Loft Bed DIY

This is a project that I've been very excited about! I don't know about the rest of you, but we have a TON of projects that we would like to do or are in the process of doing. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and jump head first into a project that you REALLY want done! This one wasn't really at the VERY top of our to-do list, but we just decided to finally do it!! And I'm so glad we did! Jordan's such a big kid nowadays, that she really needed her bed to catch up to her. And I'm so happy that we were able give her so much space to play!

The Inspiration (Pin-spiration) Process 

Pottery Barn Teen (retails for $1,799)

  

Ana White design (yet another amazing Knock-Off Wood design!)

Ana White design (PERFECT for our little-big girl!)

 We decided to change the rails that go across. This is a little "boy-ish" for my "vision",

so we decided to make rails more like this:

Ana White design (perfect railing detail!)

Building Process 

We printed both sets of plans and got to work! Well, Justin and Grandpa got to work... I got to watch the kids, and check on progress periodically of course!

Justin and Grandpa Jim worked from 2:30 PM to 10:30 PM Saturday and finished up after working again all Sunday afternoon!! They were beat!!

The LAST screw!!

FINISHED!!

 Jordan's last night in her toddler bed (Saturday). She spent Sunday night on the futon thanks to drying paint.

And the paint wascomplete after two coats and a couple hours of woman-powered labor!

{Side note: I just LOVE this tarp! It has paint from all of our projects on it!}

The Result

One VERY happy girl!! :) I swear she's already demonstrated to everyone how to get in the bed, and just look at that smile!! :) Totally worth all the money, sweat, and late nights!

Hopefully she actually SLEEPS tonight!! :)
 

Over costs for this bed build:

• Lumber and supplies: Approx. $120 (it would have been less if we wouldn't have altered the rails)
• Paint: $40 (purple was on hand from the wall color, and we have over 1/2 gallon left of the white!)

Not too shabby!! :)

A new bed for Jordan?!

So, I saw this beautiful loft bed on Pitnerest a while back and fell in love with it. I showed it to Jordan and she asked, "Can I have a big bed so that I can touch the ceiling?!" Apparently good taste is genetic. ;) Here's the bed we saw:

Pottery Barn Teen

After some investigating, I found out this was a Pottery Barn bed, and it came with a "Pottery Barn price". Now, I have a Pottery Barn dining room set, however I bought it used for $250... new, that's what one of the chairs cost and I would NEVER pay that much even if I could afford it; okay, maybe if I could totally afford it! ;)
So, I began looking around, and turned to one of my favorite places: http://ana-white.com/ Ana is an amazing woman! She can build just about anything, by designing her own plans, and then she posts them for FREE on her website. Hello! Thank you Ana! On her website I found plans for a loft bed that she was inspired to make after Pottery Barn came out with their bed. (Girl after my own heart!) They look a little something like this:

 Ana's Plans

Needless to say, SOLD! :) Justin... ehh, luke warm on the idea of building a bed that's going to put his 3 year old 6 feet in the air. So, we've put it off. And put it off. And put it off some more. UNTIL, I found this:

 Ana's Plans

Thank you AGAIN Ana White!! It's like a little kid version of her loft bed, with super easy steps and 1 rung ladder to get into it! :) LOVE! And I even have Justin on-board to build it! :) BONUS! After all, I would hate to have to try and operate his saws by myself (mostly because he would just throw his hands in the air and take over anyway)! It's easier just to have him on my team from the get-go! ;) LOL!

So, the plan is we will paint it white and she can have a whole Barbie world underneath! Now, with this project, we also have to take down some shelving... that needs a new "home". The shelves will be moved into her closet to facilitate a new closet organization system... since we already have them, why not! We also have 1 (which equals 2 in reality) more project that will come of this, but you'll have to wait for that one! :)

Now, it's time to BUILD, buy a mattress, and shop for bedding (at least sheets)... thankfully she has some pretty talented family in Ohio that have made her HUGE blankets that she loves and that keep her warm!