A while back I blogged about the new bunk bed we built from a steel shelf for the kids. You can read all about it here. For a couple of reasons, we still have not moved Jack to the bottom bunk a year and a half later, but it is all ready for him as soon as the cold weather is gone! Also, Jayla did not have her own room very long. It just wasn't practical for us, so they all share a room now (we have only 2 bedrooms). Jonathan has taken over Jayla's bed because he is bigger and weighs more so he needs the bigger mattress. The bed (shelf) itself though is plenty big enough for him, but he loves having more room. He is now on a day bed, a girl's bed, but I don't think he cares. :)
So a slight modification we made was we just took off the bottom shelf and laid the foam mattress directly on the floor. It will be a little safer and easier for Jack, plus it gives the bottom bed a guard rail as well. I also finally sewed up some twin size flat sheets so that they slip over the mattresses like pillow cases. They work WONDERFULLY!!!! The bottom mattress in the picture does not have a sheet on it yet, so you can see how I covered the mattresses with black contractor-strength trash bags. The kids have not complained once about sleeping on plastic! Even though they have sheets and blankets, I assumed I would hear whining after a while about the noise from the plastic or that it is hot, etc. but nothing! They still love their bed a year and a half later, and it allows for much more floor space to get messed up, I mean, to play on! Oh, and they love having those plastic shelves right on their beds for all their personal items. They don't have much in them at the moment, but those things can hold a lot!
And here is the rest of their room. There is no way we could have fit 4 regular beds in here, or even two regular bunk beds!
That's it! (Um, please ignore the carpet stains and unfinished painting on walls!) Not much space, huh? But it is enough. They often play in the living room or the garage that we recently cleaned out and plan to turn into a family room "someday", so they are certainly not confined to this small area! We have a pretty decent-sized yard too. It has been way too cold to even think about going out there the last couple of weeks, but usually they love playing outside.
Anyway, that is their shelf bed that I wanted to show again as well as their clean room. It's not pretty, but it hasn't been this clean in quite a while, so I had to get pictures of it fast! ;)
I must say, I still think that was a very clever idea ... glad it's working out so well too! I know all about small spaces, but my goodness woman - I can't imagine having four kids in a two bedroom home! Wow!!! And here I am trying to get a four bedroom cause our three bedroom is "too small" for four kids!
ReplyDeleteWow, you have such great ideas for making the most of space! We have just the two bedrooms, too, so we're all in one for the moment and the other room is our office/storage. But I'll check back with you if/when we want to make it into a bedroom for multiple kids! :)
ReplyDelete