Most of the children live Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. The problem with these states, not to mention their weather, is that there are not many places to stay in our twenty-foot camper home. The only child that has a drive-way where we could park is also the only one with a campground nearby. This created a problem. Pamela solved the problem when she flew back to Kentucky in May to see one of the new grand-babies. She found a nice house nestled in 1.25 acres of woods which also has multiple places to put a camper. Needless to say, it is within a couple of miles of the newest granddaughter. It is also about as central as we could get. Obviously, the purpose of the exercise is to have a place where children and grandchildren can come and visit while we're 'back east'. Of course we're always happy to have them and encourage them to visit us in the west.
The only remaining problem was sleeping arrangements. We could easily end up with 12-20 people at the same time. Have you ever heard the phrase "they were stacked up like a cord of wood"? Well that was my epiphany. We're going to stack them up. Bunks!
Of course, most bunk beds are single beds. Besides not being ideal for adult couples, it would also mean that we would need six to ten bunk beds. We're calling one of the bedrooms the "dormitory" but we didn't have that in mind. The solution is full-over-full bunk beds. Since they're not only not readily available, they're also extremely expensive. My solution . . . make them.
Most bunk bed plans are for showy or fancy or cute or unique bunk beds. I wanted simple. I also wanted a bunk bed where the occupants didn't hit their heads getting in and out. Most bunk beds have legs which put the bottom bunk at the height of a normal bed. The person on the bottom doesn't really have room to sit up in bed and the person on top is up against the ceiling. The only way to get around these issues was to do my own design. Pamela had seen a single on line that sat on the ground. I went from there.
My design is only 57" high yet the person on the bottom has a comfortable 41.5" head room. That's easily enough to sit up. The person on top has 36". Sufficient. To simplify and reduce cost, I am using plywood with foam mattresses. To provide stability and avoid sag, I still have cross pieces. Since a standard full sized mattress is 53" x 75" I was faced with the reality that a sheet of plywood is only 48" wide. I decided that it is easy to cut a foam mattress and visitors aren't going to miss 5" for a few nights. Pamela and I slept on a bed that was only 4" wider than a single for over three years.
The design couldn't be simpler. It is basically two boxes attached to four pillars. The pillars are made from 2"x 6" common grade lumber. The sides of the boxes which hold the mattresses are made from 1"x 8" finished lumber. I had such a horrible time trying to find six eight-foot pieces of common grade 1"x 8" that I gave up and paid $22/board for high quality wood. It added $88 to the overall cost. I was able to find two common grade pieces from which to cut the foot and head. The pillars are two pieces of 2"x 6" put together in the shape of an 'L' with wood screws. Care must, of course, be take for square.
Since I would be working alone and wanted the bed to be able to be assembled by one person, I built the two ends as units. When the bed is assembled in the bedroom it is a simple matter of attaching the long sides pieces to the end pillars. All of the 1"x 8" pieces are bolted to the pillars with 3/8" hex bolts. This way I can easily assemble the parts. Drilling the holes for the bolts is an important task. I used a roofing-square and 48" level to be sure that I put the bolts in the right place so that my alignment would be square.
The support rails for the plywood mattress deck are made from 1"x 3" common and are attached to the four long side pieces by 1.25" wood screws. The cross-slats are 1"x 2" common. They aren't really weight bearing. They're simply to provide additional support for the plywood so that I can use a lighter plywood without worrying about sagging. If you wanted, you could go with several more 1"x 3" pieces and use a traditional mattress without the plywood.
We talked at some length about how we would finish the bunks. We decided upon a dark walnut stain to better match the room. It also makes the common grade wood look pretty good. I took the bed apart to stain it. The humidity was so high here in western KY (89% and up) that it took three days to dry, and I still put cardboard under the corners to be sure no stain residue ended up on the carpet.
We do have to think about a ladder to get to the top bunk. I'm leaning toward 1"x 3" pieces across the foot-end. It won't look like a ladder but will work as one. I did not make any side safety rails since you can buy those to put on a bed easier than make them.
I'm very happy with my design and the outcome. It is easy to build, easy to move and easy to make up (put on sheets, etc.). We're also thinking of letting the kidos use sleeping bags. It would be fun and save buying a lot of sheets.
We're planning to end up with two full-over-full and two singles. Now that I've done one, the rest should go much faster. If I can find half way usable 1x8s the cost of a full should be closer to $150 than the $250 this one cost me. The singles won't be a whole lot less. All four will still end up costing less than one good quality manufactured unit that would be too tall anyway.
If you're interested in my design, drop me a note. I would be happy to share.
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