Girls Bedroom Makeover

I'm so excited to share my girls bedroom makeover.  I should have taken a before picture, but I didn't.  They used to share a queen bed, but Shelby is a very active sleeper.  She would roll around so much in her sleep that almost every night Darcy would wake up crying because Shelby was on top of her or had kicked her.  I knew we needed to do something when one night Darcy was fussing before bed and said, "I don't want to go to bed.  I don't like Shelby's legs!"

So I decided we needed to put them in separate beds so Darcy and I could get some sleep at night.  

The only problem was that their bedroom is pretty small and there wasn't really room in there for two beds and two dressers.  So I decided to build new beds that combined the bed and dresser into one.

I looked online and found some pictures of captain's beds that I liked and decided to give it a shot.  James has been so busy at work lately that I figured I would just do what I could on my own. So I designed the beds and figured out all the measurements and cuts I'd need to make.  James double checked my work and made a couple of improvements and we were ready to go.  This is the first project I have fully designed on my own, so I was a little nervous that it might not come together like I hoped, but luckily it turned out great. 

I had so much fun building them.  I couldn't cut the full sheets of plywood by myself so I had James help me with those cuts, but other than that, I did almost all of it on my own.  It took me about 2 weeks of full time work to finish the beds.   It was so satisfying to see them take shape and turn out well.   The beds have been done for a couple of weeks now, but I had to wait until we got the new bedspreads to post the pictures.   

The girls were excited to be on their beds when I was taking pictures of them. 

 I told James that I wanted to go over to Papa and Grams house to use their scroll saw to cut out names for the girls.   Instead James came home with a scroll saw of our own... He couldn't pass up the chance to get a new tool.  So with our scroll saw I cut out these names for the girls.  They picked the color to paint them. 

  Here is a closer shot of the bookshelf headboard.  And below you can see the little flower table I made with the scraps that were leftover from the beds.  I didn't want all the wood to go to waste and clutter  up our garage. 

 The top of the table is shaped and painted like a flower

 I also built the little step stools out of the scraps I had leftover.  The beds ended up being so tall that I knew Darcy wouldn't be able to get in and out of them without something to step on.  She loves the little stairs as you can see.

 I think one of the favorite features for the kids is the fort I build along the back side of the bed.  The drawers only take up half of the bed, so I made doors so the kids could go under their beds or store things under them.  They play under there all the time with their little flashlights. 

 Here's a shot of Darcy standing next to the beds...you can see they are as tall as she is.  We put a swimming noodle under the sheets by the edge of the bed to help keep her from falling out of the bed.  So far it has worked really well. 

 It was a super fun project to design and build.  The girls love their new beds and have had so much fun putting things in their bookshelves and playing in their forts.