A little light building

It's no secret that I kind of love Ikea. So, when the time came that we decided to upgrade the kids from their mattress and boxspring sets on the floor, we went through a couple possibilities. Do we get, you know, normal people beds, with the headboard and footboard and a cat and a dog and a briefcase and a pleasant housekeeper named Maud? Naaaah. Do we get a prefab bed from Walmart or Target or wherever that will be okay for a while, but eventually be revealed as the one-hit wonder it is and become a burden later? Or... do we go for an Ikea hack??

We hack!

Or, well, something like it anyway. I don't know if this is really a hack since there is in fact no hacking, but these are once and future bookshelves, making storage under twin beds, and that's pretty cool. We bought four 5x1 Expedit bookcases (this is the whole line, they come in quite a few configurations). The bookcases were $59.99 + tax.




The mattress sandwich



Dada's helper


They move fast!


"Bam bam bam!"


One unit in place!


Almost done with the second unit.


Yep.... still almost done.


Box spring down!

As a temporary measure, since this is the last day we have to build these for two weeks and we needed to get this storage solution going, we decided to use ratchet straps ($7 each) from a hardware store to attach the box springs to the bookcases. To protect the bookcases we tucked some scrap fabric under the ratchet straps on the pressure spots. And we can always use ratchet straps later on.


Ratchet strap


Box spring achievement!


Behold, the storage space!


Zee approves of his new bed.


So does Maddie the cat.


And on to the next bed!


More helping... (actually at this point he was freaking out because Spike's mattress was out of the room, even though he tolerated all the moving stuff before this. He calmed down in time to help build the second unit)


So very very close...


It's a bed!


Nightstand, back in position.

The kids (neither of them) have needed those bed rails in a long time, but since we're changing things up on them (get it? up? hehehehe) we thought it might be good to add them back for a bit while they get adjusted.


He seems fairly excited.


Putting some things away


Aaaaaaand done!

Now we can take one, if not both, dressers out of the room so the kids have more space to do whatever it is that they do. Among the plans we have a desk for Spike (now that he's a big kindergartner!) and a swinging seat that suspends from the ceiling for little Zee. Also... curtains. Maybe a set of fitted sheets to go over the box springs too. What else? Who knows!