Friday, May 5, 2017

Hanging Bunk Beds

We needed to utilize every square inch of the space in this bedroom. Due to the fact that the half walls limited the types of beds we could put in this room we decided to try Ana White's Hanging Bed plans. 





We couldn't completely hang them from the ceiling. We opted to bolt the beds to the wall on two sides. Then used the rope ladder we created to help give it a bit more support. The rope attached to the wall is merely decorative :)




I wanted to give the wood an aged appearance. I used steep tea as my first step. Then I used a vinegar and steel wool combination(steeped for a few hours). Applied it with a spray bottle and let it sit. You can find various recipes online for aging wood

Small Laundry Room Solutions


Our laundry room is very narrow and long and connected to our mudroom. Room size is approximately 5ft wide by 14ft long.

I have very little space to have laundry baskets of dirty laundry sitting in this room unless we want to be tripping over them as we're running out the door for swim lessons, music lessons, art class, playdates, and whatever else we sign ourselves up to do.

I decided to utilize the wall next to the washer by taking a piece of scrape wood(from another project) 1x10. I distressed the board by hitting the edges with a hammer and crow bar...the kids had fun watching me do this :) I then used some leftover stain and put a matte finish polyacrylic to seal the wood. Wax would work well too.

Handles/Hooks we're 50% off at Hobby Lobby and they run this sale quite frequently. I spent about $10 in hooks($2.50 each). I opted to have a set of dark for the dark clothes, and white hooks for the light clothing. I thought about using actual cabinet handles but those often go all the way through and you attach the back with a nut and washer. I wanted this piece to hang flat on the wall and the nut and washer would have gotten in the way.

Bags: I went to Menards and purchased a 9' x 13' drop cloth for $15. I cut 4 rectangles, about the size I wanted the bags to be. The leftover cloth I folded and sewed to make strips that I attached to the bags to make the hooks. This is my first set of bags and the seam on the one bag is in the center of the bag, I don't like the way it turned out. I'll probably rip it open and re-sew it so the seam is on the side of the bad and not the front.. I opted to sew the bottom of the bag straight across. The top of the bag I folded down and sewed down so it would have an nice clean finish and then attached the loops.

I'm planning on putting another one of these laundry hook bags on our 2nd floor for the kids. So much easier than trying to store laundry baskets in a small house!