Cool Bunk Bed Ideas to Enchant Young Guests During the Holidays

The holidays are the perfect time to make memories with family and friends, enjoy meals together, tell stories, and - naturally - stress about how your guests will experience their stay. Especially the little ones, you don’t want them to dread their next visit out of fear of boredom.

Bunk beds are fun for kids, clambering up and down the ladder and having a chance to sleep so high off the ground - even though there’s likely to be an argument about who sleeps on top.

But how do you ensure that kids enjoy their entire stay? How do you deal with the decor of the room while also providing night lights or lamps within reach of the bunks, offering the young ones a blend of style and functionality? That’s what this article is all about.

Make The Best Use Of Your Space

Useful Furniture That Matches
When picking out furniture for your guest room, especially when it’s a dedicated room with a bunk bed for kids, you’ll want to make efficient use of the space available to you. Regardless of the size of the room, you may want to opt for multifunctional furniture that fits the theme.

If you don’t use the room out of season, it’s a great spot for additional storage. You could make use of a sideboard with plenty of storage space, which then transforms into a well-decorated Christmas wonderland when preparing to host children. A large tablecloth would hide drawers and cabinets from small, prying hands, and you could set up a beautiful scene on top, complete with miniature gifts and a Christmas tree.

A large storage chest could fit a similar purpose, even if it’s unsightly, the tablecloth would hide it from view.

Multi-level shelving is also a great idea for these rooms since they can offer easy access to phones or lamps on both levels of the bunk bed while serving as a bookcase or something similar when you’re not hosting guests.

If you don’t have a multi-level shelf (take the Eden corner shelf as a visual example), you could put up simple wall shelves as another option, taking into account the height of each bed.

Finally, try to match the furniture with the room so that it doesn’t spoil the style out of season. We recommend going with light or natural colours for these rooms. Off-white or light wood tends to blend in with various styles, meaning you won’t have to overthink your decor too much.
Bed-time Fun for Bunk Beds
The top bunk might feel like the top of the world, and the bottom bunk might feel like a cozy den, but without entertainment, children may still find only boredom after a couple of days. So, if you do have a spare television, or you already have one in the room, be sure to consider its placement carefully, so that the occupants of both beds have a clear view.

A lot of kids these days do fall asleep with the television on, but if you don’t have one or want to try and offer them a break from screen time, we have another idea for you.

Depending on the space you have, you could place a coffee table in the room. Something low-profile and compact would do the trick just fine. Next, place a series of board games in clear view of your young guests, and do point these out during your welcome tour.

That way, even when boredom does strike, young guests will be able to entertain themselves while you’re off for a nap. One nice idea is to have something like the Blair coffee table, as an example.

You can easily store the board games in full view on the upper tier while the kids can use the lower tier as their playing surface. It’s almost like a bunk bed, only for board games, don’t you think?
Practical Lighting
Finally, let’s talk about lighting. In a perfect world, you’ll want to have a bright ceiling light for visibility, and two fixed wall lamps well within reach of the beds, providing a softer glow in the evening hours. But who has the budget to rewire a whole room, just for guests?

Some easy alternatives are battery-powered LED lights - the kind with the sticky strip at the back, making them easily attachable to a wall or even the bed itself. Clip-on reading lights could serve a similar purpose.

If you want to go above and beyond, a carefully placed bookshelf with night lights within reach of the beds could also be a viable option.

Whatever the case, some kids do have night terrors, so keep that in mind and give them an easy option to light up the room in case a nightmare comes calling.

Cater to Young Minds

Simple yet Snuggly Decorations

So far, we’ve talked about mostly practical solutions to bunk bedroom decor, however, don’t forget that we’re dealing with kids here, and kids don’t often value ‘practical.’

Add a little touch of heart by adding a few plush toys to the bedding. A small toybox could also provide additional entertainment, and a few brightly coloured toys placed around the room can give it the busy, colourful feeling that kids so adore.

Make sure not to overstuff the room, however. Even kids don’t like clutter (though you wouldn’t think it by the state of their rooms!)

Easy Storage Solutions

You’ve catered to the kids, now where do you go with all of these toys and plushies when your guests leave? If you’re already making use of practical storage solutions, as mentioned earlier in the article, you might have space there.

However, if you’re using that space for other things, consider portable storage solutions. Any sort of container could transform that spare bookshelf into a great storage option for all the things you don’t use on a regular basis. An example of this is the Kata Cube, which can store a load of things and then easily slide into spaces without ruining the aesthetics of the space.

Add Holiday Cheer

Now comes the fun part, decorating the room for the holidays. If you’ve stuck with the natural theme, the reds and greens of the holidays are unlikely to clash with anything in the room.

And the most fun part is that kids don’t mind a busy room, so you can really go for it with Christmas decorations. Add a wreath to the wall, add a mini Christmas tree, add a nativity scene - it’s really up to you and just how far your imagination can take you.

A length of tinsel above the door is great, but to give the room a really magical look, you can cut a length of tinsel into smaller pieces and hang them from the ceiling using blu tack or something similar.

Mixing up the golds, silvers and reds could lead to a truly magical Christmas room. Alternatively, you could look for a Christmas lighting projector to turn on at night to give the room a blast of festive appeal.

Finally, give the bunk beds themselves a little spruce up by framing them with tinsel. This is especially nice on bunk beds with thick wooden frames, giving you plenty of space to attach tinsel or other holiday-themed decorations.

Final Touches for a magical stay

Taking all of the tips contained in this article will certainly make for a memorable stay for the kids in your family. But there are some final little touches you can add to really drive it home.

Firstly, consider leaving a welcome basket on each bed. This welcome basket could contain a small holiday-themed trinket as memorabilia, a few sweet treats, and maybe even a small, kid-friendly hand lotion with an appealing scent.

Another idea is to hide small treats - such as wrapped sweets - around the room and challenge the kids to find them all. This works especially well when the grownups need some bonding time and you need a way to keep the kids busy.

You could even hide these treats around the garden - but do be careful that the ants don’t find them before the kids do.

The final little touches can add that last bit of magic that will make the kids never forget the time they stayed at their new favourite aunt or uncle’s house (or whatever other relation). All kids deserve a little bit of magic in life.

FAQs: Hosting Young Guests

What is the best space-saving guest room furniture option?

If space is a concern, you’ll want to prioritise multi-functional furniture or innovative storage solutions (such as the Kata Cube), ensuring that you have a practical room that can also be clutter-free throughout the rest of the year.

Tall shelves can double as nightstands while performing the role of a bookshelf out-of-season.

Finally, bunk beds are already a great space saver, so there is that.

How would you decorate a bunk bed during the holiday season?

A string of mini wreaths or a special stocking are easy ways to bring in Christmas. Some of the most useful ones are bedside table lamps. Clip-on lights and strings are great added lighting that creates a warm glow without taking up any extra space.

There are so many options - clip-on lights, tinsel, mini-wreaths, a good old stocking - the list goes on. You can even make use of some string lights to give the bed an extra-special feel (make sure to opt for heat-free lighting).

How can the area for children's guests be kept tidy?

Encourage the children to tidy up after themselves, and make it easy by providing simple storage solutions that allow kids to quickly return toys or other items they’ve played with. Offering accessible storage is the key here.

Another trick that rarely fails if the kids don’t want to tidy up - offer a treat of some kind as a reward.

Can a community guest room be made into a holiday haven without spending too much on decoration?

Absolutely, especially if you’ve carefully stuck with neutral colours. Simple decorations such as tinsel or string lights can instantly transform any neutral room into a stylish room that oozes holiday appeal.

Stick to more basic decorations and carefully consider placement to make the most of what you have without having to splurge on more decorations - they can be quite pricey these days.