Welcome to the forum Jesse. Tight and challenging space.

I would consider a day bed (lubi from cb2 twilight from dwr) or a small narrow convertible sofa ( flat out from blue dot or Gus modern Or the encore sofa from room and board) with some sort of desk and shelving options. I like this photo from houzz:

How will this room be used most? As an office or as a guest room?

Because the room is so small, fitting in any kind of bed means that you have little space left for an office. So if the room is going to be 90% office and only 10% guest room, I'd focus on making it a workable office first, and a guest room second.

Figure out what you want to have in an office--a desk, two desks? A file cabinet? Storage for office supplies? A bookcase? Will you and your DH be using this room as a den/tv room as well?

Who will be using the room as a guest? Your brother? Your parents? Will you need a twin bed, a full bed? What kind of storage space for clothing/suitcases will be needed?

Is there a closet? What can you use it for? A desk area? Storage with shelves instead of for hanging clothes? (Guests can get an over-the-door hanging rack?)

Inflatable beds are good and getting better. They have some now that are raised off the floor to make getting out of bed in the morning much easier. Don't ignore them as you work out how to use this room. Do allow for storage space in the room for the bed and linens if you go this route.

In any small house, storage is usually an issue. I'd seriously consider creating a Great Wall o' Storage with a desk incorporated. Ikea has the Besta system and the Expedit bookcases (although the Expedit is being replaced with a new, similar bookcase). You could make a wall that has the look of built-in storage, with a desk. If you don't have enough office stuff to fill the space, you can use it to store just about anything.

Then add in a bed or day bed or sofa bed. A bedside table with drawers for the guest to use.

Ikea has some nice sofa beds. They also have a chair-sized single bed, if you need more flexibility.

This is a pretty radical idea but what about a desk that could double as a bed? Along the lines of a convertible table in a camper.

When we moved into this house, there was a little room beside the garage which could have been intended as a mud room, but the previous owners used it as a bedroom. It was 7x7 and had a twin bed in it and that was really all that fit. We put a counter along one wall and used it as an office, but it was a tight fit when both of us wanted to be in there. You have a little more space though.

You may have already done this, in which case just ignore this post.

How much will you be using this office space? Is one of you working from home? If the room will be used as an office most of the time, fine. Or if you will be having guests over frequently, also fine.

But in a small space, every inch counts. So I'd take a good, long, hard look at your house and figure out what spaces you are missing.

Do you want a space for crafts and hobbies? A quiet reading room? A room for tv watching that can be closed off from the rest of the house so the noise doesn't bother the other person? A library? A media room? A music room?

In other words, it might be a good idea to stop and think about what this room could be for you and your DH. Office and guest room is sort of a knee-jerk reaction to an extra bedroom. If that's what you really want and you are going to use it a lot, that's fine. But if the office part of it will only be used a few hours a week for paying bills and the guest room part will only be used one weekend every three months, then you've got valuable real estate going to waste.

But if you really need space for DH to set up his model rocket building supplies or for you to work on your yoga or you desperately need storage space, then I'd rethink the uses of the room to make it work better for you.

You could easily create a media room with a sofa bed and a TV wall that incorporates a large wall storage system, with a small table and comfy chair that can take care of your office needs. A craft room could have lots of storage and a big table that can work as a desk when necessary and fold down to allow an inflatable bed when guests arrive.

Do a search for Murphy bed desk and you will see some possible ideas.

A murphy bed might work, but you might also consider something likethis, if you have any storage space, or an inflatable bed, if you don't need it a lot. The problem with a murphy is that it necessitates a lot of blank wall space, unless you do something like the library bed. The frontline bed is a lot better than a standard aerobed type bed and roughly the same price.

There's also something called bed-in-a-box, which is a wall console with a bed in it, or for a single person you might consider something like this if you mostly only need accommodations for one more person.

Here is a link that might be useful: EZ bed

This post was edited by writersblock on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 11:41

Thanks you for all of your responses. I am going to be thinking about what we will be using the room for in more depth before I make anymore decisions on the room. It's nice to know there is a place to go where people have and appreciate small homes and know how to make them work!

Writersblock, the blue bed you've pictured...where is that from?

World Market. Sorry, I see I managed to edit out the link. Here it is. The blue is a slipcover you can also buy from them.

Here is a link that might be useful: world market sofa