If you like the storage of the built in, I would keep my eyes open for a similarly sized piece of furniture that more fits your style. Our craigslist has bookcases, china cabinets, etc, ALL the time that would look great there and are more current looking than what's there. Might need a coat of paint to make it special, but sounds like you have a painter. These are just a few on my CL all under $250:

Both nice suggestions, but I think for simplicity I really like the idea of a built in bench seat (with storage of course) in the alcove.

Is this all or nothing with just you and a painter? Drywalling the space with the full builtin wouldn't be that difficult, but you would pay a fair amount for it if you have to call in another worked just for that. You run into minimum charges and It can take visits on 2 or 3 days.

If you or your painter cannot do drywall or any light carpentry, it seems like your options are limited to some variation on leaving the wood back and sides (or paint the brick on the back -- but brick that is not meant to be seen can be sloppy work that would be more to clean up than to cover) and repaint (match the walls or go a couple of shades deeper or lighter) and look for a furniture piece with a skirted bottom rather than feet so you cover the carpet gap - or possibly use a trim piece to create a skirt -- kind of like a toekick on cabinets work to cover the

For either space, you should be able to find furniture in those widths. The only real challenge will be covering the carpet gap.

You could look into assembled or ready to assemble cabinets to fill the space instead of furniture -- that would help cover the carpet gap in the one room -- and you could go counter height, go tall, stack for a hutch type.

If you are exposing the brick, you could always white wash it if you don't want the look of red brick. I like the idea of a bench seat, and if you don't want a hinged lid you could easily have someone put in a couple of drawers for you or a bottom drawer and a lid. Some sort of combination for whatever you want to store. And could add some rough-hewn or painted shelves higher above for decorative items, books, the Waterford, or whatever else you'd like to put there.

Love the bedding, btw.

Hi, cupofkindness.

Are you sure there isn't drywall behind your built-ins? I ask having dealt with built-ins in my own 1968 house where all the paneling and built-ins have drywall behind. Regarding what to do with the built-ins, a good trim carpenter should be able to fabricate a bench out of salvaged pieces from the built-in. If it's oak, then it's worth reusing, imho.

Can I just say I think the scalloped trim on the built-ins is just
precious! But I can see the poor condition and get that you want a more grown-up look for your girls. Love the bedding you've chosen!

Thank you for your thoughtful replies. And I'm sorry to have abandoned this thread. Life just picked up in a crazy sort of way. We decided not to paint the room behind the fireplace at this point because of the cost. So we are focusing on the front girls bedroom with the desk/suspended book case. We demo'd the desk but kept the bookcase because those curly-Qs are just so darn sweet. We purchased a new queen hybrid bed at Sam's (Sealy-$500 ten year warranty/return, so we'll see). Donated the 20 year old white painted maple girls furniture: headboards, dressers, night stands, pair of twin beds. Purchased two of these campaign dressers at West Elm on sale for about $522 each. Delivery is $100 each : ( cannot pick up in store. Once I saw these during my online search for a low white dresser, I could look no further. I love them:

They will be positioned as night stands, on either side of the bed, one for each daughter. And I lost the comforter battle, so the blue Ralph Lauren Home comforter set pictured above and the Chinese porcelain lamps I was dreaming of has given way to a faux-boho Anthropoly comforter set called "Happy Indigo" we found at BBB on clearance, but as long as I have a happy daughter, it's all good. We switched comforter sets about five times, and I for one am tired of shopping and so is she.

The walls will be SW Olympus White, with Rhinestone on the ceiling and basic white trimwork. I'll post pictures when we are finished. It is a very bright room thanks to two large windows, hoping the pale gray walls don't look gloomy.

Can anyone recommend a good accent chair or an online store that sells well-made ones? At this point, we cannot afford a Pottery Barn chair, and we have checked the chairs at Pier 1. They are smallish, which is good, since that desk alcove is only 42" wide, but not terribly comfortable. Thanks for your ideas!

I dont have any suggestions for a chair, but I love your choices! I cant wait to see pics of the rooms finished!

I found a small chair for $16 at a flea market, and later found out it's an IKEA chair, though I'm not sure of the name. I'll take a picture. I love the narrow size, and my son loves reading in it. During my one and only IKEA experience a couple summers ago, I ended up spending more than the chair cost to buy a darker cover for it (I think it was $20) which seemed crazy, but it's been worth it. It came with a white cover that looked great, but with a young boy living in the room and 3 mostly black cats who love to nest in chairs, I suspect it wouldn't have looked great for very long ;) It's worked out well for my son's reading spot, where he really needed something narrow so as not to block a door or interfere with his dresser drawers.

Our 16-year-old kitty demonstrating why I splurged on the darker cover...

Oooh, that is a very nice chair, I'll check out Ikea! Cool ottoman too, what a sweet little reading spot. Thank you, EastAutumn! Love that paint color to, what is it?

And thank you Rockybird. I'll post pictures of this little project very soon!

I've never bought one, but I've seen some really cute chairs at Target, both in the store and online, and have seen some here that people have bought as accent chairs. They frequently have furniture sales too. Also when you are browsing at Home Goods or places like that take a look and see what they might have. Never hurts to try Wayfair.

I absolutely love the chests you found at WE.

OutsidePlaying:

Thank you! What I found tremendously appealing about these chests from WE is that, at 36" wide and 32" high, they are compact enough to fill in for a nightstand, and yet the drawers are exactly 35" wide. My girls' old four-drawer solid maple chests, which were lovely and meant to have a Georgian flair (as much as you can have with youth furniture) had so many layers traditional molding, trim, dentil and baseboard edging that they were about 40" wide but the drawers were less than 30" wide, maybe 28" wide? Not a good use of space when you really think about it. But they were charming back in the day!

These WE three-drawer dressers give me 75% of the storage in a smaller footprint and are about 16" lower. I couldn't pass them up even though the price tage was rather steep, imho. I will order clear (meaning no green edges) glass tops to protect the top laquer surface. In early October, these Malone chests were $649 (now $799-eek!), but somehow when I went into the store and met with a designer, she gave me another 20% off. Since this was my first purchase at West Elm, I don't know if double-discounts are typical or if I simply got lucky. Thanks again for "listening" to me ramble on about this little project!

Thanks :) I picked up the ottoman for $12 a year later at the same flea market where we found the chair. I've had such good luck at that place, especially for my son's room. The wall color is BM "Stonington Gray" and trim color is Glidden "Crisp Linen." The room gets light from north and west facing windows and the wall color looks like a true pale gray.

Looking forward to seeing how your room comes together. I love the chests and the Bohemian bedding especially!

eastautumn, that cute little woven ottoman is also from IKEA. I have one myself, probably bought 18 years ago. I don't believe they sell it anymore.

Bluebell, thanks for letting me know! I can't believe how sturdy that thing is.