I would take some of the doors off of the cabinet-wall and turn those spaces into open shelving... it won't look as heavy, and would make for great storage. I'd also paint the remaining cabinet doors white and change the hardware on it to something interesting.

I would remove the set of cabinets on the wall with the window and replaster the wall. (Maybe you can sell the cabinets on craigslist?) I'm not sure how you feel about the finish on the cabinets, but you could paint the other set of cabinets the same color as the trim. That will make them recede a bit and still let you keep the useful storage. With some fresh paint on the remaining three walls, you should be good to go. Good luck!

Ok, lets address the wall of cabinets first. You could take off the cupboard doors either side of the TV space (the 2 vertical from the top). Have a large door made to replace the two. I would replace the solid doors with a glass fronted door and then choose a pretty fabric to go behind the glass to hide the contents. Then it would look like a European Armoire.

The wall with the window is tricky. I take it that is a radiator under the window? If so you probably can't center the bed underneath it. So if you took the floor cupboard away to the side of the 5 foot space, would you not have room to pur your bed? It may have to go against the wall on one side. I'm guessing that maybe there is a chimney behind all of those bookshelves, hence the strange set-up.

Goodluck and would love to see some after pictures.

Paint them white! Or whatever you plan to paint your wall colors. that should get rid of the heavy wood feeling. Plus you can swap out the hardware with something that you like

I agree with the other comments about removing several of the cupboard doors and also plastering. You may need room to hang artwork etc. as well.
The cabinets at the very top (above the TV opening) seem unnecessary to me as well. Hard to reach, hence not very usable. What were your original thoughts when you bought the home? Did you ask a contractor or architect yet?
Good luck.

I agree with misssarahjessica. You could turn the top row into open shelving by removing the cabinet doors and paint the rest of it either white or the colour of the walls to help it recede. That would have a huge impact in terms of creating some visual space.

I don't mind the one wall of closets, but I'm not a fan of the color. Maybe stain it or paint it to make it more modern?

I would also take out everything on the wall with the window. I doubt you'd need that much storage space, and it would really open things up.

Good luck!

Yes, paint it the same color as the wall. They are so useful. Open shelving is less useful, retains dust, and can look really sloppy.

Funny how everyone says paint and remove, but no one mentions lighting them. Adding translucent fronts to the cabinets and light inside will brighten and expand the space and give a sleeker texture to what is there. Especially on the open cabinets. Once you get lights inside consider removing the heavy dull wood shelves and replacing with translucent glass or a product like 3 Form Chroma. Painting the back wall of the cabinets matte black or charcoal and the sides a lighter color will add depth to the space. Inversely, a bright color on the back wall adds pop to a dull space but won't overwhelm the room. Good Luck.

remove them and start again.

I'm all for painting the wall of cabinets to match the wall color. As for making some of them translucent, lighting them, etc... I think that will draw more attention to them. The ones on the window... WTH were the previous owners thinking? If possible, rip them out and refinish the wall. Dressers as bedside tables will help compensate for the (unsightly) storage lost by the demo and refinishing, and you'd regain visual space as well.

OK, if I understand things right, the room is square (14'). The wall with the cabinets is on the hall side with a door to the hallway. There is a door leading to a bathroom (??)perpendicular to that wall at the other end, and I am guessing that the rest of that wall is bare. Correct? Opposite the cabinets is the window wall with shelving built in and a radiator under the window. The fourth wall, opposite the bathroom (??) wall might also be blank or might have a window?

If that's correct, I'd try positioning your bed with the headboard on the wall with the bathroom door (if that's what it actually is) -- it looks like it might JUST fit with small narrow nightstands. OR position it on the hopefully bare wall opposite it. (That is less appealing since then the bed blocks the door from the hall a bit too much.)

I would keep the cabinets, paint the inside backs the same color as your walls, install glass inserts in the two sections flanking the TV section (as others have suggested) and paint the rest of the wood gloss white. (Unless you want a moody dark scheme, in which case go gloss black or a dark wall color like burgundy or eggplant. And then I'd gold or silver leaf the backs of the glassed door cabinets -- go for the gleam!) Then display a few nice sculptural items inthere, & maybe add puck lights.

I think I'd either take out the shelves on the other wall and return to smooth walls, or paint them out the wall or trim color and hang draperies over the whole wall, except for the actual window (framing it with draperies but actually covering it with blinds of some kind, so you aren't covering the radiator.)

I actually think the room is too small for a king sized bed, but if that's what you have, you might need to make some aesthetic compromises to keep it.

These actually look from the pictures like nice quality cabinetry and pretty wood, I would hate to see you paint them just to have that look dated in a few years (which IMO painted cabinetry will be). I like the idea of using glass doors and opening up some of the shelving-some. Leave some of the cabinets open with vases or pretty books and others would look nice with a piece of colored glass or perhaps even stained glass if you're wanting a more authentic look. The ones around the bed and window are pretty daunting and strange though, I would consult with a contractor to determine what could be done to remove them and create something you like

Why not simply get a Queen Sized bed and use the space as it was intended?

I definitely wouldn't remove doors - that would eliminate the purpose of the storage...
...and without knowing what if anyhing is behind the wall where the bed is intended to me or the arrangement of the other walls, it's impossible to offer apropriate advice.

As others have said, paint out the cabinetry the same as the wall color, and they will be less visually intrusive. And get a queen-sized bed if at all possible.

Wow, you guys are amazing! Excellent ideas!!! SherryB, you have the layout of the room correct. There is a radiator in the cabinet under the window and I think that there is an old chimney behind the plaster section of that wall.

The pine is not at all to my taste, but now it looks like there's hope!

I'm with most everyone here on this.

1. Do away with the cabinets around the windows and replaster the wall.
2. Paint the cabinets the same color as the walls.
3. If you have the money, change out some of the doors for glass ones and light from within.

BTW, I wish I had your problem. My room is about the same dimensions are yours and also lacks a closet. I installed cheapo wire shelving for clothes storage and hung a curtain from the ceiling to cover the closet wall. If I had the luck to have pre-existing built-ins, I'd make the best of them.

That said, the bed wall is seriously bad and will not look decent until you unify the look in some way: my choice would be to do away the cabinets there.

Get rid of the cabinets! At least, if you have the time and/or money to devote to the likely wall repair and definite painting you will need to do. And of course you will probably need to buy a dresser and armoire to replace the built ins.

My childhood bedroom was a small gable room in a Victorian house. The previous owner had put in very poorly made built ins all along one wall (because there was only one tiny closet in the room and they had 8 children, 4 of whom slept in that room). Just like in your room, the built ins were overbearing and severely limited the possible layouts of the room. One summer, my dad and I ripped out the built ins, then spent quite a while removing the wallpaper behind them (we found the original wall paper from 1906!). We had to buy a dresser and two small armoires, but it really opened up the room and since the new storage furniture is moveable, there are many more possible layouts.

So if you have the time and money to invest in the project, I would say that removing the built ins might be a nice solution.

The pine is not that charming, so I'd paint them. That wall with the little jog in it makes for a nice window seat. Get a cushion for it; looks cozy.

I agree with many other posters:
1) get rid of all the built-ins on the window walls. You don't need open shelving for storage, it will just make everything cluttered.
(The way the shelves are formed makes me think there is a chimney to the left of the window??? If this is the case, you can either tear everything around the chimney down and have exposed brick, or drywall the whole area flat, leaving the little window seat)
2) keep the wall of cabinets, definitely paint them - I would use white as your trim, and keep the rest of the room a light color. Don't feel guilty about painting over the wood.
3) Forget glass doors, lighting inside cabinets, etc. This is storage space, not display. And you have nice overhead lights already. No need to make this more complicated than it needs to be.

Can you put the king-sized bed in a position so that the feet face the cabinet/hallway wall? Like some others said, you may need to sacrifice having lots of furniture pieces to accomodate the bed size, but it could be a lovely, calm, bedroom with very few pieces. Good Luck!

Thanks for your story, blue_eyes. And all the other thoughts. One nice thing about doing a little bit of glass doors/lighting is that the wall of cabinets would gain some visual depth.

I'm now thinking that the first step will be to strip the window wall down completely to expose the brick, and also to see what other structures are back there. Once we see that, it might affect our decision about the whether the pine can work in the room.

Thanks!