I’ve been dying to share this post with you. After searching for the perfect new bunk bed for our boys bedroom, we decided to come up with our own tutorial for a house bunk bed. House Beds are a huge trend right now. I saw my first house bed over a year ago and I fell in love and I swore that as soon as we built our daughter a toddler bed someday, I would make a super cute pink house bed, decorated in cute pom pom buntings and it would be perfect. Well, fast forward a year, and she’s only 16 months, still a ways away from being in a toddler bed. Then I had a idea! We are in the process of decorating our boys bedroom. and we needed to build them a new bunk bed set as their old set was massive and took up half their room. Bunk Beds, Loft Bed, Bunkbeds, Cheap bunk beds, build a bunkbed, Easy bunk bed, House Bed, built a house bed
Idea – Wheels Spinning – Husband Groaning..
Build a house bunk bed! Only problem was I couldn’t find a tutorial for one, let alone a picture… so I got to drawing. Don’t laugh. Seriously. I never told you I had skills.
I sent Glen off to the Home depot to purchase eight 2×4’s, three 2×6’s & a paint brush. Pretty much that’s all we needed as we already had our own tools, wood filler, screws and poly.
House Bunk Bed Shopping List
8 2×4’s 8′ Length
3 2×6’s 8′ Length
2 2×2’s 8′ Length for Runners
3 1×4’s 8′ Length for Slats
Paint Brush
100 pack of 2″ Screws
Paint or stain of choice
Wood Glue
Sanding pads for orbital sander
wood filler
I should mention before I give you the cut list. The pictures below are not of the actual dimensions. We built the house part a lot smaller and once we got his massive 12″ mattress on realized it was tight. So we unscrewed the entire bed and made it much taller. Keep in Mind, We pre-sanded all our wood. We did a quick sand after the bed was put together just on the edges. Learn from our mistakes. Here are the dimensions you will need to make a House Bunk Bed.
House Bunk Bed Tool List
Drill
Driver
Table Saw
Orbital Sander ( We used our dustless sander )
Clamps if doing alone
House Bunk Bed Cut list
Tall Posts 4 2×4 : 46″ Length * Top Angle Cut at 15 Degrees
Side Rails 2 2×6 & 2 2×4: 74.5″ Length
Cross pieces 4 2×4: 38″ Length
( For Top Bunk Cut 2 2×2’s for rail at 74″ & Cut 8 slats at 42″ )
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House Cuts:
First Angle ( Longest ): 45.5″ Length | Bottom Angle 15 degrees & Top 30 Degrees
Shorter Angle: 42″ Length | Bottom Angle 15 degrees & Top 30 Degrees
Top Stringer: 74.5″
Now that you have your wood cut, lets start!
You want to go ahead and make both end panels, we call them the “houses” When Glen was cutting the angles for each side, he numbered everything. It is a good idea to do. Or you could cut as you go. house bed, build a house bed, house bed, DIY house bed
Lay your house on the ground and line it all up. Once in form, you will be making all your pocket holes. 2 on each cut. We also siliconed between every cut. You want this bed to be extra strong. Especially if you have kids like us that live life hard.
Once both of your end panels are complete, you’ll want to stand them up. If you’re alone, you can lean one side up agains the wall and clamp the two ends & the bottom pieces together. But I was helping Glen, so we didn’t need clamps for this stage.
See picture.
We just screwed straight from the outside Panel into the 2×4 side rail. We drove 2 2″ screws into each side. You want to make sure you drive them deep. The top of the screw should be 1/4″ deep.
Next step – do the exact same thing to the top side rails, except turn the 2×6’s on their sides. Drill your 3 pocket holes. We put 3 2″ screws on each side for added support.
Once both sets of side rails are screwed on, it’s time to put on the bottom of the triangle on the ends. Start making your pocket holes on each side, we only used two on each end.
Now Attach the top stringer, fill holes & choose a paint or stain.
Here is our completed House Bunk Bed
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OMGosh, I am in love with this bed! I am going to start it tomorrow, but I was just wondering what the bottom mattress is supported by, and I’m guessing the ladder is pretty easy to figure out after you’ve put the bed together. Thank you for the inspiration. I have to tell you that after following your blog I ordered some gorgeous signs from Barn Door Décor and ended up taking a clock class too. I’m becoming obsessed with this whole home decorating thing…Thanks again! 🙂
Please tag me in it on Instagram.. I would LOVE to see!! What color did you end up doing it??
Thanks for the comment xo
I love this ! What did you use for support on the top for the top bed to sit on rails or slats ? Thanks 🙂 and how thick etc ? Thanks .. Maybe I just missed it ! Love your page I’m subscribing .. Except I don’t have a “hunny” to do it …. I have my own peer tools .. This looks like I could pull it off .. Oh … Could I get a liner store to cut them for me? When I buy it with the dimensions? I would be doing some additions to my already four poster bed ! Thanks so much ! You guys rock !
Thanks for the comment! So I see I missed the section on screwing the side rails on & mounting the slats… Oh man. It’s always something!
It’s super easy though. So what we did was screw 2×2’s into the top 2×6’s. Basically it creates a ledge on both sides. You’ll want to put a hanful of screws in. I believe we put 12 2″ screws each side.
then once the side rails are screwed onto the 2×6’s, you’ll want to screw your slats down. This isn’t necessary, but our kids play on their beds a lot, and we find that if we don’t, the slats shift a lot!
For slats we used 8 1×4.. The dimensions of the slats should be in the post. So we also screwed those down and done!
Also, for smaller kids, I suggest a side rail too. I’m not a fan of them at all – but you can make one super super easy!
but yes, you can go to Lowes, Home Depot etc to cut the wood to exact dimensions for you!
Thanks Nico!
I LOVE! LOVE! LOVE your bunk beds! I found you on Hometalk and there are many comments about your not adding a guard rail. I can see that a guard rail will totally change the design of your bed, however, it really does need one. Maybe you could add a round pole from end to end on each side, which wouldn’t change the look too much, that it would not be in scale. I don’t know how old your boys are and maybe you don’t feel they need a railing but I even had my grown son fall out of one in his sleep and am quite Leary of not having one. ANYWAY! I love it no matter what you do with it!! The color, the style, the feel…very well done!
That’s just for the picture. We have a plastic store guard rail that we put on and use at night, and take it off for photo shoots and such. Plus, our kids have never fallen out of bed anyways.
Thank so so much for your kind words!!! So glad you love it.
Thanks for the comment Shirley!
xo
Maybe I missed it but how much did these cost to make? I LOVE them. My sons would LOVE them. Just need to find the cash and convince my hunny!!
Oh and how tall is the finished bed?
I’m unsure of the exact height – but we made our a lot higher as we wanted it to accommodate two boys. It’s probably 7 or 7.5′ in height. Our boys adore it! It doesn’t take that long to make.. the long part is the painting!
I’m going to start this this week, eek! I see you said that you had to make the top taller to accommodate a chunky mattress, do you have the lengths for the taller version, by chance?
Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing. I am going to build this in my daughter and sons room.
You’re so welcome!
Thanks for reading!
Hello.
First of all I want to congratulate you on your blog, I love it.
My name is Patricia and I’m from Portugal. I have two boys, one two-and-a-half and a two-month-old.
I loved the idea of the bunk in the shape of house and wanted to do it but I can not understand the measurements. Here we use everything in meters and centimeters.
I wanted to ask you if it was possible to give me the measurements of materials in meters or centimeters?
Thank you very much and once again, congratulations.
Kiss, Patricia
Is the cut list the correct list after you made your corrections to the height of the bed?
What are the overall finished dimensions?
Can you build and ship to Arizona for those of us who can’t build??
I’m sorry, we don’t build for the public. This was just a personal project 🙂
I know this is an old post, but I love the bed plans. The only critique I have is this font! So hard to read.
Thank you!! You’re the first person to say this – I’ll make it bigger, if that doesn’t help I can totally change it.
Happy Building!
Curious as to what size bed this will fit. I’m expecting another little one!
It’s absolutely astonishing!
Thank you! This is a twin bunk 🙂
Could I make this into a loft bed perhaps? How would I go about doing this?
You absolutely could! I’m sure there are tons of tutorials on Pinterest.
Thank you for this, my girls love it!! Gonna figure out how to make the ladder, and still need to paint.