A Welcoming Guest Room

By Kate Riley September 9, 2014

*This post brought to you by Better Homes and Gardens Products at Walmart.

Last week I shared the coral and aqua guest room I put together for the Nevada house. Together with my parents, we’re hosting a family reunion this Christmas so I’m getting a jump start on making the house a soft place to land for our holiday get together. 

guest room pillows cg

As part of the BHG Live Better Network, today I’m sharing some additional ideas for making a guest room welcoming by adding a few thoughtful amenities for when guests are staying in your home. I think the best way to approach making guests comfortable is rather simple, just consider what might be included in a nice hotel room!

The obvious necessities are cozy linens and lamps to illuminate. An alarm clock is a practical accessory as well, also some extra space to place a phone, sunglasses, and keys which is why I love the pullout top on these petite chests. It’s kind to provide your WiFi password so they can logon to check email, etc.

alarm clock on nightstand

 

Extra keys and tissues are a thoughtful perk, a spare set of house keys for your guests allows them to come and go on their own time.

extra keys

  

We removed the old mirrored closet doors in this room and are awaiting new ones, meanwhile it’s great to provide a place for guests to prop their suitcase and hang their clothes so a luggage rack and extra hangers come in handy. Bonus if you have an extra dresser to share! I tucked an extra blanket inside the closet and also a full length mirror too.

luggage rack

 

It’s nice to provide a little wastebasket for tossing tissues, wrappers, or trash, and bottled water in the room means they don’t have to roam into the kitchen in the middle of the night if thirsty.

wastebasket and snacks

 

Hidden inside one of the drawers I used three different sizes of blue square bowls to corral snacks and extra toiletries. Your guests will be grateful for a few goodies to tide them over between meals. Personal care items or toiletries they might have left behind are a thoughtful addition.

extra snacks in drawer

 

A clean stack of plush towels in a nearby bathroom set aside for your guests is also welcoming gesture.

stack of towels

It doesn’t take much for guests to feel welcome, just a few thoughtful details placed in the space and they’ll remember a comfortable stay!

welcoming guest bedroom

 

Here’s a handy checklist for future reference :)

guest bedroom checklist

 

This post sponsored by Better Homes and Gardens products at Walmart. All opinions are my own. Catch up with the BHG Live Better on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.

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26 comments

  1. those Fiber One chocolate brownies are the best snack ever. I’ll be right over! :)

  2. Love what you’re doing (as always!), but just wondering…I thought this house was a flip, but it looks you’re furnishing it and will be using it around the holidays. Am I mistaken that it’s a flip?

    • Not a flip in the sense we’re in a hurry to sell it Em, we plan to hold onto it for at least a year and enjoy it as a family retreat while we fix it up – we still have 3 bathrooms and a kitchen to remodel – we’re not sure when we will sell it and move onto another home, so we’re furnishing the bedrooms, family room, and breakfast nook for our enjoyment until we do!
      Kate

  3. Okay, now that I see the use of the tiny pull-outs at the top of the night-stand, I am hooked! That is such a clever way to use space.

    I am new to your blog readership, but I am loving it! Great ideas, great colors, and great photos! Makes me happy!

  4. Great post! I am working on this ver post, I also like to provide my guests with a personalized welcome letter, it includes info they need like wifi code etc but also tell them we are so glad they are here.

  5. Awesome ideas! I had a beautiful guest bedroom, which my daughter occupies (and constantly decorates!) now, but she is 19 and will be moving on :( soon, so thanks for the GREAT ideas!

    @ Keitha ~ love your idea of a letter including helpful info, and such!

    I also had a guest book in the room, and have so enjoy reading everyones thoughts, and looking back on just how many people have stayed with us!

  6. I love this post and will be sure to print out the checklist you made! Is it a printable? When hosting a guest it can be overwhelming for me to try and remember everything they will need. Your list will be such a help for future guest preparations! Thank you! Oh, and I love the idea of having snacks available in the room!:-)

  7. It’s a nice touch to have a power strip available in a guest room for convenient recharging of devices.

  8. Beautiful! Would you mind telling me where you found those great nightstands on either side of the bed?

    Thank you!

    • Hi Michelle, I linked to all sources in the previous post on the bedroom, those were from Joss & Main and I picked them up for $220 each, I see them pop up over there a few times a month :)

  9. I love how you decorated the guest bedroom. You’ve given me a new appreciation for turquoise and orange. I didn’t really see me with turquoise — I think of it as a Florida color but I’m able to use it and work around it. When we bought our down-sized house I couldn’t figure out why anyone would put in something as permanent as kitchen counters and back splashes so that you’d have to tear the whole kitchen apart just to remove them.

  10. Ii recently did my guest bedroom in turquoise and orange as well and I love it. Thought the rooms would be perfectly happy in a home in Florida, the colors here in the desert (Kate in Nevada and me in Arizona) are not that far from the turquoise/pnky peach/corals that were hot in all the pottery and art in the 1980s – just way more fresh and fun! It’s a very lovely room.

  11. What a beautiful room! If we ever had guests, I’d aspire to be that kind to them, for sure! This is obviously more for the bathroom than the bedroom, but one of the most considerate items you can have on hand for guests is a toilet plunger. There’s nothing more embarrassing than staying with a friend or family member and having to sheepishly approach them for help with unclogging the toilet! Keep a plunger in plain sight in ALL your bathrooms, but particularly the guest bath. Your guests will appreciate it! :)

  12. This guest room is GORGEOUS! I love the colors and patterns you chose in here. You are truly the hostest with the mostest! Anyone would feel completely lucky to be in your beautiful home. Oh and I love those curtains. Great job Kate!

  13. I don’t know about the snacks. Maybe it’s because I’m French and obsessed about food (loooooove to eat), but I never put snacks in the guest bedroom. We don’t eat in our bedrooms, and I’d rather not have guests to eat in the bedrooms either. The kitchen is in the center of the home, and there are fruits available to everyone. We are used to eating only during lunches, and I’ll admit I’ve been expecting my guests to do the same.
    I’ll keep your list in mind next time I have Americans over; maybe it’ll make them more confortable to have snacks, as our eating habits differ (no judgement whatsoever here) ? I don’t mind cleaning crumbs if they are happier ! That’s why I invited them over after all.

    As for reading material… well, I’m not running a hotel. There are two small libraries in the house, and I always mention that guests are welcome to help themselves, but I’ll never put books in my guest bedroom. I wouldn’t know which one to choose !

    However, I find the rest of the list perfect. I’ve copied it; I always forget the bottle of water (again, because of our “no eating in the bedrooms” rule). It’s safely copied on my computer. I just have to find an attractive luggage rack ! But I guess I’m much more informal when I have friends over.

    The room is cozy and beautiful. Well done !

    • I linked to the source at Minted in the bedroom post, click on over to find it Renee!

  14. LOVE the colours – the coral and turquoise are perfect together – looks so fresh. The guest room looks so inviting – I wouldn’t want to leave!

    I love the little special touches for guests – snacks and extra toiletries. Great ideas

  15. I LOVE this. We’ve had our two oldest move out and we finally have a room that can be a guest room. Actually it will be a guest room/office but this post makes me feel so excited to get going! My favorite idea is the rod to hand clothes on an open bar. Yours is in a nook, which is great, but our room has no closet and I’m thinking I could so the same thing with a short 3 foot rod or something. Thanks!!!!

  16. I love the idea of tucking away little snacks in a drawer. I know from my own experience visiting friends houses, even when you know them well, it’s sometimes hard to know what to do for the inevitable snacking grabs your stomach at times between meals. It’s a perfect fix & definitely says, “make yourself at home”!

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