Guest Bedroom Ideas: Simple Setups Guests Love

Guest beds have a reputation problem. In a survey of 2,000 Americans run by OnePoll for Mattress Firm, only 23 percent called their guest bed very comfy. More than 40 percent said they sleep less in someone else’s guest room than at home.

Most of that is fixable with furniture. Not much of it, either. So we kept this to three pieces and two real room sizes, 10x10 and 12x12, with the inches worked out.

Quick answer: In a 10x10 room we would use a full bed, one or two nightstands with drawers and, for a single guest, a low dresser on the far wall. A 12x12 room takes a queen, two nightstands and the dresser, with 42 inches still clear beside the bed.

Start With Three Pieces of Furniture

Benches and accent chairs can wait. Think about what actually goes wrong for guests. The bed is bad, the phone spends the night on the floor, the suitcase turns into a dresser. One piece of furniture fixes each of those.

Piece	Its job	What to check
Bed	Sleep, and it sets the layout	About 24 in of floor on each open side
Nightstand with a drawer	Phone, water and glasses at night	A top close to mattress height
Low dresser	Folded clothes inside, a suitcase on top	Under 30 in tall, so a bag opens at hip height

 

Mirrors and hanging rails get their own section in our guest room furniture guide. We skip them here.

Nightstands With a Drawer on Each Side

An open shelf ends up storing your spare books, which is fine until a guest needs it. With a drawer, the charger and glasses case go out of sight at night and the top keeps room for a lamp and a glass of water. Measure from the floor to the top of the mattress before you look at nightstands with drawers, because a table four inches below the pillow is the usual mistake.

The Savanna rattan nightstands set of 2 is our usual pick, mainly because both sides arrive in one order. Each table stands 25.2 inches high on a 19.7 by 15 inch footprint, so it fits beside a full bed even in the 10x10 plan below. The rattan drawer front runs on metal roller glides, and there is an open shelf under it for a book. The drawer is 16.3 inches across inside. A toiletry bag lies flat in it.

A Low Dresser That Doubles as a Luggage Stand

Most guests never fully unpack. The case gets opened, something gets pulled out, and the zip goes back around, all weekend.

That is why we like a low dresser here. The Savanna 4 drawer dresser is 29.52 inches tall and 60.82 inches long, so a carry on can sit open at one end while a lamp takes the other. Each of its four drawers is 26.58 inches wide and 15.16 inches deep inside, with safety stops on metal glides. Empty the top two for guests.

Two Guest Room Layouts, Measured

How we measured: bed sizes are the standard ones from the Sleep Foundation mattress chart, which lists a full at 54 by 75 inches and a queen at 60 by 80. Its 24 inch bedside clearance is our minimum walkway. A frame adds a few inches, so subtract yours.

Room	Bed and placement	Furniture	Clear floor left
10x10 ft, one guest	Full, one long side on the wall	1 nightstand, dresser on the facing wall	About 48 in to the dresser, 45 in at the foot
10x10 ft, a couple	Full, centered	2 nightstands, no dresser	About 33 in per side, 45 in at the foot
12x12 ft, a couple	Queen, centered	2 nightstands, dresser facing the foot	About 42 in per side, 46 in to the dresser

 

The 10x10 Guest Room

Ten feet is 120 inches. A queen plus storage gets tight fast, so start with a full.

For one guest, push a long side of the bed against the wall. The open side gets a nightstand, and the dresser goes on the opposite wall with about 48 inches in front. An open drawer takes roughly 15 of those inches. Still enough to stand. The second nightstand from the pair can sit by the door as a spot for keys and a phone.

Hosting couples? Center the bed for about 33 inches on each side and leave the dresser out. At the foot it would leave only 27 inches, and an open drawer would eat most of that. Wall hooks and a folding luggage rack cover storage instead.

The 12x12 Guest Room

At 144 inches each way, a queen and all three pieces fit without anything in a walkway.

1. Queen first, centered on the wall you see from the door. About 42 inches stays open on each side.

2. A nightstand goes on each side, with nothing on top except a lamp.

3. Dresser on the wall facing the foot of the bed, about 46 inches away.

4. Three or four hooks behind the door for coats and tomorrow’s clothes.

5. Leave half the dresser top empty. That is the suitcase spot.

Small Details Guests Notice

 

The Mattress Firm survey also asked what makes a host stand out. Spare towels made the top five. So did extra toiletries and a WiFi password left on display.

• WiFi name and password, written on a card in the nightstand drawer. Nobody wants to text you for it at 11 pm.

• Towels and travel toiletries go in the top dresser drawer. It is the first one people open.

• A lamp they can switch off without getting up.

• Cooler air. The Sleep Foundation puts the best temperature for sleep at about 65°F, so leave out a fan or a spare blanket.

• Bedside charging, with no cord under the rug. ESFI calls an extension cord a temporary fix and warns that a covered cord cannot release heat.

Anchor the dresser: The Savanna 4 drawer dresser weighs 105 lb. The CPSC’s Anchor It campaign says all furniture with drawers, doors and shelves should be anchored to the wall. Visiting children will not know which pieces tip.

Final Thoughts

Three pieces, measured once, do most of the hosting. For most homes that is a full bed in a 10x10 room or a queen in 12x12, a drawer within arm’s reach of each pillow, and a dresser top nobody uses for anything but luggage. Art, throws and plants can wait for the second visit.

When you are ready to fill the gaps, the full bedroom range is at SICOTAS.

FAQs

What Should Every Guest Bedroom Have?

Start with the bed, then a lamp the guest can switch off from the pillow, then somewhere to put things. In that order.

The bedside surface needs room for three items at once: phone, water and glasses. For clothes, one empty drawer or five hangers covers a two night stay, and past that guests start living out of the suitcase. The rest is whatever people forget to pack. A spare phone charger, travel toothpaste and a second bath towel cover most of it.

Before the first visitor, sleep one night in there yourself. You will find the missing thing by about midnight.

How Do You Create a Nice Guest Bedroom?

Measure first. A 10 by 12 foot room is 120 by 144 inches, and a queen is 60 by 80, which leaves 30 inches on each side along the 120 inch wall. That clears the Sleep Foundation’s 24 inch guideline.

Bed on the longest unbroken wall, nightstands at the head, dresser wherever about 46 inches of floor is left in front of it. Decor comes last and gets one job, which is to give the eye one place to land.

Nothing has to match. Our black oak nightstands sit fine beside the light oak dresser, since the rattan drawer fronts repeat.

What Are Some Inexpensive Ideas for a Guest Bedroom?

Pillows first. Two new ones usually cost less than one decent lamp, and a flat pillow is the thing guests mention the next morning.

Bulbs are next. Swapping a cool white bulb for a 2700K one costs a few dollars, and an over the door hook rail is about the same price. Curtains cost more. Check before buying: at 10 pm with the lights off, lie on the bed and see if a streetlight hits the pillow. Hauling stored boxes out costs nothing, and often that alone opens the corner a suitcase needs.

Decor money comes last, after you have checked from the bed that a lamp and a phone spot are both in reach.

Do Guest Bedrooms Need a Dresser?

For weekend guests, no. Two nights work fine out of a suitcase on a folding rack, plus five hangers.

Longer stays change that, and so does a room with no closet. We would also add one if your spare linens have nowhere else to live. Go low. With a top near 30 inches the suitcase opens at hip height instead of on the floor, and our Savanna 4 drawer dresser sits at 29.52. Budget floor for it too. The drawers are 15.16 inches deep inside, so an open one takes about 15 inches of walkway.

Two empty drawers per guest is plenty.

What Should You Put in a Guest Room to Make It Cozy?

Mostly fabric and warm light.

For the bed, a quilt folded at the foot and a second pillow for each sleeper are enough, since one pillow is too flat to read against. A small rug belongs on the side the guest gets out of bed, which in the one guest 10x10 layout is the open side by the nightstand. The thermostat matters too. Rooms above a furnace often sit near 70°F in January, five degrees over the 65°F mentioned earlier, so keep a desk fan in the closet.

Skip the throw pillows. At bedtime the guest has to find somewhere to put them.

What Are Some Modern Ideas for a Guest Bedroom?

Modern mostly comes down to low pieces and clear tops.

In this plan nothing is taller than the 29.52 inch dresser, and the nightstands stop at 25.2 inches, so the eye runs straight along the walls. Hang one large print above the bed instead of a group of small frames, and hold the room to three colors, say white walls, oak and black. A spare room that sits empty for months can start to feel like a showroom. Texture fixes that. Woven drawer fronts and a wool rug do the job, and two bedside lamps beat one ceiling light.

Leave half of every top clear for keys and a phone.

What Can You Do Instead of a Guest Room?

Most homes without a spare room use a sleeper sofa or a daybed in the den or office, and that works for visits of one to three nights.

Give that spot the basics a guest room would have. Put a lamp within arm’s reach of the pillow, then a small table. One of the 19.7 inch wide Savanna nightstands fits at the end of most sofas, and its drawer holds the phone and glasses. Leave about 30 inches of floor along one wall so the suitcase can stay open. If the room has no door, a folding screen gives some privacy.

If it is your office, clear the desk the night before. Nobody wants to sleep next to your tax files.