For you, a guest room is a must, but you have a little one on the way and he or she needs a nursery. You’re trying to find a way to combine these two essentials, but you’re having trouble coming up with ideas that you’re comfortable with. You can use some of these Nursery Guest Room Combo Ideas to create a space that’s comfortable for you, your infant, and your guests.
1) Rattan Clouds
One of the tricky things about having a nursery and guest room combo is trying to find decorations that fit in both spaces. One way to do this is to get nature-based decorations that fit a nursery theme but in an adult style. For example, clouds are common in nurseries because they’re a restful image, so you could decorate with clouds but in a way that still looks good to adults. One way to do that’s to get decorations like these rattan clouds that’d look good in either a guest room or nursery.
2) Natural Decor
You can design a nursery and guest bedroom by looking for a theme that’d work in both a guest bedroom and a nursery. For example, nature is a common nursery theme because it promotes natural intelligence and exposes babies to what the outside world is like. It’s also a good guest room idea because natural decorations are lovely and tasteful. This article by S and A shows some of the things you can do to create a calming nature-themed guest room and nursery.
3) Chalkboards
Chalkboards are a neat decorating tool because you can put them almost anywhere and make them work. In a guest bedroom, dining room, or kitchen, they give the impression of an old-fashioned cafe, and you can draw any decorations you want on them. In a nursery and guest room combo, you can hang chalkboards like this family did and decorate them with cute images and messages for your baby most of the time, then erase them and put welcoming messages for your guest when you have a visitor.
4) Yellow and Gray
Yellow is a sunny and cheerful color, creating a happy impression for a nursery and a friendly impression for a guest. Even pale yellow makes a room seem cheery in a way that’s appropriate for both the baby and your guest. Yellow and gray is a great combo for a room like this because the use of gray tones down the yellow aspects and makes it so the room still feels restful despite the sunny color.
5) Animals
If you want to create a cohesive theme but still want your little one to have baby things and your guests to have tasteful decorations, animals are a good choice. There are plenty of animal decorations that are appropriate for adults, such as Western and nature scenes, and it’s easy to find nursery decorations with all kinds of animals. You can design a room like this one that has an animal mobile on the baby’s side of the room and a painting of horses on the other.
6) Crib and Changing Table Combo
Since you’re combining a guest room and nursery, there’s a fair chance that you don’t have a lot of room. You’ll want to prioritize a couple of essential pieces of furniture: namely, the crib, changing table, and bed. One way to reduce the space you use and keep the baby’s things in a separate space from the guest area is to create a baby station with tools like this crib and changing table combo. This takes up much less room than a separate changing table would.
7) Partition
Most guests probably won’t be comfortable sleeping in a space that feels like it’s meant for a baby, so creating some separation is a good idea. At the same time, you probably want most of the space to be dedicated to your baby since you won’t have a guest all the time. One way to accomplish this is to get a partition like this that only comes out when you have a visitor. That way, visitors don’t feel like they’re intruding on the nursery and you can use the whole space for your baby most of the time.
8) Murphy Bed
If you’re not prone to long-term guests, there’s no reason you need to have a guest room all of the time. You can create a fully hideable guest room with things like murphy beds and folding nightstands. That way, the baby can play in that space most of the time and you can just fold down the bed when your friend or family member visits for a short while. You can even mount a table so that it folds down from the wall to create a nightstand.
9) Rolling Hamper
You’re going to need a hamper for your baby’s stuff, but babies’ hampers can start to smell very quickly, particularly if you use cloth diapers. A rolling hamper like this one from Amazon could be a courtesy to your guest if you roll it out into the bathroom or elsewhere at night so they don’t have to sleep with the smell. This will make the space feel much more welcoming since many people are already uncomfortable sleeping away from home.
10) Bench Organizer
One way to set up a room for two people, particularly when one is your infant and another is a visitor, is to create stations for each. You can make a crib and baby changing station on one side of the room and create a guest station on the other. This bench organizer is a convenient way for guests to sit to put on shoes or get ready and also store their things, so you can have a small guest space with just this, a small bedside table, and a bed.
11) Minimalist
In a shared space, it’s important to keep unnecessary furniture to a minimum since you probably don’t have a lot of room for either individual. The same holds true for a guest bedroom and nursery, even more so because there won’t be any shared furniture. You can use this article by the Asian parent as a guide for creating a minimalist space, geared specifically towards a nursery and guest room combo. The short version; make sure everything in the room has a purpose, usually for storage or baby care.
12) 5-In-1
If you don’t want to get rid of the guest room any time soon, but your little one is going to stay in this room for a long time, you’ll want to find a way to create a compact area for them. A 5-in-1 crib that can convert into a toddler bed and eventually a full-sized bed is ideal for this situation because it makes it easy to leave the bed in place and just change it over time. This saves you the trouble of moving furniture in and out of the already-crowded room.
13) Pastel Colors
Pastel colors are common in nurseries because they’re soothing and you can choose warm colors that create a happy impression without making the space too bright. They’re also wonderful for a guest room because they’re calming and relatively neutral, making them a friendly choice for your guest. You can see in this room how the pastels make a cute nursery but also create a richer, more colorful guest room without being too intense or childish.
14) Bright With Subtle Children’s Decor
There are often two types of guest rooms: bright and colorful ones and neutral and minimalist ones. The bright ones are friendly and make people feel welcome and at home while the minimalist ones are calming and clean, allowing people to make themselves at home. If you’re a fan of the brighter option, you can design a vibrant guest room like this one, then add children’s decor in subtle places and around the crib. This makes the nursery items less obvious to the guest but still creates a stimulating environment for the baby.
15) Luggage Rack
If you don’t have a lot of space for a guest, you basically need three things: a bed, a nightstand, and a place to put their clothes or luggage. A foldable or minimalist space is a good idea since your guest will probably only be there a few nights at most and your baby will need the extra room every day. You can get a luggage rack so that they can simply live out of the suitcase rather than trying to cram a dresser into the room for them to unpack in.
16) Patterns
If you want to create a stimulating space for your baby, patterns are a good way to accomplish this. They don’t really interfere with your guest’s experience since colorful guest rooms aren’t uncommon, and they give your baby and guest something interesting to look at. You can check out some pattern options here; we loved the ceiling patterns because babies spend so much time looking upwards, more so than most adults. The other nice thing about patterns is that they’re non-thematic and won’t lend a babyish impression to the room.
17) Baby First
Ultimately, this room is your nursery that you’re also using as a guest room, and you’ll want to keep that in mind as you outfit it. This article gives some good suggestions, many of which boil down to the need to put your baby first and then consider the guest afterward. The key is to start with the crib, then determine what size bed can fit based on that. You can get a bigger or smaller changing table or get one that goes over the crib, but you can’t change the size of the crib by much.
18) Guest Room Sign
Many people don’t feel comfortable in somebody else’s house, and sleeping in the nursery can intensify that discomfort. If your guest is going to feel like they’re intruding on the nursery, you’d probably be better off having them sleep on the couch. To make this nursery and guest room combo worthwhile, you’ll probably want some decor that shows your guest how welcome they are, like this sign that labels this space as a guest room and tells the visitor that they’re welcome.
19) Closets for the Baby
Storage space is probably going to be one of your major challenges in this nursery, but your guest shouldn’t need much storage space since anything they have with them will fit in a suitcase anyway. You can focus on getting enough storage for your baby, and if you give the closet over to your infant as this family did, you can even hide their belongings when guests are present by closing the door. The nice thing about that is that you can decorate with rainbows and unicorns since it doesn’t have to look like an adult space.
20) Medium Blue
It can be difficult to find colors that work for both a nursery and a guest room, particularly if you don’t want to settle for a neutral or boring look. A medium blue like this is lovely for a guest room since it’s a bold and beautiful color. It also works for a nursery because blue is a calming color. Medium blue like this may work better than navy or baby blue since baby blue is typically for infants’ spaces only and navy walls could be too dark and become overwhelming.
21) DIY Dresser and Changing Table
Combining two pieces of furniture into one is always a good idea in a room with limited space, and in a room with two radically different purposes like this, it can be even more important. For a nursery, it’s easy to buy a dresser and add a changing pad to it to make it into a combined dresser and changing table. This creates a baby changing station so that your baby’s stuff is isolated in one place rather than being spread out and mixing with the guest room items.
22) Serene, Tropical Boho
Bohemian nurseries are fairly common, but the nice thing about the bohemian style is that adults like to use it, too. For the most part, a boho nursery and a boho guest room won’t look any different from each other, so you can just buy boho decorations you like and create a bohemian look. You can even try designing a more serene, tropical look like this one in this room. You can see the way it looked when it was a nursery and when it was a guest room, so all you have to do is combine the two ideas.
23) Thick and Soft
In many houses and apartments, the guest bedroom has an inexpensive mattress that isn’t that comfortable along with some decorative but not very warm blankets. In this room, you can make the guest room furnishings part of your nursery decor by choosing thick and soft bedding like the bedding in this room. This creates a comfortable look that adds to the soft overall impression in this room and makes it more conducive to restful sleep. You’ll also want to avoid having hard areas like desks in this room.
Did any of these ideas spark your imagination or help you figure out how to combine these spaces? Everybody wants something different from their nursery and guest room combo, and we’d love to hear about your progress. Please let us know in the comments below.
