Building Bunk Beds

When one of our bunk bed sets broke as we were re-assembling them after the Extreme Room Makeover we were at a loss. We asked around and checked Craigslist but didn't really find any great deals. Wesley and Hayden just slept with their mattresses on the floor for a few nights while we decided what to do. Then I went to check up on one of my new favorite blogs (she had changed her feed and I somehow missed it!) and saw these bunk bed plans. Talk about perfect timing!

Jerry needed a little pep talk before he agreed to give it a try but we ended up at Menard's on Friday night (the last weekend of September) buying supplies. We started early Saturday morning with a pile of lumber and a printout of the plans.

Jerry was on cutting duty and I was the sander. Special thanks to my brother-in-law John who let us borrow all his power tools. What a difference good tools can make!

Measure twice, cut once

Did you know that sanding for several hours
can make your hand go numb?!?

Rejoicing was heard around the cul-de-sac when the first side was complete! And then we moved on to the next side. About this time we came to understand the meaning of "square" and that it was actually a very important quality in a bunk bed.

The boys were really good and played while we worked. Although I'm sure OSHA would have something to say about kids riding bikes in the middle of our work zone! We took a short break for lunch and dinner but got right back at it.

Actually, Jerry didn't want to go back and finish up after the boys went to bed... but we were so close I could taste it! Our "baby" was almost finished and he wanted to throw in the towel. Like any good labor coach, I gave him some helpful encouragement and he made it through to the end!

After finishing some of the final details in the driveway using the car headlights for illumination we moved the pieces into the living room for a dry run assembly.

It went together perfectly! Whew! We left it standing in the middle of the living room and fell exhausted into bed. JD gave it a quick inspection in the morning before we put it in their room.

We ended up putting it in the boys room for a week to make sure we didn't have any issues then we took it apart and brought it out to the garage for staining. I did all the staining in one night. Then we let it dry for a day before bringing it back into the boy's room for re-assembly.

It looks great in their new room! And every time I look at it I am so very proud of our first furniture building attempt. Ana has great plans on her site and they are written for those of us who don't build furniture on a regular basis... be sure to check out her site.