Eleanor's Bed

Awhile ago, Rob asked me to make a new bed for Eleanor. He found a plan for what I think of as a dormitory-style loft/bunk bed with a center storage and display area and a trundle bed below. The plan didn't allow for disassembly or moving the unit once it was finished—all construction was to be done in the spot where the bed was to be used. I was able to alter the plan so that it consisted of several distinct parts and used traditional bed frame hardware to lock the parts together. Here is how it looked in my basement when nearly completed but not yet finished.

Because Rob has some temporary physical constraints due to a hernia repair, he was not able to help much with the moving process. So he cashed in some favors with two friends who came out to help us. I think he probably now owes them a substantial favor or two in return. Here we are after having loaded everything into my pickup. Even with having made the bed to be disassembled, there were still several heavy pieces. The center unit (shelves and drawers), I now realize, should have been made a different way so as to make it easier to move—it was plenty long and quite heavy.

The first piece to head upstairs to Eleanor's room was the headboard. (By the way, many of these photographs are blurry—sorry about that. Everything was happening so fast, that we didn't take time to let the camera focus properly.)

Everything else waited outside for more trips up the steps.

This piece is the top, where the bed mattress goes. The space behind the shelf unit is open along the length of the bed and has doors at each end so that the space can be used as a small closet or storage area. That rod you see on the piece below is a bar for hanging clothes.

As I said earlier, the middle shelf unit is big and awkward and was a bugger to get upstairs. We may have dinged the wall paint a couple of times. Also, it was exactly 80" long and had to go on end through an 80" door. That was a squeaker! Literally!

However, we finally got all the parts into Eleanor's room and began putting the bed together.

Rob and I were relieved when we were done and it all locked back together properly.

Eleanor had been very excited about being able to sleep "up high." Here she is after successfully completing her first climb up the ladder.

She and her friend checked out the drawers and the trundle bed too. Eleanor likes to call the trundle bed a "people drawer." I understand she is now sleeping comfortably in the bed each night.