Our four boys matching double bunk beds recently succumbed to being used abused by four boys for 12 or so years, and I have always wanted to make them a pair of triple bunk beds for when friends come over. The broken pieces of a bed that had survived numerous military moves finally gave me the jump start I needed to finally get this job done. After about a day of measuring, pondering, and configuring, I came up with what I thought were good dimensions for the project. I increased the height of the corner posts to seven feet to allow for a higher top bunk, and squished the bunks a little tighter together as well. This ended up giving me a 26” gap between the bunks. When I build the next one, I will cut this down to 24” between each and give a little room room to the top bunk. Trial and error I guess. I added a 2x2 all the way around the bottom because although I wanted it very low, I didn’t want anyone feeling like they were sleeping on the ground, but I also didn’t want some 1” or 2” gap below the bottom bunk for balls, cars, and LEGOs to be lost. The guardrail was shortened a little based on what wood I had left at the end. The ladder I decided to build upright/no angle, which necessitated that I fashion the ladder myself out of some strip of metal that I think is meant for some sort of roofing purpose. Oh well, it worked. I wanted to do this because the bed is meant to be able to be disassembled, and if I had simply screwed the ladder to the bed, it would have gone against the “disassemble-bility” of the project. Last thing to note, the barn red staining was quite messy and a huge time investment, so although I stated it took 10-20 hours, probably 12 of the 20 hours was in the staining. We are all thrilled with the look of it though, so I guess it was worth it in the end. I hope this project was worth the read. Enjoy!
