A Big Boy Bed for Marcus

A new bed for Marcus

A typical Marcus night.  See how he has surrounded himself with
blankets on the floor.

I am not sure if I have talked about this before but Marcus loves to sleep on the floor in his bedroom.  If I were to guess he probably sleeps on the floor about 70% of the time and on his bed the remaining 30%.  I don't know why this is but I have a a theory- and have for some time.  I think Marcus likes the floor better because it gives him more space to stretch out.  When we travel and he sleeps in a hotel room bed or the bed at his grandparents he never sleeps on the floor (who knows I could be wrong and his floor may be more comfy than those).

Anyway, the point of this story is that I think Marcus is ready to move to a twin bed and I think that this sounds like a fun challenge to build.

I started looking on pinterest to see what plans were out there already and I started finding a few that I really liked.

Bed # 1

This one is actually my favorite.

• What I like:I like the clean lines and the simplicity.  I also like the low height on the top bunk.   
• What I don't like:  I am not crazy over the ladder.  I prefer a staircase or a least a removable ladder. I think for the moment it is better not have anything to temp Marcus.
• What I am not sure about:  I am concerned that having the solid sides would really cut off the light and make it a bit scary.
• Other comments:   I found this one on pinterest and eventually found the link to the sight it originally started at.  It was not helpful- there were no plans and the website was in a language I did not recognize.

Bed # 2

As you can see this is fairly similar in style and look..

• What I like:I like the height of the bed. I like that it had a staircase with it.  This was the first bed that really gave me a chance to visualize what that would look like. I also like how they set up the second better and offset it.  I plan on doing the bed right under but I thought this was really cute.
• What I don't like:  The lines seem a lot busier here and I am not crazy about that. 
• What I am not sure about:  The stairs on this design are permanently attached.  I would prefer a design where the stairs offer a few more features.  This made me look for some that were removable and offered storage. 
• Other comments:   This website this linked to.  www.watchmedaddy.blogspot.ca actually did have directions that were pretty decent but they didn't provide any of the dimensional measurements.  

Bed # 3

This is actually a Kura Reversible bed from IKEA.  I actually looked at it not because I wanted to actually buy it but mainly because I wanted to verify some of my ideas against a version I could actually see in a store- verse just in my imagination.

• What I like:I like the clean lines, the simplicity, and how fun it looks.
• What I don't like:  Once again the ladder, also I am not super keen on putting to much Ikea stuff in Marcus's room.  I worry about it somehow coming apart.
• What I am not sure about:  My biggest concern on this one is the quality.  I just really want to make sure Marcus is a solid bed that is not going to fall apart!
• Other comments:   Just in case you are curious this runs $199.00 at Ikea.  

So now that I spent a ton of time dreaming up the bed-  I knew it was time to actually get down and design it.  This is really my first foray into actually designing a piece of furniture-  so far I had always found almost exactly what I wanted on Ana White's website or in the book.  I did look in both places and this provided the inspiration for how to build the bed I am imagining.

Finally, I went online and found google sketch up-  this is a program that can be used to draft projects- even things a simple as a furniture project.  It took me a few moments but I quickly figured it out and started drafting.  Here is the draft of my project (excluding the staircase- will do a later blog on that).

Here are few things about this bed-

• Height- 50" - this is about 5" taller than the ikea bed for contrast.  This should give enough room on the bottom for Marcus to be comfortable (or at least that is hope) and still allow me to easily look over the top without straining.  I will want to do that someday when he is the top bunk.
• Bottom bunk- the bottom bunk is almost directly on the ground.  There is actually a 2 x 4 at this part of the bed-  and I will be using a bunkie board as well- so I think this means that mattress will be about 6" above the ground.
• On the top I expect the sidewall to be approximately 5"-6" higher than the mattress. 
• What you can't tell by looking at this is how easy the plans I created are.  All in it only uses three types of lumber (2x4, 1x12, 2x2)  and only three different lengths of cuts (36", 50", 75").

I have to admit that I am excited and nervous at the same time. I really want this to turn out well and I hope I don't make any mistakes in the process.  One of the craziest things about woodwork is that every time I do it I learn something new, I make a new mistake, and I become a little bit better.

Wish me luck!  Hopefully the next post will show some updates on this project.