Here's some ideas on how to make an original, one-of-a-kind bed for a child. We made a Castle bed for our daughter in an attempt to get her to sleep in her own bed, rather than our bed and it worked!
It really was simple enough to make. We got 2 sheets of 8ft x 4ft of MDF, cut 2ft off the end so it measured 6ft by 4ft high and cut out some narrow casement windows, some spaces for the turrets and space half-way along at one side so she could climb in easily. Then it was simply a case of sanding off any rough edges and applying a layer of primer and undercoat.
The only paint I bought for it was the grey base, every other paint were either from left-over pots of paint or the remains of sample pots. As our daughter loves pink, she insisted on having pink turrets!
When it was finished, I gave it two coats of varnish to ensure the paint wouldn't be scratched and it was screwed to the divan base of her bed.
There were two double wardrobes in her bedroom, both with white melamine doors. I removed one door and created more shelves, painting each shelf area a different colour (having given them a light sand and a prime first). These shelves are brilliant for storage and she can reach them either from standing on the floor or on her Castle bed!
I then painted each door a different colour and varnished it all twice, again to ensure the paint wouldn't become scratched. This worked really well although the melamine required four coats of paint plus the two coats of varnish so it was quite time-consuming.
Our daughter is now 4 and a half and has been making noises that she is out-growing her Castle bed. However, since we visited Euro Disney in January, she absolutely loves it and seems to equate it with Sleeping Beauty's Castle!
Lorna blogs about her interior design business, their dairy farm and their two wonderful children at Garrendenny Lane.
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Great! We're in the process of trying to get our son to do the same! Definitely helps to have a cool bed!
Love the castle bed. It looks like it wasn't difficult to do. I have all kinds of great ideas like this, but my follow-through is not as present. So, ideas stay ideas. Great job and the bed looks like a fairy tale. I would have loved to sleep there as a little girl.
oh.my.word.
this is the most incredible thing i've seen in awhile. hooray for you, super cool mom! totally impressive!! even i'd love to sleep in that bed!
Many thanks for your comments, it really was easy to make, just rather time-consuming but it was a hot summer here once upon a time and I took advantage of the good weather to paint this outside and then I couldn't feel guilty as I was working!!
We do get the opportunity to sleep in it occasionally – on the occasional night when both of them end up in our bed and one of us gives up and heads to one of their beds!