Bunk Rooms Are the New Status Symbol in Family Homes—Here's How to Style One Like a Designer

The beauty of a new build is being able to design around exactly what you need without being beholden to a previously existing floor plan. In this ground-up new-build, designer Stephanie Krauss designed a space centered around “life’s biggest celebrations: graduation parties, weddings, and baby showers, to name a few,” Krauss says. “From the very beginning, we knew the lower level needed a bunk room — not just for overflow guests who wanted to stay the night, but as a destination in itself for kids to gather, hang out, and make memories with their friends.”

The tented top on these built-in beds easily adds character to the room. Designer Katie Ridder selected a chipper Holland & Sherry fabric for the awe-inspiring beds. A custom staircase by JBM Architects features hidden drawers for quick tidying.

With the bottom bed touching the ground in this bunk configuration, fewer steps need to be taken to reach the top bed. Lucy Harris Studio also chose Bubble wallcovering by Chasing Paper and a ceiling of Benjamin Moore Blue Jean to make these bunks feel as if they're floating.

In this bunk room designed by Elizabeth Georgantas, countless kids can be found running circuits or playing hide-and-seek. Naturally, she created the ultimate hideaway: six bunks connected by bridges, hanging chairs, and pillow-filled reading nooks. “It had to be comfortable enough for adults, but ridiculously fun for the kids—not just now, but as they grow up,” she says.

Harp Design Co. created a custom triple-decker bunk bed for a family's small bonus room to make it a multifunctional spot for sleeping, playing games, and hanging out/watching television. Not only that, but it includes a trundle bed below the first bunk so that it can sleep four people.

With chic, contemporary linens and sleek finishes, this bunk room feels both kid and adult-friendly. And if your bunk room is short on closet space, add bottom drawers. Designer Jenny Keenan integrated drawers under these built-ins.

This bedroom designed by Amber Interiors is going to age well over the years. With a full-size bottom bunk and twin on top, this is a bed that a child can grow into as they get older. The larger size makes it feel more spacious and mature, while the soft colors and room for playing make the bedroom feel youthful.

Alicia Lane Interiors drew inspiration from a train car for this Provo, Utah bunk room. Thibaut wallpaper was brought up to the ceiling, cocooning the built-in beds and the curtains invite weekend sleep ins. The best part is those little built-in storage cubbies under the bed for shoes.

Have you ever seen a more epic bunk room? Designed by Studio Lifestyle, this bed-meets-play-structure-meets-treehouse is the ultimate sleepover space. The cactus-print wallpaper adds a nice neutral splash of color, too.

Primary colors! Hand-painted details! Statement chandeliers! This bunk room designed by Bailey McCarthy is full of circus-like whimsy and vibrant energy.

The bunk room feels like a ship's cabin and is lined with six bunks, four on one side and two on the other in a Marin County, California, house designed by Erin Martin and owner Kim Dempster. Grommets on the curtains are meant to evoke bubbles. The brass porthole mirror was in Dempster's house when she was a child.

Sally Markham designed a lattice railing for the girls' bunk beds in a Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, house, painting the insides of the circle Benjamin Moore's Peacock Blue.

Beyond the boys' room in a Menlo Park, California, house decorated by Matthew Leverone, the coverlets and bunk beds are from Pottery Barn Kids. Bedroom walls in Benjamin Moore Aura in Steel Blue.

On the lower level of a North Carolina house designed by architect Ruard Veltman, a boy's bedroom features a pair of custom-made modern bunk beds without ladders—children climb up the brackets. A Philippe Starck Ghost chair by Kartell offers extra seating without taking up a ton of space.

In a New Jersey beach house decorated by Mona Ross Berman, Katie Ridder's Beetlecat wallpaper gives the boys' room a playful but "not overly cute" feel.

When you have the space for it, why not build more bunk beds? The more, the merrier. Rather than just putting two queen beds in the guest room, Studio McGee added twin bunks crossing overhead to maximize sleep space.