No spare room? Where to keep a bed

In this day and age, and under the current economic conditions, it isn’t always easy to host guests for extended periods of time. On top of that, our living space seems to become more and more cramped. A lot of people don’t live in large suburbian houses anymore and prefer to live in security complexes, where the houses are small and compact. Small homes mean that a lot of us don’t have a spare room anymore. Keeping that in mind, how are you going to host your family friends that are coming over from New Zealand in June? Are you going to tell them to go and stay at the Holiday Inn? Or maybe tell them to rent a home with Airbnb? That is certainly an option, but what if you want to have them with you in the house, but you don’t have a spare room?

The trick is to disguise your spare bed. Make it look like part of the furniture. Put it up against the wall, throw a comforter over it and stack it sky high with pillows, so that it looks like a sofa instead of a bed. Then once your guests are ready to turn in, put up a divider screen between the living room and the kitchen to give them some privacy.

But if you don’t have a spare bed, we have a couple of interesting pieces of furniture that doubles for a bed. Read on to find out how to create the perfect spare room without having an actual spare room in your house. And what to buy, if you don’t have an extra bed, but you really want to play host.

The sleeper couch

Okay, all of you expected that. So what? If something works, it works. And why would we lie to you about one of the best ways to set up a spare bed? But then, some of you might say that sleeper couches are really not fashionable. To you, dear friends, I say welcome to a new era! There are some beautiful sleeper couches out there, that at first glance looks like a normal couch. Go ahead and look at our variety of sleeper couches here. Look at the stylish Moxi double sleeper couch with wooden armrests. Or if you really want to up your game, we even have some super fancy leather sleeper couches!

So as you can see, you can have a couch that looks stylish. Upon arrival, your guests can sit on their bed-to-be while they discuss their airport problems. When your guests are in the bathroom freshening up after their long flight, quickly set up the sleeper couch. Take out your finest linen, put a stack of extra blankets on the sofa and set out a nice selection of pillows for your guests to choose from. Once they are done with cleaning up, feed them a healthy bedtime meal and show them their comfortable “spare room” in the living room.

The best thing about a sleeper couch is that in the morning when everyone is ready to go to the zoo, you can quickly tidy up. Moreover, if your guests get friends over to come and visit them, your place will look neat and clean.

The air mattress

Air mattresses can have the effect of reminding people of “that camping trip when the compressor didn’t work and we had to take turns to blow the mattress up with our mouths…” Great! There you have your first conversation starter to break the awkward silence that sometimes creeps in when you have friends over that you haven’t seen in a while. Another great thing about an air mattress is that you can keep it stashed in the cupboard during the day and then whip it out when it’s time to hit the hay.

However, just because the air mattress reminds you of camping doesn’t mean your guests must feel like they are camping. Make sure to set out a luxury duvet, clean and comfortable pillows and your best linen. Make your guests feel at home, even if you do not have a spare room.

The futon

A futon is a traditional Japanese mattress that can be folded up and stowed away during the day. Some modern futons can fold up into what looks like a single couch-like chair. So you can have your guests sitting and sleeping on the same futon. It is also more affordable than a sleeper couch, although the comfort level might not be as high. The cool thing about the futon is that it doesn’t take a lot of space, even when it is unfolded and ready to be slept in. Thus if you have a small living area, you can squeeze the futon in and still have room to breathe.

You can also create some awesome conversation topics around the futon. Tell your friends about how your grandfather slept on a futon when he was fighting in the Pacific during World War 2. Or if you have been lucky enough to travel to Japan, you can relate some of your travel stories to the futon. If all else fails, just make up some cool story about how you inherited the futon from a Samurai. Okay, maybe that’s pushing it a bit, but you catch my drift…

No spare room? Not a problem

So you see, not having a spare room is not the end of the world. You can easily host your family and friends in your living room if you just have the right kind of bed. However, even if you don’t have a futon or an air mattress, don’t stress. You can always put your spare mattress under your own bed and when the time comes, just slide it out and make it up.

If you feel that you can’t let your guests sleep in the living room, you can always offer them your bedroom. Then you can go and crash in the living room. Just put fresh linen on the bed before you let your guests sleep in it. You know, sleep hygiene and all that.