My number one priority for our guest room was creating a comfortable and relaxing space for our friends and family. But the reality is that our guests often need to get some work done and stay connected while they are visiting. In order to balance style and function and give our guests a work space, I chose a small, Parsons-style desk for one side of the bed instead of a traditional nightstand.
Of course, providing guests a comfortable and convenient place to work is only half of the challenge. A good WiFi connection is also a must! And to get online, guests will need the password.
Today I've got five quick and stylish WiFi password sign ideas, as well as a tip for getting good WiFi coverage, even in those far corners of your house.
My friend Melissa came to visit last month, and when she asked me for our WiFi password, she was met with a blank stare. Since it's saved on both my computer and phone, I never have to type it in and honestly had no clue what it was. I assured her that when Scott got home, he'd be able to tell her. Well, Scott came home from work, and about 10 guesses later he had to go and reset the password. About an hour later we were finally able to get her online so she could finish some work, and I realized that we need to make it easier on us and our guests.
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I love the look of the lightbox, but my mini one is a bit limited on space, and might not be idea if {like us} you have one of those long WiFi passwords that is a random string of letters and numbers. Next, I tried out a trendy
letterboard {an idea I actually got from
Melissa}.
This pretty
gray and wood letterboard provides a lot more space to work with. I could easily put the rows closer together and fit a lot more text.
Everyone loves a chalkboard, right? A little
chalkboard easel is a perfect place to jot down the WiFi password. And if you guest room is like mine, and all the outlets are hidden by furniture, it's a really nice touch to provide a charging station {or "juice bar"} so guests don't have to struggle to find a place to plug in their charging cords.
Since I already have a lot of framed photos from our Greek island honeymoon in the guest room, I came up with a simple way to use one of the photos to display the WiFi Password.
This one really blends in to the decor in such a subtle way that it might need to be pointed out to your guests, but it's definitely a stylish option!
Last, but certainly not least... welcome your guests with both WiFi and wine!
Earlier in the year, I used one of our honeymoon photos to make this acrylic photo-transfer tray {grab the
DIY tutorial here}. Dry erase markers work on acrylic, just like on glass, so I simply sat out a bottle of Greek wine a couple of wine glasses on the tray, and then wrote the WiFi password right on the tray.
Because our house is long and thin, and spread over four levels, getting good wireless coverage has always been a challenge. My office is in the basement in one corner of the house, but I also do a lot of work in the bedroom, on the third floor in the opposite corner. My husband is our resident tech guru, and over the years he's tried a ton of different solutions for getting good WiFi coverage throughout the house. For a while, we had a range extender to help stretch our coverage from the basement office {where the router is} all the way up to the top floor, and it was serviceable, but it also really slowed down our connection.
After years of me complaining about our slow internet and dead spots throughout the house - including the guest room - Scott went in search of a whole home system that would give us consistent coverage and better speeds. We were initially leaning toward Google Wifi, but Scott isn't the typical impulse purchaser type of guy. So he did some research and found that both c|net {our go to for tech reviews} and PC Mag both recommended the Netgear Orbi system, which offers up to 100% faster speeds than Google WiFi, and can cover a 5,000 square foot house/yard. After we'd already settled on Orbi as our best option, Orbi offered to send us their Whole Home Wifi System to test out. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.
Like I said, Scott is the tech guru of the family, so he could probably tell you a lot more about how and why the
Netgear Orbi system is so great, but my review is a lot more simple - it works REALLY well! We now have fast WiFi throughout the entire house with no dead spots. I no longer complain and curse at my computer on a daily basis, and I no longer have to apologize to our guests that there's no WiFi in the guest room!
Oh, and most importantly {ok, so it's not
really the MOST important, but it
is really important to me} the
Orbi is super stylish and blends really easily with our decor. There are two matching pieces, the router {which we keep in the basement office} and the satellite {which lives in our guest room}. Both look like a sleek white vases rather than a bulky piece of hardware.
If you want a high tech solution to providing guests with your WiFi password,
Orbi and
Alexa have you covered! The Orbi system works in conjunction with Alexa voice-enabled products, like the
Amazon Echo. You can ask Alexa to enable your guest WiFi network, or even ask Alexa to securely remind you of your WiFi password via a card to the Alexa app.
So if, like me, when it comes time to write give guests the WiFi password, you can't remember what it is... you can simply ask Alexa and she'll send it to you! Here's a helpful
YouTube video I found that shows you how to set it up and what voice commands to use.
This is just one of the many ways that we are using Alexa and other simple smart home tools to make our guest room more comfortable. You can read more about our
smart guest room in this post.
Labels: guest room
