As some of you may know, I have now have two children moving into my house. Well, I have a bedroom for them, but no beds. Since I'm pretty low on funds right now, and I'm a DIYer at heart, I looked for inspiration where many have looked before me, Channel 40, TLC.

I got this idea from an episode of "In a fix" several months ago, and thought "I could do that!" So, I'm putting my money where my mouth is:


- All load bearing parts of the bed will be 3" PVC

- the 'rails' to keep anyone from falling off the top bunk will be 2" PVC

- the bed rails will be two typical twin bed spring-rails sourced from local garage sales.

- The whole thing will be painted with Krylon "fusion" paint, designed specifically for plastics. Probably a Navy blue, but the kids will ultimately get the last word on that...


I apologize for the crude sketch, I suck at artwork in general, but this will give you the general idea. There are no measurements, as of yet, as I need to source the bedrails and build around them. I'll be going garage sale hunting this weekend. Tulsa's a huge town, I'm bound to turn something up... add dimensions to the drawing once the bed rails have been purchased

Minus the mattresses, I belive I can put this all together for around $50... we'll see. I'll be updating this as I go, and will post pictures at various places in the construction.

Nifty, I vote bright yellow.

Well, the only reason I was thinking blue is that its probably going to be the color of the kids' room. If this bed works out the way I hope it will, a PVC desk and bookshelf will follow...

I vote red white and blue okflyboy

Huh-ah!

bump-

updated sketch with a MSPaint version...

Make it black to match the projector hanging above them so they have a 10' TV and matching furniture.

Not to be a killjoy, but have you considered the fire risk? I think PVC gives off toxic fumes (cyanides) when it smolders or burns.

It does indeed...if the house has vinyl siding it would be a much greater risk.

Hmm... I don't see fire in his plans!
Besides, wood is flamable, and plenty of beds are made from that.

Yes, I know this. Then again, it's a common building material, there's already PVC in my house, its called plumbing...

here's an idea. teflon seal the pvc tubes and fill the frame 1/2 full of water. will prevent the frame from burning but will also act as a ballast to prevent the top kid from tipping it over. may need to cap the frame at the 1/2 mark incase the top kid really gets it rocking.
Toby

Hell - most furniture is toxic if it catches on fire, the gallons of cleaning supplies etc.. the biggest deal witht he PVC bed/desk is to just make sure you ground it to reduce static - especially if you build a desk and add a computer - But I like the PVC bed I think I may buid one for my kid! Thanx for the inspiration by proxy.

No problem! I'll be updating this thread as I go, so I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to wait and see if I can pull it off...

Update #1

- Found one frame at the local Salvation Army. They wanted $30 for it (!) because they have it matched up to a headboard. However, I noticed the the frame is a twin (which is what I want) but the headboard they say "goes with it" is for a full! So I need to go back tomorrow and see if I can talk them down on the price since I don't want the headboard, and even if I did, its the wrong headboard anyway!

- Also found I could purchase the frame brand new at Big Lots for $50. But, that's $100 for two of them, that's getting close to what I'd pay for a store-bought bunk bed, like say, the futon-bunk style bunk beds. The idea is to make it cheap, and have some DIY-fun in the process. So I'm going to stick to finding the frames at yard sales. If it takes me a while to get them that way, so be it.

Are you kidding!?! I live in Florida 9/10 homes have PVC furniture in it. So I know it'll work.

Biggest deal there is getting all the cuts exactly the same - gets yourself a big plumbers pipe cutter or a radial arm saw if you have one

I lived in SE Florida for 20ish years and never saw PVC furniture INside a house (except occaisionally, for those stackable PVC chairs), but many, many instances of PVC patio furniture, though.

oh well..

Ed

Fly, just make your own frame. It's nothing but rails and slats.

Judging by the replies, I guess I'll just stop caring now. Forget I ever brought it up.

Yeah, I could use angle iron, or just lay down some plywood. But really what I want is not just the rails, but the frame with springs and such, thereby eliminating the need for a boxspring. We'll see what turns up.

Dude, didn't mean it like that. I appreciate your concern, I just think it a bit much to worry about, that's all.

Update #2

Went yard sale, thrift store, and swap-meet hunting today, and turned up two box-spring eliminating twin frames. They're the bedframe and trundle frame from an old daybed. The regular bed frame will work perfect with no modifications, but the trundle has spring-loaded legs attached to it that I will have to cut off. $28.00

I went to Lowes and picked up four 3" sanitary Ts and a 10' length of 3" SCH.40 PVC to experiment with. $25.00

Okay, so I'm already past the $50 I was hoping to spent, but I didn't expect to pay so much for the frames. Oh well, maybe I can get it done for under $100...

I'll leave the trundle modification for later, and will begin on the basic frame of the lower bunk.

I'll take some pics once I'm satisfied with the results.

Also, as some of you may know, I've been expecting orders from the Air Force for man-days, possibly for up to a year. Well, I've just been informed that my first batch has gone through, so I'll be working with the active guys from Nov 8 thru Dec 3. This leaves me this week to get started on the bed before I'll have to divide my time between home (Claremore) and Tinker (OK City). That said, I plan to finish the lower bunk with the limited funds I have on hand, and leave the top bunk until I hav some cash rolling in from my man days (AF pay is usually 2-3 weeks behind... )

Update #3

Built the bottom portion today. It came out pretty good, except I misdrilled the holes to mount the bed frame to the PVC in one spot, so I now have two ugly holes on display...

I haven't put the legs on it yet, I'm on my way back into town to get the last of what I should need at Lowes to do that.

I started a new roll of film for this project, so I won't be able to post pics until I've taken 24 of them...

Update #4

Finished the bottom portion legs and all. Had to purchase about another $20.00 in materials. This things is rapidly approaching the "expensive" mark, but its still fun and will be way-cool when I'm finished.

I got on TLC's BBS, and checked around to see if anyone else had tried this. I read that most other have had problems makign theirs sturdy enough. However, as far as I can tell, no one else used real bedframes, they just rested the matress on top of plywood, sitting directly on the long streches of pvc. This distributes the weight across two five-foot horizontal sections of PVC that can't really hold that much weight without sagging. My design allows the weight to stay on the bedframe, and it is only tied into the PVC at the Sanitary Ts at each corner.

Update #5

The boys decided on what colors they want for their room. One wants Blue and Yellow, the other wants Green. So, the Walls will be a Navy Blue, and I'll go for Green trim, that way both boys will have their colors on the walls.

The bed will be bright Yellow, which should really pop against blue walls. (Looks like Brain was on the right track from the first)

Also, I threw the bed into my bedroom for the time being, as it was taking up too much space on my front porch-turned workshop Gave the bottom bunk a test run, was a little creaky at first, where I had left joints un-glued for portability's sake. I solved that problem by using screws at all unglued joints, so its still portable, but is now solid.

Now I just need to build the top bunk and work on stabilizing it. (I think I'm gonig to need to add diagonal braces at key points. More when it comes to that)

Okay, still living out of a hotel roomin OK City, so no work's been done on the beds since my last update. But I do have some pictures of my stopping point to post:

(please excuse the mess, we were clearing out the bedroom to make room for the new bed, and everything in the bedroom ended up in the living room.)

Fly - I have been looking at building a pvc bed for my kids as well - the plans I have actually include a desk underneath the bed. I was wondering how to address the mattress issue, and love how you incorporated the spring frame into the bed. I am going to try this. I will send (or post) a picture of the final product. I got the plans from a $5 dollar DIY bedroom furniture book for kids at the grocery store....gotta love the DIYers!

Fly,

I love the PVC bed idea. Has all sorts of possibilities, including maybe the Murphy bed kind of fold up. One thing you might consider on the springs, though. Make sure those are covered by a mattress or maybe some plastic tubing around them. Those things are murder on hair and fingers.

And be sure they do a jump test on the beds. Better to have them break while you are watching, if they are going to.

They've been using the bed for a better part of a year now. The only thing I can say bad about it really is that it was damn expensive. Around $200 in PVC (those fittings are murder on the wallet). We turned it into a loft bed instead of bunk bed though.

Just realized I never posted a picture of the finished product...

Another shot

Hey man that looks pretty cool! How sturdy is it?

Wasn't sturdy at all until I added the diagonal steel cable, now its doesn't move at all!

you going to paint it?
It does look cool white too, kinda futuristic

I was going to paint it but, like you, I decided it looked cool just the way it was.

Wow, I hope your kid doesn't roll around in his sleep. Looks good, but he'll break his ass if he falls out. Find a way to put a rail on the open side of it, for me. I used to fall out of bed about once a week when I was a kid. Always a rude awakening from a regular bed, this would be worse.

Natch, when you are asleep you aren't tensed, and kids don't weigh much. I remember when I was little (4-6 yrs old) I rudely awoke one morning to find myself sitting on the floor, I just climbed back up to the top bunk and went back to sleep.

I also recall later that we had a couple bunk-beds that had the 2x6 safety rails, and we would actually lay on the rail, weird I guess, but us kids liked to do it.

The worst is falling into a corner off of a bunk bed, but it doesn't look like this setup has the potential for that with the front ladder and all.

I fell out of my bed while I was in the Marines. Hit the dresser on the way down. It chipped my knee cap and I had to have 18 stitches. That was the oddest thing i have ever experienced. When I awoke, I was completely unsure what or who i was, let alone i that i was actually on my hands and knees crying in the dark in the middle of a pool of blood....

i love this idea, that being the pvc bed... but is it really safe?