Issue #187: A "Before and After" of the Smallest and Most-Used Room in My House
The coziest guest room-office-library.
🎥 ‘The Assessment,’ in theaters: Alicia Vikander is the queen of creepy, dystopian movies (go see ‘Ex Machina’ immediately, if you haven’t already!). In this new drama, by French director Fleur Fortuné, she plays an assessor tasked with determining a wealthy couple’s (Himesh Patel and Elizabeth Olsen) eligibility to have children, watching their every move and testing their patience by pretending to be a toddler, all in the name of procreation.
📚 Tilt by Emma Pattee: Another dystopian recommendation, Annie is shopping for a crib at IKEA in Portland (she’s about to give birth any day now) when the dreaded “Big One” strikes. Without a phone or wallet, she must walk across Portland to reach her home, meeting strangers along the way as she reflects on her own life dissatisfaction amid devastation.
📺 “The Residence” on Netflix: A silly “whodunnit” from Shonda Rimes, the head of the White House staff ends up dead the night of a state dinner. Uzo Aduba plays the investigator tasked with interviewing staff, guests, and the First Family, but the show is clearly designed to be watched in the background, as “casual viewing”—characters constantly recapitulate the plot, despite its simplicity. That isn’t to say it’s not fun, but don’t expect high-caliber drama.
P.S. My friend, the unbelievably talented poet,
and I are going live on Substack this Friday at 1:30 PM, PT to talk about finding balance amid social media addiction, the power of attention, and all sorts of things! Mark your calendars!
I was in the process of moving into a new apartment—literally rolling my final cart of things through the door—when my real estate agent called with the good news. Of nine offers on the sweet house I’d fallen in love with, mine had been accepted! Maybe it was the fast closing I offered to make up for my weak down payment or, as it turned out, the heartfelt letter I wrote. The previous owner had also purchased it as a single woman after a divorce and was moving to a larger house that could accommodate the growing family she had created while living in it. It truly felt meant to be.
The next few weeks passed by in a blur as I packed my things back up, rented a U-Haul, and began to settle in. At some point, I searched for “trundle bed” and panic-purchased the first one in stock at IKEA to host my first guests. I lugged the box into the small third bedroom, spent the next few hours placing approximately ten-thousand small rods into the frame, and called it a “guest room,” which is how it remained for over a year—until my boyfriend moved in.
I had already been thinking about better ways to utilize the room, a practically untouched guest-room-book-storage-area, but it soon became clear that the relatively small (10’ x 10’) room could be much better used as a multi-purpose room. I carefully mapped out a plan for it to hold:
My office. My boyfriend and I both work at home enough that we needed two office spaces. My desk had previously been in another bedroom, but I gave him the garden view (a “welcome to your new home!” offering I surprised him with, since I knew he would love it) and moved mine to a small, but cozy, nook.
Multipurpose guest bed. Every single guest who stayed on the trundle hated it (a few even opted for the living room couch after one night sleeping on it!). It felt like a waste to have a piece of furniture that was only used, at best, once every few weeks. I began to brainstorm options that would be far more comfortable, but also useable in the times between hosting.
Library. I love my living room, but my book collection quickly outgrew the low shelves beneath the window and necessitated new storage. A cozy place to read them would be amazing too, if I could pull it off.
Television room. As little as I mind watching shows on my iPad while folding laundry or walking on a treadmill, I had to admit it sounded nice to have an actual television for watching shows and movies with my boyfriend.
Let me tell you, I am over the moon with how it turned out! What was once a completely unused room is now my favorite room in the entire house. I love working in my desk nook, often take refuge with a book in the cozy reading area, and watching shows and movies feels genuinely cinematic!
Read on for tons of links, design tips + insights, and photos of the “Before and After,” of what is now my favorite (and most used!) room in the house…
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