Yeah, I'd have it moved to the bottom of the wall, as is usual.

But honestly, I don't see any duct in the circled area, so it's a bit of an abstract suggestion. Still no reason to work around something that can be made right.

good point! yes it is a main return. i know a good HVAC guy who can come see about re-routing. thank you for your advice!

I actually think the shelf is a pretty good way of hiding it. I think they should have come all the way down though and repeated with a built in on the other side (if there's room). You could include night stands and lights in the design, then frame the bed with a nice high headboard or art, something like this:

3 closeup pics of the duct:

I'm really confused. I don't see a duct. Or is that section of the bookcase on the left not as deep as the rest of the bookcase?

Where is the opening for this duct? Is it the other side of the wall?

What's that access panel below the bookcase?

sorry - yes it is a weird situation..!! trying to show it from different angles

yes, the duct is a section of the bookcase on the left. It's not as deep as the rest of the bookcase.

yes, the duct is on the other side of the wall. and it comes into the bedroom (left side of bookcase) and disappears into the ceiling.

the access panel opens to crawlspace above garage. i opened the door and took a picture of the air duct (as seen in last image).

oh! that's not a return then. no idea what it is! but if it's just passing through, then you could turn it into a narrow square chase (like a vertical soffit) in the corner of the room, letting you have your regular wall elsewhere. depends on what it's doing -- a furnace chimney, for example, needs more delicate handling...

I guess I can't see someone fitting through that access panel to the crawlspace even if they wanted to. I think the door below the bookcase is the problem.

the duct needs to go above bedroom ceiling height - to join across to main return in hallway. the duct couldn't go any higher than the above garage crawlspace (without showing on the outside of house)! therefore the builder just brought part of it into the bedroom...

we've had a few ppl tell us the duct can't be moved... we still would like to try. However, it would be great if we could work with it somehow.

thanks very much for your help!

Okay, I think I'm starting to see the what's going on.

On the other side of this wall is a peaked roof that only goes part way up (see pink lines in picture below)?

The duct enters from the tip of the peak into the middle of the wall (blue circle) and then travels up the wall into the attic (blue rectangle).

If that's the case, then as someone suggested above, the only option might be to come into the room in the bottom right corner and go up from there.

Are you in a pretty mild climate? Because that attic space looks like its open to the outside and the duct isn't insulated. That seems weird to me.

Wait ... I just re-read. Is that duct going into the garage?!? There shouldn't be any air circulation between the garage and the house.

wow - your sketch explains it much better! thats exactly right

no this is in Montebello New York...thats a good point. I'm leaning towards hiring a professional in HVAC to have a look - cuz something doesn't seem right

no that duct goes into a random room over the garage.

see image of front of our house.. garage on right - a room above it - then on top of that is a tiny crawl space with that duct in it - which goes up and into the bedroom on 2nd story.

Can't comment on duct work. But once your confirm it, fir it in. Take advantage of the possibility of some soundproofing. Make it a wall, and don't look back.