Bunk Bed Project

Life has definitely thrown me some curves over the past few months, some good, some not so good. But things are getting better. We have a new grandson, Gracin Jay, the second of three new grand babies to arrive this year.

You can read about Elsie, the first baby of this year in this Blog Post. The next baby is due any time now. This one is a little girl, Raigyn and we are in charge of taking care of her big sister, Tristyn when she makes her appearance.

We recently moved into our tiny beach house that was a rental for 35 years. We're slowly getting it fixed up. Since we are expecting company both with our daughters and their families as well as others, we decided to opt for maximum sleeping space and got a set of bunk beds. The bottom bunk is where Tristyn is going to sleep when she stays with us.

She is a little bit of a daredevil. She is almost 3 and loves to climb, jump, and is generally very inquisitive. The last thing we need is for her to fall off the top bunk while her mommy is having a baby. So I am going to hide the ladder and wanted to make it interesting so maybe she wouldn't want to explore the top bunk. We don't have a mattress for it yet so it doesn't look like a bed up there either.

I had a lot of tulle leftover from bridal and baby showers so I thought I'd use that to make a canopy of sorts for the bed.

I wanted it to reach the floor along the wall and the front of the bed. I cut 2 sets from both bolts. I know - that's a lot of tulle. It's amazing how much is on a bolt. I have used the darker one for so many things and was surprised that there's still some leftover.

I layered the two fabrics with the lighter one on the bottom. It is a little stiffer and lighter in color so I wanted the darker and thinner fabric on top. I started at the foot of the bed and draped the fabrics along the wall and down the front. I got the length in the front where I wanted it and then adjusted it along the wall. I let it extend a little bit over the foot board of the bed. A couple trips up the step stool and I had it in place. Then I did the head of the bed. That was a lot trickier because it is up against the wall so I couldn't get the step stool there to move the fabric. I ended up using the bunk bed ladder to climb up and toss the tulle over the top. Then I adjusted it in front and worked from the inside of the bed to get it lined up the way I wanted it.

I ended up with 2 different looks. One where the whole bed is covered and Tristyn will find the opening and crawl in. The other has tie backs so it looks more like a canopy bed. 

My husband said it looks like mosquito netting. Asked what is she going to do with it and called it her fort. All I care about is that I hope it will be a fun place she wants to read stories, play with her stuffed "friends" and to sleep in. We'll find out pretty soon.

Carol