Will this space be used as a bedroom? Is there a bathroom in that upper space? Is there room for one? It reminds me of the 1.5 storey we had before. It can be challenging to work with the sloped ceilings for sure.

I'd start by getting rid of the wallpaper border.

Is the rug staying? If so, would you consider a throw rug over top to change the colour a bit?

What colour is the bedding you have or would like to use?

I find the black a bit oppressive myself, but maybe it is just that the white is so stark against it. I think I'd start by choosing your bedding colours and find a paint colour from that for your walls. If it works with the black trim that is great but I think I'd consider painting at least some of that black out and making it white or something very neutral. Particularly the bookcase that surrounds the stairs - that just looks heavy and oppressive to me. I think it could benefit from a coat of a light coloured paint for sure.

The area at the top of the stairs, I think I would install a washroom if I could, even if there were only room for a 2 piece bath, it would make a nice master suite. If no on the washroom, then I think I'd consider that area for a home office maybe. A small desk and chair would be nice in that space.

The divider in the doorway - ummmm, I'm not sure what purpose that is supposed to play.

Do you need to close off the room? For sound and/or privacy? I think I'd be tempted to make it a wall again and put a proper door on there, or remove it completely and have it open.

You have a bit of a chair rail going on in there right now. In our 1.5 storey house, in one of the bedrooms I had similar and we painted above and below the chair rail in different colours. Not jarringly different, but different enough that it was plain to see the difference. I felt like it helped with the ceilings feeling low. Darker colour below the trim, lighter colour above.

Also, that ceiling fan....I'll bet you need it for air flow but I'm wondering if it is even safe - it looks quite low, especially with the light fixtures being spotlights - even lower. If you need the fan, see if you can find something a little less obtrusive and look for a ceiling hugger fan so that you aren't worried about hitting your head.

One thing you can do as well, is build your dressers into the crawl space area in the walls. I see they have door entry into that space so I assume it is storage, but obviously you don't want to crawl in there regularly. You can sink a chest of drawers into the wall to free up floor space but give you good storage.

Sorry, I've written a lot here. Let us know your thoughts and maybe others will have ideas to offer as well.

A few ideas:

--Consider painting the walls the creamy white of the carpeting. (Yes, remove the wallpaper border as suggested.)

--Paint the built-in shelving, built-ins, and trim bright white so they blend into the background. All those black straight angles, including that weird divider, which should be removed, make the big space oppressive. For a bedroom, you want soothing colors.

--Think of organizing the spaces into zones--a sleeping area and a sitting area where you can place some comfortable low lounge chairs, floor lamp, a small desk for reading, TV watching if you plan to have a TV up there. Get a runner in beiges, white, and another color to create a pathway connecting the two areas.

--Definitely get a low bed frame, which will add to the height above the bed. You can cut down an existing legs on your bed. I've seen some attic bedroom photos with beds on the floor.

--Start an Ideabook called "attic bedroom." I'll add some pics that came up when I did a search.

Oh good god, yes I absolutely want to get rid of the wallpaper, all the black paint, and whatever that thing in the doorway is right away. We will be keeping the carpet for now.

Our color palette is working out to be pretty cool toned - grays, blues, greens. Current bedding is mostly white with aqua and navy abstract pattern but I can see too much navy feeling heavy in this room.

I like the low bed/higher fans idea.

If we were to treat this as a chair rail and use two slightly different paint colors, do you think the doors/shelving/etc. would look better with the darker (lower) shade or the lighter (higher/ceiling) shade, as many would fall in both areas?

There’s not currently a bathroom, but we plan to eventually put in a half bath. Lots of other projects we need to work on first though.

There is a door at the base of the stairs, so privacy isn’t a huge concern.

I would build in a closet as you first come up the stairs putting the bed with a low headboard along the sloped wall to take advantage of the taller center of the room for walking and get the most light from the window. I would definitely add at least a half bath. I'd hate to have to go downstairs late at night all the time. The current closet may be a place for that. I would get rid of the ceiling fan

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Just noticed the windows beside the stairs I guess you could build a closet between the 2. Are those windows in the other side of the room? It will really limit your options

I like that orientation of the bed. The windows are on both sides of the door/divider thing, if that is what you mean. They face the north. There are no south facing windows upstair. Pics for reference

The thing about having the bed on the slope wall is you can easily walk up to the bed, sit on the bed and then lay down. The night tables set out from the wall so you aren't walking in the lowest part of the room

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If privacy isn't an issue, I know someone that opened the upstairs of their cape code..it became a loft area the whole length of the upstairs. Really fabulous.

I used to live in a house with a "master bedroom" like this. We sold the house before we remodeled the upstairs but my plan was the bed on one end of the house, bathroom at the other end of the house, walk through closet in the middle. The people who bought it put a large dormer in across from the stairs and completely changed the dimensions of the upstairs so they could set it up more like a traditional master bedroom.

As a side note, the stairs in the middle of the house made the upstairs inconvenient, but I loved how the circulation flowed in that house. It had a great floor plan on the main floor that I wouldn't hesitate to live in again. Seeing the photos of your attic make me nostalgic for my own similar house.

The would make a great bedroom, and a great den.

I noticed all the stairs and the narrow door way.

Duobed makes modular furniture that can give you both!

Plus, all our pieces fit easily up stairs and through narrow doors.

Each ottoman also has storage, for bedding and other things you might want to keep tucked away.

Where the open bookcase is now, drywall both sides, and hang a door - you could shift this back into the entry area / reframe a wall across at the end of the low stair shelving if you want to keep more space on the "bed" side, but for your purposes, using the existing frame, finishing a wall and hanging a door will provide quiet and privacy for the sleeping space.

Put the bed behind the new door - the entry area would be a better dressing room / sitting room. Use all the existing storage and build in some more - with a great pair of chairs and extra lighting. Here, you will want task lighting, low lighting and general lighting in the dressing space. As for finishes, don't keep the dark trim at chairrail height - if anywhere. If you two tone the walls, it calls attention to the low areas more than one good color everywhere. Add the blue back in chairs - or "paper" the inside back of an armoire.

Try the bed across from the window where the access to low storage is now. Paint all the trim out in a neutral tone - perhaps a creamy dark white like BM Maritime White would feel historic. Take the walls one shade lighter or darker - a soft White Dove so the trim still has contrast .. Fill in the vertical window trim below the chair rail and paint the chairrail out with the walls so it doesn't call attention to the horizontal line.