Bunk Bed For Girl

Hello all,

So our little family of 3 is about to be 4 (please hold your applause till the end). With only 2 bedrooms, we thought it'd be nice to go the bunk bed option... For the kids that is... So Ive been messing around on sketch up and come up with an idea but, I'm not really sure how to make it work. Its a little more complicated than your standard bunk bed, as I thought it'd be fun to have 2 cubby's (1 on the ground floor and the other on the first floor :;) and to be able to fit the new little nuggets cot in instead of a just 2 beds. Attachment 312437 It's basically my take on a princess' castle. I'm most probably thinking well above my ability, but the boss loves what I showed her, so I'm locked into it now! :doh:

I'm thinking it'll be easiest to make up a frame out of pine or something similar (90x90 posts, then maybe 90x45 for the rest), cover it with ply, and paint. Any suggestions on timber, joints or anything else you think would help?

I have access to plenty of tools, and I'm fairly confident, its just the details (joints, timber, etc) that have me a smidge worried...

Cheers

Josh

When we first moved to oz I needed bunk beds for three kids asap. I used the design from Ana whites website. The beds are built from stock bunnings timber, legs are laminated from three layers of 70x20, with gaps left in the middle layer to form the mortices for the rails, etc.

You only need glue and a saw. All up I made three beds in a day and a half.

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At a glance. 90x90 posts are waaaaay overkill.

Personally, if I was going to use "off the shelf" studs for this job I'd use 70x35 for uprights and 90x35 for the horizontal spans of the bed. 35mm rather than 45mm as I'd make the major panels similar to a stud wall except only 35mm wide instead of 90mm. (ie. I'd rotate the studs 90 degrees to end up with a thinner panel.)

In practise, I'd probably rip 90x45 studs down to 42(ish) x 20 and use those instead.

In all honesty, I'd be more likely to go the MDF sheet 'flat-pack' route, but that's a different type of construction altogether. :rolleyes:

Either way, using studs will result in it being over-engineered... but when kids are involved I don't see that as a bad thing!


PS: I heartily recommend adding a structural rail or two between the two uprights supporting the end of the bunk. Although I can see it may be hard to convince the young 'un that they're not a ladder or monkey bars or...

Design looks good,

I'd agree with Skew - personally for that esign would most likely go the MDF route.

Either way the end where you have the posts I would likely consider making shelves. Great idea, I could do this for my daughter too.

If you want to stick with your design as is I would likely go 70 x 70 posts and like Skew said, 90 x 35 should be plenty


Dave the turning cowboy

turning wood into art

Thanks for the reply's!

I kind of figured it would be overkill, but I thought I'd better go for the overkill rather than the bed-breakin-in-the-middle-of-the-night option! I suppose there probably isn't to much difference, strength wise, between 70x70 and 90x90 is there? but a fair diff in how much space they occupy. I like it... I'm going with your suggestion!

What do you guys think would be the best joints to use? A chippy mate of mine said I could probably just go with butt joints with extra long screws, but I think his brain may have turned to saw dust!:U

Cheers

If you choose to use MDF and pine frame (I would), and you have access to a table saw and dado blade (or a router/spindle moulder) you might consider making the bulk of the structure by gluing the MDF panels into a dado slot in the pine frame. It is quick and very strong.

My saw cabinet is made this way. Because the panels were small in size, I used 12 mm MDF The framing pine was 70 X 35 mm and I put it through the thicknesser to make everything smooth, flat and with clean corners. The doors are MDF with timber rails and stiles biscuit jointed on.
Attachment 312515

White lacquer (or any other colour) goes over MDF extremely well, giving a smooth surface with whatever gloss level you choose.

Have fun!

John

I don't want open up a new can of worms here, but I've heard MDF is going to be the next asbestos in the near future, so I was trying to steer clear of it... I'm hoping to get away with ply, unless more experienced people (you guys), tell me it won't work?

ply panels on a 19mm frame are very strong. Often used in building campervans etc.

70x70 v's 90x90 .... even 70x70 would be considered by many as over kill in your application.

What I would say if you are having the legs as independent legs as drawn in your original pic is the should go up to the top of your outer panels. The top will brace the bottom. If the legs are only sitting under the bed it would not matter 70x70 or 150x150 - the risk of the legs being knocked out from under it would be to great for my liking


Dave the turning cowboy

turning wood into art

The boss will get sick of making the top bed pretty quickly. But the design does look fun. :U

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wolfie

I don't want open up a new can of worms here, but I've heard MDF is going to be the next asbestos in the near future, so I was trying to steer clear of it... I'm hoping to get away with ply, unless more experienced people (you guys), tell me it won't work?

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The trouble with MDF is that it's sawdust is very fine ... just what we don't want ... and it contains resin. Long term exposure is likely not a good idea. However, even if the warnings about MDF are correct, in a shop with good dust collection it is likely not a problem because we are not getting this fine dust in our lungs. Asbestos was the same. The sheet product is not a problem, but its dust could be.

Ply will work fine if you want to go that way, but it is not always easy to get a good finish on the the inexpensive stuff.

Ooooo very jealous that you're tackling this project now. We have a 2 year old girl and a 2 month old boy, 3 bedroom house and no plans for any more kids but I still want to built cool bunk beds when they're out of cots. I've been collecting inspiration here: http://www.pinterest.com/craypinspam/kids-rooms/ Might be worth trawling through for ideas and construction tips.

I would also consider integrating some kind of shelving or storage into one of the outside walls. Good luck, look forward to seeing progress pics.