Give Up the Guest Room: 5 Other Ideas to Squeeze the Most Use Out of An Extra Bedroom

If you’re lucky enough to have an extra bedroom in your home, you might be getting some familial pressure to have a guest room always at the ready for out-of-towners. An extra bed is never a bad idea, but letting an empty room go to waste the other 51 weeks of the year seems like a shame. Maximize your space by turning that room into one of these things that you can appreciate all the time. Your guests will understand!

How luxurious would it be to be able to keep your sewing machine set up in between projects or have your easel and paints spread out in a space with good light? Embracing a hobby is a great stress relief and setting aside space for that activity means you’ll be more likely to drop in and do it more regularly.

Even if you don’t work from home, chances are you spend some time at a desk paying bills, planning household projects or working on your own creative endeavors. Want to have a workspace out of the flow of regular family life? Want a filing cabinet and shelving that doesn’t interrupt your living room decor? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to shut a door and focus on your work? Yes, yes and yes.

Maybe fashion is your passion and your teeny tiny bedroom closet just isn’t cutting it. Imagine a whole room’s worth of shelving, mirrors, shoe racks and vanity space. You could have the space to properly store your clothes and display accessories so you know exactly what you have and how to put it together. Dream life accomplished.

Want to get away from your laundry-strewn bedroom or your family making a mess in the kitchen? Take a few minutes (and some space) for yourself and make an extra room into a retreat. Whether you’re into meditation, yoga or you just want a quiet reading room, a calm space that exists just for the purposes of relaxation will never be a bad idea.

If you want to keep the noise of the TV from interrupting the flow of conversation in the family or living room (or vice versa), a room set aside just for entertainment is smart. No longer will you have to put up with clanking pots and pans in the kitchen interrupting the dialogue of your movie marathons or, alternatively, not be able to hear your phone call because of a loud TV. Bonus: if someone in the family likes to listen to loud music or play video games, closing a door can be a godsend.