bunkbeds

Alright, after quite sometime and way too many vacation posts, I am finally sharing the newest addition to our house: 

Completely custom, handmade bunkbeds!  

It has been a long adventure, but I am very proud of the outcome.  

I made a Pinterest Board to help me store all my ideas for the boy's new room, and after much searching I stumbled upon my main source of bunkbed inspiration. 

I had been planning this in my head since before we moved in.  I thought this room would be the prefect place for them:

I have always been annoyed by these built-in shelves.  They were put in when a fireplace was added to the living room.  I like built-ins in general, but these ones were just so funky.  The ones to the left had a gap behind the shelf so stuff could fall back there,and both sides had lots of wasted space at the top.  This room had been our "Spare Room" (a reference to a favorite book, can you name it?).  This meant it stored a lot of my sewing stuff and other junk and was where we put up the big air mattress when we had guests.

To begin the project the shelves to the left got completely ripped out along with part of the wall.  The ones to the right just got some alterations.

Baabee (my dad) and Zach were the real builders on this project, but the design was mine.  I would like to claim I did more on the actually building, but someone had to watch the boys most of the time.  Despite my graduate degree in cutting wood with a chop saw, I think the men enjoy it more than me and could really use the practice (once you become an expert at something, it just becomes boring).  Painting was all on me, though. Thankfully I have the best little helper in the world who is always excited to put on his paint shirt.

We opted for "Dragon's Hide Green" again because Jimmy insisted.  Just like his mother, he doesn't like too much change.  I didn't complain since I still had a nearly full gallon from when we painted his old room.  Plus, this way I didn't have to worry about picking a color I might not like.  It also went well with the color scheme of the sheets and new curtains, but honestly, I really don't want a room that looks too "designed."  It is for my two boys after all.  I wanted a room that could grow with them until they are big stinky High Schoolers.  They will probably want new sheets by then and perhaps have fewer Legos on the shelves, but I think the beds should stand the test of time.  I had at one point contemplated just buying some bunkbeds at Ikea because I knew it would be cheaper and much less time consuming, but my heart was stuck on this.  The weird walls in this room were calling for something special and who doesn't need a good summer project?   

Adding a top shelf to these built-ins was the never-ending project that took days instead of the anticipated hours:

It was a good thing that nobody actually lived in this room yet because we gave ourselves the month of June and we had to leave for our trip before we were done.  They were officially complete at the end of July, but I was/still am doing finishing touches on the rest of the room.  Jimmy was so anxious to sleep in them and didn't understand what was taking us so long.  At least they were still really fun to play on.

I really wanted to use the old shelf space to make new shelves behind the headboards.  

After much deliberation, we decided to make "Nooks."  

Basically, it can still be a shelf for stuffed animals and water cups, but also a fun spot for the boys to sit and even stand 

(There is also a secret hiding space if you crawl under the beds that might come in handy for future games of hide and seek... don't tell)  

Maybe when they get bigger, we can add more shelf space, but for now they love playing up there.

We were all thrilled when they were FINALLY DONE

...especially Jimmy.

Gus loves them too, but he is not actually sleeping in them yet.  

He does know the cars bed is his, and loves to drive his cars along the road on his pillow.  

He also got a really cool moon lamp.

I also really love that Jimmy has his own desk now.  He sits here to do projects and workbooks all the time.  

I bought him a big new pack of crayons and a holder for his markers and pencils so he is all set.

I also love having so much more room for the boys to play now.

Some friends gave us a blue dresser with baseball handles that Jimmy thinks is the coolest.  He wanted to hang up all the Disneyland Postcards on the closet door and I stumbled upon the Disneyland Pennant while going through an old box of my childhood junk.  We thought these went well with the old Disneyland Map... We like Disney, in case you can't tell.  And obviously, we are excited that the Max poster from the boys birthday is not going to waste (I did, however, just make the realization that it is actually slightly frightening... good things my kids are not easily scared).

Finally, after so many days of waiting and begging and asking, it was time to sleep in them:

(Yes, Gus loves to scare us climbing up, but he is surprisingly good at it.  Still, I keep a close watch)

Sometimes we choose the bottom bunk for nighttime reading, but Mom and Dad definitely climb up there our fair share.

We were kind of nervous about Jimmy on the top bunk because he is a pretty restless and crazy sleeper.

We checked on him a lot the first night.  We found him asleep sideways with his feet sticking out:

Even with limbs hanging out, he couldn't be happier about these beds.  

If you come over to our house, I guarantee he will ask to show them off.

... I might offer as well.