Guest Room + Home Office Combo

We've only ever lived in three bedroom houses.  Our first house was a 3/1 (with a fourth bedroom and second bathroom finished shortly before we sold and moved), along with our second, third, and fourth houses.  It's great when you're newlyweds because then you have two extra bedrooms (we had a guest room and an office...spoiled) but with four kids, three bedrooms fill up quick with no space left for anything else.

So, we were excited this house around to find something with another bedroom.  The fourth bedroom in this house affords us a guest bedroom, which is fantastic since the closest family members we have live seven hours away.  But, with the right situating and set up, it also affords us a home office - something I really wanted so that I could have a designated place to sew.

We got really lucky in finding furniture secondhand for this room - furniture that is multi-functional so that we can fairly easily switch from home office mode to guest bedroom mode.

Home Office Mode

We recently found this table that transforms into a cabinet likity-split.  You'll see how below when you get to guest room mode.  But it's perfect for us - when no guests are here, it's always pulled out and is a designated sewing table, perfect for making pillow covers.  It pulls out to be 10 feet long (!!!!) but I usually am happy with it at around six.

The leaves are stored inside the cabinet underneath.

 

The daybed and trundle set were Facebook a marketplace find.  We bought a couple of these mattresses (they're the same we bought for the kids two years ago and are very happy with...so we own SIX of them) and painted the wood frame white.  I'd still like to build a removable wood front or maybe just sew up a simple sort of bed skirt to cover up the trundle underneath.  

I found the bed and the cabinets (both secondhand) alongside it within a few weeks of each other.  They happened to all fit (quite snug) along that back wall of the room.  The cabinets are vintage, super solid, and made with real wood.  I originally thought I'd paint them but the fronts have decorative burl wood and I kind of feel bad even thinking about painting over that.  So, we'll see.     

Inside the left are our printer, printing supplies, office supplies, a few files for bills, and some other random things.  Inside the right is all of my fabric, zippers, and pillow covers.  (Here's my Etsy shop --> Bean In Love Studio.)  

Guest Room Mode

The very awesome thing about the daybed + trundle that we found is that, not only does the trundle pull out from underneath, but it also can be raised up to the same height as the daybed to make one big (almost) king!  (Here's a similar trundle).  We connect the two mattresses with this contraption* to hold them together and I outfit them with a set of these sheets* (so soft!).  We also bought a pair of twin, three inch, memory foam toppers (similar) to make that big bed even more cozy.   

So far, we've only had great sleeping reports from guests.  💤

Here are some similar expandable beds:

Gray bed with storage*

White bed with extra trundle*

IKEA Pull Out

When the bed is pulled out all the way, our cabinet/table works the best on the opposite wall.

You would never know it transforms into a table, would you?!  These cabinet-table (and even desk!) combos were made in the 1940's and 50's by Saginaw Furniture Co. and called the Expand-O-Matic.  How awesome is that?  I had no clue something like this existed until I found ours on Facebook Marketplace (I paid $120).  But since then, I've found several sold around the states - eBay (love this lighter wood version!), eBay, and Purspyk. You can also find similar tables new but they're pretty pricey - Lowe's, Hammacher Schlemmer, and Amazon* (a desk version).  But, if you consider the dual function, maybe it's worth the $$$ for a small space that needs flexible furniture?  Technically you're getting two pieces of functional furniture so if you look at it that way and break down the price accordingly, it doesn't seem quite as bad.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

The Expand-O-Matic has a wooden track system underneath the table part that allows it to expand.  All you have to do is pull and the front of the cabinet slides right out. 

 Add as many leaves as you want to make it as long as you want and, wa-la!  A table!

The leaves are stored underneath on the left and I store my machines and supplies on the right.  

It's really the perfect set up for us!  I was so hesitant to buy the table when I first spotted it on Facebook but I'm so glad I did.  I was using a drop-leaf table before and it was great too but not quite as sturdy as this when my sewing machine was whizzing away.

As far as whether the cabinet will stay the same color, that's up in the air.  The top will never get painted because it's bound to get scratched with all of the cutting that I do (it's MDF covered in a thick laminte that still looks brand new because it doesn't scratch!) but me thinks a dark green would be a fun way to spice up the bottom.  Stay tuned.  ;)

What else do I need to make this office/guestroom even more functional?  Do you have a room that serves multiple purposes in your house?  Tell me about it!

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*These links are affiliate links which means that, if you click over and/or make a purchase through the link, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.  I am an Amazon affiliate and also use other sources to link to products.  All of these links will lead you to things we actually paid for or that are similar to the item we paid for in case ours is thrifted/sold out/secondhand.  This extra money helps us with the costs of running the blog and buying paint.  ;)  Thank you for your support and for fueling our love to share all things DIY!