The Loft Bed Project – Part 1

Last week, my wife asked me to build a loft bed for her daughter (my stepdaughter).  This wasn’t her first request.  She’s been after me for some time to get this one done.  However, due to the tense political environment in our household, there was no way for me to launch this project until I had at least completed painting my daughter’s bedroom.  So, after her bedroom was painted, and before I had a moment to rest, my wife’s requests for a loft bed increased in both urgency and frequency.

I had ample exposure to loft beds in college, but that was many moons ago.  Most of my exposure consisted of sleeping on or near a loft bed, but I have no prior loft bed building experience to draw from.  In keeping with the majority of these little projects I get roped into, I have no real plan to follow and I didn’t want to spend much money getting it done.

When I purchased the paint for my daughter’s bedroom, the paint had a $15 rebate per gallon.  I purchased two gallons for my daughter’s room, and my wife picked up two gallons for her daughter’s room.  The total purchase price for the four gallons of paint was $100, but we netted $60 dollars in rebates.  What made this an even better deal is that we actually needed the paint and would have bought it even if the rebate deal wasn’t on.  What do my rambling about paint rebates have to do with building a loft bed, you ask?  The $60 dollars netted from the rebates would end up buying the bulk of the materials needed to build the loft bed.  George Peppard would say in the (now seemingly cheesy) 80’s action show the A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together.

After five or so minutes of intensive measuring and pensive pondering, I had a plan and a materials list to build a twin-sized loft bed.  We removed the seats from the manly-van and headed to the local home improvement store to pick up the goods.

Here’s my loft bed materials list:

• 14 – 2×4’s (Since the loft bed was to be painted, I wasn’t overly concerned with the grading.  The studs just had to be straight and fairly clear of blemishes)  – These were about $2/each. – $28
• 1 – 4X8 sheet of decent 1/2″ plywood. – $16
• 4 – 1×4’s – These cost about $2.50 each. – $10
• 4 – 2×2’s – These were cheap (and all warped as hell) at about $1 each. – $4
• 30 – 5′ carriage bolts, nuts, and washers.  – $14

The total materials cost for the loft bed came to $72 (or $12 after the magical $60 rebate was applied).  Not too shabby.

With the back of the manly-van riding low, my wife and I headed home.  She assured me repeatedly that her daughter will be so excited.  It was becoming more and more obvious that this was a project that would need to be completed sooner than later.  There was no way that the materials were going to be stacked in the corner of the garage awaiting a finer hour.  The loft bed project has begun.

More to come…