With our family (and my belly) growing, we needed to make some extra room for all these kiddos to be able to sleep and still have room to play. There is no better way to do this than with bunk beds! And nothing more fun! So we started looking around to see what our options were. Good Grief!!! They either felt like they were going to fall over, or I would have to sell my left kidney in order to afford it. Solution? Make it ourselves! I looked around for months on Pinterest to get ideas. Finally taking several features that I liked and compiling them to come up with our own plans. I’m quite proud of the result and am more than happy to share with you. At the end of this post I will give a list of supplies needed, but I’ll just go ahead and tell you the cost (because I can’t keep a secret when I’m excited). Grand total (including hardware, but not paint) was $219.30 (without tax). Isn’t that incredible?!?!? Bunk beds like this to be built would be about thousand bucks, no lie. And ours even have secret compartments.
First thing, if you have a ceiling fan, it’s gotta go. We don’t want any kiddos getting knocked in the head in the middle of the night.
This is the head board. It consists of:
- 2-2 x 10 x 8 ft boards (our ceilings are 9 ft, so we didn’t need to cut these)
- 5-2 x 6 boards cut to 38 inches
- 2-boards cut from plywood 9 inches x 38 inches
- 1-4 x 8 white hardboard cut to 38 inches x 88 inches
Here you can see the back of the headboard.
This is looking into what will be one of the hidden compartments.
This is the foot board. It consists of:
- 2-2 x 6 x 8 ft boards
- 3-2 x 6 boards cut to 41 inches
These are the side rails that will hold the mattresses. They consist of:
- 4-2 x 6 board cut to 85.75 inches
- 4-2 x 2 x 6 ft (these are what hold the platform for the mattress, please note that these are NOT centered)
These are the siderails that go at the very top.
- 2-2 x 6 boards cut to 85.75 inches
Here we have attached the side rails. This is definitely a two (or maybe three) person job. Make sure your rails are level!!
Here is the mattress platform resting on the 2 x 2’s. Please note that we did add 2 x 2’s at the head and foot as an afterthought because it was not sturdy enough.
- 2-4 x 8 OSB plywood cut to 40.75 x 75 inches, then cut notches at foot .75 x 5.5 inches
These are the bookshelf stairs to climb into the top bunk. It consists of:
- 1-2 x 12 board cut to 55 inches
- 1-2 x 12 board cut to 39.25 inches
- 1-2 x 12 board cut to 39.5 inches
- 1-2 x 12 board cut to 29.25 inches
- 1-2 x 12 board cut to 19 inches
- 1-2 x 12 board cut to 8.75 inches
- 4-2 x 12 boards cut to 11 7/8 inches
Once built, the stairs were attached to the bed with “L” brackets.
We also put bookshelves in the headboard. The bottom shelf was not as deep as to allow room for the hinges to make the hidden compartment. These consist of:
- 4-1 x 10 boards cut to 38 inches
- 2-1 x 10 board cut to 38 inches and then ripped to 7 inches
We of course added the all-important safety rail. It consists of:
- 1-2 x 4 board cut to 85.75
- 2-2 x 4 boards cut to 15 inches
All wood was purchased from Home Depot.
Extra things we added were the curtains, an LED battery powered touch light, and little fans.
The curtain rods and clips were from Target. The curtains I sewed myself. The inside fabric has a wonderful silver star pattern with a black background, from JoAnn Fabric. The lights (not seen) were from Lowes. The fans from Walmart.
All of the sections were primed and painted before final assembly. I used the same paint that was used on our trim throughout the house. It looks great, and I didn’t have to buy any additional paint.
Aren’t they great (if I do say so myself)!
Here’s the shopping list and price breakdown:
- (12) 2 x 6 x 8 @ $5.28
- (2) 2 x 10 x 8 @ $7.26
- (2) 2 x 4 x 8 @ $2.92
- (3) 2 x 2 x 8 @ $1.87
- (2) 1 x 10 x 10 @ $22.26
- (1) 4 x 8 white hardboard @ $8.98
- (2) 4 x 8 OSB plywood @ $7.05
- (3) 2 x 12 x 8 @ $8.59
- (2) Hinges 2 pack @ $2.97
- 1 lb screws 3″ $7.94
- 1 lb screws 2.5″ $9.37
- (5) “L” brackets 4 pack @ $2.67
Total: $219.30
Have fun!!