Sleeping in the Playroom

This is our playroom, which is right by the front door of our house:

At least, that's what it looked like until a couple of months ago. That orange sofa is a full-size Ikea futon, and it has serviced our infrequent house guests for the last several years.  In the last year, its thin mattress developed quite a ridge, I guess from usually being in a folded position as a sofa.

Enter in our cheap mattress, from my post "The High Cost of Being Cheap." The saga of that discount, too-soft mattress was supposed to end with me selling it on Craigslist (we only used it for 6 months), or even just getting rid of the thing on Freecycle.

But then I started feeling bad for my family members who had to sleep on that thin, lumpy futon mattress when they came to stay.  They were polite and always claimed they slept well enough, though my sister mentioned having to "get used" to that ridge that hit around her hip bone.

Anyway. You know what comes next.  Enter the old mattress:

So now the room looks a little more crowded, a little less "done."  But I've hosted two guests on this new-to-them queen mattress, and they're quite happy with the results. (Especially my sister, who shares the bed with my restless eight-year-old nephew).

Right now, the box spring is just sitting on the floor, but my mom claims that she has an extra set of bed rails that I'll snag on our next visit. After the rails are on, I'll be able to put on some kind of bed skirt or sheet and cover up that unsightly bare mattress.

This is what my guests view on the other wall:

More Ikea, in the form of a wardrobe and my kids' computer desk.

When we moved into our house eight years ago, the room initially served as solely a guest room. Then it morphed into more of a playroom/toy storage space. Now, as my kids get older, it's cycling back into more of a guestroom.

I'd like to eventually switch out that bulky desk and rearrange the room, so that the head of the bed is on the computer wall. All plans for down the road...

Below is a view of my front door and tiny foyer. You can see how guests can see the play/guest room right off the bat.  I'm not happy that one of the first things they see is a bare box spring and that just-for-now duvet cover on the bed, but oh well. At least my guests get a better night's sleep.

By the way, the air hockey table is proof that Santa exists, because seriously, would I have allowed that unsightly thing into my house as part of the living room decor? ;)

Linking up with Jules and her William Morris Project