LOFT BED IN PROGRESS
While not all styled and perfected… I wanted to bring you all along on the entire journey of creating the little ladies space. It is real life around here most off the time after all, sprinkled with photoshoots every now and then. I will fully admit that the first thing I should have done was to paint the room. But I am impatient. Maybe even more so than my seven year old! #truth I wanted to build the loft bed, so I built the bed! ha
As I mentioned yesterday, I used this plan to base the design on. I then modified the plans to raise the overall height from 46″ to 64″ overall. This not only added more space in the lounge area below, but I also increased the height of the “rail” area from 10″ to 12″ for a little added protection.
So beyond the change in height, the other modifications I have made are removing the wood rails along the floor, again, I thought these would be trip hazards. But as they aided in the stability of the piece, we notched out pieces of our baseboard and slid the bed flush against the wall. At this point we bolted the bed to the walls using toggle bolts. And trust me! This thing is secure! My husband and myself both sat up on top with no wiggles at all. It is so much harder getting up into these things as an adult!!!
The pine board that was used would get beat up over time and I thought that a solid metal piece would aide in that. After some research and consulting my go to hardware girl (and best friend) Grace from A Storied Style, we found this brass angle from OnlineMetals.com. You can order custom sizes and they ship quickly! I will say that they arrive unpolished, so I used some medium grit sandpaper first and then followed with ultra fine to smooth it out and expose that beautiful brushed brass finish. I attached them to the ladder using Gorilla Glue and a good clamp.
The last alteration I made from the original was on the side panel. The original Ikea Bed (which is discontinued now?) had rungs or smaller panels. Rather, I replaced the four panels with one full panel. I had contemplated keeping it in it’s natural finish, but then I clamped up my remaining Designers Guild Malmaison fabric and knew that was how it should be.
So now it is time to attach the fabric to the end panel and paint over my dark walls. Quite honestly, my original intent was to leave the dark walls. But my husband and daughter had different opinions. And as it is her room, they will be painted. But don’t worry! I am trading one black wall for another. Black walls will remain somewhere else in our home!
I hope you all have an amazing Tuesday!
xo – Kristin
Love the alterations that you made to the bed and super love that gorgeous fabric!
Oh I love this variation!!! Years ago we did something similar but lowered the bed a touch as our tween son kept hitting his head on the ceiling. The one thing we noticed was the height of the guard rail was 100% dependent upon the thickness of the mattress. Our mattress was 10″ thick so we raised the rail. Once again I absolutely love the modifications you made!!
Nice work, it looks great! I want to do something similar for my boys’ (9 and 5 yrs old) room, but they’re telling me now they want to sleep together, and I’m not sure I’m up for figuring out a loft that can accommodate two twin beds…lol. Incidentally they also are adamant they want a black room, which I wasn’t feeling super on board with, but your pics are making me reconsider.