My youngest son is 2 and is 2 years, 8 months younger than my middle son. It’s a big gap. I wouldn’t recommend having kids that far apart to anyone. My two oldest spend their whole time playing together and slamming the door in the face of the 2 year old. Therefore, he is left out and is, normally, screaming outside their door. I love him to death, but, my middle child needs to learn to play with his little brother.
That said, we have decided, since we are done having kids, that it’s time to get rid of the crib and make a bedroom for the oldest son. Currently, the two oldest have bunk beds in one room and the baby has his own room next door. We think it’s time for our oldest to have his own room so that the baby doesn’t come in and mess up his Legos all the time.
We then found somebody that wanted the crib and changing table and broke down the very old, ugly metal day bed. And the room is now empty.
It was a very hard process for me. I always wanted 4 children, 3 boys then a girl, and my husband has decided we are done. So, getting rid of the crib that all 3 boys slept in, and having to transfer my baby into a big-boy bed was extremely hard.
But, that’s life, they all have to grow up sometimes, I’m just not ready for that to happen yet.
I have this board on Pinterest with all my ideas for this room. It’s called Bedroom #2. It has paint and furniture ideas and things that all need to come together to make a cool big-boy room. I had found two beds that I both liked and then let Bryce decide what bed he wanted.
This is what he chose:
Isn’t it great? I actually love all the pieces in the room and would like to make most of them for my son’s room, but right now, we’re focusing on the bed. Oh, and did I mention I love Shanty-2-Chic and all her things she builds. Her and Ana White are awesome, they work together to create awesome plans for furniture and other things to build. Most of my furniture ideas come from them.
I went over to Shanty-2-Chic’s website and downloaded the instructions. You can find them here.
I did the calculations to turn it into a twin size bed. Bought my wood, and started cutting.
I built the outer edges.
One of the things I dislike about the plans, they’re not very specific about actually hooking them together. So I will tell you, I used 2″ deck screws on the majority of this project, if I changed, I will let you know.
Added the cleats.
And center support. (This wasn’t exactly needed for a twin size bed, but, I know my boys too well, and realize there might be some jumping on the bed.)
I then added the trim around all the edges.
Now it’s starting to come together and look like a bed. (So excited with how it’s turning out!)
The legs were a little bit tricky. There wasn’t any definite instructions on how to cut them at an angle. So, this is how I did it.
First I measured and inch from the edge on one of the short sides.
Then I set my saw to a 15 degree angle. And cut.
I used a scrap board, and held it in place, so they would all be cut at the same place and angle. See?
I then pre-drilled holes so I could easily connect them to the bed frame. Note: they will be facing different ways, so you have to drill opposite holes.
I then screwed it to the bed frame.
The bed frame is now complete, except for the slats. Those I cut and screwed on after I stained the bed, I wanted to make sure they were cut to the right specks.
The only other thing I would like to point out, make sure you use wood glue. If I forget something, it’s that. Wood glue helps you make sure the screws always stay in the wood and wont be coming apart. I remembered to use it on this project. I think that’s it.
Hope this inspires you to go build something.
(And in case you’d like a sneak peek of the finished product, here’s a picture.)
