Don’t let guests cramp your style

The holiday season has arrived. Soon the out-of-towners will. Where are they going to sleep?

For years, the solution was cheap and simple. Plop them on one of those inflatable beds or show them to the sleeper sofa, a device that’s such a pain in the neck it earned the nickname “mother-in-law’s bed.”

But there are kinder, more attractive options. For tight spaces, there’s a single bed that folds out of a stately cabinet that measures just more than 18 inches deep when closed ($1,295, www.gumps.com). Leather ottomans and club chairs open up to twin beds (from $798, www.ballarddesigns.com). And an ingenious Mission-styled 42-inch-square wooden coffee table flips out into a platform twin with mini headboard (www.juliawesthome.com).

Daybeds fit a variety of small rooms and work with any budget and decor, from British Colonial (Crate & Barrel’s rattan Malabar, $999) to mid-century modern (Crate & Barrel’s Jean Michel Frank-inspired upholstered Simone, $999, and Design Within Reach’s plywood, hairpin-legged Case Study Bed, $1,695). For architectural purists, nothing compares with the reissue of Rudolf Schindler’s daybed by the architectural firm Marmol Radziner.

Is your sister bringing the kids? Try a trundle bed. Once a fussy design delinquent suitable only for kids’ room sleepovers, it has come out of its shell as an add-on option to decorative daybeds. Pottery Barn has trim roll-arm models in wicker, hardwood and sleek leather that look as sharp in the front room as they do in the spare room.

Rachel Ashwell may have cornered the market on rounded, puffy fold-outs with the “Squadgy” (from $3,540), but European designers have taken the lead in streamlined sofa beds using simple technology. Ratchet-operated metal frames elevate the basic flat futon into a studio-chic couch in the Danish designs (from $500) at Bedfellows in Studio City and the Chanel-esque button-tufted Nomade Express from Ligne Roset. At Lampa Mobler, the suspended “floating” backrest on the James Irvine sofa ($3,955) telescopes down to fit together with the bench cushion like a particularly easy jigsaw puzzle. Best of all, most of these models sleep two.