Thursday, May 24, 2012

Bunk beds and bobbleheads

Our home only has three bedrooms so when we were expecting Brynn we knew that Molly and Stocky would have to share rooms.  The rooms are not big so we also knew that we would want to do bunk beds. (We could fit two beds but then there would be no room for anything like a dresser or bookcase.)  We didn't want to spend a lot but we wanted beds that were sturdy and would last a long time.  The solution?  Justin was going to make the beds.  He found a good deal on some raw lumber on KSL and was able to use his friend's shed to build most of them.  They took a lot of time!!  They are pretty awesome though...
He designed them himself, just sketched what he liked and then started building.  He distressed them himself and stained them as well.  For extra storage he found an old dresser at the DI...he used the drawers but just covered them with beadboard and put them at the bottom.  Pretty cool, huh?  This is what they looked like pre-distress and stain:
He's a pretty talented guy.  The beds also come apart if we ever decide to just have two twin beds. (It looks like he put two headboards together in this picture.  If we decide to just have two twin beds, we'd use a headboard from the bottom bunk and a footboard from the top bunk.  So it would made the footboard shorter than the headboard, if that makes sense.)
The kids love them. Molly was so excited about sleeping on the top bunk that she wasn't even sad about leaving her girly room (we re-painted Stockton's room to make it more neutral and let Brynn have Molly's purple room).  The transition from crib to bed was really hard on Stocky but he's good now-he should be since these have been done for one year now.

Did you know that bunk beds are for more than just sleeping in?  They make awesome forts...
...and basketball backboards...
...and pirate ships, and club headquarters for your friends, and helicopters, and anything else your imagination can come up with!

Oh, and if you have extra wood?  How 'bout a bookcase for Molly on the top bunk?  This is Molly's special space.
 
Or some frames to fill up the super big wall that you didn't know what to do with.
So, there you go, now you can all see how much talent my hubby has...now I'm going to fill you in on a little secret.  He collects bobbleheads.  See:
He has 30 but the collection is growing.  He keeps them up high where the kids can't break them, on a ledge in our bedroom.
 
The kids love when he gets a new one.  He's been collecting them for a few years now.  Molly used to call them "Daddies." Occasionally they come down from their ledge and we all get to admire them.  I don't know where they will go when there is no more room on the ledge.  Maybe Justin can use his woodworking skills and build a shelf or something for them. Hehe.

2 comments:

Megan said...

Ummm I am super impressed with Justin's bunk beds! They look awesome! Can he build us some? I always loved having bunk beds when I was little. There really was so much you could do with them and some imagination! ;)

The picture of Stockton aleep in the rocking chair is hilarious. And Evan always using our tennis rackets to play the 'guitar' too. How does he even know how to do that?

When we got Anna her shot she was EXCITED! Only because they were 'kindergarten' shots and she is sooo excited for kindergarten. SHe wasn't so excited and happy AFTER she got them, however ;)

rupee40 said...

The bunk beds ARE amazing. But the most interesting part of this post to me is the bobble heads. How did I not know about that collection? This opens up a whole new realm of gift giving :)! Too, too funny. Love you guys. It was so fun to have you hear to just play for the day.