How to Build A Bunk Bed For Free

There are two reasons to build a bunk bed. Create more space in a bedroom and why spend money on a bed that a kid is just going to beat up and grow out of? If your home is small and your bedrooms even smaller, then you can free up some of that wasted space by using a few easy to find materials.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Lumber is easy to find if you know where to look. Construction sites often throw away uneven boards into the dumpsters around the site. Make sure you only take from the dumpster. At least then you'll know that they didn't want it. Just make sure that it's not illegal to do so. The length of the boards will depend on the height of the ceiling in your kids bedroom. For example, I have 9 foot ceilings and so I can use boards five feet long. I found five 4x4's five feet long for my uprights. A twin mattress is usually 4 feet wide and six feet long, so after you find the uprights you will need to find boards to go around or box in the mattress.

2. If you can find some 2x6's for the surrounding boards those will be best. You will need 2 four footers and 2 six footers. Nail them together like your creating a frame for you mattress. You will then want to find some 2x4's of the same lengths which you will nail inside that frame at the bottom. This will be the shelf upon which you will place the mattress supporting boards that will go from side to side. Once you have built your frame you will place 2x4's width-wise ever couple feet inside the frame.

3. Now raise the frame and attach the 4x4 uprights. You will want to put cross braces on both ends of the bunk bed to stabilize your uprights. Put them all the way up and down the ends. You can build a ladder that can come on or off or just let your kids climb up the supporting end braces. You just want to make sure the frame is sturdy as well as the uprights. Once you finish you can either cover the bed frame with carpet remnants or you can sand an paint the bed. Do this to cut down on sliver factor.

4. Once you've built the bunk bed you will want to build a railing around the top. These instructions are for a one bed bunk bed, but you could build a second frame for the bed underneath. Mine is actually just an elevated bed built to create more space. We placed a dresser and a doll house underneath the bed. Now the room seems a little bigger and the kids have more floor space.

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[sallyemaycreate]

on 11/12/2009 Excellent article on How to Build A Bunk Bed For Free. It's awsome enough to be able to build a bunk bed, let alone doing it for free!! Great idea and tips 5*

[sallyemaycreate]

on 11/12/2009 Excellent article on How to Build A Bunk Bed For Free. It's awsome enough to be able to build a bunk bed, let alone doing it for free!! Great idea and tips 5*