What to Do With Overnight Guests If You Don’t Have a Guest Room

With summer travel in full swing, many of us will welcome houseguests in the coming weeks. But when friends and family arrive with overnight bags, they also come with a question: Where will everyone sleep?

A dedicated guest room is the obvious answer — if you’re fortunate enough to have one. But it isn’t always the best use of space when you don’t have guests. And it probably won’t be capable of containing a larger crowd.

Don’t worry: There are many other ways to add occasional sleeping spaces to a home.

“Since the pandemic, people are asking about multiuse spaces more than ever,” said Max Humphrey, an interior designer based in Portland, Ore.

It’s not that hard to combine a sleeping space with the functions of an office, media room or exercise room, Mr. Humphrey noted: “A lot of the time, it’s about prioritizing a room for the main activity and then finding a solution for the couple of times a year it needs to host someone.”

He and other designers shared their secrets for accommodating overnight guests when space is at a premium.

Consider a Pullout

The conventional option for a temporary sleeping space is the sleeper sofa, long maligned for causing restless nights and sore backs.

“They’re like the worst of both worlds — an uncomfortable sofa and an uncomfortable bed,” Mr. Humphrey said.

But some are much better than others. The key is to try them out, or at least be aware of the quality, before you buy.

Ginger Curtis, the founder of Urbanology Designs in Fort Worth, chose a marigold-colored sleeper sofa from Clad Home to anchor the main living space of a guest cottage behind her house. “They just had a higher-quality mattress, so comfort isn’t an issue,” said Ms. Curtis, who also likes sleeper sofas from Interior Define.

Whenever she makes a sleeper sofa into a bed, she adds a pillowy mattress topper. “My kids, even when we don’t have guests, will request to pull it out for movie night,” she said.

There are also convertible sofas that don’t rely on a folding metal armature. Instead, they have cushions that slide or flip out to form a mattress, creating an uninterrupted cushion for those who don’t mind sleeping a few inches off the floor. Examples include the Twilight sleeper sofa from Design Within Reach (from $2,795), Thataway from Blu Dot ($2,195), Alesso from CB2 ($2,199) and vintage leather options by Giovannetti and de Sede.

Or Try a Trundle

Ms. Curtis also likes trundle beds. She installed one in the vacation…