Make your guests feel at home this Christmas

After a wonderful experience staying in a friend's spare room last year, Adele Cardani provides some design tips so your visitors feel like they are a priority and not an afterthought

- Adele Cardani

Last winter, a friend invited me to come home with her to North Yorkshire. I soon learned that she is from a village where cottages and manor homes carved from honeyed stone are folded into hills dotted with sheep. It's the kind of place where Barbour-clad locals always seem to have a hunting dog in tow and every meal of pub classics concludes with sticky toffee pudding. Our getaway took a The Holiday-esque turn (sans whirlwind romance with Jude Law) when the air turned as crisp as a ginger snap and fluffy snow settled over the landscape like a down comforter enveloping the garden.

With trains back to London cancelled, we gladly embraced the yawning gap between obligations and each night I fell asleep in her deeply spoiling guest room with its velvet curtains, perfectly placed lamps, stack of glossy magazines, and chenille dressing gown hanging on the ensuite bathroom door. The weekend turned into an entire week. And even then, I had no desire to leave. You see, the room itself was an embodiment of phenomenal hosting. Thus, I feel it is my duty to stress that your spare room deserves this same sort of proper consideration making your guests feel like a priority, not an afterthought.

With Christmas approaching, our homes are soon to be filled with guests. First things first - if you haven't done so already spend a night in your spare room, looking out for areas of improvement. Are plug sockets difficult to reach? Is there adequate bedside lighting for reading? Is it drafty during the night? Perhaps most importantly, is the mattress comfortable?