A Tale of a Guest Room and an Office

Our home has two bedrooms - ours and an extra. Although that's not the most ideal situation for a young couple looking to grow a family, we knew this house was meant for us the moment we saw it. The bedrooms are big with walk-in closets in each, the floor plan is unique and fits well with our routine, and every room has an abundance of natural light. However, when it came to deciding on the design for the second bedroom, let's just say it was a long disagreement - Richard wanted a home office and I wanted a guest room. Our final decision? Both!

I jokingly call this room the "Tetris Room." You'll see why soon.

Our main goal of the Tetris Room was to make it multifunctional and easy to transition for future needs (aka our kids' room). First, colors! We wanted a color scheme that was warm, a mix of modern and classic, and gender neutral. We settled on Wine walls with a mix of natural wood and white furniture plus black, gray, and brown accents.

I also started a subtle "woodland" theme that will carry over to a nursery - which is why you'll see an owl or two in the room.

Where does the guest room come into play? Well, we opted for a Murphy bed!

Have you seen these things? I wish I had one of these babies when I was in college! Life would've been so much easier. If you've never heard of a Murphy bed, it's a bed that folds up in the wall or a cabinet when not in use - perfect for a guest room or small space. We purchased ours from Wayfair. They have a ton of options, including ones with couches or bookcases attached. We chose bookcases because the English major that I am was sick of storing my book collection under my bed.

I'm not going to lie. Putting the Murphy bed together was a long process. It took us about two days to put every piece together and properly anchor the structure to the wall (safety first!), but it was worth it.

We even made some adjustments to our Murphy bed set-up by adding the lights at the top. With a darker room, you need more lighting at night! We got the lights from Ikea and my crafty husband hooked them all up to the room's light switch. He admits that was the easiest part of the job :)

So, why do I call this room the Tetris room? The bed isn't the only thing that moves - so does the desk. Richard found this genius invention on a random website (a similar one can be found here) and we didn't even know it pivoted until we put it together. It's probably the most convenient desk I've owned. When we have guests over we can either fold it up in the corner of the room or stretch it across the wall. We typically keep it in it's L-shape, but sometimes I'll mix it up depending on my mood. It takes 10 seconds to change and I highly recommend it.

Here's proof that you can find compromise in a small room. Our house is still a work in progress, but it's definitely nice to check this one off the list!

-J