Our girls' shared bedroom with bunk beds
DISCLAIMER: These bunk beds were purchased by myself, with 50% off, in exchange for an honest blog post and pictures of the product. This is the first time I have collaborated on something like this so do let me know what you think and please ask me any questions you have about the bunk beds - all thoughts and words are, and always will be, my own!
As our youngest daughter began to outgrow her cot, it felt natural to look towards bunk beds as a solution for our girls’ shared bedroom. Not to mention our eldest daughter has been asking for them for a while now, and kept telling people, ‘when we move to the big house, we’re going to have bunk beds and I’m going to sleep on the top and Betty will sleep on the bottom…’ I’m not entirely sure where she got that idea from as we never promised anything specifically, but our hope was to have bunk beds set up in the new house as a surprise when they arrived.
Anyway, as regular readers of this blog will know, the house sale fell through at the last minute so we’re still in our old house for the moment (you can read what happened here), but babies carry on growing, and cots don’t grow with them, so we decided to find a new solution even if it meant building new bunk beds that we’d have to dismantle a few months later.
Due to our youngest being only 20 months old, we were keen to get a bed with the bottom bunk bed close to the ground, which this house bunk bed from House About Kids does perfectly. The ladder is also on a slant, has handles and wide steps, which is perfect for our girls who aren’t as physically confident as other kids their age. In fact, we visited a friends house at the weekend who have the Ikea Kura Bunk (another serious contender for us) but our eldest daughter struggled to go up and down the ladder so I’m glad we didn’t go for that one just yet. As the years pass, I also think this bed has plenty of room to reinvent itself . I’m looking forward to making sweeping canopy’s, hanging plants, adding greenery and more fairy lights, maybe curtains of some sort for the bottom bunk, I could go on…! (**insert husband rolling eyeballs here**)
Something we found surprising after assembling the bunk bed is that we actually didn’t have any more floor space in the room! I suppose if I’d done the math correctly I would have noticed that a full size single (it also comes in a toddler sized version if you prefer) is actually pretty similar in sizing to a small cot and toddler bed if they were put side by side. However, keeping the bigger picture in mind, it will save us space in the future, not to mention it makes an excellent pirate ship, plane, house or fort in the meantime!
We’ve also noticed that our eldest is really enjoying having her own space, (albeit rather small,) which currently can’t be accessed by her little sister. I’m sure one day that will change, but for now, it’s nice for her to have some of her more grown up books up there as well as a basket at the end of her mattress, which keeps her ‘special toys’ away from prying younger hands. It’s a place she can call her own which I think is important when you’re all living on top of each other in a small house.
Another thing to consider with this style of bed, is that by having the bottom mattress on the floor, (it sits on top of very low slats for ventilation) you do unfortunately lose the storage space underneath. Now, I must confess when we were originally trying to re-organise the room this element stressed me out a little and I was beginning to think we had made a mistake. Where on earth were we going to put everything?! BUT, when I started to sort through what was stored under the bed, half of it wasn’t even played with or just remained there, forgotten, unloved, and growing a rather unhealthy coat of dust upon it’s primary-coloured plastic-y surface. (Because lets face it, under every child’s bed is a pile of ugly toys we don’t want to see daily, amirite?) Being forced to remove the debris from underneath the bed has turned into a good thing! We’ve donated unwanted toys and others have been given a new lease of life elsewhere, where they are more visible and accessible, or into this lovely storage bench we bought from a lovely local vintage shop recently.
We’ve had these book shelves for two years, which were originally intended for the walls, but they always seems to serve us and the girls so well on the floor, we never got round to putting them up. Finally though, now our girls are taller and can access them at both heights, it makes sense to use the wall space more so we’ve hung two out of three, and they make fantastic, easily accessible storage for our growing collection of books. I also got the girls involved in painting this little dolls bed we already had, which adds a much needed pop of colour to the room for no cost at all as we just used some leftover sample paint. The wicker chairs were impulse purchases from eBay, and it could be said they were bought more for me than for the kids because they are so freakin’ cute! But (in case the husbands reading this…) the girls have genuinely really enjoyed playing with them and choose to sit in them to read books sometimes. PHEW. Impulse buy justified.
The rest of the room remains relatively unchanged for now, as our house is still on the market there seems little point in redecorating. It’s still a huge improvement from when we first moved in though and if you want to see the bedrooms original ‘before and after’ (along with holes in the walls) then you can read that post here. One day though, I’m thinking the house bunk bed will really lend itself to some beautiful cloud wallpaper, or maybe a dark tropical rainforest behind it, who knows? At the moment we’re just enjoying its stripped backed beauty with some twinkly fairy lights and the girls are ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT!
As for sleep, well… we’re still working on that one!
PS. It’s not been AS bad as we imagined…
PPS. She types with one eye twitching as fast as Mr Saxobeat.
Are you thinking of putting your kids into bunk beds? If you have any questions please do pop them in the comments below or contact me via my contact page.
DISCLAIMER: These bunk beds were purchased by myself, with 50% off, in exchange for an honest blog post and pictures of the product. This is the first time I have collaborated on something like this so do let me know what you think and please ask me any questions you have about the bunk beds – all thoughts and words are, and always will be, my own!
THE SOURCE LIST:
Picture One: House Bunk Bed House About Kids £279.99, Duvet Covers CamCamCopenhagen at The Tipi £40 each, Basket Sainsbury’s Home £18 for two, Vintage Storage Bench The Consortium Winchester £190, Car Run by ‘Vilac’ Vintage £10, Noah’s Ark Vintage 50p, Rectangle Basket, Home Sense £12, Childs Wicker Chair eBay £20, Kites on Wall Handmade by me £Free
Picture Two: If I Know What Love Is Print Nina Thomas Studio Gifted £20, ABC Cross Stitch Sample Handmade by me using Alicia Paulson Pattern $7, Peg Rail H & M Home £8.99, Teething Necklace Blossom and Bear at Little Maldod £12, Gold Shoes from M&S Vintage £5, Cloud Mobile Handmade by Me £Free, Sun Hat H & M, Child’s Wicker Chair eBay £20, Blue Cushion Homemade by me, Cloud Cushion The Fox and The Attic £18, Book Shelves The Great Little Trading Company £25 each
Picture Three: Book Shelves The Great Little Trading Company £25 each, Dolls Bed Ikea £16 painted in Valspar Flamboyant Flamingo, Round Wicker Chair eBay £1.50, Chest of Drawers Andrew Smith and Son Auction House £65, Vintage Sylvanian House Gifted, ABC Large Cross Stitch Handmade by me £Free, It’s OK Banner Handmade by me £Free
Picture Four: Small Bedside Cupboard Molly’s Den Winchester £30, House Bunk Bed House About Kids, £279.99, Large Wicker Basket H & M Home £18, Selection of Blankets on Bottom Bunk Handmade or Vintage, Duvet Covers CamCamCopenhagen at The Tipi £40 each, Wicker Basket on Top Bunk Molly’s Den Winchester £6, Blanket on Top Bunk TK Maxx Home £22, Star Fairy Lights on Top Bunk Lights4Fun £7
Picture Five: White Storage Sack Little Maldod £10, Round Wicker Chair eBay £1.50, Fireplace painted in Farrow and Ball Hague Blue, Clock Ikea £12, Storage Baskets at Ikea Branas in White £12, Bag CamCamCopenhagen at The Tipi (comes with duvet sets), Lilac Crown Oeuf at CissyWears, Small Bedside Cupboard Molly’s Den Winchester £30
Picture Six: House Bunk Bed House About Kids £279,99, Duvet Covers CamCamCopenhagen at The Tipi £40 each, Book Shelf The Great Little Trading Company £25, Blue Cushion Handmade by Me £free, Star Fairy Lights Lights4Fun £7, Round Star Cushion on Bottom Bunk Hannah Madden Printmaker £10
Relevant Blog Posts:
Our Girls’ Shared Bedroom Makeover
How to furnish your home on a low or non-existent budget
Buying and Selling our Home – The Reality