Cardboard Bunk Bed

For the past couple of days, Emily has been thumbing

the pages of old Christmas toy catalogs, picking out gifts

for her wish list. We don't buy many toys online but I like

having the catalogs in the house because there are so

many good ideas in them for adapting to handmade versions.

One of the items that made it to Emily's wish list was a set

of bunk beds for her dolls. I'd considered buying these

last Christmas but the ones I'd seen had as many bad

as good reviews, usually with adjectives like "flimsy" or

expressions like "you get what you pay for (and not

in a good way)". In other words, they might as well

have been made out of cardboard.

Literally.

So yesterday morning while Emily was in school, I cut up the

particularly sturdy box we'd been using for Kate's easel

(she'd lost interest in it and preferred to eat the crayons)

and made these bunk beds.

They are essentially two flat box-shaped beds supported by

4 dowels at the corners. I cut out a heart from the headboard

and stuck it on the footboard - that was the only embellishment.

With Jenna hanging on to my hair and Kate trying to grab

at my supplies, I finally gave up about an hour and a half

later and went to pick Emily up from school.

After lunch and while the kids were napping, I continued work.

First, the ladder - probably the part of the

project I enjoyed the most!

It's made of craft sticks hot-glued together. The hooks are

florist's wire bent into shape with pliers and then hot-glued

onto the top ends of the ladder. Upon hindsight, oversize

garment hook fasteners look almost identical.

But anyway, the hooks allow the ladder to be used

anywhere along the rails of the upper bunk

or the footboard.

And because I lack the common sense needed to keep

projects simple, I spent the rest of the napping

hour making bedlinen.

and discovered a way to bind the blankets without basting,

sheer laziness being the mother of improvisation. I suspect,
though, that those talented quilting folks out there
might already know this.

Here are Suzie and Lana asleep in their new beds

(although Lana never closes her eyes).

As expected, the girls immediately fought over their new

cardboard toy. But not because they both wanted the

top bunk. Jenna wanted to play the traditional way but Emily
removed all the bedlinen. She folded the blankets, put away
the pillows, rolled up the mattresses, secured them with
rubber bands and proceeded to play Slumberland and go
furniture shopping. Children!

I apologize if anyone would have liked a tutorial for this.

Often when I am working with cardboard, the process is

so disorganized and non-linear that it is almost

impossible to document. And completely pointless

to photograph. I am, however, happy to roughly describe

what I did if anyone is interested to make this for

themselves. Just leave a comment to say so, or email me!