How to Furnish a Guest Room in Calgary: 8 Guest Bedroom Ideas

Last updated November 2026 by the Forward Furniture team

Family flies into YYC for the holidays, a friend stays after a Flames game, or your parents come for a week in the summer. A guest room does not need to be big or fancy. It needs a comfortable bed and a few small things that let a guest settle in without asking you for anything.

This guide covers what a guest room needs, which bed fits which room, and the real floor space each guest bed takes, measured from the maker's specs on our product pages. Browse our cabinet beds as you read, or see the full bedroom furniture we carry in Calgary.

In this guide

• What does a guest room need?
• What is the best bed for a guest room?
• How much floor does a guest bed take?
• How do you furnish a basement guest room?
• What goes beside the guest bed?
• How do you make a guest room feel welcoming?
• Which guest room setup is right for you?
• Where can you see a guest bed in Calgary?
• Questions

What Does a Guest Room Need?

Think about the first night from the guest's side. They arrive tired, they need to unpack a little, charge a phone and find the light switch in the dark. These are the eight things that make that easy, in the order we would buy them:

1. A real bed. A queen sleeps a couple, and a double or twin is fine for one guest. Comfort matters more than looks.
2. A nightstand. A place for glasses, a phone and a glass of water.
3. A lamp they can reach from bed. No one wants to cross a dark room to the wall switch.
4. A spot for a suitcase. A bench, a luggage rack or a clear bit of floor.
5. Hangers and a few hooks. Leave half the closet empty, or put hooks on the back of the door.
6. A window covering that blocks light. Calgary summer mornings get bright early.
7. A mirror. A full length mirror on the door takes no floor at all.
8. An outlet near the bed. Or a power bar on the nightstand for chargers.

Spare bedding is a good extra: one more blanket and a second pillow, folded where the guest can see them. If you do not have a spare room at all, read our tips to host guests without a guest room.

What Is the Best Bed for a Guest Room?

It depends on how often the room has guests and what it does the rest of the year. There are four common choices:

• A regular bed frame: the most familiar. Best when the room is only a guest room and guests come often.
• A cabinet bed: a chest about waist high that opens into a bed. It needs no wall mounting and comes with its own mattress, so the room can be an office or a craft room between visits.
• A Murphy bed: a bed that folds up into a cabinet fixed to the wall. It takes a regular mattress, which suits guests who stay a while.
• A sofa sleeper: a couch by day with a mattress inside. Good when the room is also a den or a TV room.

Our guide to the best guest bed options for small spaces goes deeper on each type, and Murphy bed vs sofa bed compares the two most common picks.

How Much Floor Does a Guest Bed Take?

The guest room is often the smallest bedroom in the house, so we worked out the floor space of each queen guest bed we sell, closed and open, from the maker's width, depth and open length on our product pages. Then we compared it with a 10 by 10 foot room, which is 100 sq ft.

Floor = width times depth closed, or width times length open, from the maker's specs on our product pages. The regular bed row is the 60 by 80 inch queen mattress alone, before the frame.

What the numbers say:

• A queen mattress alone covers 33.3 sq ft, a third of a 10 by 10 room, every day of the year, guest or no guest.
• Closed, a fold away queen takes about 10 to 12 sq ft, about a tenth of the room.
• The Heidi Grey is the slimmest closed at 9.8 sq ft, but it needs about 85 inches of wall.
• The Olivia is the narrowest at 62.5 inches wide, so it fits a shorter wall.
• A queen sofa sleeper like the Rannis is 85 inches long and 40 inches deep, about 24 sq ft as a couch.

Leave room to walk past the open bed and to open the closet. Our guide will a cabinet bed fit shows how to measure.

How Do You Furnish a Basement Guest Room in Calgary?

If your guest room is in the basement, two things matter most: the window and the ceiling. The City of Calgary page on existing secondary suites (read November 2, 2026) sets these rules for a bedroom window in a suite:

• An opening of at least 0.35 square metres (3.8 square feet).
• No side of the opening smaller than 380 mm (15 inches).
• It must open without keys or tools.

Even if your basement is not a suite, those numbers are a good safety guide for any room where someone sleeps. Do not block that window with the bed or a tall cabinet. The City page on adding a new secondary suite sets a basement ceiling of at least 1.95 m, about 6 feet 5 inches, or 1.85 m under ducts and beams.

A cabinet bed is only about 40 to 42.5 inches tall, so it fits under a low ceiling or a basement window. For more on basements, see our guide to Murphy beds for Calgary basement suites.

What Goes Beside the Guest Bed?

A nightstand is the second thing to buy. In a small room, a wall mounted one keeps the floor clear. Our floating nightstands come as a set of two, and each is 15.7 inches wide and 13.4 inches deep, with a drawer and an open shelf. The top holds up to 11 lbs, enough for a lamp, a phone and a book.

Other small pieces that help:

• A small dresser, or two empty drawers in one you already have.
• A bench or a chair at the end of the bed for a suitcase.
• A reading lamp or a wall light on each side if two people stay.

See all nightstands in Calgary and our dressers in Calgary.

How Do You Make a Guest Room Feel Welcoming?

Small touches make guests feel expected, not squeezed in:

• Fresh sheets, and a spare blanket in sight.
• A card with the Wi Fi name and password.
• A clear surface and an empty drawer, so they can unpack.
• A night light or a lamp they can find in the dark.
• A glass and a water bottle. Calgary air is dry, so guests often wake up thirsty.

Sleep in the room yourself for one night before guests come. You will find the squeaky spot, the streetlight that shines in and the outlet that is too far from the bed.

Which Guest Room Setup Is Right for You?

Sizes are the maker's specs on our product pages. Prices are live from our catalogue on the day this page was built.

A simple way to choose:

• The room is an office or a hobby room most of the year: a cabinet bed. Our small guest room office ideas show how to fit both.
• Guests stay a week or more: a Murphy bed with a regular mattress.
• The room is also the TV room: a sofa sleeper.
• Guests come every month: a regular bed frame and the room stays made up.

Still deciding between fold away styles? Read cabinet bed vs Murphy bed.

Guest Beds and Pieces for a Calgary Guest Room

Olivia Cabinet Bed
Preorder, charged in full at checkout: see the current price

Freestanding hardwood cabinet bed with a tri fold queen mattress included. On the floor at our Calgary store.

Stow Queen Cabinet Bed
$2,417.99

Acacia wood chest, 42.5 inches tall, with a tri fold gel memory foam mattress.

Heidi Grey Horizontal Murphy Bed
From $1,424.99

Folds down sideways, 16.54 inches deep closed.

Rannis Sofa Sleeper
From $1,319.99

A couch by day with a built in mattress, in full or queen.

Floating Nightstands, Set of 2
$189.99

Wall mounted, 15.7 inches wide, with a drawer and an open shelf.

Where Can You See a Guest Bed in Calgary?

The Olivia cabinet bed is on the floor at our Calgary store at 6125 12 St SE, Unit 2, open every day from 11 to 5:30. Open and close it yourself and see how little room it takes.

Bring the width of your guest room wall and the ceiling height, and we can help you pick a size. Pickup is free at the store, and every bed comes with at least our 3-year warranty. See what else we carry on our Calgary furniture store page.

Guest Room Furniture: Questions

What should a guest room have?

A comfortable bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a spot for a suitcase, hangers or hooks, a window covering that blocks light, a mirror and an outlet near the bed. Spare bedding in sight is a nice extra.

What is the best bed for a small guest room?

A fold away bed. Closed, the queen cabinet beds and wall beds we compared take about 10 to 12 sq ft, against about 33 sq ft for a queen mattress on a frame.

Can a guest room also be an office?

Yes. A cabinet bed or a Murphy bed folds away, so the room works as an office between visits. A cabinet bed needs no wall mounting.

Is a sofa bed or a cabinet bed better for guests?

A sofa bed suits a room that is also a den or TV room. A cabinet bed suits a room you want clear, and it comes with its own mattress.

What size bed should a guest room have?

A queen if couples stay, and a double or twin if guests usually come alone. Measure the wall and the open length first so the path to the door stays clear.

Find a Guest Bed That Fits Your Room