Built In Bunk Bed Inspiration

It's been a while since I've blogged about any of our ongoing house remodeling projects. If you follow me on Instagram you've seen some pictures here and there. (most recently I've shown the laundry chute in progress - I'm SO excited about that project!)

But today I want to share some inspiration for built in bunk beds. Don't you just love the idea of gorgeous built in beds for kids? I could browse through Pinterest or Google Images for hours looking at all the drool-worthy pictures like these:

 

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Are they practical, though? What about resale? We've had this question in our minds for a while. Not that we're planning on selling our house anytime soon...but we always want to leave that option open. The conclusion we've come to is that our house would most likely appeal to and be purchased by a family with kids. Even older kids can sleep in bunk beds. I mean, I did just fine in a college dorm room for 4 years sleeping on bunk beds, so it shouldn't be a big deal for older kids.

To younger children, bunk beds are magical. And the top bunk is the one fought over most! In my wildest imagination, I want to build a completely custom house and include a playroom with built in bunk beds for ALL the kids, plus a few for friends. Wouldn't that be fun? Sleepover city!

But, back to reality, we have a small space to work with, and low ceilings seriously limit what we can do with the design. Here's a look at the space we have and how it has come together over the past 3 years.

The water damage was at its worst in the boys' bedroom upstairs as well as the upstairs bathroom. Everything in those rooms had to be gutted completely because of the mold, paint that bubbled trying to hold back the water, etc. I still love this picture of Elliott seeing his room for the first time after it was gutted exactly 3 years ago right now.

We felt a huge feeling of accomplishment when the drywall went in and was primed. We felt like we were almost done! (ha, ha, ha...3 years later it's still note "done")

We took the crib down about a week ago, but the arrow in the picture below shows where the bunk beds will go and what the room has looked like for the past two years or so. And by the way, I highly recommend the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks Starter Set(affiliate link) as a Christmas gift for any little boy. All the sets are awesome!

We want the built in beds to look and feel like the rest of the house and they will be white (I just can't help myself...they have to be white). The boys' room will feel huge when they have all the floor space open for toys and playing while their beds are tucked away in this little cove. Although we would love to go crazy with a fun design like this slide! And this girly bunk bed house would be amazing in the girl's room! (not that we need another project added to our 'to do' list right now)

What do you think of built in beds? Love them? Hate them?

A Furniture Rescue

Elliott and Henry share a room. They are buddies most of the time, but Elliott now has lots of little 'treasures' that Henry can't keep his hands off of. We knew Elliott was going to need a safe place to keep his precious little collection of random objects...and I had my eyes on a sorry looking dresser Michael was using in the basement.

This sad wood cabinet had become a place to store sandpaper. (Michael has quite an impressive assortment of sandpaper which filled the dresser, plus an entire plastic bin.) The top drawer had come apart and the wood was in rough shape. Spiders had made quite a little home inside the furniture, too. Ick!

But I saw potential and wanted to rescue the piece and bring some life back to it. In August we finally began the project and Elliott did most of the work!

Before:

There are four 'naughty' little ones in our house...but 'knotty' style furniture isn't a fit for us. Dresser...prepare to be painted.

But first everything needed a good sanding, and some repair work.

Then came the primer. Elliott had fun spraying it. (we used black primer because the new finish would be dark)

 And then some paint...

 Together we chose the new drawer pulls and Elliott got to help drill the holes for them.

We also lined each drawer with fun paper. They all had a different design chosen by Elliott.

And here is the finished dresser in Elliott's room. It doubles as his nightstand.

We should probably find a way to lock one of the drawers for Elliott's most prized possessions...since Henry can still climb up on his bed and get to the top drawer. But the extra space is great and Elliott is really proud that he got to help.

I've heard rumors that someone in Michael's family (Nancy?) might have this dresser's twin. If you do and you'd consider letting me buy it from you, let me know. Eventually I want to use two of these as the base for a tall desk for the boys. I could get addicted to this idea of re-purposing furniture.

Boys' room

So...my computer died and I had to wipe it clean and start over. Yuck! But I'm back up and running now and MOVED INTO MY HOUSE. It's time for a quick house update. We're kind of going room by room trying to finish up things and feel a bit settled. It'll be a while since we still don't have a working kitchen...but the girls' room is semi-put together and now the boys' room is too. Here's a peek...

 The drywallers did a less-than-stellar job on one of the boys' walls (there used to be a gaping hole on this wall and then it was covered up with a very bumpy/weird patch of drywall. So I begged my husband to do a wall treatment similar to what he did in Elliott's first nursery. This was a LOT of work since he had to sand all the wood down, make it fit, trim it out, and putty it like crazy in the joints that were still really rough wood) but it looks great! (And for those of you who have been in this room in my house...what you're looking at below is where the closet used to be. BIG change!)

Another thing that was a lot of work was this stripe. Looks simple enough but since half of the walls are plaster and half are drywall we had to texture them all to look like the old plaster. Not easy to get a clean paint line but I like how it turned out. The boys' curtains are blue and will have reddish orange accents (like the Hot Wheels tracks). Once the door is on the room you actually won't see much of this part of the stripe...the door will mostly cover it when it's open.

Here's another angle of the room. You can see the disassembled crib in the foreground. I had to paint it white and now it's all put back together and ready for little Henry! Lots of finishing touches left to go but it's getting closer every day!

I'll post more pics when it's actually set up for the boys. Elliott is QUITE excited to finally have his room ready.