First I went to Home Depot and purchased the wood that I would need. I love Home Depot because they will cut it for you with their huge saw, making nice straight lines and allowing it to fit in my vehicle. I measure the crib mattress and allowed for an extra room on the sides so that it wasn't snug. I purchased a 3/4" thick sheet of 4x8 plywood. Home Depot made the cuts for the bed bottom and the cute little headboard. I also purchased 1x6" boards for the sides of the bed, making sure there was enough to go around the perimeter of the bed bottom. 2x4s were also needed as well, I used this to support the bottom piece of the bed. I already had some on hand so I didn't need to buy any. Since I have twins I had to make two, so this is what I ended up with:
Once home, I measured the bottom piece of the bed and cut the 1x6" boards with a miter saw to fit around the edges. Once they were all lined up nicely (measure twice cut once - believe me when I say this so that you don't have to make another trip to Home Depot like I did) I measured the length I would need to cut the 2x4 supports. I used two for mine, and felt like it was definitely sturdy, but you could always use more. I then laid the frame and supports out on the floor without the floor board in it.
To secure the frame without having nail or screws visible from the outside, I used an inside corner brace that I also purchased at Home Depot. Its probably better to build the outside frame with a little wiggle room in order to allow the corner brace to fit inside with the floor board. I also used a corner brace to attach the 2x4 supports as well. Once this was complete, the bed was ready for stain. Even though I know the majority of the floor board wouldn't be showing, I still stained it anyway and once dry did several coats of polycrylic in semigloss over it.
While I waited for the stain and poly to dry, I started working on the headboard. First, I stapled batting to the headboard to give it a little more cushion. I didn't put the batting all the way down to the floor but instead left about 5 inches to allow for it to be secured to the bed frame. I covered the batting with a gray linen home décor fabric and secured with staples. Side note, I love my pneumatic stapler and I can't believe I didn't buy one a long time ago instead of using my hand stapler! I love the upholstered fabric look for headboards, but it was still a little too plain. My new obsession is nailhead trim, which I decided to add to the headboards to give it a little something extra. I cheated though, and bought nailhead trim on a roll. Its much easier, you only need to hammer in nails every 5th one. Its also thin enough that it can easily be cut to go around corners. If the 5th nail didn't match up perfectly at the edges, I just used my hot glue gun to attach. I was very careful about making sure to keep a straight line and equal distance from the edges. Here is a picture of the headboard in progress:
I choose to assemble the headboard to the bed frame once they were both in the bedroom. I simply drilled pilot holes in the headboard from the back and then drilled in 6 screws to keep the headboard in place. I added felt pads to the bottom of the bed frame, and then put the mattress on. The first thing the twins did when they saw their beds was jump on it like it was a trampoline, but I suspected that would happen.
I had been prepping the twins for their new beds for a few days, so they knew it was coming. They watched us dismantle their cribs and assemble their new beds. They were both very excited to be tucked into their new beds that night. I moved the security camera into their room to monitor their newfound freedom. I felt betrayed honestly. They both went to bed so nicely and told me they loved me and said goodnight, and the second I shut their bedroom door they both got out of bed giggling and running around! At one point there was a lot of dancing going on and then they decided they needed to "organize" their closet and remove all of the clothing and throw it in the middle of their bedroom. I went in there several times asking them to go back to bed and even cleaned up all their clothes and zip tied the closet door shut. Every time I went back in their room they made a beeline for their beds acting is if they had been in there the whole time, without any clue I had been watching them. They finally feel asleep in their beds (even though it was a couple hours past bedtime) and I felt it was somewhat successful. Until I got up in the morning and checked the camera to see them sleeping like this:
So I guess the moral of the whole blog post is disregard everything I just wrote, get rid of the cribs and just let the kids sleep on the floor, right????
Addy only had a minor issue the first night and after that slept great in her bed. Jax seems to prefer the floor, as you can tell by the collage I put together of Jax during the first week:
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