A friend has just moved into a new flat and planned on building her loft bed in what is quite a small room so she can have a desk underneath and some room to move around. The bed is too long to width fit in ways (which is the only way it can work). The new plan is to shorten the length by 5 inches, cutting each section and then drilling each new end to take dowels and bolts.

The material is compressed mdf (I think). Am I missing anything here? Am I giving myself a whole headache of unseen problems?

Sounds simple enough, just make sure the ends can be cut as easily.

Stihl or Husqvarna .

Mattress will be the same size ?

Stora and actually it says it’s made of solid pine.

Done just this in the past right up to making a one off bed too.
Only gets “awkward ” when it’s steel. Only then if you don’t have a welder.

5″ off would make fitting a standard mattress very tight – i did the same thing with my daughter’s, taking 4“ off and the mattress only just fits. Otherwise it’s straightforward enough if you’re OK at DIY.

TBH though – if the mattress is Ikea too then just undo the zip at the bottom and with a bread knife take a few inches off the foam then zip it back up.

Can I ask if you do this you report how it went? We are currently thinking about doing it to my nieces bed.

I took 80mm out of the back of an IKEA drawer unit (including 8 drawers) which ended up being a whole load of effort but ultimately worked perfectly.

Hardest bit is getting the dowel holes straight. If I was doing it again I’d drill through the existing hole before cutting.

Thanks folks. We (well I) will be setting about this tonight.

If I was doing it again I’d drill through the existing hole before cutting.

Good tip! Thanks.

If the bed uses those camlocks you normally see on flatpack furniture you will need a ‘Forstner’ drill bit to make the new holes.

For my son’s bunk beds we just screwed battens to the wall and then screwed the cut down bases to those. The battens are obscured by the bed frame so looks fine and is very secure.

Re, the dowel holes comment above. You can get dowel jigs that it might be worth looking into…

Well we managed it. It ended up being more complicated than expected (isn’t it always) but she’s over the moon with it. I couldn’t find anywhere that sold a single Forstner bit but a standard wood bit I had was good enough. The camlocks took a little bit of fiddling but they’re in all and tightened nicely.

It was quite a conundrum getting it assembled in the space as there is only the tiniest amount space either end and we had to put 5 inch bolts through from the outside of the corner posts and then tighten them from the outside. Still not quite sure how we actually managed this.

It does have a little bit of wobble. I was thinking of finding something that can go between the posts and the wall to brace it between them. Any ideas?

It’s amazing what a difference it made to a small space. The divan bed that was in there seemed to take up the whole room. Now there’s room for a desk and apparently, ‘room to dance’.

Good work indeed! My nieces has a fair bit of wobble so they are like that out of the box. I can get up it safely so not too much of an issue.

Some wooden wedges knocked in would fix it? Or maybe some 90 degree brackets screwed into the wall and ‘hidden’ behind the legs. (may need to pack out the gaps with some spacers)

Triangulation’s wotcha need…..

I thought it was dedication….

I would be bolting / screwing it to the wall (unless she’s renting).

‘room to dance’

Sounds like a resounding success from your point of view then…

A friend…

It does have a little bit of wobble.

and how did you test this dare I ask? 😉

As above if she owned it I would have just built a mezzanine bed to save some space at the edges. Did the mattress go in okay?

I remember hunting around years ago for forstner bits. Toolstation and screwfix do cheap sets, should be able to get single ones on ebay for a couple of £.

Dedication got it built. Triangulation might just finish it off. I was thinking something in the line of felt lined wooden wedges. Need to make sure they stay in place, what with all the wobbling and that. It’s rented so no fixing you walls.