Skip to main content

The automatic guest room

On our recent trip, my wife and I stayed with a friend in Sydney. That sounds normal - except our friend has a 1 bedroom apartment.

Yes this is going to be another example of clever furniture adding a lot of value without adding a lot of cost.

This is our friend's lounge room (when we're not in town).


The lounge cleverly rearranges into a double bed.


When it's made up, as it was when we arrived, it even looks like a bed.


It can even become two separate single beds, which is an added advantage over a traditional sofa-bed.


This is great for 2 platonic visitors or for when 2 parents and a sibling visit. The parents have the bedroom and the siblings can have single beds.

So how was it?

Absolutely fine. It took a few minutes to adjust to the novelty of having a kitchen in our 'bedroom', but then it was great.

Why do I love this so much?

This is so clever because it gives so many options. It also gives a small and affordable home the same function and usefulness as a bigger one - but without the price tag or the waste.

For example, our friend could have bought a 2-bedroom apartment and had a dedicated guest room. But that would be such a waste. A second room that would sit idle most of the time. A second bed that would barely get used. An extra $150,000 on the mortgage; that's the price difference between a 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartment where our friend lives. Definitely an expensive way to have visitors.

Our friend chose the much smarter option. Less mortgage. Less (but smarter) furniture. Same ability to have family and friends come and stay.

PS. This is the third of my travel series from our recent trip (here's the first and second). Subscribe above or follow on facebook for the rest of the series.
You may be also like this video of some more amazing furniture.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My October challenge

Decluttering can be overwhelming. I've been stuck. Shelves and boxes and drawers full of stuff I should go through but not sure where to start. Aaagh - there's so much of it. The solution? So for myself (and for you if you want) I've developed a strategy. I've picked 31 categories in advance. I plan to tackle one item per day of October. If I miss a few that's OK. The point is to overcome overwhelm. To focus on one thing at a time. To move forward instead of being stuck. My favourite way to declutter is to sell online . (I even wrote a  free ebook of tips for selling online). I also like to recycle or upcycle things. Wanna join in? I've chosen categories where I think most people would have excess. If there's a category you have already dealt with, that's cool. Have a rest day - or go even further in one of the previous areas. The list Ok so here's my plan for this October. Bookmark this post or download the picture of my notes. For each category I ...

5 Reasons why we hoard - and they're wrong

"Less is More" is one of the catch-cries of downsizing. Often the fewer things we have the more we value them. So it's a great title for a book that's basically a manual for how to de-clutter your home. The introductory chapter of Less is More: How to De-clutter Your Life gives some great insights into why we find it so hard to reduce our stuff. Here are 5 of them - the last one is one of the biggest for me. 1. The cost of holding on. We were raised by our parents and grandparents and in their day items were expensive and space was cheap. It made sense in those days to hold onto stuff just in case you ever needed it. But today housing is expensive and items are cheap. It's hard to change a habit, but now we save much more by downsizing. 2. Keeping it in the family. For some reason we prefer to give things to those close to us. Again this was viable in the days of big families and lots of children to receive hand-me-downs. But these days we have smaller fa...

20 unplugged ideas

May 1-7 is Screen-Free Week . It's about spending time away from the screen and more time with each other - or doing things we love. It's a great chance to break the work-tired-watchTV-ads-shop-work cycle. This list of twenty alternative ideas is great for screen-free week. It's also a great reminder of things we could enjoy if we're shopping and spending less - and maybe working less and enjoying life more.