December 19, 2003

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Palo Alto Online

Make room at the inn

by Lorraine Sanders

S pending the holidays with your loved ones means spending time making space for them in your home. If you banish overnight guests to the dilapidated sofa bed in the middle of the kids' playroom, then stock up on aspirin and coffee. You'll need them to combat your visitors' sore backs and sleep-deprivation.

With simple, inexpensive changes, you can give your guests the gift of comfortable accommodations this year. After all, making room for your guests means happier holidays for everyone.

At the very least, guests need a space to call their own. That might mean converting the family room into a makeshift bedroom, or putting finishing touches on your guestroom.

"There's nothing worse than not having a place to put your things," said Ruth Soforenko, owner of downtown Palo Alto interior design firm Ruth Soforenko Associates. When it comes to extra space, less is more.

"Try to get rid of all the personal things in that room. Get as many extraneous things out," she said.

The best way to cut clutter is to develop a system for dealing with it, said Kit Davey, professional organizer and founder of A Fresh Look, a one-day decorating service.

"I've thought out systems. When I get the mail, what do I do? It goes in the recycling bin before it comes into the house. It prevents stuff from building up. I also have a flea market closet," Davey said. She schedules a monthly clean for her kitchen cabinets and closets and puts items she no longer uses in the closet. "Every three to six months, my dad and I get a booth at the Palo Alto flea market. I take the stuff out of the closet and I sell it, or I make donations."

With your stuff gone, guests should have more room for their belongings. Both Soforenko and Davey say simple steps go a long way. Both suggest buying luggage racks for guest suitcases, clearing out at least six inches of closet space for guests' clothes, and adding good lighting to bedside tables. Soforenko said she always makes sure to add fresh flowers, water bottles and a comfortable pillow to her guestroom.

"How much can you really do between now and the holidays?" Soforenko asked. "The comfort is more important than the decorating."

Marlene Dussans agrees that decorating is not the most important part of creating comfortable guest space. Dussan, interior designer and owner of Comme Ca design in Redwood City, said simply thinking about guests' preferences is enough.

"Leave a personal touch. They will come in the room and feel like you did it for them. They will be happy that you thought of them before they came," she said.

If you know your guests' favorite colors, Dussans said, pick out linens or pillows in those colors. If your guests have given you artwork or home decorations in the past, display them in the guestroom. You can also organize the room according to a person's age.

"Have spaces for different activities," she said. "Have a quiet space and another space for the kids so everybody will feel special."

If you've got the gift of time, you can transform your guestroom for less than $150, said Melissa Wilson, an interior designer who will be teaching Design Your Home with Professional Coaching at the Palo Alto Adult School this winter. Wilson also makes reoccurring appearances on HGTV's Sensible Chic program. A coat of paint, inexpensive artwork in coordinating frames, and matching linens can make a huge difference, she said.

"Sometimes it's the guestroom that hasn't been thought of at all. A model to look at would be what nice hotels do to make you feel comfortable," she said, suggesting visits to IKEA, Cost Plus, Pier One, Z Gallery and the Container Store for pillows, inexpensive art, candles, rugs and storage.

Candace DeLeo, who lives in Menlo Park's Vintage Oaks development, is using Wilson's advice to update her guestroom.

"(Guestrooms) sort of end up being the catchall," DeLeo said. "This is where all the junk ends up."

When they met to discuss plans for the guestroom, Wilson asked DeLeo to pick out her favorite part of the plain, white room. DeLeo chose an abstract painting hanging on the guestroom wall. Wilson and DeLeo settled on an icy blue color in the painting to use for the wall color. DeLeo also plans to match the bed linens to a pillow on the guestroom's chair, use a touch of the pillow's fabric in the valances over the rooms' wooden blinds, and put coordinating frames on the room's artwork

"We thought we could draw the eye from the bed to the chair to the window," DeLeo said. Another problem was the television in the room.

"I have this huge 1970s television and it's way too big. But I know that guests like to have TV in the bedroom. So I can put it in the closet and roll it out when they come," she said.

"These are really simple changes that would make the room feel more comfortable for a guest," DeLeo said. She estimates the room will take a few weeks to complete, but said she and her husband could paint it together in one day.

After creating space for your guests, choosing the right sleeping setup is crucial to a pleasant stay. If you have an extra bed, make sure to change the mattress and box springs every 10 years, Soforenko said. For those with sagging sofa beds, Wilson suggests buying a four by eight piece of plywood and sliding it in between the mattress and the spring. If you need to fold the bed up each day, which would make the plywood inconvenient, then egg crate foam can make a sofa bed more bearable.

In general, she said, buying a sofa bed for overnight guests is not worth it.

"The cheap sofa beds are dreadful," she said. "If it's just for the guest to sleep on, I would get some kind of nice futon. A futon you can leave in the room, and it's pretty easy to access."

Wilson agrees.

"There are different qualities of mattress," she said. "And one thing to remember is they tend to get harder over time."

Kit Davey said inflatable beds are easy and inexpensive options for sleeping extra guests.

"I stayed at my brother's house on one of those and it was actually quite comfortable. You blow it up like a life raft," she said. "The blow-up beds are a lot more comfortable (than a sofa bed). But they're closer to the floor, so if you have seniors you probably don't want to do that."

Whatever your accommodation needs and guestroom plans, Wilson said the best results come from careful, thoughtful planning.

"It's important to have a concept of what you're trying to achieve before you go out and do it. That's where a lot of mistakes happen. Plan through the elements, how the pieces are going to fit together, so that you avoid bad choices that you will regret."

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