Ok hora jnr wants a bunkbed (low thing) however looking at the quality 😯 – looking at the more quality (or what I see as quality) starts to get into silly money 😯 I’ve got the space. I’ve got a powerdrill and can easily buy a proper saw etc. Is it worth trying for or will it end in disaster? No I wont use nails anywhere. I remember a while ago on STW another STW’er showed off his creation??

That was AlexSimon from the show us the last thing you made thread here some pics gone unfortunately.

Then DrP made another bed in the same thread on page 12

Easily possible I reckon, it seems pretty basic joinery. My boys are after bunk/ loft type beds,
But you’re looking at £300 quid from ikea min.
If you go on Pinterest and search kids loft beds there’s loads of diy ideas.
Let the cut fingers and hammered thumb carnage commence!

‘ve got a powerdrill and can easily buy a proper saw etc.

What could possibly go wrong?

Only you will know but based on what you post here …naw

Will they be awd or 4wd ?

This is a good instructional video, good luck!

Bah, beaten to it!

My Grandfather owned his own carpentry workshop/business so hopefully some of the talent might magically appear….. 😆

My grandad was a concert pianist. 🙂

You could play for me whilst I create 8)

My grandad was a farmer , i cant grow shit.

[edit because of much Step Brothers love here]

Mine are built in – i.e. the mattress is held up by a batten screwed straight into two walls. So might not be what you’re after.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qHiPej]New_bed_03-7[/url] by thingswelike, on Flickr

I’ve just dug out the photos and uploaded them to flickr including a couple that show the construction a little clearer:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thingswelike/sets/72157649757649518/

There wasn’t a lot of ‘carpentry’ involved in mine.
It was more just screwing things together of an appropriate size 🙂

I designed it on computer and then printed it all out and traced it onto the sheets of birch ply. Then just jigsawed it.
This step was because the last high bed I made, we just freehanded it and I wasn’t as happy.

We were incredibly tight for space, but wanted them to be versatile, so we went for adult length 2ft6 width beds – we chopped down some Ikea foam mattresses. I also made sure there was enough room for me to sit upright on each – for reading purposes.

One thing I’d definitely do again, is use existing bed slats from ikea.
They were super-easy to cut down to 2ft6 and give the whole thing a professional look.

The paint was worth doing right too – I would repeat this process again as it still looks perfect 4 years later.
B&Q at the time would mix any of the dulux paint colours into a 250ml matt emulsion pot for about £3. So there are hundreds of colours to choose from.
Flock roller on to the board.
Then I used Matt Osmo Polyx hard wax oil to cover (again with the flock roller. Super-hard matt finish that gives the appearance of a laminate.

A freestanding bed would be a completely different kettle of fish, but let me know if I can help.

Too fancy. You just need some toobefours, toobesixes and some tools:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQiHX1KXSiU[/video]

Bosh.

One thing I’d definitely do again, is use existing bed slats from ikea.
They were super-easy to cut down to 2ft6 and give the whole thing a professional look.

Thanks for the heads up on that 🙂

That looks great Alex.

That does look amazing Alex. We’re re-doing the kids room in the next few weeks and bunk beds are (we’ve been told by #1) are a must.

It did cross my mind to buy a cheap Ikea set of beds and customise them to look something like the above. May give that a go as we’d need them to be freestanding…

The really nice ones we’ve seen new are £700 minus mattresses :S

The really nice ones we’ve seen new are £700 minus mattresses :S

Why would you buy new?? They are kids. They’ll cover them with stickers and felt tip in a week.

FWIW we bought a nice solid pine Thuka bunk bed for less than £150 off eBay.

Hang on- then fully paint the thing/add parts (like the green on Alex’s)/customise. I bet gumtree etc will have some too.

In theory, they’re simple to make but why bother for a kid’s bed? Unless you’re Norm from the New Yankee Workshop, it probably wouldn’t turn out great.

All you need to look for is a set with 3-5″ posts and solid wooden slats (2-3″ plus).

I bought a decent single pine bed for my daughter last year that had an additional support along the side rails and that was less than £100. I’ve looked but I can’t find where from or i’d post the link.

What could possibly go wrong? You’re renowned for your practical skills. Do you plan to make use pair of accident damaged back doors for raw materials? 😀

If I were going to make a freestanding one, I’d probably just use standard planks and lots of big solid coach bolts.

If you look at the standard Ikea wooden bed, it’s not very difficult to replicate:

Although – I personally can’t stand those vertical ladders with narrow treads.

brant – Member

That looks great Alex.
Thanks Brant!

DaveyBoyWonder – Member

That does look amazing Alex.
Cheers!

GrahamS – Member

Too fancy.
Boooo!

There’s lots of free bunkbed plans available on the internwebz. Just google it…

🙂

Just google it…

STW would fall over if everyone simply googled for answers off the google resource…….

The only topic that would be on STW currently would be ‘I’ve bought a fatbike and want to show the French but how can I get it on the lifts’.

The ONLY one!

I made one for my kids but I would say by the time you buy the wood, screws and paint, it will cost you about the same or more than an Ikea one.

I’d say make it if you like a project and will enjoy it, not to save cash.

But bunk beds are cheap, as in dirt cheap – it’s mattresses that cost money.

I wouldn’t waste my time – in fact we’ve a s/h (metal 3′ wide) set up for sale in a month 🙂

I like making my own stuff but I’m not highly skilled in woodworking. I find that if you put thought into making the joints as simple as possible without needing complex woodworking skills it’ll be easier. Why not look at using a different construction method? Scaffolding perhaps?

Don’t scrimp on materials, quality stuff will make the build easier.

I just adapted our double bed, which had rock hard solid slats on it, with the sprung Ikea slats – buy some of those first and base your design around them and a standard mattress. You could also get a chunky wooden bed (not bunk) cheap second hand that needs doing up – change the legs for longer ones to raise it up, sand and paint etc. By doing that you already have all the fixings and a proven solid construction method which you are simply customising.

Type in ikea hack into Google – it’s really satisfying changing some existing furniture into something unique.

Very simple thing to build for anyone with basic practical experience, but utterly beyond you I fear :lol:. The fact that you don’t own a saw suggests this probably isn’t the best idea for a ‘first’ project. Starting with something simpler may be a good idea. I’d file this firmly in the ‘stupid idea cause you don’t want to spend much money’ category. You will end up with a poor quality, badly finished item, that will cost much more than you think to build in materials and tools.

Couple of pallets, few breeze blocks, handful of straw, job jobbed.