I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I recently undertook a project that I thought was worth sharing. It wasn’t that hard, gives my girls great joy, and is highly functional. Mrs. Bee has even blogged about some of the hacks that gave me inspiration.

We bought the Ikea Kura bed, with the idea of using it as a bunk bed. Jack Jack could have a Montessori style floor bed on the ground as she transitioned to a big girl bed, and Little Jack has earned her “bed in the sky” by moving from our room to her own bed.  One of my biggest worries in using this bed was safety. I was especially concerned about little kids using the ladder. Luckily, we saw a number of hackers using an alternate solution that we loved. They were using the Ikea Trofast storage system as stairs. This felt much safer to me and the kids love it!

The instructions to do this hack are really very simple.

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– We picked a color scheme and bought spray paint prior bed assembly.

– We identified a day with relatively calm winds and went out into the driveway, spread a tarp, and spray painted the white panels in our desired colors. Some people prep the panels by sanding, but we found that not to be necessary with the paint we used. Despite our best efforts, the dark colors we chose showed every speck that landed on the panels.

– Once they were dry, we brought them inside and washed them down gently with a damp cloth to get rid of all the dust that we tried to avoid.

– At this point we assembled the bed according to Ikea’s instructions. Side note: We call Ikea “god” with a little g in our house because those instructions are exacting and always correct, no matter how ill-fated you think they might be. So as we assemble, we also joke that “god” was telling us to do the next step.

– After the regular assembly was complete, we placed a standard tension shower curtain rod at the opening to the lower level.  We found that it didn’t stay up very well with a 2 year old entering and exiting her bed area. In order to strengthen the placement, we added closet doweling cups to hold up the tension rod. It hasn’t fallen once since we did that!

– We then purchased a cloth shower curtain that matched the colors that we were using. We folded it in half and secured it with safety pins.  Someone more crafty than I might take the time to sew a real curtain.  I thought about it, but this temporary method looked good and will allow us to re-purpose the shower curtain at a later date, so we just left it as it was.

– We used Ikea Vyssa Slummer mattresses, but if we had to do it over, we would have gotten twin mattresses that don’t break down, as it is harder to make the bed on the top bunk because the mattress breaks apart while you are trying to get the fitted sheet on.

– Assemble the Trofast according to Ikea’s magical instructions.

Here’s a different view of how the Jacks’ girls pond themed bed turned out!

I re-purposed the banner from Little Jack’s 3rd birthday party to hang above the bed.  The girls love it and think it is magical, and I feel good about recycling everything!

Have you furniture hacked?