New bed we made for our girls

I needed to come up with a solution for my girls because they share a room and it's a pretty small room at that.  DD#1 was sleeping in a toddler bed and starting to out grow it.  DD#2 was sleeping in a crib and also out growing it.  I tried a few layouts and came to the conclusion that a bunk bed was the only option.  I found the Kura Bed at Ikea and did a bit of an Ikea hack on it after seeing some ideas on the Ikea Hackers website. 

I think it turned out pretty good.  The original bed from Ikea is blue and I wanted something more girly for the girls.  We painted the bed pink first.  We bought MDF boards for the sides and DH cut and painted those.  I wanted the side to be higher since DD#1 is only almost 4.  We got the sides up and I felt it was a bit too boxy, so I had DH cut a couple windows in it.  A friend said she had heard some people made the side a chalk board, so we bought an extra piece of MDF board and made that into a chalk board with some chalk board paint.  I cut some hearts on my Cricut and used a tacky glue to stick them on the bed to match the bedding.  The bed is only about 4' high, so it's perfect for a younger child. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by swishina 

wow! That's awesome. How much do you think it cost? (Or more importantly, how much did you save?)

Well, I don't know that I saved much, LOL  The bed from Ikea was $199, and the mattresses for $79 each.  Then add in the bedding, we spent $500 at Ikea!  Part of that money was given to us by my parents to be the girls birthday presents, and the rest of that my parents gave to me because they "borrowed" money to my sister and didn't want her to pay it back, so my dad is always fair and gives me what ever he gives her (that + the birthday money covered Ikea).  We spend about $40 I think at Menards for the MDF boards and chalk board paint, and the pink paint we bought from the hardware store that DH works, so that was about $15.  I had money set aside that I was saving to buy a new computer, but I figured new beds were more important, so I used that money.

But, this is going to be both of their beds for a long time, so it was worth the expense.