Can you use that burgundy as your other main color and then use black or green as an accent color?

Would a folding screen work to hide the electrical goodies?

I like the beds.

I'm wondering if the electrical stuff area could possibly be turned into a closet? You might find all the ingredients you need very inexpensively under "Materials" on Craigslist. You never know.

Boy do I have bedroom inspiration for you! Close this thread and look at the top right of the list of all the threads and you'll see a link to our gallery. I have a bedrooms thread in there with hundreds of pics. I also have added a few hundred pics to someone's Cottage Decor thread. I also have a thread for Kids and Teenagers' rooms that has a few more adult looking rooms, and some with twin beds. I think you're bound to see something you like.

I find it easiest to get good out of the Gallery if I go in with specific questions, too, like color schemes, or what to hang on a wall, or how to display china in a hutch, or what to put on a coffee table. Or just find a room you like and do your own version of a copy of it. At least the kinks are worked out that way and you won't be spending money on mistakes, like bad paint colors.

You might also want to look for bedding and draperies first, then take all your colors from the fabric you choose. JC Penneys often has great deals, but there are other great sites on the web too.

Hope this helps, good luck, and please keep us posted with pictures!

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to bedrooms thread

Here's a link to the Cottage Decor thread. You'll find a lot of different styles in there from modern country, to shabby chic, to bears in the woods, to beach cottage, and more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cottage Decor thread

This one was posted the other day. Think of painting the beds and getting this look. I love it..

That is the picture that came to my mind too, I had already saved it to my inspiration file.

I don't think there is any need to paint the beds though. If your style is old world, then work with the wood, find a mirror or picture frame in the same colour wood and center it on the bed like in the picture.

I would DEFINITELY paint the beds! That picture is one of my favorites, too! Quaint without being "granny." Unfortunately, I think a screen in that corner will definitely look "granny-ish" as this kind of room is so often seen with a dressing screen and a table and pitcher and bowl (ewer). I know you are not supposed to obstruct your electrical panel but since it is just **us** talking, I would cover it with a big print or full length mirror, and I would paint those two small doors (plumbing access, perhaps?) the same colour as the walls.

I think a deep red and gold (as opposed to red and white as in the photo) would be a lovely colour scheme for your room. And I would paint those beds black in a red-hot minute!

Unless you plan to build a closet in that room you are going to need somewhere for your guests to hang their clothes. Could you angle an armoire in that corner and hide the electrical thingies? Maybe you could put casters on the bottom of the armoire so it could be rolled out of the way. You could find one with very simple lines that doesn't look grannyish.

Are there windows in the room?

the first thing i would do would be to use the electrical box alcove as a closet, you can either frame in closet doors or you can hang a curtain and you can have a closet behind the curtain..that would solve the elc box problem.

Old world is great..if you hate the beds..you can cut some thin plywood to a shape you like, cut two pieces for each headboard and two for each footboard, and cover them with padding and fabric and you'll completely hide all the wood..then you have a clean slate to work with...or you could cut down the corner posts and move the finials down to a lower height if you don't like the height of them.
My home is an old world decorating style, So i can see the problem, however, there are always lots of solutions..one problem is you need to darken up the walls some, to make it fit with an old world style, which tends to be darker than white..or beige..look at Joanns fabric if you are near one, they have some gorgeous new fabrics in the old world style..and if you get the 50 % off coupon you can save a bundle..I would look for some tapestry type fabrics if i did the headboards in fabric..

Be careful not to go to matchy matchy with old world..sometimes people tend to head that way, but old world is a mix of things from all over the world..so any continent basically will blend together..so you have a lot of choice, from european, asian, oriental, african, etc to mix in..but paint is the key to softening the look. Velvets are fairly cheap if you get synthetic ones and can make a very quick change into an older style, buyt also some heavy brocades or darker chenille fabrics would warm it up a lot..muted large oriental rugs between the two beds..you have a lot of room for furniture ..but don't go matchy, watch for absolutely gorgeous old pieces or reproducitons, or even wicker or leather or hand painted pieces..use as much fabric as you can..drape heavily around the window, if there is one being careful to keep drapes outside of the casings to not block off the light..
some tassles, beads, fringes, old floor lamps, wooden rockers or some high back chairs, leather, woven wicker, etc..and you'll have a guest room that no one will want to leave..

OK, girls, you must understand, while I would love to paint the beds, DH would absolutely, positively, have a stroke. He would also stroke out if I modified them in any way. I love the red/white picture, and I would probably go with a gold instead of white. My walls are actually a little darker buttercream than the walls in the the red/white picture, but photographed lighter because of the flash.

BTW, there are no windows in the room.

Most building codes demand an escape window in each bedroom. The closet is required to count the room as a bedroom if you ever plan on selling.
But if you do not care about safety codes, you could use a room divider to cover electrical and an armoire to hang clothes.

I was afraid you'd say you couldn't paint the beds! I love the mirror between the two beds so maybe do as fondantfancy suggests and find a mirror in the same/similar finish as the beds. I also like artlovers suggestion of angling an armoire to cover the electrical boxes. I think with the right colors and accessories you can definitely un-granny those beds!

With no windows... and thus no means of egress...

I would not want guests to stay there!

With meager building skills you could add a closet that both incorporates the electrical boxes and your guest's needs - even with the slanted wall. You can check out closet building on-line and in books to give you an idea. You can use ready made closet doors so you won't need to build them. Otherwise you could modify one corner of a screen to accommodate the slanted wall. Of course you would have to find a screen that would work, design-wise.
Diane

The wall with the elec. box is where I'd have DH build the closet, keeping all of that on the back wall and rod across the front, yes, you'd need to move things aside, if a breaker goes off, NP make sure he installs a light in the closet, as for beddings etc. I shop here, they have awesome bedding, nice people, and great sales.

Here is a link that might be useful: brylanehome

With no windows... and thus no means of egress...
I would not want guests to stay there!

I completely agree. I hope you won't even consider this as a bedroom unless/until there is an escape route directly from the room. Think of how terrible it would be if a fire prevented people from exiting the room via the stairs -- they'd be trapped. How difficult would it be to add a window to the room?

I wouldn't dare paint those beds. Not only is the style of the beds fantastic, the wood is beautiful! Nowhere do they look "granny" to me.

And that red and white bedroom is to die for!

Are those rope beds, we have two twins very similar that my DH inherited from his grandmother's house. I think they look great as is.

I agree with everyone that voiced if there's no window, it's really not safe to use as a bedroom. We ran into the same problems here, the upstairs was carved into small rooms that had no windows ( not code ). Until we redid the upstairs to open up the floor plan and allow the dormer windows to be accessed from any where in the room we didn't use the upstairs.

Another serious vote for a egress window before anyone stays in there. Even from a merely selfish standpoint, the liability would be incredible, before you factor in guilt and anguish and more guilt...

Seriously, PLEASE add a window or don't ever use it as a bedroom!!!!

I love the bed and love the idea of doing something similar to that inspiration room but in golds, nice!

Also, code some places won't allow an electrical box inside a closet. How about a couple of silk trees to cover whatever ones you can't put a picture over?

I don't think a window could be added because of its location. But then, I'm not a builder. Honestly, I seriously doubt that anyone will ever actually sleep there. We already have one guest suite, and each of our children has a separate bedroom with its own bath, and when they have sleepovers, all the kids sleep in the bonus room where we have four beds, a couch, and a recliner. So if we had more than one guest, we could comfortably sleep them in the guest room, and each of the two kids' rooms (which are relatively sophisticated so that they wouldn't be offensive to adults), and have the kids sleep in the bonus room. Furthermore, as a host, I would prefer not ask an adult guest to sleep in a twin bed. I'm really looking more to just have this room be a place to put these beds so that it doesn't detract from the rest of the house. But I appreciate (and agree with) all your concerns.

BG -
I'll just echo what other's have said and what my initial impressions are. Aethestics are of no value in a nicely finished room when occupants have no way to egress in the event of fire or other emergency - There is a case right now where NYFD veterans had to jump to their death fighting a fire where illegal apartments were put in a building w/o proper egress - Sorry that there has been a % of people that have shared the same -
I can only tell you this - I was in the direct vicinity yesterday (Ct) at a Nature Ctr -where the Chimp attacked a woman- The amt of rescue, police, FD and sirens was deafening. There happened to be local fireman @ the ctr who advised us what was going on. Not knowing where the Chimp was, we not only chose to leave immediately but quietly notified families we came in contact with - One woman went on with her appreciation - My response was "I couldn't live with myself if I read about you in the paper tomorrow."
Personally, I'd rather see some well thought out storage systems which is what the space is intended for.

Good luck with your space

So you are all saying that your kids never had a huge sleepover, sleeping bags and all, in your below grade basement?

Well, I have neither kids nor a basement, but I can assure you that any person spending the night in my house will have more than one way to exit in an emergency. Because someone may have had a bunch of kids sleep over in an area where they'd be trapped in case of a fire certainly doesn't make it right, does it?

Well, if you're not going to really use the room as a guest room, then why bother decorating it?

It seems like a waste of your time and money. I'd just drag my feet and tell dear hubby, you're contemplating what to do up there and hate to buy things that just won't work! :-)

As far as the sleepovers in the basement - I have to admit to worrying about fires but on the other hand my kids have had sleepovers in our basement, and when it's hot in the summer frequently sleep down there. Back before "code" was gospel, my brother's bedroom was in our basement for most of his life!

I understand the danger of not having an escape route, but in reality, I have never heard of a parent not letting their kids sleepover in the basement. I'd be more concerned about whether they had hard wired functioning smoke detectors. Most fire fatalities in my area concern homes where the smoke detector was not functioning or where there wasn't even a detector in the house to begin with.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. Im my lifetime, I have never had an occasion to have more than three adult guests staying in my home at the same time. I have three separate bedrooms (each with queen beds) with attached baths (and windows for egress) where I could put guests. If my kids have a sleepover with a bunch of kids, I have a bonus room (with a window) where they could sleep. I have twelve smoke alarms in my home, all of which are connected to an alarm service. I just wanted to make the attic attractive so that if visitors come to the house the beds wouldn't appear so unsightly. As I stated above, if I had guests, I would prefer not to offer an adult a twin bed to sleep in, and visiting kids would probably be in the bonus room with my kids. I hope I didn't cause too much of a stir with my inept request for decorating advice.

I think the beds are great. I would not paint them. There is so much that can be done to a bed in particular without painting it.

I don't know about your locale, but in mine, the electrical stuff can NOT be in a closet. The problem being that the access to it is compromised both by the enclosure it self and all the stuff that ends up in the closet.

I think a folding screen would be nice over there to hide some of those angles anyway.

One idea that just occurred to me is that I could hang a tall mirror over the breaker box that is taller than the rest of the boxes. Then maybe get a shorter screen that could fit under the angles of the ceiing to hide the rest of the boxes. You could still see the mirror from over the top of the screen, but maybe it would look like a dressing area from outside the screen. Of course, if you were behind the screen, it would look like cr**, but what is anyone doing back there anyway? Why couldn't DH have picked jewelry?