Laney’s Big Girl Custom Bed

A twin bed was most certainly the best option for Laney’s little converted attic bedroom. With way too many “shin walls” (that’s an official term now), meaning walls that are only as high as an adult’s shin–we’re pretty short on space in here.

Not only did we need a twin bed but we needed a bed with added value…storage. So I looked at all the storage bed options out there like,

PBTeen Oxford Captain’s Bed

PBKids Belden Bed

Avery, Room & Board

These beds range from $799 to $1700, the Belden being the cheapest of the three. I just couldn’t swing that so I cruised around on the internet some more in every place I could think of, Overstock, Target, unfinished furniture retailers –you name it. I came up with no real bargain.

So then I started looking at DIY plans and I found Ana White’s site that had detailed plans complete with material lists for Pottery Barn knockoffs and a lot of other great DIY furniture projects. Now don’t get all excited thinking that I was going to build this bed– that was never the intention. I printed the queen bed plan and the twin plan and had a little chat with my favorite carpenter Joseph. Joseph’s price was right and so he got to work.

Laney’s big girl bed is a fusion between Ana’s queen and twin bed plan because I wanted drawers only on the sides, none on the ends. Because of the dimensions of the room and a small and winding staircase, Joseph had to build the bed in sections that could be bolted together once the pieces were carried upstairs in to Laney’s room. We also added casters on the bottom because if the bed is placed against the short wall an adult cannot make the bed.

To help you can get a better idea of how space challenged we are in this room, here’s me at a whopping 5’2″ standing in the room.

Joseph delivered the bed recently and it looks great so far.  Laney gets a bed that’s made from solid pine not MDF and we know the bottoms of the drawers won’t fall out when we load it up with clothes and linens. Now I just need to paint it. It needs a little paint prep like puttying those nail holes and other joints and then the plan is to paint it Benjamin Moore’s Simply White which is the same as the trim color in the room.

I also still need to add a headboard and some drawer pulls and this image stays in my mind.

You can follow the other design inspirations for Laney’s big girl room on my Pinterest board.

Images via Pinterest unless specified