Grayson's Bunkbed

Grayson's room needed a little love. His bedroom was originally frog themed with a log furniture crib built by his Uncle T. Once his sister transitioned to a big girl bed, he transitioned into the crib I built. Time went by, and Grayson kept growing. Along the way, he started gaining an appreciation for superheroes. My wife and I proposed to him the concept of a "super cool" bunkbed for his room. He was super jazzed about the concept. I recall spending countless hours with him sitting next to me scrolling through different bedroom options. He typically wanted them all.

One of the designs that really struck a chord with me was the work of Roberto Gil of casakids.com. I loved the blend of exposed edge European plywood, with stained birch plywood - still showing the natural grain. The clean lines and contemporary look offer a sophisticated and pleasant contribution to any room.

As with all pieces I create, I leveraged SketchUp to model the piece. I find this exercise valuable on my fronts.

For one, I get to see a true representation of the piece prior to cutting any wood. Secondly, it helps me estimate the materials required to construct the piece. Third, I helps me build a true mental model of how to actually build the piece.

The provisioning fo the materials wasn't the easiest task. I struggled to find any local Denver suppliers who could get their hands on high quality European walnut plywood. I finally found a supplier, Columbia Forrest Products, who ironically sells, as special orders, through the Home Depot. The down side was that I couldn't get full 4x8 sheets (they only ship 2x8 and 4x4 sheets). The benefit of going through HD was that I got a shipping of the full order for $50 - that was to my door.

The finish on the bed is all water based. I used Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish as the top coat on all the panels. For the birch panels I went with Minwax Water Based Wood Stain.

With the extra materials from this project, I also built some floating shelves and a chest of drawers.

Project Photo Album

Here is the source Google Photo Album for this project.

Related Projects

Floating Shelves

The floating shelves were built using Amazon Floating Shelf Supports and scrap walnut plywood.

Chest of Drawers

Built the scraps from the bunkbed. Glad I ordered extra walnut!

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