My daughter is finally a teenager. Actually, she has been for a couple months now. Her room however, is a disaster. Not only is it so full, cluttered and messy – it still has so much from when she was much younger. This week is April vacation week and I was determined to make her room a priority. Next my craft room! But for now the focus is on her room. Not only am I cleaning it out but I am working to make it a room that a teenager can be proud of and hopefully want to take care of.
She had a bunk bed – the same bunk bed set that our oldest sons had 25 years ago! This isn’t the exact bed but it was similar to this one – but when our sons had it, it wasn’t new and had already seen several years somewhere else. It was a very sturdy bunk bed – it had to have been used 30-35 years.
It has served our family for literally decades – the bottom bunk was full size and the top – twin. Perfect for our family. And for use we threw a trundle underneath for even more sleeping options. But, for the last couple years she has been using the top bunk to store everything she possibly can. It was like a black hole and not easy for me to get up there and clean it off. And see how tall that bunk is? Ours was even more tall so – another opportunity for stuff to disappear.
First and foremost, my plan was to get rid of the bunk bed. Problem is we actually have three sets of bunk beds – what other bed was I going to give her? And did I really want a same old same old style bed? I thought about making one, but lumber is expensive and since I need to buy 100 bales of hay this week for the horses – that wasn’t an option. But what to do – I wanted it to be a bed that would be memorable and her favorite bed ever. But it needed to be just about free… Just sayin’…
It doesn’t help that my son put the pressure on. I have redone his room so many times. He is autistic and you would think that would mean he doesn’t want his room changed around. But nope – he gets bored after a month and we start over. Lots of work but it is a forced clean-out session on a monthly basis. Anyway, his feeling is that I always come up with the most awesome bedrooms!
This is the result…
Okay so I purchased 6 pallets for 5 dollars each. That was about 4 pallets too many for what I needed. Don’t worry, I will definitely use them for something else. They are perfect to build a deck for our camper at the campground. These are the exact pallets I wanted. They are about 100 pounds each and very heavy duty. Nothing is going to break these pallets. Note all the hay in the truck bed – yup, hay is always everywhere for us.
So what did we do? We placed two pallets side by side – her head will be at the left of the photo, not the top of the photo. Though of course she could easily choose to sleep that way if she wants. So two pallets – $10. Then I grabbed a string of holiday lights that we already had and lit up under the pallets. The slots are perfect for books and DVDs – just the right size. We didn’t fill all the openings with books though because we wanted some light to shine through – the other side is completely open and lots of light shines through.
The mattress is a full size futon – we needed to throw out the mattresses from the bunk bed. They had seen far better days. The futon was from a different bunk bed that we had. The bins (sitting on the extended section of pallets) are the oversized bins from Five Below. I needed to fill that section with a headboard of some sort and preferably storage. I originally thought about wooden crates but those were $12 each – What?! No way that was happening. I could have bought a bed for that price. Instead those huge bins only cost $25. The mats underneath were picnic mats I already owned and since they are black and white, they matched perfectly.
In total, this bed only cost $35 and we are all so pleased with it. Now I just need a plan for the rest of the room. Funny thing is her rolltop desk and two pieces of furniture are a seabreeze/mediterranean color. I refinished those a few years ago. Now I wish they were black… Who knows, maybe eventually they will be black. Here is a link to her rolltop desk refinishing process; a small dresser; the desk chair; and lastly her bedside table…