How to Make Your Bedroom Look Like a Castle

Faux finish your bedroom walls to look like castle stone. Paint just the exterior walls -- the ones with windows -- or paint all of them. Start with a base coat of medium gray or taupe, and then add grout lines, highlights and shadows with lighter and darker shades of paint.

Cover your windows with sumptuous velvet draperies featuring hems that puddle onto the floor. Tie back stationary panels with tasseled cords, or hang them from traverse rods so they'll open and close. Use decorative rods with finials, or top utility rods with upholstered and corded lambrequins mounted near the ceiling.

Add a grand bed to your castle-inspired bedroom, such as a carved four-poster bed with a canopy frame. Try a mansion bed or an upholstered bed with a carved frame -- if you don't want a four-poster -- and then top it with a half-crown canopy. Dress either canopy type with bed hangings made from velvet, embroidered silk or brocade shot with gold or silver threads for the most opulent look.

Repeat the fabric from your bed hangings on at least part of your bed treatment, even if it's just a throw pillow or two. Choose coordinating fabrics of equal formality for the rest of the bed treatment. Look for luxurious style details, such as tassel fringe, accordion-pleated ruffles, overlays or embroidery.

Place detailed nightstands on each side of the bed, perhaps with gilding or mother-of-pearl inlay. Add an ornate carved armoire to the bedroom for clothing or electronic storage. Seating, such as a pair of open-armed, wood-framed fauteuil chairs in a gilded or painted finish, adds a touch of regal elegance.

Hang a chandelier in the center of your room, candle or electric. Choose a medieval iron-framed fixture, or opt for something gilded and dripping with crystals. Top your nightstands with standing chandelier lamps, or hang wall sconces above them. Use gold-tinted bulbs in the electric fixtures for a candlelight effect.

Hang a rod-mounted tapestry to finish your castle-inspired bedroom. Tapestries were originally used to conceal openings and block drafts, so choose a large one that hangs nearly to the floor. Hang an Aubusson rug if you can't find a large tapestry -- or look for tapestry fabric sold by the yard. For tapestry yardage, hem all four sides and then sew hidden rings to the back of the header to hang it.