DIY Bunk Beds

My little girls have just started sharing a room after having their own all their life.  I knew the room wasn't that big, but it looked so crowded with the bed and a mattress on the floor.  SO I decided to just build one.  I spent hours looking at beds on pinterest for a design I liked.  Most were designer beds and I don't have the time or the desire to build that.  I found one bed I kind of liked, but it needed more.  So I designed it myself.

I made the top loft bed 6 inches wider than the standard bed size that we used on the bottom.  This way there was an area on the bunk for all the stuffed animals.  Why no one else has come up with this idea is beyond me.  It also was made this way so that I could easily fit the free standing lower bunk under neath.   Since I was a little girl I have enjoyed moving my furniture around and wanted the freedom to move the beds what ever way I fancied.   Then I made the beds both 6 inches longer than the mattress (ok, I made them 12 inches longer, but that was an accident and I like it now).  My husband build them each a bookshelf to act as a headboard and storage.  Once completely build I saw that each bed was 6 inches longer than the mattress once the bookshelf was added.  But then I saw that this was perfect for the kids stuffed animals on the bottom bunk.  On the top, it works as a step to climb down.  

  This is me with my game face on!  I really do love my power tools!!!

Pre bed-just boards here.

Loving the way my bench holds the wood I'm cutting on my miter saw.  This just makes me happy!

Chris and I spent 12 hours one day cutting all the pieces, sanding them 

and adding pocket holds to the frames. 

I am such a visual person so I laid both beds out as we cut and sanded them.

This is the kids room before we put the bunk beds in.  Not a lot of space to walk and not very much storage.  Plus they left the room a mess.

We started to assemble the top bunk first.  It's not easy getting it all lined up right and square.  We did have to redo a bit once we got the level out.  We got the wood cut and sanded the first day and built the top bunk bed.

The next day we put together the bottom bunk.  I made sure the bed was high enough for a bunch of cute boxes to go underneath.  There was not much storage in the room and this is their "toy box".  See all the animals lined up at the foot of the bed?

I wanted to create a very special place for my girls to hang out together and read or play.  I got two beanbag chairs on line plus a soft carpet from Target.  The lights I hung under the bed are one of my favorite features.  It brightens up the space and makes it really special.

I loved the book shelves that we built in.  Since the mattress is right next to the bottom shelf, the girls use that as a "secret" shelf.

The ladder to the bed is at the end of the bed.  You have to stand on the bottom bunk to get to the ladder.  We ended up creating another little tiny step to make it easier to get to the main ones.

I found these really cute Elephant lights on Amazon from Thailand.  They have become the girls nightlight.

Organized Busy Boxes

I love pinterest. Love it! Thank-you Megan for showing it to me and bugging me until I figured it out.


Pinterest has lots of fun things to pin on your wall. . . recipes, photos, links to blogs, craft ideas for the home. I am having so much fun pinning great ideas on my wall from blogs I visit and from other walls.


I found a blog that I enjoy reading called Play at Home Mom. This mom has lots of fun ideas for your kids.

http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/2011/12/busy-boxes.html

I read this post on her blog and loved the idea of making busy boxes for my girls. I had a large wicker basket full of craft supplies for my children. I liked having everything in one spot, but it was really hard to keep it organized. I like organized everything. So I decided to take the idea of busy boxes and run with it.

This mom made a bunch of boxes for her little one to play with while she was nursing her baby. They had simple things in each one so that a child could take the box and do the activity. One box had paper, water colors, a paint brush and a water container. Another had colored corn with little animals to play with. A third had paper, crayons and rubbing plates. I loved her ideas but I really wanted to have boxes that would help me get organized and make craft time easier. So I bought 6 boxes and started to fill them up. I ended up liking how organized and easy they would be to use that I went back and got 6 more bins the same size, plus one big one.

Here are the boxes that I made. This whole project (besides the driving to the store part) took me only an hour to do.

This was my "I don't know quite where to put this stuff so I'll throw it in here" box. There are supplies to make bubbles, some glitter, clothes pins, silly pudy extra glue. Stuff like that.

This is my cutting stuff up box. It has ribbons and scissors plus glue for doing something with the cut up things

This is the glueing box. I added feathers, pom poms, wooden peices, googly eyes, Christmas tree cut outs (on clearance) and popsicle sticks. Then I put in glue, glue sticks and glitter glue.

Here is the sticker box. I bought a bunch of foam stickers for the girls to use. They love them.

This is the bead box. I dumped all the beads in here for easy access. The girls love to sort the beads so there is an ice cube tray. Plus I added plastic string for making necklaces and bracelets.

Hannah got a present of pretend cookies for Christmas. It has lots of peices and is really fun to play with. However, we all know what happens when you take a toy with lots of peices and put it on the toy shelf-they all get lost and then you have only a part of the toy to play with. Now all the peices are in one box and it is super easy to play and put away.

We now keep all our puzzles in this box. When they are in a puzzle making mode, we get down the box and play.

I put all the toys for our Little People doll house in this box. The other little toys like dinosaurs, mice family and McDonalds toys got added to the box too. They are little and get lost in the toy basket, but will get played with in the doll house and put away if they are all together.

This is our play-doh box. I try to make all our own play-doh. It is super easy to make and saves for a long time. I added the slime we made the other day to our play-doh box too.

Bekah received the Emma and Abigail magnetic wooden dolls for Christmas. Again, a lot of little peices that can easily get lost. Hopefully this will let us have lots of fun and then put it away without loosing all the peices.


I really love having the craft supplies and all the toys with lots of little peices organized. This really only took an hour or so. I would love to hear your ideas for keeping a tidy house.