Author Topic: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.  (Read 4136 times)

Longwaytogo

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Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« on: December 26, 2015, 02:09:49 PM »
So I built my youngest her "big girl bed" that I have been promising her for a few months. Only instead of starting with a pile of lumber and building it in my Dad's shop I started with her existing furniture and carried our portable table saw up into her bedroom.

The room is pretty small and I wanted to leave a decent amount of floor space for them to play. So I envisioned sort of a bed/storage combo but did not want it to get too tall since she's only 3 and pretty short. She's never really fallen out of bed or anything just did not want to do the ladder/rail captains bed type thing.

Anyway, whole thing cost me like $10 for some hinges I bought for the "toy box" part and I fell like it turned out pretty good. Daughter defintley loves it, she played in her room all day when I finished it and could not wait to show her cousins and grandparents on Christmas Eve.

Here is the before pictures of the furniture I started with. A basic 3 drawer dresser, a similar sized piece with 1 drawer and 2 shelves, a changing table with one shelf and a sliding door, and a crib.


Longwaytogo

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Re: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2015, 02:16:45 PM »
So here will be the finished product. Pictures look pretty dark as it was sunny when I took the before and cloudy today when I took the afters. It looks a little better when you click on them, thumbnails look really dark.

I re-used the 3 drawer unit basically intact and built everything else around it. The section behind it I turned into a toy box (reusing the sliding door from the changing table as the lid) type area and a little table for her lamp which I drilled a hole in to run cord.

Not shown in the pics is the old crib rails are the support for the mattress. This should be fine with her current weight, if it ever seems to be sagging I could snag a piece of plywood to reinforce over top.

Underneath the bed is a 4th drawer and two areas for shoes.

It was a really fun project and I felt pretty creative for the re-use. Actually proved to be faster in addition to being cheaper since I was able to re-use all the pieces with their finished sides out and just did minimal sanding around the cuts. It could probably stand a light sanding and quick coat of Poly but mostly looks pretty good. Had I built it all with raw wood/plywood the finishing process alone would have added another 4-6 hours plus 2-3 days dry time.

As it is I built it in about 12 hours spread over 3 days with 75% of it being done on the middle day.
« Last Edit: December 26, 2015, 02:18:50 PM by Longwaytogo »

pbkmaine

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Re: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2015, 02:20:42 PM »
Nice!


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Thegoblinchief

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Re: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2015, 05:03:48 PM »
Sweet!


MsGuided

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Re: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« Reply #5 on: December 26, 2015, 11:56:58 PM »
My favorite is using things you already have to meet changing needs. Very cool and resourceful, LWTG! 

Squirrel away

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Re: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2015, 12:43:33 AM »
Very clever.:)

HappierAtHome

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Re: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« Reply #7 on: December 27, 2015, 05:03:50 AM »
Very cool!

Longwaytogo

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Re: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2015, 10:15:56 PM »
Very clever.:)
Very cool!
My favorite is using things you already have to meet changing needs. Very cool and resourceful, LWTG!

Thank guys! It was a lot of fun to boot.

Next up I'm going to try and make a pallet wall covering area for kids to display their art work.

andy85

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Re: Built daughter "new" bed from recycled furniture.
« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2015, 07:10:23 AM »
Sweet! You gotta love reusing material! Very nice work.