It’s been fun this month sharing amazing children’s rooms from around blogland with you as part of the Home Sweet Home on a Budget series. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the girls’ bedrooms featured yesterday or join in on the kids bedroom linkup, then you definitely need to click over here.
Today, I’ve got a DIY project for a little girl’s room that is so fun it deserves a post all its own.
This hanging bed is a fun, feminine take on a new trend I’ve been spotting lately: the hanging bed. It’s a fresh spin on the classic bunkbed, and one that’s not too hard for DIYers to recreate. Is this a bedroom look that’s new to you? Here are a few more examples:
1. Pioneer Woman | 2. Apartment Therapy | 3. Life at Fire Lake Camp | 4. The Bumper Crop | 5. The Fancy
Submitted by Our Perfect Life
Hi there.
My name is Jennifer and I tell my story over at Our Perfekt Life. In any spare time I can find (wife, mom, small biz owner…!) I love to DIY! Earlier this summer I built a hanging loft bed in my daughters room. She’s 4 years old and tall for her age so she had outgrown her toddler bed, and her room presented a unique challenge with space. I wanted to save some money so instead of buying something I thought I would try out my carpentry skills by constructing a hanging loft bed. It turned out great!
As I tucked Grace into her toddler bed one night and she stretched out I noticed that there was 2, maybe 3 inches left before she would touch top to bottom.
My first thought was (obviously):
What the??? When did you get so TALL? Stop growing already!!!
But my second and slightly more rational thought was: time for a big girl bed.
My initial intentions were to use my Grandmother’s bed frame that I inherited. It goes with the vanity that I painted and set up when we moved in.
However Grace’s room presents a bit of a unique challenge. There’s a radiator under both of the windows, and those windows happen to frame the most ideal spot for a bed. Putting anything larger than her toddler bed would cover one of the radiators.
And that was when I thought of some of the hanging beds I’ve been seeing online, lately. Not only would a hanging bed solve my space challenges but it would open up her room and allow her to play and run around under the bed. Having no clue where to begin, I simply followed her directions and went straight to Ana White. I printed out the plans, headed to Home Depot and got to work.
About 3 weeks later her room was transformed:
Here’s how it all played out:
– Ana hesitated to post the plans because she thought (and I quote) “that they were too simple”. I on the other hand, thought they were just fine thank you
– It took Ana and her husband ‘about an hour’ to build it. Uh, let’s see here, it took me, hmmmmm….longer than that.
– Ana says ’2 screws per deck board per joist’. Now, let me be clear here that I wouldn’t dare doubt her plans but for me this was a bit of ‘screw overkill’.
So I built the bed and then we enlisted Uncle Randy to come over and hang it.
Here’s a view of the space under the bed. We were paranoid about the weight and didn’t trust the bed just hanging from the ropes so we added some brackets on the wall for it to ‘rest’ on. I also built the ladder specifically to also act as a brace for the bed. This baby is going nowhere.
I got the Ikea chair on Craigs List (score!), hung some scrapbooking papers (that Grace chose personally) in Ikea frames, bought the lamp and dimmer (also Ikea) and the rest was hers already.
Awesome project, Jennifer! If that unusual bed design inspired you, there’s more inspiration to be found from the Remodelaholic archives.
1. Repurposed Bed to Desk | 2. Beach House Bed | 3. Ikea Bed Transformation
Thank you so much for featuring my project! I had a blast making this bed.
You are very welcome. Cool bed!
How’d you make it? I am interested in something like this for my daughters room
Why I can’t get the pictures? All I get is blank gray spaces. I love your work and I hate to miss out on the complete blog. Thanks for sharing.
What kind of mattress is that? I am making my daughter a bed and dislike the way a traditional twin mattress looks
I love the vanity! (As well as the bed idea) . Where did you get it?
This is PERFECT! I am wanting to redecorate my daughter’s room for her 9th birthday (beach theme – hanging from ropes is perfect), and space is definitely a challenge for us. I’m wondering, though, does the bed rock at all? And with no rails, do you ever worry about your daughter falling out? (Maybe my daughter just moves more in her sleep than yours. LOL!)
Great job! I was thinking you could add taille net curtains or cotton etc for the underneath part for a fun space underneath the bed too….like a girl- cave reading space or tent etc.
Great idea!
I’d love to build this for my daughter! How you find the studs in the ceiling to connect the chains and ropes? Is there a weight limit? I’m so interested can’t wait! Please let me know, thanks