I often wish I lived in a bigger house with more rooms. That way, I wouldn’t have to worry about how I’m going to maximize the usability of every room. Unfortunately, I’m stuck with a tiny two-bedroom apartment in Philly right now, and I’ve had to get creative with the way I use my space on multiple occasions.
One of the biggest conundrums I ran into when I first set my apartment up involved lodging for guests, of which I expected to have many. The problem: the second bedroom I wanted to use was already functioning as my home office, and almost nothing about that room suggested that it was hospitable for an overnight stay. The comfiest thing in that whole room was my Vari Ergo Electric Standing Desk, and the best I could do for any travelers stopping at my abode was throw down an air mattress. That kind of hosting is not up to my standards.
Luckily, I’ve managed to transform this extra room into a much cozier space over the last few months. Thanks to the addition of more storage, a permanent bedding fixture, and a significantly downsized workspace, this room now gets use every hour of the day, rather than simply from 9 to 5.
For a closer look at the methods I used (and you can adopt) to transform even the most claustrophobic home office into a multi-function space, read on.
1. Investing in a futon
Perhaps this is a point of personal preference, but I love having a couch in my home office. It can help break up the monotony of sitting at my desk all day, it’s a bit cozier on cold days, and I can lay down all the way on it if I feel like it. Unfortunately, the couch I originally had in here was grotesquely uncomfortable for any kind of overnight stay, which is why I invested in a futon of the same size for added versatility.
I have IKEA’s BALKARP futon in my office, which I got as a hand-me-down from an old friend. I love this thing because it doesn’t have the same hard, heavy, awkward frame that other futons typically have. It’s not quite as sturdy, but I’ve yet to run into a problem with the perceived flimsiness. I’m much happier that it can sleep just about anyone, and there’s no concern that someone will bang their head on a wooden armrest in the middle of the night.
This futon might not be the cutest aesthetic addition to my office, especially since it’s jet black, but I’ve managed to give the corner it sits in a little extra life by throwing a nice blanket over it. This doubles as the blanket I give my guests when they stay the night, though I also purchased some sheets to wrap around it.
2. Tidy, private storage
The futon acquisition did much of the heavy lifting as I transformed my office into a secondary living space, but my guest room wasn’t complete yet. I still had all my work crap scattered all over the place, which made the room look unsettlingly busy all the time. Plus, I had plenty of sensitive documents with no home other than my desktop, so I decided it was time to find a means to tuck things away.
To be clear, I’m not really worried about any of my friends snooping around in, say, my tax documents. This motivation for more private storage solutions truly comes from nothing more than a desire to keep people from feeling like they’re sleeping in my office. Nothing stresses me out more than feeling like I’m shoulder-deep in someone else’s halfway-completed project.
I have plenty of shelves and drawers I’ve managed to employ for the purpose of keeping my desktop spotless, but this file cabinet I bought from IKEA the other week has been a godsend. I can throw just about anything in there, and it’s all in one spot for me to look in later.
Normally, I get overwhelmed when there are 20 different places something can be in my home, so I don’t mind having a dedicated “throw all your crud in here” bin through which I can parse at my leisure.
3. A minimalist office
This was more of a passive development than the others on this list, but I ultimately found myself turning the home office corner of my second bedroom into a much more minimalist space over the last six months. Where I used to have a huge pile of boxes, chairs, and noisy knick-knacks, I now try to have nothing more than a desk, a chair, and a few shelves and drawers for organization’s sake.
The primary motivation here wasn’t actually to clear room for guest room furniture; it was to make it easier to take clean photos of my standing desks and chairs. But I also found that it allowed me to tuck everything into one corner and leave the rest of the room open to other uses.
Now, I have a corner dedicated to my aforementioned futon, I have another corner that houses a TV and gaming setup, and I have another in which I store all of my bikes. When I first moved here, these were all stacked on top of each other, and this room was effectively unusable for any function.
An additional benefit of keeping everything as physically separate as possible is a greater sense of removal from my workspace when I’m not using it. Sure, it’s right there in the corner, but it doesn’t get in the way of using the TV. I also have no problem getting any of my four bikes out of the corner, and I don’t have to do a bunch of heavy lifting or extensive cleanup to make things feel organized again.
Make your workspace work for you
I’m a firm believer in the sanctity of spaces. In an ideal world, nobody would ever fall asleep in the same room as my office equipment, but I also think it’s possible to create that sense of separation without additional walls (and a commensurate increase in rent).
It’s all about where the furniture in a room guides you. If your desk is in the middle of the room, it’s going to dominate everything. But if you allow it to find a humbler home in the corner, you’re opening up a lot more opportunity for the room to feel usable at all hours of the day.
Furthermore, despite the obvious role of temporary housing a guest room plays, it can feel shallow to stuff someone away in a room that doesn’t seem like it was made to be slept in. That’s why I avoid using an air mattress or other temporary solutions as much as possible — even if someone’s stay is short, I don’t want to make any suggestion through my decor that someone’s visit would require me to upend the functionality of my home. Through tasteful use of comfortable, purpose-built furniture, you can transform any workspace into a benign background feature in minutes.
