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Last Updated: April 22, 2019 By

Ten Essentials for a Guest Room Retreat

One of the things that sold us on our house was that we have a nice private guest room with its own bathroom. Many years ago it was actually a separate structure from the house that was used as a doctor’s office but somewhere in our home’s 60+ year history an addition was put on to connect it to the rest of our house so it could be used as a fourth bedroom. Our guest room has come a long way since moving in (you can see some of the lovely “before” pictures {here}) and has seen a lot of guests! So I thought it’s be fun to share some of the things I’ve added to our room that help make it a special little retreat for our visitors! (there’s a full source list at the end of the post if you have questions about where anything is from and I’ll also link up some sources as I share my guest room essentials!) Post includes some affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here}

Guest room in textured neutrals

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A Simple Luggage Rack

A lot of guests actually prefer to live out of their suitcases while visiting rather than putting their clothes away in drawers so it’s helpful to have a luggage rack or two handy so they don’t have to be keep their suitcases on the floor and constantly be crouching down to get things.

Guest bedroom in neutrals with luggage rack - a guest room must have!

My luggage rack is {this one} from Ballard Designs. These three also look nice:

 

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A Spot for Hanging Clothes

TV armoire converted into clothes armoire for guest room

You know how I mentioned that our guest room actually used to be a doctor’s office (so strange..)? Unfortunately that resulted in there being no guest room closet. I think it’s important to have a spot for guests to hang their clothes so I took an old TV armoire that my neighbor was getting rid of and painted it and modified the inside for hanging clothes. It was a super inexpensive solution that works great in our room. If you don’t have a closet but also have no room for an armoire, a narrow freestanding rack like {this one} can do the trick.

And of course nice hangers are bonus! I personalized inexpensive wood hangers (the simple tutorial is {here}) and tied some ribbon on them to make ours a little special:

Easy to Make Personalized Hangers

 

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Bedside Lamps

It you have the room, it’s so nice to have lamps on both sides of the bed for your guests. If you’re super tight on space, you can consider wall-mounted fixtures like the ones we put in our master bedroom.

Bedside wood lamp and brass alarm clock

 

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Books & Magazines

I like to keep some magazines and favorite books in our guest room because I swear, it never fails that when I’m someone else’s guest, I forget my book (which I hate because I read every night!). I keep our extra books in one of our nightstands:

Bedroom nightstand with wood lamp and brass alarm clock in neutrals-filled guest room

And even though most people rely on their cell phones for the time, every guest room should also have a clock. We have {this brass one} in our guest room.

 

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Tissues & TP

Now we’re getting to the really important stuff! Tissues and TP – it doesn’t get more essential than that! Seriously, you don’t want your poor guests to run out of tissues and TP and not know where to find more so I make sure our guest room is stocked up. And I kinda hate the look of tissue boxes so I either use a tissue box cover (this monogrammed linen one is from {here}) or store tissues in a decorative box.

Bedside tissue box and ring holder

 

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Easy Access for Charging Electronics

Everyone travels with their phones, laptops, and other electronic devices so be sure there’s an easily accessible spot for charging. We converted one of our guest room outlets to a combined outlet/double USB port (outlet found {here}) so the only thing guests need to charge their phones is a cord. I keep meaning to add one of these to our bedroom too – they’re great!

Combined USB port and regular outlet - genius!

 

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Extra Blankets & Throws

Everyone has a different comfort zone when it comes to temperature so extra blankets and throws are a must. I store ours in the base of our clothes armoire but if you don’t have any kind of enclosed space to store yours, you can just throw them in a large basket like {this one} we’ve used in our master bedroom:

A woven basket at the end of the bed holds extra blankets for chilly nights

 

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Toiletries & New Soap

It’s nice to keep a little bin or basket of toiletries somewhere in your guest room in case your visitors forget to pack theirs. And this might be my own little personal oddity but I think there should be either liquid soap or fresh bars of soap for the shower. Am I the only one who gets kinda grossed out by showering with a used bar of soap when you don’t know who was using it before you?? Yep, I know soap’s kinda inherently clean but still… just leave some new bars out for weirdos like me, okay?!

Keep extra toiletries on hand for visiting guests

 

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A Spot to Sit

It’s great to have a chair or even a loveseat in your guest room for your guests to sit and relax on and also as a place to throw the decorative pillows on the bed when they go to sleep. Our guest room has this little nook that was the perfect size for the love seat we had in the living room of our old house that we couldn’t find any other home for in our new one. If you don’t have the space for a loveseat or chair, a small pouf or a camp stool can do the trick too!

Guest room seating area with loveseat and twin drum tables

 

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Wifi Password & Area Info

And the most important?? The almighty wifi password! Write down both the name of your wifi network and the password so your guests can easily access it when visiting. I also think it’s really nice to have some info in your guest room about things available to do in your area (especially if you live near a touristy city like we do!). I just recently took a bare wall in our guest room and did a simple DIY upgrade of standard office clipboards to create a clipboard wall that holds all sorts of info about things to do in the area – I love how it turned out!

DIY wall-mounted clipboards hold travel info for visiting guests

Create clipboard wall art to clip info for visiting guests

 

That wraps up my list of guest room essentials! Is there anything else that you guys think should be added to the list? I hope that you all enjoy your weekend!!

KJ Signature

Driven by Decor Source List

Paint color – Pratt & Lambert’s Ever Classic | Headboard – Pottery Barn Outlet (no longer available) | Quilt (color is flax) | Euro shams – made with fabric from local discount fabric store | Cream standard shams – Pine Cone Hill | White and beige duvet | Lumbar bed pillow – made with {this fabric} Calico Corners’ Paloma Pewter fabric | Fabric covered chest – made with IKEA TRYSIL chest, Target tablecloth for fabric (no longer available) and these ring pulls (in Windover Antique finish) |White nightstand – HomeGoods | Linen tissue box cover | Mirror – HomeGoods (this one is similar} |Brass bedside clock | Table lamps – bases are from Target (no longer available) & shades found {here} (color is Oatmeal Linen) | Slipcovered sofa – Lee Industries | Metal drum tables, large white pillows, & lumbar sofa pillow – HomeGoods | Geometric Sofa Pillow – Kohls (no longer available) | TV armoire – donated from friend, painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White | Armoire handles | Roman shades: Custom made using Calico Corners’ Jensen Cloud fabric |Vintage olive bucket & cowhide – Home Emporium |Large vintage field basket – Country Living Fair

 

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Comments

  1. Lisa | Shine Your Light says

    October 1, 2016 at 8:16 am

    Kris I just love your clipboard idea for a guest room! That is such a fun and unique touch that I bet your guests love! The armoire with the hanging bar is fantastic too – a great use of the big TV armoires that no one needs anymore! I love this room – so pretty!

    Reply

  2. Teresa says

    October 1, 2016 at 9:38 am

    I too have this soap issue and provide liquid soap and new bars too for guest. We recently visited some friends and she had decorated the soap box just for us. I kept the box to recreate for future guests we host. I wish I could post a picture for you. My cousin brought us the Kleenex box monogrammed when she visited and I love it but it hasn’t left our great room yet.

    Reply

  5. Bridget says

    October 1, 2016 at 10:13 am

    I would never leave a used bar of soap for a guest! You have created a lovely guest room, I love the idea about a charging station for the electronics, I am a guest at the moment and I am crawling on the floor to find places to plug in.

    Reply

    • Kris Jarrett says

      October 1, 2016 at 12:56 pm

      Ha! That’s too funny! Well like I said in my post, I’ve put one in our guest room but still need to add one to our own room because I’m always having to scour our house for a charger!

      Reply

    • Kris Jarrett says

      October 1, 2016 at 12:58 pm

      Thank you so much Jen!! They’re great to have – I have one that has four USB ports in the kitchen where we charge all of our electronics overnight and love that one too!

      Reply

  11. Roseann says

    October 1, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    Kris,
    Great ideas! May I offer a thoughtful yet practical addition? Place a pair of inexpensive “readers” on a desk or nightstand for your guests. People are always forgetting or losing their readers! I always have extra on hand. Lifesavers! Wonderful blog!

    Reply

  12. Noél Emswiler says

    October 1, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    Kris,

    All great ideas! As an alternative for charging devices, we use a attractive surge protected charging strip inconspicuously placed on the wall between the bed and the table. We hang it on the wall vertically with Command velcro strips which makes it easy to remove and adjust. For those guests with mobility issues, not having to get behind something to find the outlet is really helpful. Plus so many of us travel with multiple devices, the outlets can fill up fast. For me it this the one thing that regularly gets a comment the next morning!

    Love your blog!

    Reply

  13. Rene Fayne says

    October 1, 2016 at 8:26 pm

    I totally agree with you about the soap issue. My family used to kid me about my big hang up…I do not like anyone to put their luggage on the bed because I do not know what hotel, carpet or airport
    that luggage has been exposed to bedbugs or not. Thank you for showing us where you purchased your luggage rack. When we return home from trips, I steam all our luggage and keep it out a week in the utility room before returning it to the closet. It may seem weird to some people, but I know of
    several colleges that have problems with bedbugs.

    Reply

    • Kris Jarrett says

      October 9, 2016 at 10:24 pm

      I hear you Rene – we are two peas in a pod! I am one of those crazies who does a thorough check of our hotel room before I let anyone in my family bring their stuff into the room!

      Reply

  15. Laurie Orlando says

    October 2, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    YES on the soap issue! The only thing worse is a dirty shower (at my FIL’s house- yuck!) LOVE the clipboard and charging outlet idea!!

    Reply

  16. Bernadette says

    October 3, 2016 at 5:16 am

    Absolutely fabulous!

    The room is stunning!!!

    Love the colors of the room, peaceful and relaxed…

    Love the clipboards, the couch, oh the whole bangshoot just waiting for my arrival…haaa…haa….

    Reply

  17. Garden, Home and Party says

    October 3, 2016 at 1:10 pm

    Your guest room is lovely and inviting. I especially appreciate the printout for the wifi and password. We mostly host our oldest son and family when they visit from Austin, but invariably I forget the password and Mr. B. is out buying something for lunch! 🙂
    Karen

    Reply

  19. Mandy says

    October 25, 2016 at 10:24 am

    Great ideas.

    Offering information on the wifi password and place to sit ‘out the way’ is great.

    These are things I always like but never ask for because it seem rude. I always feel I’m saying “Thanks for having me, I’ll be on the Internet in a different room from you if you need me” 🙂

    Reply

  21. Victoria Fuller says

    July 28, 2018 at 10:25 pm

    Love your list and I agree those are essential for guest comfort. To raise the bar a little, I would add:
    flowers
    small tin of nibbles i.e. biscuits, chocolate
    covered jug of water and a glass
    hair dryer
    small felt balls saturated with essential oils for drawers and closet
    pretty dish or box to store jewellry overnight
    small basket with sleep aids – eye mask, essential oils, etc

    Reply

  22. Elaine Murray says

    January 1, 2019 at 12:27 pm

    Just discovered your site this morning. I love it! I have a question: I’m a grandmother with 8 grands. What is proper way or style to hang family pictures? I have a blank wall upstairs outside guest bedrooms. I’ve read on Pinterest to change to black and white; also I’ve read all frames need to be alike. Advice please.

    Reply

    • Kris Jarrett says

      January 2, 2019 at 12:00 pm

      Hi Elaine – thank you so much for your sweet words! I honestly think that anything goes when it comes to hanging a group of family photos! One really simple way to do it is to use identically sized frames of the same time and hang them in a grid with a certain number down and a certain number across. But if you have different sized photos, it’s totally ok to mix it up and use an assortment of sizes and colors! I did that with my kids artwork in this post and love the look of it: https://www.drivenbydecor.com/bonus-craft-room-landing-decorating-ideas/

      Reply

  23. Leslie says

    January 28, 2019 at 6:37 am

    I would add small disposable cups in the bathroom, for when your guests brush their teeth (to rinse their mouth out).
    Also, I have a small coffee maker in the guest bedroom, so my guest can make their coffee without disturbing anyone else in the house.
    A robe & slippers are nice to have hanging up behind the bedroom door.
    Question regarding the soap issue… Is the liquid soap for the guests to use when they take a shower?

    Reply