Ghost bedrooms

Tizliz we are nearly the same ? We have four bedrooms, and used to use one. It dawned on me when I started a marathon redecoration that we haven't had visitors since my FiL and MiL died about four years ago, and my parents became too ill to travel, but two bedrooms were kept for visitors. The other one was already used as on office then became a junk room where unwanted things were sent to die. I've recently started using the second bedroom as my room, where I occasionally sleep, store my clothes, watch TV and do whatever I want.

Two of our spare bedrooms double up as my sewing rooms. One has a table suitable for putting a sewing machine on, with a bed at right angles for holding vast quantities of curtaining or othe rsoft furnishings while I sew.

The other has a large floor area where I can spread fabric out for measuring, pin and cut patterns and spread things around with storage space for my very varied stash.

The third spare is where I retreat when I am having a bad night so that I do not disturb DH and can turn the light on to read books, you do not need a light to read a Kindle.

When family come and stay they all revert back to being bedrooms.

I had four spare bedrooms till my daughter turned up with her three children eighteen months ago.
Now extra space is as rare as hens teeth.

Make them work as spare bedrooms as well!
Our spare bedrooms are also:
1. I have a board on the bed, covered with a yoga mat so I can exercise (can't manage the floor now!)
2. sewing room, with a high bed covered in baize and a cutting mat - I just have to run a magnet over when I make it up as a bed!
3. study (futon) also used as 'break out room' for those who want quiet during noisy gatherings.

We have a five bedroomed house, but there’s always a crisis looming with someone or another, so want to keep them for now.
We’ll keep it as long as we can, before we can’t keep it any longer. Perhaps when grandchildren are grown. My youngest grandchild is only a week old though, so might be sometime!

sounds lovely do you have a nice view?

I turned my daughter's (very small) bedroom into a study when she left aged 29. It has my desk, bookshelves, computer, printer and an awful lot of stuff and I don't know how I managed without it before.

We have ghost rooms too. We moved to downsize but all that was downsized was the size of the rooms.
We use 1. for sleeping the shape does not allow a large wardrobe.
2. as a dressing room come husbands study with a sofa bed.
3&4 as small bedrooms that have had no one in for 2 years.
I was looking at them only last week and wondering how they could be utilised . Could I have a woman den with a desk and bookshelves,a comfy chair, and my Ancestry files?
The following day DD phoned and asked if they did tests first could they come and stay for a few days? So all new plans are out of the window.
One friend solves this by having a small cosy house for her and DH and family and friends hire a cottage in the village.
Another has her visitors stay at the Premier Inn and she does when she visits, the bliss leaving all the noisy children behind is wonderful I have been assured.

I’m so glad to see this post. Great ideas for (bed)rooms hardly used!

Definitely make them work for you as a hobby room, study or perhaps a chill out room. It's about making use of the space available that suits your life style. We have 4 bedrooms one for us, one for guests, one as a dressing room/walk in wardrobe (which I love) and the other as a study.

We have a two bedroom bungalow with both bedrooms facing onto the back garden.

It felt such a waste having the second bedroom standing idle for 99% of the time so we had French doors fitted which open out onto the patio and decorated it in Sanderson's allotment wallpaper. We put in a sofa bed and a desk. DH built shelves for books, the radio and house plants and now we call it The Garden Room. I would spend all day in there if I could.

No sofa bed, no futon it is going to be my space. If more than 2 people want to stay then they can stay in a b&b. Harsh? Possibly, but I have never had my own room (even as a child) so it is about time I thought of myself.

Yes it has a nice view across the valley to mountains.

The smallest bedroom became my study some 25 years ago. The large spare room is also my art studio and exercise studio

My husband has one room for his keyboard, extra TV, guitars and most of his books. The other is going to be knocked into our bedroom to give us room for a walk-in wardrobe and a cupboard for my computer desk and a spare TV.
This still leaves us with a good double bedroom as a spare.

and there`s me waiting for the ghost stories!

I made a bedroom into a dining room in my bungalow. That leaves me a spare bedroom which has my toddler grandson's toys and a small double bed in it. It is a bit of a ghost bedroom as no-one actually uses it except for once a year when my son sleeps in it at Christmas. I'm hopeful that dgs will sleep over when he's a bit bigger so I don't want to get rid of it entirely but you've raised an interesting point.

We have a four bedroom house, and keep two of the rooms for visiting family, though that's probably only 2 or 3 times a year now. The tiny fourth bedroom is my craft room. It's packed floor to ceiling with crafting materials and equipment plus a large monitor computer and printer. I haven't worked in there for over three years because there's just no workspace now, and I no longer do a lot of the crafts that I used to, so it has become a (rather dusty) store room. I now do all my sewing (my main interest) in the diner where DH built me a sewing cabinet for my machines and we have a giant dining table which doubles as my cutting table.

I've been considering turning my craft room back into a bedroom for the smaller grandchildren when they visit, but goodness knows what I'd do with all the contents! I can't even put it in the loft because there's even more up there! I'm not a hoarder but every time I throw something out I then find I need it. And DH often asks "Have you got......" and I'll say "Oh yes, it's upstairs in 'my' room".

I'd love to have a shepherd's hut or my own shed but DH won't relinquish any more of the garden.

When we moved into this house five years ago it was to gather up our daughter and four children who were left homeless after the husband/ father decided he wanted to sell their family home. All five bedrooms were in full use. Daughter has since graduated as a nurse and found her own place to rent with her family. My husband died in March and now I’m rattling round this big house with four spare bedrooms! However, recently I had washed the bedding but when it got to bedtime I realised I hadn’t made my bed. I didn’t fancy doing it at that time so thought…..hmm which bedroom do I fancy staying in tonight? It was a bit like staying in a hotel ? I may do it again.

I live abroad from most of family so need a guest room. It doubles up as a preparation room for trips, for Christmas, for painting, for home beautician visits ..and the ensuite also houses my washer and dryer. I do my ironing there too and watch guest tv.
We have to make our space work for us 99% of the time and keep a little for possible visitors. I love the idea of a dressing/ household linens room ..imagine how other bedrooms would be freed up by that.

This idea of having a lot of bedrooms is a very British idea, I think. In other countries people tend to use their rooms much more sensibly and tend not to keep bedrooms empty. We use our two spare “ bedrooms “ as studies with facility to put people up there when the need arises.

Ooh scones, I do like your idea.

I was really lucky to get a small workroom when we moved here 10 years ago. I can thoroughly recommend having a workroom if you get the chance. I'm also close to the dining table if I need a large space to cut/pin. I now use one of 2 spare bedrooms to sleep in as DH ill, but the other room lies empty. No plans for it at the moment. Enough to think about without that.

I bought a 3 bed bungalow and when I moved in I knocked through my kitchen wall into a spare bedroom that was at the back. I was able to change the window to patio doors and now I have a live in kitchen with dining table, sofa, etc. Everyone sits in there when they visit, especially if it's a lovely day and the doors are open to the sunny garden. If I ever moved it would be easy to put up the timber framed wall again & turn back into a 3rd bedroom because I probably wouldn't get the full value for the 2 bed it is now though.

We are just kitting out our fourth bedroom as a craft room. I'm having such a fun time doing it.

icanhandthemback Ooh that's fun, I bet you can't wait to start using it. I can recommend IKEA furniture and storage for crafty things