Front Frame

Starting with the front frame, attach the 78” vertical bed posts together with the top horizontal support. The posts will be turned in so that the 1 ½” edge is on face with the front panel. The 77” top piece is attached using 2 ½” pockethole screws drilled from the underside and wood glue on the insides of the bed posts and is also turned so that the 1 ½” edge is on face.

Next, the other two 77” horizontal frame pieces will be attached on the inside of the posts. These will be turned on their sides, with the widest face of the board facing out (on my first go round, I had them turned the other way, which gave no structural integrity to the bed rails. Don’t do that.). The middle board is screwed in and glued at 25 ½” down from the bottom of the first board, and the bottom board gets screwed in and glued at 30 ½” from the bottom of the middle board. These pocketholes should be screwed in from the back of the frame and the 2x4’s should sit flush with the front edge of the bed posts.
Last for the frame, the two vertical 2x4 pieces that will frame out the bottom opening are screwed in with pocketholes as well, each at 26” from the inside edge of the bed posts (this should leave a center opening of 25”). h

Check for level on all boards.

Mattress Cleats 

Attach the 2x2 rails that will be used to support the mattress slats to the bottom and middle 2x4 horizontal boards on the inside of the frame. Using 2 ¼” screws pre-drilled and countersunk every 15”, and wood glue the entire length, attach the bottom rail flush with the bottom edge of the lower board, and for the middle section, attach the 2x2 rail so that it is flush with the top of the middle board. This will give a little more head room in the lower bunk area.

Front Inside Trim

Attach trim pieces to vertical posts. Using 2 ¼” screws, again, pre-drill and countersink the edge trim into the bed posts. For the Front Panel, They are attached with the wide edge facing out and these edge pieces will be flush with the front face of the bed frame. 

Front Upper Paneling Window Cutouts

Panel construction: Beginning with the upper portion, if you would like arched windows, you will need to measure and cut arches into this board. If you are okay with square windows you can skip this step. To figure out height and width of the arches, I used a very complicated method:

First you measure 15 3/4 inches in from the edge of your board and mark it. Then, you measure another 13 ½ inches from that mark and make a line. You now have the width of your arch measured. Do this exact same thing starting from the opposite end of the board measuring inward. The window openings will be even from the edges, and you should have an 18 ½ inch space in the center between the two marks.

Now find something big and round. I found a flower pot from something I let die hanging out in my driveway. You want a large enough circle so that you will get a slight arch and won’t be cutting too high into your board. Line your object up so that it is within your two marks and trace around it. Voila! A perfect arch!

My advice here is to cut out one side with a jigsaw, then take that scrap and use it to trace your next arch for the other window. I did not do this and my window arches ended up being slightly off, which made for trouble when I tried to make identical shutters. Bottom line: however you get your arch, whether you trace around a garbage can, pizza pan, or dreamcatcher- make sure it matches the second one. You can’t really tell from looking at my finished bed that they are uneven, but trimming it out was a real pain.

NOTE: Short panel pieces on outsides of top windows are 15" long. 15 3/4" long marks the start of the optional arch cutouts.

Upper Window Sills

Next you will be creating a window sill. Stand up your panel and lean it against something sturdy to work. Starting with the upper section, measure the width of you windows. If your cutting is correct, they should be 15 inches wide. Using the 20 inch 2x4 for the sill piece, you are going to create a notch on each end that is roughly 2 ½ “ long and ¾” wide. Mark your board lengthwise on center and also mark two lines at 2 ½” in from each edge. Carefully measure 3/8” out from the center line on each side and mark lengthwise.

Cut out this rectangular shaped notch with a jigsaw and dry fit into your window opening. It should lie flat resting on the board below the window space and each notch should secure it to the adjacent panel pieces. It took me a little effort to get a nice fit; a little tweaking might be required.

When you are finished, glue the sill into place on all edges and use your nailgun to secure it into position. Do this for each upper window.

Lower Window Sills

Now for the lower windows, this is more of the same. The lower window opening should measure ten inches wide, therefore the sill piece will be 2x4x15 inches wide. Again, a 2 ½” x ¾” notch on center will complete the lower sills. Glue and nail into place.

Window Side Trim

Trimming out the windows: The upper and lower windows are trimmed out with 1x2 material. When it came time to trim out my windows, instead of painting and precutting each piece, I chose to paint a 1x2x8 at length, cut as I needed, and touched up as I went. Due to the nature of trim work, things never seem to go perfect, and trim pieces end up a hair to long or too short so I opted to measure and cut as I went versus having too short of boards that end up in the scrap bin.

Starting with the interior edge of the window, measure the length from the top of the window sill to the top of the window opening. If you made arches, your trim will fit in that nice little ¾” space. The top windows should measure roughly 9 ½” tall and the lower window interior trim should measure roughly 13” tall. Glue the trim on either side of the window opening, keeping the outside facing edges flush and nailing into place.

Using more 1x2 material, the face trim will be added on each side of the windows. The measurements for length will be the same as the interior trim, also nailed and glued and kept flush the edge of the interior trim edge. When you are finished nailing and gluing, the sides of the windows will be secure and smooth.

Arch Trim

To trim out the top of the windows I used a 1x4 board cut to the width of the outside trim. Again, for the upper windows, this board should be roughly 16 ½” wide and for the lower windows, it should measure 11 ½” wide. Fit it into place so it rests on top of the trim, and with a pencil, trace the arch pattern from the window opening onto the back of your board.

To get the outside arch, I measured ½” up from the bottom edge of the board and drew another arch freehanded. I tried to keep an even 1 ½” width all the way around. It is not that hard, but if you are intimidated, there is always finding another circular object to trace. Cut out both of these lines with your jigsaw and sand the edges smooth. I swear my lines were *perfect* because I’m crazy like that. But after I got went to town with my jigsaw it didn’t seem to matter much anyway; even at my best, I was all over the place ( I blame it on my blade). Needless to say, it took some serious sanding to get things nice and even.

Now if you made your windows square, things just got a whole lot easier because all you need is a piece of 1x2 cut to length.

Use glue and a nailgun secure the top trim into place on all four windows.

Boom! That’s it. Your front panel is finished! If you want to add shutters and window boxes you can add them next. I advise holding off on the roof and pergola till the end- those extras will follow later in the plan. There’s no getting through a doorway with the roof installed and a pergola hanging off the front! Take some time to look over your finished panel to make sure there are no nailheads sticking out. Use a nail set to put them below grade. Fill nail holes, sand any rough edges, touch up paint, and so on.

Rear Panel Framing

The rear panel frame is assembled identically to the front panel. The 78” vertical posts will be attached with the horizontal top piece using 2 ½” pockethole screws and glue.

The middle horizontal frame piece is screwed in at 25 ½” below the top piece using pockethole screws drilled from the backside of the frame and also lying flush with the outside post edges. The bottom frame will be attached at 30 ½” from below the middle piece in the same manner.

Rear Panel Trim

Attach the four trim pieces. 25 ½” 1x2’s in the upper section and 30 ½” 1x2’s in the lower section. They should be pre drilled, countersunk, glued, and screwed with 2 ¼” wood screws so that they sit flush with the rear of the panel frame.

Attaching the rails

Again, these rails are attached in the same manner as you did with the front panel. Glue, pre-drill and countersink 2 ¼” wood screws every 15 inches across the rails to secure them. The bottom rail sits flush with the bottom edge of the 2x4 frame and the top rail sits flush with the top edge of the 2x4 frame.

Assembling the rear panel sections:

Now this should be really easy, after all it’s just horizontally stacked boards nailed into place. However, unlike the front panel, these boards are not broken up by center sections and extra trim. Because these panels are so long, the boards tend to be a little flimsy and want to sag in the middle. I solved this problem by using pockethole screws to join the boards on the back side.

This time, when you lay the panel down, the “pretty side” will be facing you. With your trim already in place, you can dry fit the boards to see how they will fit within the space. For the upper section, I used three, solid 1x6’s at 77” long to fill the bottom portion below the shelf. For the space above the shelf, instead of solid boards, I used scraps left over from my other cuts. I primed and painted scrap boards in four different colors, distressed the edges, then joined them together at random with 1 ½” pockethole screws on the back, giving the panel a color-block effect. This saved some money and used up a large amount of scrap that would otherwise still have been sitting on my patio. If you choose to do this, keep in mind that you want to be consistent with board size; I used 1x4 material all the way across for one row, and 1x6 material for the second.

With your boards fitted into place, remove them from the section and turn them over. Using your Kreg Jig, drill pocketholes along the top and bottom edge of your boards roughly every 15”. Alternate the pockethole placement on each row to get a solid panel. Glue and screw your panel pieces together. Wipe the excess glue before it dries.

Also, I drilled pocketholes on the ends of the boards. This rear panel is heavy!! Because of the weight of the boards, the panel almost wants to sag in the middle, so I made sure to place pocketholes along the outer edges for a solid frame attachment.

This was time consuming and I burned through 1 ½” pocket screws rather quick, but the panel ended up strong and sturdy. To attach your boards to your panel, you will need to stand it up while you secure the section with pockethole screws. Use a scrap block to make sure your boards are flush with the interior edge while you glue and screw.

For the lower section, you want to create your panel in the same manner. Dry fit your boards, drill pocketholes around the edges, and glue and screw until you have one large plank. Notice the board size on the bottom section; it is made up of (4) 1x4’s and (3) 1x6’s all at 77” long. For the color-blocking on the bottom section, I used (2) 1x6 boards, making my shelf just a few inches lower than the upstairs bunk. I did that because there is limited headroom in the lower section and figured a lower sitting shelf would be better. Totally up to you.

Attaching the Shelf

The shelf is so simple, yet adds so much to the inside of the bed. In order to attach the shelf across the bed, I made simple brackets by cutting down piece of 1x4 and making 45 degree cuts.
Start with a board and measure 3 ½”. This measurement will be the long side of he angled piece. Adjust your miter saw to cut a 45 degree angle. You will get a perfect right triangle. Then, trim off ½” in from the point on one side, with a 90 degree straight cut. This createos a little bracket that lets a 1x4 board rest nicely on top with a ½” overhang.

Once you have made the eight brackets, find the third board down from the top of your panel. Measure 15” in from each end and mark. Attach the bracket with a nailer and glue, keeping it flush with the top edge of the third board. Measure another 15” in from the two brackets you just nailed, mark and attach the remaining two brackets for your first shelf, checking for level.

Attach the 1x4x77” shelf by gluing it to the rear panel and brackets. Use your nailer to hold it in place. Wipe any excess glue and allow it to dry.

Done! This sucker is heavy. You need a helper to move this unless you want a hernia. Keep it secure so it won’t fall over while you are working on other aspects of the plan.

Side Panels

The side panels will go up rather fast. Instead of gluing the frame pieces together, you will just be screwing them in with pockethole screws. This way, the bed can be disassembled, allowing it to be moved inside; or if you should happen to join Witness Protection and need to flee the state, you can take it down in ten minutes flat.

Measure 25 ½” down from the top of the vertical frame pieces on each panel and mark. Do this on all four vertical posts.

Find your (3) 2x4 frame pieces measuring 38” in length and pre-drill the board ends with pocketholes so they are ready to screw on the fly (I even placed the 2 ½” screws in the holes ahead of time for lightning fast drilling action).

To put the bed together, you can either lean the panel against a wall or have someone help you hold it up while you attach the frame pieces to the first panel. The panels are heavy and can be a little bit of a balancing act before you get the first side secured; that’s why I recommend having the screws in place and ready to go.

Starting with the rear panel, attach the side frame pieces on each end of your panel so that the top of the board sits flush with your marks, drilling the screws from the inside of the bed. After these two boards are in place, attach the last 38” piece to the very top of the panel’s left post. It should mount flush with the post.

Attaching Front Panel

Next, you will need to maneuver the front panel into position and screw opposite ends of the side frame pieces into place. When all three pieces are secured, you can let go!

Stair Side Framing

To attach the frame for the upper wall near the top bunk opening, find your 22” vertical piece and drill pocketholes into each end. Next, drill pocketholes into only one end of the last 18” frame piece. Join the boards together at a right angle, the 22” board should be aligned vertically, wit h the 18” piece lying horizontally across the top. Take this “L” shaped piece and screw it into the upper right side panel.

Attaching the Trim

All trim will rest flush against the outside edges of the side panels. Below the center frame support on each side panel of the bed, you will need to attach your trim pieces. Using (4) 1x2 strips cut at 49” long; pre-drill, countersink, and drill into the vertical posts with 2 ¼” screws. Remember the side panels are not glued in for this step.

Next is the trim for the upper portion of the side panels. Attach (4) 22” strips in the upper section with the same method.

Side Panels

If your boards are pre-cut and painted, this will go very fast. Using wood glue and a nail gun, from the inside of the bed, start at the top and work your way down each side. The upper sections will use (4) 1x6 boards on each side. The left panel will be 38” long and the right will only be 14 ½” long to fit that tiny half wall. Apply glue to the back side of the trim pieces and glue between the board edges while you nail the boards into place along the trim.

On the lower sections, I alternated between (6) 1x4’s and (5) 1x6’s to fill in each side until you reach the bottom of the bed. There will be a small ½” gap along the bottom of the side panels (it serves no purpose, just too small to do anything with). Wipe excess glue and allow the panels to dry.

Note: When it is time to move the bed, you can remove each panel by unscrewing the trim pieces along each post. The panel sections will come out whole and then all you have to do is disassemble the side frame. Easy Peasy!

Mattress Slats

I made the slats for the upper and lower bunks out of 1x4 and 1x6 boards cut at 41” long. I placed them close together (8-10” apart) and lined each bunk along the rails. Because this bed is slightly larger than a standard twin mattress (For good reason! Nobody wants to get bloody knuckles trying to change the sheets), the top bunk end slats need to be touching the side panels. When you enter the upstairs bunk, there will be a gap at the end of the bed. Make sure a board is in place to fill the space and create a little platform. For extra cool points: Paint the underside of the boards that line the upper bunk. The lucky child who sleeps below will be staring at those boards every night of his/her life before they drift into sleep. I painted the slats different colors from my leftover paint jars (and even cooler: cover the underside of the upper mattress with an extra fitted sheet- fun characters or something or other that kids like).