Understairs storage cupboards/Boxroom cupboards

cerastes wrote: »

Any takers on the office/bedroom options anyone? Or buying hinges and fittings for diy of a Murphy bed, without the proper fittings it just wouldn't be a runner or a matter of buying something online.

It used be common to have a "bunk bed" built in to box rooms over the slope of an upcoming stairs. This wasn't two beds above each other, but a plain built in single. If a single bed would suffice in the spare room, how about mounting a pull down and out "shelf" that could go up high enough over the bed if someone was sleeping in it, but normally stay down as a desk the rest of the time. The pull down fittings could be those from kitchen "pull down shelf" things. You might want to add some hinged legs for extra support at the front if you tend to lean on your desk.

It depends on how often you'd expect to have visitors. I'm going to have a small bedroom as an office in the next few months, and while it doesn't have the stair slope, I plan on getting a sofa bed in there with a smallish desk. I suspect that I'll have to shift the desk to one side in order to turn the sofa into a bed, but I also estimate that room will be used maybe twice a year for visitors, so I can put up with a bit of furniture moving that rarely. If you'll have visitors every few weeks, that becomes more of a PITA.

I did a lot of looking into pull down beds, and even doing it yourself they seem very expensive, particularly when it's for such occasional use.

cerastes wrote: »

I didn't think of doing a fold down table/desk, not a bad idea but I think the desk would be too wide and you wouldn't easily/comfortably be able to get your feet under the desk. I'm thinking of drawing up a design using some flat pack fixed storage from somewhere I can get the same style/design/colour like Ikea, fit some wardrobes and use the existing desk for now.

I made an enquiry off a place but the design they made had a large dead space and the room is too small to waste any, plus it's not really what I'm looking for.

You need the desk to come down and pull forward towards you to allow you to be able to sit properly at it. You don't need to make the desk as deep as the entire bed - a small lip along the back would stop things falling off onto the bed, and it doesn't have to be the entire width of the bed either - if it doesn't bother you, being able to see half a bed isn't a big deal. My current set up is a desk between a spare bed and a wall. I keep the spare bed covered in a big, plain, fleece blanket to stop it getting dirty when not in use. I have a tendency to put letters and things on it.

Another option, again depending on how often the guest room is used, is to buy one of those fancy, high, self inflating mattresses - something like this:

http://www.aerobed-europe.com/uk/p-26315-platinum-raised-airbed-double.aspx

They're as high as a divan, so you're not asking granny to sleep on the floor. And they take standard size sheets etc.