Sweet Pea Bunk Beds

After yet another move (this time to Monterey, CA) and with a baby on the way, it was time to build the girls some big-girl beds of their very own. I was going to need to re-convert their double bed back into its original crib form by September, so in June, I started looking for plans. When I stumbled on Jenny's "Sweet Pea" bunk beds, I knew I'd found a winner! She also made it sound so easy, and I'd only assisted my dad on remodeling projects, never built anything from scratch. But I was familiar with the tools and terminology, so six months pregnant and in a serious nesting phase, I got to work. My hubs helped with the heavy lifting and I had some friends assist with sanding and priming -- many hands do indeed make light work! It took just under a month working four to six hours a day (on average), five to six days a week. I used screws for EVERYTHING, as this baby has to come apart easily for future moves (and does it ever -- Jenny's not kidding when she says you can have it up and down in ten minutes!). I'm most proud of the roof -- I had originally planned on finding real cedar shingles, but those babies are expensive! So I came up with idea of using door shims. A pack of 12-15 is only a couple bucks, and it took about 24 packs to cover the entire roof. I found some light wood trim and glued/screwed it to the edges, slathered on some pink paint, and voila! A wood shingle roof! The whole project ended up costing nearly double what I'd originally budgeted, but I'm so happy with it and my girls love it so much that I don't really care. Plus, if I'd had this baby custom made, it would probably have cost quadruple (at least!) what I paid in building materials. Let me know if you have any questions -- I'm happy to share what (little) I know :)!

Estimated Cost
$1100
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Indoor Latex Paint, Satin Finish (Behr brand) -- I took the original author's advice and bought pint and sample-sized cans, letting my girls choose the color scheme. In order to prevent knots from showing through, I pre-treated everything with a single coat of Killz primer -- this allowed me to only have to use a single coat of paint for some surfaces.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

birdsandsoap

Thu, 01/02/2014 - 01:16

Awww...This is so SWEET! You did such a great job- the roofing is ingenious! I wish I had thought of that! And you are right, wood shingles cost a fortune. You came up with such a clever way around it! Love how your bed turned out, I'm sure your girls feel like little princesses!

birdsandsoap

Thu, 01/02/2014 - 01:16

Awww...This is so SWEET! You did such a great job- the roofing is ingenious! I wish I had thought of that! And you are right, wood shingles cost a fortune. You came up with such a clever way around it! Love how your bed turned out, I'm sure your girls feel like little princesses!

thomen

Wed, 04/09/2014 - 15:35

hi do you happen to havea copy of the plans the pdf link is broken and id love to build thr bed for my daughter

Bountiful Acre

Mon, 05/19/2014 - 14:51

This is marvelous! My husband says this is the best he's ever seen and wants to do exactly this. You have a designer's eye. The paint pallette is very pleasant. Can you tell us the specific color names of each paint you used and where you used it?

Did you use stencils to paint the flowers, etc? If so, where did you buy them from?

Also, where did you get the lights and what are they called specifically?

Thank you so much!!!

sarathurgood

Mon, 05/19/2014 - 16:23

Thanks for your kind words! I do not know the exact names of the paint colors I used -- they were sample cans, by Behr. The cream color was actually a very pale yellow, though. I free-handed the green on the drawers, and the flowers are actually made of wood and came from Michael's (in the craft department, where they keep wooden letters and stencils). The lights are oriental paper lights, and I got those at Ace Hardware. Hope this helps!