There are six of us…hence, Saving4Six. We live in a 1,000-ish square foot home and have now, for 21 years. We’ve been told by many people that we “need” a bigger home and some days, I will agree. Other days however, I think we are just fine with our 1,000 square feet. The small space forces us to get along, encourages us to be organized, and motivates us to purge stuff often.
My Princess has been begging for a loft bed for MONTHS. Her bedroom is only about 9×10 and if you remember, she is blessed to have the furniture that has been passed down from my grandmother and the tv cabinet that we turned into an armoire. So, she has a lot of furniture in there which does not allow for much floor space. After putting this project off long enough, we took in on a few weekends ago and finished it in a couple evenings, for only…$62. The amount of space that is now available in her room is wonderful!!
So, this is how we started… We purchased 3- 2x6x10’s, a 4×8 sheet of MDF, and some lag bolts. The space between these two walls made for a perfect loft bed.
The first step was to cut down and lag bolt one of the 2x6x10’s to the studs in the wall.
Next, we cut down another of the pieces of lumber for the end pieces. We lag bolted those to the wall as well. To finish up the frame, we attached the last 2x6x10 to the outside, creating a frame that went wall to wall.
On the lower inside of the bed frame My Better Half attached a 1×1 inch ledge using some leftover lumber.
This ledge goes all the way around the inside of the frame. Finally, we cut the MDF to size and placed it on the ledge, inside the bed frame.
My Better Half cut a nice, rounded hole for my Princess to climb up through to get to her new bed.
I learned a valuable lesson on this particular day. Never shake a can of paint without knowing for certain that the lid is sealed tightly. I was standing there, shaking the can…chatting away when my feet started to get wet. Thankfully, the paint just wiped right off the floor, so I was able to laugh about the whole thing and now I know!!
The whole loft bed got a nice white coat of paint before we put her mattress in place. We decided that for safety we needed some kind of little rail, so we built one using leftover lumber.
We finished off the look, with a BEAUTIFUL old ladder that My Better Half pulled out of a friend’s burn pile. I gave it a good, old-fashioned white-washing and it now fits the character of her room perfectly!!
I absolutely LOVE the finished product!! This gives my Princess a TON more space in her room and seems to be motivating her to keep it more clean (which is NEVER a bad thing)!!
So, I find myself asking the question yet again… “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”
Happy DIYing!
or
Follow along:
Gorgeous!!
I think this looks great, and it was a very timely post, too, since I’m scouring the internet for this exact idea. I have a question, though. Without any framing underneath, how “sturdy” does it feel? My daughter is thin, but I am the one that changes sheets ;).