"Settling down for a long winter's nap" takes on new meaning with a houseful of guests sleeping over this holiday season. But there are strategies that put to bed any angst one may have surrounding the stay of houseguests, says Heather Turner, based in Enfield, Conn., and spokesperson for the Professional Association of Innkeepers International.

"Having family or friends stay with you for a prolonged period of time can be stressful, no matter who they are or how much you care for them," Turner says. "The holidays can bring up all kinds of emotions, so it's good to share a list of 'House Rules' to manage expectations and help keep peace."

A list of "House Rules" isn't meant to be punitive, but to remind guests to be kind, not argue and agree to be nice. If some guests imbibe too much, a teetotaling time might be the antidote to antisocial behaviors. "When we have guests that come and stay with us, I always have their favorite foods and snacks on hand for a special personal touch," Turner says. "I also make sure to have a basket of amenities in the bathroom, so guests feel at home, even if they forgot a toothbrush or shampoo."

One of the best ways to achieve room-without-board bliss for houseguests is to keep your home organized throughout the year, says Katy Milton, a design consultant with California Closets in San Francisco. "Some people really feel the stress -- especially during the holidays -- if they have to get their house guest-ready," she says. "The key is to keep your house clutter-free and not let the place where guests stay serve as a catch-all room that needs to be cleared out before company arrives."

If the place in which guests sleep is a multipurpose room -- such as a home office -- organize the space like a hotel suite with television, storage and desk. Milton designed a home office space that features a fold-down bed, which is hinged at one end to store vertically against the wall inside framed cabinetry.

"When guests come to stay, you have to also respect their privacy," Turner says. "Clear off the home office desk in the room they're staying in, empty out prescriptions from the guest bathroom's medicine cabinet and be aware of any food or pet allergies."

To set up a successful strategy for visitors, it's more manageable to organize your home room by room.

The Guest Bedroom/Bathroom

Homeowners can have a suite setup for the guest bedroom -- regardless of its size -- by focusing first on the bed.

Clean guest towels and sheets are essential, even if the bed is a pullout sofa. Turner also goes the extra mile with a noise machine and aromatherapy in her designated guest room. "The closet is stocked with extra pillows and blankets, so guests can be comfortable in bed," she says. "There's also a dresser and hangers for guests to place clothing and their belongings during their stay."

Other items to consider when outfitting the guest bedroom/bathroom include:

-- A reading light with optional books/magazines.

-- An alarm clock.

-- Robes and slipper socks that guests can take home with them.

-- A cellphone charging station, or easy access to electrical outlets.

-- In addition to an amenities basket filled with toiletries in the bathroom, also have a first-aid kit available.

-- For families with children, a small toy box and extra baby wipes make for good, clean fun.

The Laundry Room

A household can run without a wrinkle if the laundry room is organized when guests extend their stay. Give guests the option to do their laundry, should they need clean clothes.

When cleaning up after houseguests, Milton says it's important to organize the guest room sheets and towels. "After washing guest linens, fold and store them together, separately from the rest of the household's laundry," she says. "That way, if guests happen to drop in, there's no guessing about what linens are needed for the guest room."

The Kitchen

The kitchen's larder is living large when it comes to a hospitable stay for guests. Knowing dietary restrictions or preferences makes it easier to feed guests, or allows guests to help themselves. Guests can grab between-meal snacks and breakfast items on their own.

When it comes to drinks, set up a coffee bar and have favorite nonalcoholic drinks stored in a minifridge. In an effort to promote more schmoozing and less boozing, have a preferred wine or beer on hand, but don't overload the liquor cabinet, Turner says.

The Living Room/Computer Station

Gatherings with family and friends can be hardwired for fun, especially when watching the big game or a movie together. To help guests plug in, be sure to:

-- Share your home's Wi-Fi password.

-- Show guests how to operate "smart" televisions, providing passwords for streaming services.

-- Allow access to your home printer so guests can print out documents or tickets as needed.

Entire House

Whole-house accommodations for guests can include a thorough baby-proofing by covering outlets and providing gates near stairs. It can also mean restricting areas pets may go in the house if guests are allergic or uneasy around animals.

Turner says the secret to a successful stay is to be a good guest as well, and to offer to help the host with household tasks.

"As a host, you plan what you can, but go with the flow when it comes to having guests," she says. "Above all, try to keep a sense of humor and really enjoy the people who are visiting you, because when you're relaxed, guests feel like they can relax, too."

The Guest Go-To

-- Go to CaliforniaClosets.com or call 888-336-9707, and request a free closet consultation.

-- Professional Association of Innkeepers International, www.PAII.com

The sink is the newest implement making a splash in the kitchen. The kitchen sink is evolving into a workstation with more than just washing options, and homeowners should think outside the basin, especially when it's installed on the kitchen island, says Elle H-Millard, spokesperson for the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), based in Hackettstown, New Jersey.

"It used to be that designers would think in terms of a triangle when configuring where the cooktop, refrigeration and water source were located within the kitchen for maximum efficiency," she says. "Now, modular workstations set over a large sink are getting people to think linearly when it comes to kitchen design, both horizontally and vertically."

Featuring everything and the kitchen sink, The Galley -- based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with 300 dealers worldwide -- was one of the first companies to create a comprehensive workstation system featuring a series of sliding and drop-in accessories that rest on the ledges of a stainless steel troughlike sink. In standard sink sizes measuring from 18 inches to 7 feet, workstations like The Galley are long on design and ease of use. Other basin-based companies -- such as Kohler, Blanco and Elkay -- also have sink accessories, with varying degrees of interchangeability.

"The idea is that prep work, serving, entertaining and cleanup can all be performed over the sink using special racks, cutting boards and culinary utensils," says Gabby Vonigas, spokesperson for The Galley. "Home cooks use The Galley workstation by sliding boards, serving bowls, colanders or drying racks across the sink's rim for seamless usage."

Line Cooks

With a workstation that looks like it belongs in a commercial kitchen and is most often installed on an island, The Galley really gets cooking at home. As a design concept, interactive cooking on the kitchen island isn't eroding; it's only becoming bigger and better, Vonigas says.

"Entertaining at home is a more interactive experience, involving family and friends in the meal's preparation," she says. "With the ability to have numerous cutting boards in place over a long kitchen sink, people can work side-by-side without bumping into each other."

With a long kitchen sink workstation installed on the island, multiple people can perform meal multitasking. With a cooktop installed next to the sink workstation, a cook can chop vegetables and saute in one fell sizzle. Refrigerator drawers built into the island can be stocked with a meal's ingredients and are a cool addition to the sink's workstation that maximizes cooking efficiency.

"This is about making the kitchen space really work for you," H-Millard says. "In an ideal situation, you have a full-sized refrigerator, in addition to refrigerator drawers, and another sink on the wall, where one can wash up big pots and pans without interfering with food preparation on the island workstation."

Design to Sink One's Teeth Into

Don't let your kitchen island's workstation become uninhabitable by neglecting to plan for specific design elements. The size of the kitchen's workstation is determined by the space that allows for traffic to flow around it, with NKBA's optimal recommendation of a four-foot clearance on each side.

A watershed moment of inspiration comes when the faucet is as thoughtfully designed as the workstation sink. As part of The Galley's workstation, the faucets (or taps) are curved with a hand-spray extension for an easy pot-filling feature. It's also important to have a spout at the sink workstation that rotates 360 degrees, so as to not soak food as it's being served.

Kitchen designers liken a comprehensive sink workstation to buying an appliance. With industry prices varying wildly based on the functionality and tools -- which can include a utensil caddy, knife block, a service set for condiments, a wash-and-drying rack, sheet pans, bowl and colander insets and cutting boards -- expect to pay around $1,000 per linear foot for The Galley's top-of-the-line workstation.

People just naturally hover and land around an island workspace, no matter where it's located, whether inside or outside the home. The sink workstation has migrated to outdoor kitchens, but requires extra attention in climates that experience freeze-thaw cycles.

The kitchen island's workstation set over the sink is a feast for the eye when one thoughtfully designs this newest culinary hot spot, H-Millard says. Spills during service are no problem, because the sink beneath serves as a catchall.

"While it's easy to move from food prep into food service in a buffet-line-style over the sink, you can also place a customized upper deck over everything to instantly hide used pots and pans from guests seated at the island," she says.

"The kitchen sink can become the hub of the home and a true place to congregate when it's equipped with a workstation."

When a Sinking Feeling is a Good Thing ...

-- National Kitchen and Bath Association, NKBA.org: Type in your state to find a designer near you. 800-843-6522

-- TheGalley.com: Click WHERE TO BUY to find a dealer near you. Click VIDEOS to see the workstation in action.

Steampunk styling in the home doesn't have to be conjured up just during the Halloween holiday. Using steampunk staples -- rich colors, salvaged antiques and ingenuity -- this unique design blends an elegant Victorian viewpoint with industrial elements to create an eclectic ethos that feels like a modern throwback.

"Steampunk design is an exercise -- not in juxtaposition -- but in fusion: beauty and durability; art and science; the past and present," says Bruce Rosenbaum, founder of ModVic, (short for Modern Victorian), a steampunk art and design company based in a Gothic church he's remodeling in Thorndike, Massachusetts. "I've always been passionate about history, art, antiques, technology and gadgets," Rosenbaum continues. "Steampunk brings all of these passions together."

Leather, wood and metal all fuse together in a rich color palette of black, dark red and browns to create a steampunk style that reveals how something works by exposing inner parts and showcasing gears, machine cogs, gauges and pipes. Rosenbaum repurposes salvaged antiques into functioning, modern Steampunk pieces: a pipe organ turned into a computer display desk; a contemporary cooktop made from an old cast-iron stove; and a cool commercial ceiling fan transformed into "Helioman," a Leonardo da Vinci-inspired installation.

At the same time Rosenbaum is renovating a Gothic church for his family's residence downstairs, he is also creating a showcase of steampunk pieces in the structure's nave. Sculptor Michael Ulman took Rosenbaum's idea for a "Humachine" -- a human/machine hybrid -- to mount an antique wooden mannequin onto a large ceiling fan. The installation of this unique cooling system 20 feet above the floor can be viewed during the eighth episode of the Netflix original series "Amazing Interiors."

"A steampunk sensibility can be hard to define, but you intrinsically know it when you see it," Rosenbaum says. "Steampunk has a worldwide following and is continuing to grow in many forms of popular culture, because it is fueled by STEAM -- science, technology, engineering, art and math."

Rosenbaum says this movement is picking up steam as the millennial generation grows weary of modern objects that have a built-in obsolescence. "A Steampunk style lifts the curtain behind how things are made and how they work," he says. "Younger folks are looking for meaning, authenticity and experiences in their lives, and steampunk delivers on all cylinders."

But, having a steampunk style in your home doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing design decision, says architect Andre Rothblatt, whose eponymous firm is based in San Francisco. In 2012, Rothblatt designed a steampunk surprise in an otherwise traditional Craftsman-style home on Clayton Street in San Francisco.

"This bathroom captures people's imaginations with its retro-futuristic style," Rothblatt says. "The space really celebrates pipes -- with an accentuation on the joints -- giving the bathroom a magical quality."

Instead of hiding the inner workings of the water lines, Rothblatt exaggerated and showcased the copper pipes as much as possible. Water lines zigzag and cross one another, with larger ones working as outtake drainpipes and smaller pipes serving as water intake supply lines.

Reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine -- in which the design is ingeniously constructed to perform a simple task in an overcomplicated fashion -- everything in this powder room is purposeful. With Frederic Grasset Design Build, based in San Francisco, serving as the general contractor, black tiles were installed to create a rich backdrop that allows the copper fixtures, sink and pipes to really pop.

Water is gravity-fed into the toilet bowl, with a gauge located near the separately elevated tank that actually measures and displays the water pressure. The patina of the copper pipes influenced the choice of the Victorian-style wallpaper, and Rothblatt designed the sconces on either side of a simple, antique-style mirror.

"Using industrial elements in home design is very popular today, but this project took that concept in a fun and quirky direction," Rothblatt says. "While the rest of the house reflects a traditional Arts-and-Crafts-style home in its design, this bathroom is a captivating curiosity."

The essence of true steampunk art and design is that it is both functional and beautiful. It is meant to engage the user to pay attention to details that might otherwise be overlooked, Rosenbaum says.

"Steampunk design is not just about the objects, but also the personal stories behind them," he says. "In its purest form, steampunk design is the intersection of history, art and today's technology. It is both form and function -- ageless and engaging."

You've Been (Steam)Punked!

-- Bruce Rosenbaum, ModVic.com, 781-784-0250

-- Michael Ulman, MichaelUlman.com, 617-325-9044

-- Andre Rothblatt Architecture, AndreRothblattArchitecture.com, 415-626-5112

-- Frederic Grasset Design Build, 415-309-0614