recommend using a lofted bed in one of the rooms. Kids love bunk beds, the lifting allows desks or other furniture to be underneath, and these are generally pretty inexpensive because targeted to kids and young adults. Just another idea for making more space. When not having guests, the lofted bed is a nice out of the way storage for extra pillows and bedding.

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yeah - My mattress has a bit of a sag in it at the place where i’ve laid over the years - haha. I have rotated it around. It’s fine for now, but i definitely notice it.

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That’s a good idea. My house is just such a weird space. 4 bedrooms, but 2 are huge, and then a really tiny living room and a really tiny eat in kitchen with no dining room. It’s from the 40’s with the small, choppy room plan on the first floor, and then they put an expansion on the 2nd floor a few years before I bought it and turned it into 2 giant bedrooms up there. it’s why we’ve kinda used them as multi-functional spaces. I had my camera on during a meet and greet the other week at work and the woman was commenting on how ginormous my office was… I’m like yeah… can you see my craft desk 20 feet behind me? Lol. She’s like yes, and is that a couch?!?

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yeah, i think the office downstairs is the biggest win of them all, and she’s making it easier for me by taking the bed. I worked at home full time 10 years ago and used Bedroom #2 as my office back then and it was perfect… but that was before BF was here and there was a lot less furniture in the house. :slight_smile:

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Good idea, I will research that. I’m not sure how tall murphy beds are - the ceiling on the second floor isn’t crazy high. I totally forgot about them - my one friend has one in their guest room too! I was actually thinking about seeing if my parents have any interest in the futon - my sister is moving out of their house next month and they’ll have an extra bedroom free. Never know. 18 year old me thought it was really cool to replace my twin bed with that futon. Little did I know it would follow me through the next 20+ years. :slight_smile:

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Murphy beds can be expensive. Another option is an airbed for guests that rolls up and can store in a closet. Move your office downstairs. Give her the bed.

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i just thought of a day bed too - they make those ones that have the pop up trundle under it where it becomes a king. That could be nice… that way it only takes up a twin size space normally, and then it can be made bigger.

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I had the same thought about an air bed, but then I was thinking that we technically have 4 bedrooms in this house. I should be able to fit an extra bed somewhere. Lol.

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We have that arrangement in our first floor den/guestroom (which has a door into the The nice thing is that there are real mattresses, so more comfortable than a futon. When the trundle is out / popped up…. the room is crowded, but it works ok for temporary use. (These days we are empty nesters, so there is a nice guest room on 2nd floor)

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To start, give friend back her bed and move your office downstairs. Those are two givens. Why have a noisy office when you can have a quiet one? Space isn’t everything.

I agree that it’s good to think of the different options for guest bedding—there are lots of different options so don’t be too hasty or “settle.” Air beds can be comfortable, as long as they don’t spring a leak. Folding foam futons can be stored in closets out of the way, or even a thick yoga mat with a sleeping bag is a decent bed for young guests. Agree that bunk beds or lofted or trundle beds have smaller footprints especially when they’re only for occasional guests.

I know you didn’t ask about this but has your boyfriend gotten a sleep study to check if he may have obstructive sleep apnea or something that is causing the snoring? If he does have a correctable condition, it can increase his longevity and improve his health and your sleep to boot!

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Murphy bed cabinet

Both of our children have nice air mattresses, my daughter bought a feather bed topper for hers and it’s more comfortable than the same mattress that my son has. My husband and I have slept on them while visiting and it’s fine. My daughter had no room for a full time bed. She looked into the Murphy bed cabinet but never decided to buy.

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Wow, you must be an awfully good and understanding friend for her to ask for her bed back! But since you don’t seem to love it maybe it works out for both of you!

My first thought is to figure out what furniture can you get rid of. To me sounds like a lot of furniture - can you eliminate a dresser or two? The futon (really how comfortable is it anyway?)

For what it’s worth:

  • I like the murphy bed idea. I don’t know how often you have guests but it never makes sense to have a room laid out guests when the # of days a year you actually have guests may be just a handful. SOMEONE here on CC bought a murphy bed for a reasonable price I feel like… and @FallGirl has one in her new house that she may be able to comment on.

  • Assuming you work 5 day/40 hour work week I would prioritize to have your desk where you’d really like it. Is there an option in main floor bedrooms 1 or 2 to screen off an office so the room still has double use?

The other thought might be to make changes in one room at a time to get it how you think you’d like it and then live with it a little bit before playing tetris in all 4 rooms (if possible).

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And just to throw another possibility into the mix: Since the upstairs bedrooms are so big, can you add a wall/move a wall somewhere and turn them into three bedrooms??

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I would definitely loo into getting a Murphy bed. We slept on the one in our new house while waiting for our furniture to arrive and it was fine. Just make sure it has a good mattress (ours does). My parents had a Murphy bed in their house and I spent many nights there as a guest and it was comfy.

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I hate airbeds, even the fancy new ones. I always get cold. New sofa beds are way more comfortable than the old ones. You might also consider getting a trundle bed. I looked at one for my studio that doubled as a guest room pre-Covid, but I think I’m going to opt for a single bed with drawers underneath since my SIL never married and has never had a boyfriend since college.

I’d prioritize moving office to first floor and making a gaming table work. (It was supposed to be our wedding present for youngest son, who decided that with the move to Japan and the wait for it to be built to order, he’d get it later, but now we totally want one!)

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We had considered Murphy bed in our den/guestroom. They seemed pretty expensive. But the other big disadvantage was the need to store some of the bedding when it is closed.