- give friend the bed back
- keep master BR downstairs
- move your office to other BR downstairs
- turn 1 of BR’s upstairs into guest BR
- keep 2nd BR upstairs as boyfriend’s man cave
- get rid of futon. Put regular bed in guest BR.
- You can buy a fairly inexpensive, but super comfy, foam mattress online for $250-300. We have 1 in our guest BR and everybody raves about it.
- don’t put guest bed in same room as your bed. That’s weird and guests will want their privacy.
- buy a new mattress for master BR. After 15 yr, it’s time for it to go to mattress heaven.
- no need for the coffee table in your office unless you like having it there.
- move BF’s couch from your office to BF’s office/game room/man cave.
- buy an air mattress for now if you need space temporarily for extra guests, then save up $$ to maybe buy a sleeper sofa/couch.
- consider downsizing the # of dressers in master BR unless you really do need all of that room for clothing storage.
- if guest BR feels cramped, then either ditch the desk or the dresser. Or move dresser into the closet.
3 Likes
Ours has built in cabinets on the side for this. Alternatively, a closet or a chest will do. I keep clean sheets on mine when it is folded. No different than having a sleeper sofa.
1 Like
Actually a murphy bed is a bit easier than sofa bed, where keeping sheets on it could get caught up on mechanism. But there are bulky items to consider. On a daybed, I’m able to have sheets and folded blankets under the daybed cover. Pillows and more bedding is stashed in matching daybed pillow shams. If the room has ample closet space, this would be a non-issue.
1 Like
We found that airbeds need a nice thick mattress cover. Then they are not cold.
2 Likes
I agree with others suggesting doing this in stages, assuming you don’t have guests visiting soon. Prioritize how you would like to use these spaces in your day to day life. With that in mind, start with returning the bed to your friend and moving the office downstairs. Live with that a few weeks before deciding next steps.
How you decide to setup your upstairs guest space (bed, daybed, Murphybed) can be decided after you decide what to keep from the upstairs rooms and how you will most enjoy those spaces. Unless you have guests often, your preferred use of the space should take priority.
For what it is worth, we have the Frontgate inflatable mattress in our basement media room for overflow guest sleeping. It is pretty good. We usually use it for kids but adults who have used it said it worked fine. It is raised and self-folds into a case for storage in a closet.
2 Likes
In my mom’s CCRC, we have an air bed with a thin foam mattress atop it. It’s pretty comfortable and not cold. It can easily be more inflated for folks who like it firmer or let out some air for folks who prefer softer bed.
For us, we work best in stages instead of doing it all at once and then having regrets. Agree that unless you are constantly having overnight guests, I’d make the rooms the way you and BF prefer to have them most of the time. We have rare guests and borrow an air bed and/or foam mattress for those events. We used to have a futon couch in the living room but gave it away and got a more comfortable couch instead. We haven’t missed it much.
2 Likes
When we have too many people for our home, we have farmed S out to sleep at a friend’s vacant condo or niece’s extra bedroom. He’s a good sport about it and a good guest.
2 Likes
At this point, only H and I are the only permanent residents in our home. We try not to switch things up too much because the “kids” (in their 30s) visit annually or more often and like “ their stuff” where they expect it in “their rooms.” They stayed most of 2020 with us, due to my dad dying, decluttering our house and Covid. It was the longest we have had all four of us together in over a decade.
2 Likes
I like this one. Thank goodness she wants the bed you don’t like back. But quick question….if upstairs is too noisy for work…will it work for sleeping?
She actually asked if she could buy it back - i told her that was crazy because I didn’t buy it from her and she’d already paid for it once - lol. She said her ex fiance was willing to give her money towards a new bed since he is keeping the one that they bought together. She was even willing to take the money from him and use it towards buying me a replacement bed if I wouldn’t mind giving hers back - but it just seemed silly. She’s the one spending a way too high amount of money on buying a house in this market right now. And yeah - one of my best friends. 
Yes - we definitely have too much furniture. I had a full house of furniture before my boyfriend moved in, and he brought an entire apartments worth of furniture with him. I’m actually going to see if my friend wants to look through any of my stuff to take with to her new house - lol.
It might be possible to do a double use thing. I was checking out some murphy beds last night that had built in bookshelves which is kind of cool - and fits with the office theme.
2 Likes
I thought about that too, but I think it would wind up being a bit weird with the strange layout (old house, weird outlet placement, etc). Also, a pretty big expense and work effort.
1 Like
Thanks! We had guests a lot more frequently pre-covid than we have had recently. Hopefully eventually we will get back to having more frequent guests again.
2 Likes
Yeah, it’s mostly fine for sleeping… I actually had a guest room up there years ago (when my office was down stairs 10 yrs ago, the last time I was a full time telecommuter)… but it got swapped when the kiddos started spending so much time here, they were little and didn’t like sleeping upstairs by themselves when my master is on the first floor. (my nephews are 15 and 11, and my best friends kiddos are 13 and 11). None of them have spent the night here since covid (though my nephew has traveled with us for overnights at my best friends house to hang out with her kids). I’m sure they are now all at an age that they’d be cool sleeping in any room.
The thing that makes it so loud during the day is all of the traffic driving by… at night while sleeping the traffic is much less. (thank goodness).
I’ve gone to a few different furniture stores… measured everything a zillion times…
the current plan is:
- give my friend her bed back
- move my current bed into my guest room
- move my office desk into my guest room. if i rearrange, everything should fit nicely.
- buy 2 new large bookshelves (1 for guest room, one for my master bedroom)
- get rid of my current guest room desk, as well as a dresser from my master bedroom, and 4 total smaller bookshelves from various rooms (the new ones are taller and will take up less floor space).
- buy myself a new bed and mattress for my master bedroom. i’m debating on king or queen.
- get my board game table for upstairs as well as some chairs for it. I’m so excited for this. i designed it online the other day.
I’m super excited for all of this. I’m looking forward to reclaiming the space that’s been over-run by furniture (when my boyfriend moved in, he brought an entire apartment of stuff with him). and making it work for our remote from home selves.
9 Likes
Your plan sounds great — usable and working for your lifestyle. We never upgraded from our full-size bed. We like having lire space to walk around room and our house and rooms are tiny. No regrets. Full size bedding tends to be cheaper anyway. My sibs all upgraded to Queen or king or CA king.
1 Like
When considering whether to go with a king or a queen – consider that if you change from what you have currently, you’ll need to buy all new bedding – mattress pad, sheets, comforters, duvet covers. That’s not an insignificant cost.
1 Like
Yeah, it’s good to keep in mind. I actually have both queen and king sheets/comforters already. My friends bed was an Olympic queen and i always used king sized sheets flat sheets and comforters on that (with the right size Olympic queen fitted sheet). King was always much more assessable than Olympic queen!!
If you have the room/space, and it won’t feel cramped, consider the king! Has anyone ever said “no” to MORE room in bed?!!!
2 Likes
yeah, i was thinking the same thing. My one reservation is that my house has what feels like 5 trillion windows in it (I’m so glad I bought it with new, modern windows and haven’t had to replace any! There are 11 windows in 4 rooms on the first floor, and 7 windows in 2 rooms on the 2nd floor, and 8 windows in the basement) and a king may have to go in front of a window. That might look weird… unless I find a way to somehow re-arrange things in that room. Windows are like… ALWAYS IN THE WAY!!! i have an abundance of natural light, and a lack of storage. If only they had thought to put one less window in each room or something, so that that space was usable for something.
1 Like
I may be in the minority here but my H and I hate king beds. Too much space, too little touching ; )
1 Like