Ultimate Kids Bed?

After reading Roberts post about being scared, I thought I would post this. I am a long ways from making any kind of bed for my daughter, but being our first child, and now having a brand new room for her, I was researching some ideas for her new bedroom. I want her bedroom to be something special for a very special girl. (As many of you know I am in the midst of building a pretty big addition onto our home. Currently it is a one bedroom home, soon to be a four bedroom home so that is why I am so excited.)

Well as I researched some design options, I came across this website. These bed layouts are pretty big, but Alyson's room will be 16 x 12 clear space (her walk in closet is outside these dimensions) so I think I could do something like this and make it fit.

What do you guys think? I am eying the Candy Store Theme pretty hard, but would love to build the castle themed bed. Still I am not sure how they gave the bed its three dimensional look. There are a few other bed themes too to look at that some of you might be interested in for your little ones.

Okay for some reason I could not post a link or picture tonight, but here is the link spelled out. The second link is for the bedroom set I would like to make.

http://www.customplayhouses.com/Theme Beds/Pirateshipbed.htm

http://www.customplayhouses.com/Theme Beds/fairytalecottagebed.htm

PS if any one can fix these links and make them work, please do. I do not know why its not working for me tonight. Sorry

I for one think what ever you want to try is doable. When I get a look at a big job, it can be threatening. How do we logically look at a project, a big project, and know that we can do it.? ( I am starting a thread for this thought) Okay-done-...
Consider the words of a not so well liked man, "Divide and conquer".
The big job is just that...........BIG... but... broken into smaller pieces it becomes a job of one piece at a time. How do you elevate the bed to the height you want? How big is the bed? Figure how much space you need surrounding the bed in order to make up the sheets ( how much wall to wall space do you need) and still promote safety for the little ones? AH now we have some preliminary inside dimensions, and so on. We are on our way Travis...Dream on!!!!!!!!!

Still I am not sure how they gave the bed its three dimensional look.

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I would think that some cut out ply or mdf shapes would achieve the 3D look of the castle stones.

It's something you could build yourself easy enough. A big project, but nothing really technical. A bit of thought needed on how to construct it so it can be assembled in the room, but nothing too tricky.

Cheers

Ian

Travis Johnson said:

What do you guys think? I am eying the Candy Store Theme pretty hard, but would love to build the castle themed bed. ( That is the kind of talk that great projects are made of! "Shaz 2007" ) Still I am not sure how they gave the bed its three dimensional look. ( I have a degree to teach art, Kindergarten to 12th grade so I can help there, no smoke , no mirrors, just some applied cutout pieces and a few different tones of paint and you owe me 500 internet points. Seriously that is all it takes and voila...A CASTLE!!!!! ) There are a few other bed themes too to look at that some of you might be interested in for your little ones.

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You can do it Travis, we can help, when you have time.
Shaz

You know I was putting some thought into this today (when you are putting 10,000 cedar shingles on the side of your house, you have a tendency to mull things over). Anyway as cool as all those beds on that website are, they all have one fault I cannot seem to get around.

They are all existing, built structures. I would be merely copying someone elses ideas and I really don't like to do that.

I was thinking where Alyson has a Toy Cradle/ Toybox and its going to be in her new room, what happens if I change the layout of the Candy Shoppe Bed and make it into a caboose? I was thinking that would go with the train theme rather nicely.

The basic layout would be the same, ladder going up to a caboose cupola, and a slide coming down. Then where the bed is, that would be "inside" the caboose. I would have to somehow attach the wheel sets to make it caboose-like, but right now I am just trying to figure out a basic caboose theme.

I will attach a picture of what my existing cradle looks like so you can see what I am talking about, and then a picture of the caboose shape I would like to use.

Any thoughts or ideas on this new bed twist of an idea?

Travis Johnson said:

You know I was putting some thought into this today (when you are putting 10,000 cedar shingles on the side of your house, you have a tendency to mull things over). Anyway as cool as all those beds on that website are, they all have one fault I cannot seem to get around.

They are all existing, built structures. I would be merely copying someone else's ideas and I really don't like to do that.

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I completely understand you. I'm not big on copying people either, though there is nothing wrong with using them for inspiration.

But as cool as all of those beds are, and they are cool, I have another fault for you to think about. Your children will only enjoy the beds for so long before they either grow out of it or just get bored with it all together.

If that doesn't deter you, I don't see any reason why you couldn't do it, I'm sure converting that caboose picture into a cool bed design shouldn't be too hard.

Travis Johnson said:

They are all existing, built structures. I would be merely copying someone elses ideas and I really don't like to do that. (That is very exciting to hear, mainly because you are a fantastic person with great ideas and personal preferences that need live in your world.)...S

I was thinking where Alyson has a Toy Cradle/ Toybox and its going to be in her new room, what happens if I change the layout of the Candy Shoppe Bed and make it into a caboose? I was thinking that would go with the train theme rather nicely. Sweet thought!!

The basic layout would be the same, ladder going up to a caboose cupola, and a slide coming down. Then where the bed is, that would be "inside" the caboose. I would have to somehow attach the wheel sets to make it caboose-like, but right now I am just trying to figure out a basic caboose theme. You are on the best kind of ride. Thinking about the construction of something you CAN do for someone you really care about.

I will attach a picture of what my existing cradle looks like so you can see what I am talking about, and then a picture of the caboose shape I would like to use.

Any thoughts or ideas on this new bed twist of an idea? I like it, alot!!!...Shaz

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Allen Grimes said:

I completely understand you. I'm not big on copying people either, though there is nothing wrong with using them for inspiration. I agree with you Allen 100%!! Well put!...S

But as cool as all of those beds are, and they are cool, I have another fault for you to think about. Your children will only enjoy the beds for so long before they either grow out of it or just get bored with it all together.

If that doesn't deter you, I don't see any reason why you couldn't do it, I'm sure converting that caboose picture into a cool bed design shouldn't be too hard.

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It is an exciting project to think about. Push on
Shaz