DIY Twin Built-in Bunk Bed For Kids

[Music] you guys like them [Music] guys alex here from mr build it and in today's video we're in our kids bedroom now though this room doesn't need any kind of beautifying or any kind of major transformation our kids play with our toys here and it doesn't give them much room for activities what this room is lacking is room so we're going to take these two separate twin beds and and turn into that so that wasting time let me show how i did it let's get into the video let's go i was knocked down heard the countdown through the haze in the face of defeat all right a quick little trip so let me show you the goodies that i got here so we got here um four by six i think it's gonna be a tank and the two by six is right there i'm kind of picking this thing out as i'm going so um i'm just glad you're along for the ride because the boards have imperfections in them to save on sanding i ran them through a thickness planer and trimmed off the round over edges to clean them up a bit you can always use a sander to accomplish this as well okay all of our boards are all done up in a way we can say we milled them kind of um based off my kids existing mattresses they're about 38 and a half wide and like 76 inches long so long i don't why am i i don't know so i'm going to do right now is i'm going to start cutting these up into the dimensions 38 and a half 6 76 76 uh and then uh create pocket holes in them that'll be the assembling to the actual post the nice thing is the four by six posts that i have they're actually eight feet tall exactly and my ceilings you guessed it eight feet exactly lucky day after the two by six boards were cut to size i patched up all the knots with wood filler and then sanded with 120 grit sandpaper then i used a pocket hole jig to create the three pocket holes that will attach the 2x6 boards to the 4x6 posts [Music] so before i get too carried away i'm gonna use the stud finder and find exactly where all the studs are that way i'll make sure that everything's secured nice and tight to this wall and go nowhere [Music] all right so my posts are up i got my pocket holes all lined up here it's gonna be three per section i got my nice long two and a half inch pocket screws here's the thing typically i use a wood glue along with the pocket holes my only fear is because these are nice big post and this is a pretty big piece of end grain wood glue typically gets sucked in at least the first coat then it dries off and then the next goes actually a strong part so to make it actually a stronger joint i'm gonna go with an all-in-one uh adhesive from super glue this is this heavy duty stuff so we're gonna put a nice layer down and then use pocket holes and then this tank it didn't go nowhere you know one of the nice things about total tech from the original super glue is that it's also paintable so we won't have to worry about any of it squeezing out the joint when securing with screws now i think if i was to redo this project ever again i would have probably assembled the front and back long sections on the floor first and then lift them up as a unit you know that way it'll be easier to ensure that every corner of this build is actually square [Music] i can't [Music] all right we are cooking now i love i love how girthy this these posts look okay so here's one other thing i want to do i want to continue this pattern on top there back and this side the thing is is i don't want to buy another one of these side posts not because they're you know 13 bucks a piece mostly because without the brackets i don't know how to safely secure because they're pretty heavy through the sides here without having to create joinery and complicate these builds for you guys so i think what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna create a faux beam i see this in tons of houses where the beams are super high thing looks like a beam and all it is is uh they'll do like a two by four or something like that or two by six and then a three part panel that looks like a beam slides on and then screws to the side because everything's gonna be painted anyway so i think i'll give it that girthy full look so we'll do the same exact size on top let's go to garage now the faux beams are made of mdf and two by fours the mdf is cut to size in a way that when assembled it will be the identical size of a four by six posts i'm gonna show you how they create faux beams got everything cut to size check this out and basically just like that this is how our beam is gonna sit the two by four is gonna be secured into the studs of the walls and then this is going to sit right over it perfectly and then we're just going to put a couple of screws on the sides a little bit of a wood filler and nobody will know the difference if you choose to use four by six posts to the top of the beams instead of making faux beams you can pre-drill two to three holes at an angle and drive long eight inch core screws through the post kind of like they do when installing solid wood mantels over fireplaces so because uh you know these aren't long enough the way they sell them we're gonna use a little bit of a round over cut with a miter drive a few in there don't put too many nails in there you don't want to keep patching them all up just like that let's do the other side [Music] okay so it was important to our arena that we have a storage space underneath the bunk beds um that way we could put extra blankets if kids won't have a sleepover stuff like that so i wanted to create it light because it's going to be a very large drawer so i'm using a half inch not three-quarter half-inch maple plywood i'm just creating a simple joint box around this thing and then we'll slide it in and i just gave it like a half inch gap on the sides and then 14 inches deep so so i'm gonna start cutting it up and assembling with brad nails and uh glue the drawer is assembled with simple butt joints and held together with glue and brad nails now because how long our drawer is i threw in a few screws just to reinforce it well because kids enough said to conceal the side of the drawer compartment i just cut a scrap piece of mdf fit to size and secured it from the inside to the post with pocket holes and screws all right folks to do shiplap vertically not horizontal horizontal is a little bit easier because the studs are going vertically you position shiplap sideways and then you just nail it exactly where the studs are now the problem is when we want him vertically courtesy of minton pine irene and my wife we need the studs to be horizontal so we have to create our own study uh these are one by twos they're a little bit over a buck a piece um i picked up about 12 of them yeah 12 of them so what i'm going to do is i'm going to frame out along the top sides and edges and then i'm going to do horizontal pieces and that will allow for us to connect everything together so i'm going to start screwing or nailing this stuff in and then we'll start applying the shiplap so let's go when installing the one by twos be sure to mark out where your existing studs are first and then secure the one by twos using framing nails or screws be sure to also have one by twos running around the perimeter of the area as well in order to have a strong and level base for the shiplap the trick with shiplap is it has like a tongue and groove kind of puzzle piece so what you would want to have is these two pieces line up like that exposing a small eighth inch gap like so so what do we install we do one piece at a time we put this board drive the nails through this tongue or groove and then put the next one over it securing it on the opposite side that way you don't leave any holes on this thing after installing this vertically i later learned my lesson that i would still require to add another brad nail on the opposite edge of the ship lap in order to adequately secure to the wall without having any issues later down the road [Music] so i'm gonna need to figure out how to attach the brackets or the drawer slides for the big drawers gonna be here and because i have this big gap here i need to figure out how to fix it so my solution is going to be to take these two by sixes cut to side with pocket holes and then secure it from look basically tower tower anchor or pillar to pillar uh and then to this attach the actual drawer slides so uh i think might be the best solution possible so let's get that installed now i usually use these premium ball bearing drawer slides on all of my drawer builds but since this drawer is so dang wide they're side to side flex when opening and closing this thing so this is probably the only time i would recommend using the cheap white drawer slides that's basically acts as a guided rail to help eliminate that flex okay so here is uh our base frame for our drawer very basic very simple so first things first i need to put a bevel edge around it to keep things from tearing out if uh these corners are sharp it's easy for you to catch something and then tear out but if you round them over they're a lot stronger so that's the first thing i'm going to do round over then i'm going to create a line down the middle that's how the pattern was and then every i don't know we'll say every six inches will create a 60 degree angle spreading it wide i'm going to use a straight edge to trace my pattern out and then use a tracks out with about an eighth inch depth start creating all the grooves all right so this being my first time building this style bed here's the problem just like any project i just ran into the mattress that the boys have typically twin size beds uh are 38 inches wide and 74 inches long and then they just get longer like i think it's 38 by 74 or 80 something and then 84. anywho i'm keeping mine at 38 by 74 that's the mattresses they have the problem is is uh the inset on this tends to make it too long and then the width here i wanted to keep it flush to counter and solve this issue obviously i have to match this thickness here here's what i'm going to do i've cut basically a double of each one of these that i'm going to secure this way and then put a piece over and that's going to allow for me to have 38 to 38 and then 75 ish this way which is going to be just fine because you know a little bit longer mattress you can tuck the blanket so we've got a solution so i'm going to start putting some screws into these pocket holes and get that going let's go after the 2x6 boards were attached to the box frame via the pocket holes and pocket hole screws i glued down the mdf and secured it with brad nails on both the top and bottom bunks this is the perfect opportunity to attach the ledge that will hold the slats for the mattress basically the box spring i just ripped the 2x4 in half pre-drilled some holes and secured it to the sides of the bunk bed frames this was now the time for start patching up all the brad nails and start saving this project down for primer all right so while the wood filler is drying i want to take this time start filling in all the nooks crevices uh and i'm using this product from superglue called total tech it's a heavy-duty all-in-one adhesive and what it's nice about it is that it's number one it's 37 more elongating so when the movement of whatever happens constricting expanding with seasonal change it'll go with it it's paintable which allow for us to paint right over it when we're done and it has like a tensile strength of 430 psi so that's going to be that added structural support all over in case we missed it somewhere the nice thing is it dries an hour so i'm gonna get this punctured and start filling in everything getting all ready [Music] you're rolling your belly now because bare wood acts as a sponge when applying paint we need to block the pores and give the paint a good chance from chipping over time now my youngest son beckham gave me a hand rolling on the first water-based primer coat after it dried i used my favorite paint product the product is called urethane emerald alkaline it's made by different brands but which is basically a product that's easy to work with like a latex paint you know diluted with water and whatnot but strong and durable like an oil-based paint when it comes to longevity [Music] for the box frame i needed only one sheet of half inch maple plywood i ripped it into five inch strips on my table saw rounded over the edges with a palm router and secured them using one and a quarter inch screws onto the two by twos that i installed earlier all right since the paint is all dry before i start installing the drawers and mattresses and the doors i wanted to keep this open so i'm going to surprise my kids by installing some led lights around this thing so hopefully they'll like it because the power source and the module will be under the bed i didn't want the drawer to get in the way when it's open and closed so i used these mounting strips from the original super glue to secure both the ac power converter and the led module to the bed frame suspending it over the drawer and keeping the cables out of the way for the railing it's going to be the 1x2 it's going to be stacked maybe three of them vertically on the side grain i think to look great it's like pine stains very well so we won't have any issues there now as far as the ladder the ladder is going to be the side of the bunk bed and i'm just going to have four maybe five railings coming across the only issue that i'm running into is that they don't have two by two select pine so i'm gonna have to make my own two by two and so the only way to really do it is i'm just gonna put a bunch of glue down here stick this together clamp it let it sit overnight and then we'll put some pocket holes and start installing this thing so kind of making things up as we go after the two by two's dried i sanded everything smooth rounded over the edges and drilled two pocket holes at the ends i finished them off by applying one coat of stain wipe the excess off and apply three coats of water-based satin polyurethane using a very inexpensive hvlp sprayer when installing the ladder and the railing i used total tech heavy duty adhesive and pocket screws to secure both the railing and the steps to the post using a small level to ensure that everything is straight and leveled i wiped off any excess adhesive using rubbing alcohol and a simple paper towel before the mattress went on i installed and secured the face frame to the drawer using one inch screws and i spaced it out to be one inch off the ground to act as our drawer pull hey thanks so much for watching this video big thank you to sponsor today's video the original super glue if you guys are brand new to the channel and you like videos like this or any other kind of home improvement project make sure hit the subscribe button right there tap that notification bell that way you'll be alerted every time a video comes out follow me on social media all the links including the merch section will be down in the description below remember guys curtis white you have to have the courage to try this project and the sweat to put in the hard work to accomplish these things tune out this week we'll see you guys on the next one see ya bye there we go we got a hole they're gonna look nice and nice nice and nice they're gonna look nice it's just single now what's the worst we can have your house solving problems that's what we're in the business for solving problems shut up all right we're just teaching people how to get started and that is it