This week I have received so many spaces to look at - but one topic keeps cropping up and I can’t ignore it.

Some of us live in the city; our spaces have to work twice as hard to make up for the square footage we forfeited in the name of a nice postcode. Don’t get defensive, you’re a ten minute walk from the tube and I’m happy for you. 

But, let’s be honest. You have a home office_… Until you have guests. Today, we’re confronting your “third bedroom”-  the guest room where your desk lives. If you’re jumping on Teams with a green screen then you’ll want to read this.

I’m selecting the subscriber who is the biggest victim of the spatial squeeze. She told me that “It's honestly jarring working there right now (_…)  it is so bright and disheveled in that room that it isn’t a great thinking space.” Well, I could have told you that myself.

She has asked me to “ignore the love sign - it is there as a joke”. I won’t. I’m giving this space a strong 2/10.

Granted, we’re starting from scratch here. We have a bright white space with as much squeezed into it as is physically possible. I don’t have the floor plan (and I can see that we’re limited on our options anyway) but let’s explore all of our options.

The biggest mistake people make is trying to give the room two separate personalities. 

An office corner here. A guest bedroom corner there. Two competing identities fighting for dominance. The goal is not dual personality. The goal is one cohesive scheme that accommodates two functions without announcing the compromise.

In most homes, the office is used daily. The guest space is used occasionally. That doesn’t mean guests matter less, but it does mean the room needs to be designed around the function that supports your everyday life. When you accept that one role leads, the rest of the decisions become much clearer.

Now that we’ve settled on this fact, we lean into this with the design decisions we make. If we can’t switch out the bed for a sofa bed then we need to emphasise the ‘office’ zone and let the ‘bedroom’ fade into the background. 

We also need to be honest with ourselves about the size of the desk. If the layout and the bed have to stay, we’ll have to compromise here.

Take a deep breath and hear me out on a rather controversial layout. 

There’s something that I think we’re really overlooking in this space, and it speaks to a much wider issue in interior design which I’ve talked about in my content repeatedly.  We have an original fireplace - and you want to keep it that way.

Of course, I can understand this sentiment. Holding on to characterful elements in our homes is what makes them feel special. However, this is the perfect example of when it simply doesn’t work.

If this room must be an office, a bedroom and your dog’s hideout too, then we’re going to have to figure something out here. The fireplace is completely throwing us out because it insists on a central axis that we simply can’t work with. You can see it clearly from the existing layout - a desk squeezed into one alcove, a drawer in the other and the bed wherever it can fit along the way.

I would argue that this might be a moment for us to pause and think about whether that fireplace is really worth it. It’s almost certainly redundant (even if it was an active fireplace, the room is too tiny and bed far too close for it to be safely usable.) I’m going to be brave for both of us and say that we should say goodbye to it.

If we do, the room suddenly opens up in so many new ways, and I think we would actually stand a chance in making this a functional office and permanent bedroom with sufficient clearances and a little bit of headspace. 

Yes, I’m proposing a really unconventional layout here. I’m sticking to what we set out to do, and that is to prioritise the office. 

To make this space feel more intentional, I would block up the left hand side alcove on the base to allow an L-shaped headboard to run around the bed area. I flipped the door around for better clearances and cleared the wall which used to house the bed to make space for our office. In an ideal world, this bed is still a sofa bed, but it will work either way.

Office equipment has a tendency to take over visually.

Monitors, printers, paperwork (left unchecked) will instantly turn the room into a workspace first and a guest room second.

Storage needs to be intentional. Concealed where possible. Designed as part of the aesthetic rather than added as an afterthought. Closed cabinetry, integrated shelving, or desks with hidden compartments allow the room to reset itself visually when work is done.

Visible cables immediately push the room into “home office” territory. If you want cohesion, cable management isn’t optional. Conceal wiring. Use integrated solutions. Hide docking stations where possible. 

Vertical zoning is often overlooked but incredibly effective. Shelving above desk height can integrate storage into the workspace without encroaching on the rest of the room. It keeps the floor layout calm while still providing function. Done well, this approach allows the office element to exist without overwhelming the bedroom layout.

Lighting often does more zoning than walls ever could. Task lighting at the desk supports focus and clarity. Softer ambient lighting allows the room to transition into guest mode without rearranging furniture. Layered lighting means you don’t have to choose between practical and atmospheric. You simply change which lights are on.

Rugs, curtains, cushions - these aren’t decorative extras here. They’re the elements that soften the transition between workspace and retreat. Textiles absorb sound, add warmth, and shift the emotional tone of the room away from productivity and towards comfort. They’re what makes the space feel cohesive rather than divided.

This space is calling for a mid tone. The stark white finish on the walls is creating really harsh contrast so that this space isn’t working as a bedroom nor as an office. 

Guests shouldn’t feel like they’re sleeping in your office. Equally, you shouldn’t feel like you’re working from a spare bed.

Remember that balance comes from multiple, subtle, intentional details coming together in harmony. Consider desks with a fold-down front leaf or concealed surfaces that visually disappear when closed. Small shifts like this allow the room to change identity without requiring effort.