Whether visitors stop over for a couple of days or a week or two, just-for-guest spaces always make their overnight stays more pleasant. Guest rooms and dual-purpose rooms, with doors that shut, afford private spots to spread open a suitcase, out of the way of the host family’s traffic patterns-but not every home can offer that.
We talked to four creative Chicagoans who studied their homes and devised innovative answers to the often daunting questions: “Where do I put them?” of “How can I offer a bit of privacy?”
One made an office work harder with a built-in bed, while another constructed a garage for stowing guests and boating gear. A loft dweller fashioned a cozy nook in his vast, doorless interior with a few well-placed furnishings. Another outfitted a spare bedroom with twin beds on wheels, easily moved to accommodate both singles and duos.
In addition to a place to lay a weary head, each guest space supplies a generous number of ideas for making guests feel right at home.
(And those without a designated guest room need not despair. See the accompanying story for a list of hospitality tips, from local innkeepers and design experts, guaranteed to make visitors-even those settling for a sleeping bag on the floor–more than happy to stay another day.)
Jamie and Jeff Konker
Problem: How do I make room for an office while still accommodating guests?
Situation: When portrait artist Jamie Kempner Konker needed office space for her painterly paperwork, she looked around her Lincoln Park three-flat and came up one room short. Although she has a studio in a detached garage out back, she needed a quiet spot for keeping the books and making phone calls. The only available space was a tiny first-floor guest room. She could have just stored the bed and moved in a desk and file cabinets, but Konker wanted to create a space that was high on style and could serve both her business needs and those of her guests.
Solution: Konker and her husband, Jeff, studied the space and came up with a solution that provided generous storage, a cozy sleeping nook, and even a touch of Nordic character. Reaching into the bedroom’s only closet–measuring 8 1/2 feet wide by 3 feet deep–the couple found enough room to house cabinets, drawers, bookshelves and a fold-out queen-size mattress. Konker came up with the initial design but worked with her brother, Chicago cabinetmaker Jim Kempner, to realize it.
“It’s pretty much my design. I wanted something less officey–something more like a room,” says Konker. “I’ve always been a big fan of the Scandinavian style. This closet was just crying out for this. So we designed it to fit in this space. To make the bed, the four lower drawers pull out and a platform slides out over them and supports the flip-out mattress. I had the mattress made from good-quality foam and covered with canvas.”
Kempner measured the space, configured the cabinets to fit and then built the cabinetry and bed at his shop. Because the entire unit was to be painted, he incorporated fiberboard panels along with hardwood door and drawer fronts to save on the final cost. The components were then installed on-site.
To make up for the closet space lost in the conversion, Kempner also built an 8 1/2-foot-wide-by-2-foot-deep closet on the wall opposite the alcove bed. Doors from the original closet enclose the space and cabinets matching those at the bed are built in across the top of the closet.
“The whole idea was hers; our job was to execute it,” says Kempner. “The tricky thing was to make a base that pulled out with the drawers and then a platform to pull out over the drawers. The platform needed to be secured to keep it from popping up when people got on the bed, so we used slide bolts on the top so it can’t rock. She wanted to use every bit of space, and we did.”
In addition to having room for guests, Konker has a generous supply of storage. The lower cabinet on the left of the bed holds files and things related to business. The long cabinets on either side of the bed, notched to fit the bookcases on the inside of the alcove, provide vertical nooks to hold rolls of gift wrap and art papers. The four lower drawers, which can be pulled out when the platform bed is in place, hold sheets and extra blankets. The adjustable shelves supply space for books and reading lamps.
Well designed, the room has become a triple- rather than dual-purpose space. When Konker is in the studio and there are no guests, the Konkers’ 10-year-old son, Henry, curls up in the fortlike cubbyhole with Maggie, the family’s black lab, and reads a book.
Although Konker, Henry and Maggie love the space, it’s the guests who count. All of them have been impressed by the innovative accommodations. Konker ensures their comfort by topping the bed with a fluffy featherbed when it’s time to turn in.
“It’s really very comfortable,” says Konker. “It’s kind of fun to sleep in; it’s like a berth on a train.”
Cost: Kempner says a unit like this, because it is custom-designed and crafted to fit, can cost from $5,000 and up, depending on size and materials. He says it also would work in a 2-foot-deep closet, but the “headboard” of the flipped-out mattress would be at one of the sides instead of the top.
Kempner says a lower-cost alternative would be a simpler version of this bed, minus the pull-outs and custom storage, built on-site by a carpenter.
Chuck and Lori Hackley
Problem: How do I make room for more grandkids and my boat?
Situation: After three years of enjoying their Wisconsin lakeshore cottage, designed by son Chip Hackley, a North Shore architect, Chuck and Lori Hackley found they needed extra space for a growing brood of visiting grandchildren and for a burgeoning collection of summer-home gear, including a boat and bikes.
Solution: The west suburban couple worked with Chip to design a “garattage”–a detached structure that echoes the architectural elements of the beach house and comfortably stores both guests and gear.
“We had wanted to add on to the cottage, but didn’t have enough room due to setback requirements,” says Lori. “We needed a garage for storage. So we built the garage, making the back end, which faces the lake, long enough to accommodate a long room.”
“The construction was relatively inexpensive,” says Chip. “It’s just a slab on grade with 2-by-4 studs, and it’s uninsulated and unheated. There’s a corrugated sheet-metal roof like the one on the main house–like the type of roofing found on a pole barn.
“The shell of the building cost about $24,000 to build. Dad did all the finishing work. It’s reminiscent of the cottage where he spent his summers as a child.”
Instead of installing drywall, Chuck painted and stained the wood walls and the exposed studs and rafters for a Northwoods look. He used a special concrete stain to color the slab floor. Chip designed the guest room’s doorway to fit a pair of pine French doors found at an antique sale.
The glass-paned doors invite the sunshine in and give guests a view of the beach and waves beyond. When Lake Michigan breezes blow, the doors are left open and a custom-designed sliding screen door is pulled into place. A pair of barn doors lock across the doorway when it’s time to head back to Chicago.
Lori outfitted the 13-by-12-foot space with simple country furnishings. White coverlets, quilts and pillow covers keep the mood light, and a pair of striped privacy drapes, when drawn across the doorway, cozy up the space at night. Sometimes a basket filled with life’s necessities awaits expected guests.
It’s more likely, however, that Chuck and Lori head out to the garattage when company comes calling. Chip pegs the out-of-the-way haven “their parental retreat.”
“It’s a cute space,” says Lori, “a just-for-summer room. Chuck and I go out there when we have guests, for privacy. When all the kids are in the cottage, we come out here too.”
Cost: About $24,000.
Rodrigo del Canto
Problem: How do I accommodate scores of summer guests?
Situation: Rodrigo del Canto’s three-story Lincoln Park home had one guest room, next to the often noisy second-story pool and deck.
Chilean-born del Canto hosts multiple friends three out four weekends from June through September and needed a room away from the pool hullabaloo that could house double- or single-occupancy visitors.
Solution: “I needed a second guest room for several reasons,” says the hospitable architect. “My home is like a hotel during the summertime. The fact that one room has two single beds and the other has a double offers different sleeping options. One is removed from the noise. This (the second guest room, which is on the third floor) is the quietest room and more subdued in style.”
Outfitting the room with twin beds, complete with wheels and brakes, makes the room suitable for couples, platonic pairs and singles who simply like a larger bed. The maple headboard, fastened to the wall, provides a unified statement whether beds are together or detached.
“It’s a European type of thing to have beds with wheels,” says del Canto.
“You can pull them together, make the bed up with king-size linens and top it with a comforter. I have two bedside tables and when I push the beds together, I set a table on either side.”
An overstuffed armchair, over-the-shoulder lighting and a woolly rug outfit a windowed nook with comfort. Peruvian rugs warm the hardwood floor and hupils, embroidered Guatemalan peasant shirts, deck the walls. Splashes of yellow, red and blue–on throw pillows and above-the-bed silk screens by Cuban-American artist Natalia Delgado–punctuate the serene space with cheerful hues.
“The room is plain and comfortable,” says del Canto. “The interest comes from a mix of simple textures with strong cultural backgrounds.”
Guests can come and go as they please; an exterior spiral staircase connects the room with the pool outdoors below, where a door leads to the kitchen and access to the street.
“They love this room,” says del Canto. “It’s so quiet and removed from the action. Guests can go upstairs and go to bed undisturbed.”
Cost: Furnishings, artwork and accessories: $15,000. Similar looks can be achieved by incorporating flea-market finds, recycled furnishings and inexpensive framed prints and area rugs. Instead of a custom-made headboard, mount a queensized headboard, a row of fence pickets or a panel of painted beadboard or plywood to the wall.
Lee Allison
Problem: How do you offer privacy in a loft?
Situation: To offer a modicum of solitude to overnight company, necktie designer Lee Allison needed a secluded spot in his 5,000-square-foot, eclectically furnished loft, where he lives and works.
Solution: Allison opted to house his guests in the only low-ceilinged spot in his sprawling digs, where 12- and 15-foot ceilings are the norm.
Resourceful by nature, Allison built a “wall” from affordable metal shelving, the kind available at home-improvement and hardware stores, and used recycled art to decorate the snug space. “It’s below a lofted area,” says Allison. “Because the ceiling is only 6 1/2 feet high, it seemed a good place for a little bedroom in a place with no separate rooms. It’s also close to the bathroom. There’s really just the bed and standing room around it, but it narrows into a triangle where there are a couple of dressers.”
A trio of rolling closets, purchased at Target, creates another wall of sorts, visually separating the space from the adjoining kitchen. And although the “guest cranny” has no door, Allison says lack of privacy is not really an issue.
“Privacy is created by distance,” Allison explains. “My bed is at the other end of the loft so the two spaces are 100 feet apart. Even though you can play Frisbee or catch across the room, you still have privacy.”
Referring to his interior style as guerrilla decorating, Allison created a headboard from a discarded trade-show poster mounted on foam core, which he placed so just the sky and mesas are visible above the pillows. A 3-by-4-foot photo of a bucket disguises crumbling bricks in the alcove behind. Childhood furnishings supply perches for lamps on either side of the bed.
“The pictures look good by themselves, but they usually cover some flaw (in the wall),” says Allison. “Those are the ash tables I had in my childhood bedroom. It’s kind of neat to use them, since I’ve had them since I was 10.”
How do guests respond to sleepovers in the wide-open interiorlike the space?
“I get mixed reviews,” says Allison. “Most folks think it’s cool, some feel it’s too open. But it’s definitely the quintessential loft experience for those who have never lived in one.”
Cost: About $1,500 for accessories such as rugs, rolling closets, lamps and artwork.
MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME
Almost any space can offer a hearty welcome with a few inexpensive touches like flowers or a small dish filled with chocolates. Here are tips from local design experts and guest house owners on making every stay a memorable one.
Don’t forget the bath. Make sure there are plenty of towels for guests. Tie up a pile or two with a pretty ribbon and set them on the sink or the guest bed.
Sally Baker of the Gold Coast Guest House keeps wicker picnic baskets stocked with bandages, hair spray, contact lens solution, toothbrushes, curling irons, hair dryers, sewing kits and fancy bar soaps under the sinks in the bathrooms. She also leaves shampoo, conditioner, lotion and shaving cream in each bathroom.
Keep your guests posted. At the Wooded Isle Suites, furnished guest apartments on the Near South Side, co-owner Charlie Havens makes sure, in addition to stocking rooms with a corkscrew for opening bottles of wine, a hair dryer and extra light bulbs, that his guests have the information they need to get around the city.
Homeowners can do the same, stacking city or suburban guides, local newspapers and even maps and train schedules on a night stand, making it easy for guests to fend for themselves when either host or hostess is absent.
Help guests record the highlights of their stay. Leave a disposable camera by the bed and make sure your guests knows it’s for their use.
Provide background tunes. Sherry Brewer from the Victorian Rose Garden Bed and Breakfast in Algonquin suggests hosts provide a CD or cassette player with recordings of their guest’s favorite music. A radio alarm clock also is a welcome addition.
Baker at the Gold Coast Guest House offers guests tunes of a different sort: sounds of waves crashing on a beach or a gentle summer rain shower, courtesy of sound machines, can lull her guests to sleep. Among the different machines available are: the Wave Machine, which plays recorded water and train sounds ($29 to $39 at Radio Shack stores; call 800-843-7422 for nearest location); and Body Basics Environmental Sound Machines, which play howling coyotes, calling loons, running brooks, ocean waves and more ($19.99 and $29.99 at Service Merchandise stores; call 800-338-3333 for nearest location).
Quench their thirst. Bottled water, iced in a shiny bucket or colorful ceramic bowl, and pretty glasses at the bedside offer middle-of-the-night convenience. Supply early morning risers, who can’t face the day (or their hosts) without caffeine, with a pretty carafe set on a silver tray and invite them to fill it up at the kitchen pot and take it back it to their room. Or, do as Brewer does and fill the carafe and leave it (or a glass of orange juice) outside your guest’s door in the morning.
Accommodate cocooning friends. Make sure there are plenty of blankets and pillows to keep the most cold-blooded guest comfortable, advises Grace Tsao-Wu, owner of Tabula Tua, a tabletop boutique in Lincoln Park. She says it’s easy to dress up old comforters and banished-to-the-basement blankets with a simple-to-stitch, easy-to-clean duvet cover made from two sheets.
Choose sheets wide enough to cover the top and sides of your mattress and stitch a strip of Velcro across the top edge of each sheet, about 1 inch from the top edge on the right side of the fabric, making sure the two pieces of fastener tape line up correctly. Pin the two sheets, right sides facing. Using 1-inch seams, stitch along the bottom and two sides, stopping seams just below the Velcro strips. Flip the duvet right side out and stuff in an old blanket or comforter. Bend the top edges inward, fastening the Velcro strips.
Supply storage, especially the hanging kind. For rooms not regularly designated for guests, clean out a portion of the closet and stock it with hangers and skirt hangers. Or, as Tsao-Wu suggests, purchase a canvas-covered rolling closet that can be moved in and out as needed.
Put out magazines and quick-read books. For close friends and family members, set out photo albums that offer visual evidence of your shared history.
Or follow Linda Ward’s lead. The reader from Western Springs sets an old checkers game near the bed. Playing cards would do the same kind of trick.
Dress up the bed. Coordinating bed linens, downy comforters, and rows of best-dressed pillows can turn even the humblest of hide-a-beds or futons into a sleeping space with stature. You also can soften the blow of sofa bed bars by topping the sofa bed mattress with an air mattress before making up the bed.
Sweet surrender. Place a pretty little dish near the bed and put a few mints or chocolates in it.
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A final tip: Experience the room first-hand. Experts advise spending a night in your own guest quarters to make sure it fills the hospitality bill. Are there reading lights near the bed? Is the mattress comfortable? Is there an off-the-floor place to set an open suitcase. If the light switches are across the room, would a night light help guide a guest’s way?
