I Built A Luxury Playhouse Bunk Bed

This is my 5-year-old daughter, Harper. And she's the sweetest little 5-year-old with the wildest imagination. And this is her room. And just last month, she walked into my garage [music] and commissioned me to build her her dream playhouse bed that unfortunately we had to leave at our old home. >> Make me the bunk bed. >> You want me to make you a bunk [music] bed? >> You remember our old house? You made one side where I play. [music] Remember you made the up? Remember where I play in the bunk? >> Are you [music] talking about the pink bunk bed? the princess bunk bed I made you. You want me to make that for you again? Well, today we're going to make this little 5-year-old's dream come true by building her the most incredible playhouse bed I have ever imagined. Let's get started. As you can see, this girl loves to play house. She's got washer and dryer. What kid has washer and dryers to play with? She's got little bathroom sinks. I absolutely love it. Now, she's at school right now. She has no idea we're doing this. So, the first thing we're going to do is clear this place out. I hate moving mattresses. This is weird. Take that off. Oh, sideways. There you go. Oh crap. I need drop cloth. Ireina is going to kill me if I ruin this carpet. I love the smell of freshly opened box of screws early in the morning. >> All right. So, here's what I'm thinking for this build. We have a nice big open area. These are 10t ceilings, so that's great. I want to have a play area on top. So, we're going to have some kind of opening here. In fact, what we're going to do here, we might just put in couple of windows right there. And then we're going to have something below here. We want to add some greenery. Homes always have flowers and stuff growing over there. Let's uh in order to be a home, we got to have some roofing materials. So, we'll slap a roof on her. It's going to be the cheapest roof we've ever done for such a small place. Down below, we're going to have the sleeping area. And I intentionally made this bottom platform nice and low, so it's uh almost like a nice cool lounge area. We're going to have pillows here. We're going to have shelves with uh books right here. And then on the side, we're going to have steps that's also going to act as storage all the way to the top. A nice platform there. Maybe we'll put some kind of little fencing material as opposed to board and batten over there, like a white picket fence kind of thing. And then all these drawers are going to be able to pull out. You can put toys in there, anything you might need. And then again to make sure this plays a whole exact role what a house would look like, we're going to put some window shutters on there on both sides and maybe wrap this entire thing with shiplap. And what's cool about this build is I'm making it in a way where instead of a twin bed, we're going to have a nice fullsize bed down below and a nice fulls size area to hang out on top. She's going to lose her mind. I guarantee it. And we're going to make sure we capture this on camera because that's going to be one of those memories that when I'm old, I'm going to look back and uh watch it on YouTube and just cry away like a little baby. Did I cut these wrong? This supposed to be 76. That's 76. What did I cut down [music] below? 79. [snorts] I'm an idiot. Okay. Well, I need more wood. This is part of the segment that I'm going to probably bust my back out here. Uh I have to hang the second tier up there by myself, but uh I think we got a plan how to do it safely. I'm going to put this uh brace right here. Take this part, set it on top, and then secure it through the studs. And then I have another brace to hold it up here. So then I could put two outer columns up [music] to keep this thing basically one joint unit. At least that's what's going on in my head right now. I got to get more people helping on this channel build stuff. I think I have less chances of getting hurt and going to the hospital. >> I think people get upset uh when I don't help you do stuff. >> Uh somebody has to hold the camera. If we didn't capture it, was it worth it? Maybe we start an internship program where people can come up and help me with these projects to do them safely. All right, 37y old body. 37y old body, don't feel me now. I can feel my back tightening up already. Okay, that wasn't too bad, huh? Using the put the old noggin to the test. I just realized I got to get this uh drop cloth off the ground because once this is in, I don't know if we're going to be able to move it at all. All right, so the next thing I need to do is put a crossmember on top and here to connect it on top towards the wall. Same thing goes across here. Tied all together. And if you're wondering about the ceiling fan, yes, it's currently in the way of what we're doing. But we're going to take it off. Uh we're going to put a really cool chandelier. Well, by we, I mean I'm going to put a really cool chandelier that Ireina is going to buy. Yay me. Quick summary, we beefed this thing up. I wrapped all of my little scrap pieces around uh cuz it was recessed. And what that did is it's bulking season and we bulked this puppy up. Now, it will add a little bit of structural integrity, but more than that, my thought process is I need cleaner plain surfaces when we start wrapping it with MDF or plywood, whatever we use. It'll just be a lot easier. But in the meantime, let's start making us an official platform for our bottom bunk and a play platform for the top. They're two going to be different and uh they both have to be structurally sound. That's for sure >> for any added weight cuz you know your boy at 205 lb is going to need a little extra reinforcement. Have you hit your head on that beam yet? >> Not yet. Don't jinx me. Oh, it's the cheapest stuff you can watch or it's cheapest stuff you can get at Home Depot or Lowe's or anywhere else. It's absolutely terrible for DIY projects unless you really want a rusted look. But for the bed frame itself, for the mattress holder, comes in clutch. So, today's day two building this. Harper came home from school yesterday and she somehow found out I'm building her a bunk bed cuz she had to sleep in the upstairs with her brothers and I was like, "Do you want to go see it?" She goes, "Nope." I go, "Why?" She goes, "I wanted to be a surprise when you're done." This girl really, really knows how to build up suspense. If we wanted strength, I think we achieved it. This thing is freaking more solid than any Wayfairer bed you can find out there. No offense, Wayfair, don't sue me. But in the meantime, we're going to throw in some I think we're going to do something different for the top. I think I'm going to treat it like a deck. So, we're going to throw some 2 by sixes across, then put subflooring on top [music] because my intentions is myself and anybody else, I want to be able to climb in here and not worry about, you know, the whole damn thing collapsing and breaking my back. Well, at least I'll fall on the mattress, but still. All right. So, for the floor, for the upper bunk, we need to have strength. I was going to use MDF, but turns out MDF is still like 50 plus bucks versus an actual subf flooring, which is I think I paid 15 for that. Way cheaper, a lot stronger. And we're going to cut it to size. I only need 76 in. Now, if you don't have a track saw, this is from MilesCraft. We're actually partnering with them on this video here. So, they sent us a bunch of goodies. Hope you guys you like them. Check them out. But this is their tracksaw. You don't need to buy a designated track saw. If you're on a budget, on a pinch, this is perfect. You have the track. You have a T-square here. This is just a jig that attaches with three of these little wing nuts there. And then you're good to go. You're ready, Playboy. There's no problems. No spending money. Save the money. Instead of buying a track saw, go spend it on uh [music] more materials so you can build cool stuff. I'll link them in the description. Go check them out if you like it. We are back in business, baby. I'm going to need to notch out these posts. So, I'm going to do like a dry fit. I'll scribe around it and then we'll just jigsaw it around. Perfect opportunity for structural integrity test. Let's see if I missed any nails. Oh, by golly. Oh, I missed two here. That's an honest mistake. No problemmo. Planning out windows right now. Uh, I want to put a crap ton of windows cuz I don't want her to feel claustrophobic in here. So, we're going to do one big window here, a small window here. This is going to have a smaller opening, and no window here, cuz they could put like a bean bag chair or whatever. And we're going to continue that below. So, that tells me is we got to put a couple of studs down. Not me, actual wood studs. Well, sorry, dad joke. But, uh, and then that will allow for us to actually make an enclosure and more added support. So, this piece of plywood is not going to be all flexible on us. All right, let's still [snorts] den them in. And I think we're getting close. We're getting real close. >> More frustrated building a little girl's bed than I'm building a house. Let me show you around. So, what we have here is we have two windows, one small, one big. I wanted to have separation of space, a little more texture. That way, it doesn't look like a classic cookie cutter little home. Uh big opening here. Probably going to do an arch. Who knows? Uh that's tomorrow. Alex's problem. A small window in here. She's going to be laying this way, so I don't want it to be claustrophobic like you're getting into a pod. Uh the back's going to be closed off. This is going to be closed off. We're going to have steps here with storage. Uh closed off this a little bit. So, this is going to be the walkway in there so kids aren't flying from here. Um what else? What else? What else? Well, what we do need to do now is uh we need to run some electrical. I need to put an outlet here to turn on a sconce that will be here. I need an outlet in there to charge iPads. Anything else? And maybe one right here. But I don't know if I'm spoiling her by putting cuz I don't know if I want the kid to be on her iPad in bed. But doesn't hurt to throw one in and see if we don't use it or not. Hi. It's been a [music] really busy day. Uh, but we got everything that we promised done. We have all the electrical set up. So, I have a sconce light that was specifically asked for Harper there. She also specifically asked for an elephant picture right here because her last room had that. We're going to make sure we provide that. That's the easy part. Then I ran all my wires down from the bed here, made a hole through there, came out here, fed it through here. So, we're going to borrow this uh outlet to power everything. Everything's nice and disclosed. I'm not worried about anything. However, we [snorts] got to solve for X. And X is Ireina said that to create more dynamic space here, which I don't know what that means. [music] If you're an interior designer, let me know. What I'm assuming it means is creating a lot of cool different architectural stuff. So, this is the opening into the play area, plus all the windows that we have throughout this entire home. We need to create an arch, and I have just the solution that I think might work. The material we're going to use needs to be able to bend. So, curfing, that's when you make a bunch of little tiny cuts on a piece of wood to make it bend, is the way to go. However, we need to have an additional notch for extra flexibility. So, put [snorts] my mind to it, I found some PVC molding that is going to work perfect for that. it already has plenty of flex in it as opposed to like maybe MDF. Uh we're going to create a crap ton of little Mr. Miyagi cuts on top uh leaving maybe a/4 in uh down below. And then that should give us an adequate amount of arch throughout this entire project. Slice and dice, baby. Burn and turn. You know, they say we have microplastics in the water, but I got microplastics in my lungs at this point. So, who cares what's in the water at this point for me? Actually, I do care. Don't put microplastics in the water. That's gross. And I should be wearing a respirator. [snorts] Old Henry, old faithful Henry here brought us six sheets of MDF. Kyle, guess any guesses how much six sheets of MDF cost? Crappy material. Great to paint, but not the best for furniture. What do you think this cost? [music] >> Uh, based on my vast knowledge, probably about uh tree. >> Tree? Oh, actually over Oh, sorry. Bob Barker says you're over. You don't win the car. It's uh 300 bucks, which is a damn shame because I could have gotten away with using like uh yuka board or quarterinch maple, but it's got have so much flex in it, and I want the insides to be sturdy enough that if the kid wants to hang a picture in there, she can hang a damn picture. You Don't move it. Okay. All right, let's go. We're safe. Man, do I wish it was thinner, lighter, smaller pieces of material. No guts, no glory. Or in [snorts] my case, no back pain, no glory. >> What do you think, Kyle? Not bad, huh? >> Kind of looks like a box. Yeah, that's a box. All right. >> It's no windows in there. >> Oh, we're going to get windows. But I'm going to warn you right now. You're not going to like how we're going to get the windows. >> What do you mean? >> You're not going to like it. It's going to be real messy. Woo! Let's slice and dice, baby. Trim router. Let's go. Well, it's not a trim router. It's a trim router bit. And that's got to be a messy show. What happened? Oh, my trim piece broke off. Ah, son of a gun. This is starting to becoming one of America's dangerous jobs right here. I got my shirt completely covered. Oh, by the way, this is one of our newest shirts. Don't buy, just DIY. Don't buy a bunk bed. You can just go build one. Here's a QR code. Help support this channel. It's an absolute best way you can help us out so we can create more cool badass projects like this. And it's one of the best shirts we have. Go check it out. I don't know what's going on, but things got a little squirly on this one, which I hate cuz it's eye level. That thing's never too far gone. Everything's always fixable. Just a matter of how much work you're going to be willing to put into it. So, it's not a big deal. I think I think I can figure something out. Kind of sucks that this one turned out the way it did. No idea why, but we're going to keep our head up. This is such a freaking cool house. So, there's a couple of things I did uh had to change. Uh because of this depth, I had to switch to these really narrow flat junction boxes on both sides, which is perfect. Um we have everything set up today. We're wrapping the exterior, essentially sighting, but we're going to use shiplap. And damn, shiplap is expensive. I did throw some reinforcing pieces right here, which I'm glad I did. is going to prevent any kind of flex. But the idea of shiplap is going to be perfect. I just don't know what colors we're going to do. I have a little rough idea and hopefully I can brainstorm with Arena. She's the designer in this family, not me. So, uh, we'll go from there. >> Hello. >> Oh, hi. What happened? >> What are [laughter] you doing? >> Building a bed. This is uh >> My thoughts are you have never built me a bed before, but this is the second bed. >> No, I I built you a bed in our like two houses ago. The gray one. >> Hold on. Hold on. You've never built me a built-in bed. >> You want a [laughter] built-in bed? >> I want a house. >> What are we? >> I've built two houses. Well, I've remodeled them for you. >> I love it. I think it's going to be really cute. I love the arches. >> That was my inspo. >> You know, I really wanted to go with straight squares just cuz it's so much easier. >> I know. [laughter] >> This is such a pain in the butt. How long did it take you to do the arches? >> Quite a bit. It's frustrating especially to make them look clean and symmetrical. But I I dig it to be honest with you. >> I like it too. [music] >> I'm going to do shiplap for the siding. So to make it look like sighting. Do trim and stuff like that. Um but I also wanted to put like an overhang like a little like a little tiny roof overhang right here. >> And then maybe one >> and then maybe put like a little house number on it. [laughter] >> What do you think? >> You should do like a box. >> Oh, like a planter. So that's already part of my schematic. I'm putting planter here, here, and here. >> That's really cute. >> Can we not do pink this time? >> Well, I think I don't know. Well, not pink, but like we should do white maybe, and then like accents. [music] Like maybe we're on the same page. I was thinking of white with black. >> No, I don't know if black would work cuz look at her colors. She doesn't really have black. [laughter] >> We'll figure it out. >> We I finally took down the fan. We're going to need some kind of light fixture. Well, it has to. You can't hit the >> Well, we can put a little daisy chain and then have it swinging out here. >> Oh, yeah. We can do that. >> So, that's not a big deal. >> I actually do have a light fixture already. >> You do? >> Yeah. >> Sweet. Now, steps wise, >> we just have to have the chain. Yeah. >> Steps wise, I was going to use those [music] storage boxes and then convert that. That way, you could step on them and she could still have all her toys that kind of lift up. >> Do you think that will work for getting toys out? It will be easier to do. You don't want to do drawers, do you? I don't want to build new drawers, but if we have to, we'll do it. But I think because we already have these, it's a solid step, solid wood. You just lift up and it's not going to interfere. I mean, it'll probably kind of stop like that. >> Yeah. >> The only problem with her is [music] >> these are always going to be like that. >> Well, we'll tell them to keep them like that. [laughter] >> Okay. You tell >> Can we tell a 5-year-old that? >> You can tell a 5-year-old that. Is it going to happen? >> Nope. [sighs] She'll probably cry and then I'll have to do what she tells me. That's what you get for being a girl. Dad. All right, that's enough for that. Let me go start throwing this out. >> I have more ideas. I'm just kidding. I'll get out. >> Uh, yeah. Do you have the light fixture? >> I do. It's in the closet. >> Perfect. I don't know why we have an extra light fixture that I don't >> I got it like a year ago, but I was always I've been too nervous to ask you to hang it cuz you have so much going on. >> You're secretly buying stuff that we're not even installing. >> No, I bought it to hang up in her room. I just there was never the right time to ask you. >> Okay, that's for another day. I got to be excited. [laughter] Bye. >> Love you. >> I just realized something that Arena is going to be not too thrilled about. Uh, and it's the fact that she's not going to be able to get a rug underneath this bed. She's obsessed with rugs. And on the last bone grid I built, thank God, the way I designed it, you could like lift it. It had like maybe half an inch of flex. There's there's no picking this thing up. So, if she wants a rug, it's going to have to be like a runner or something or cut around it cuz there's no lifting this puppy up. Swear this girl's obsessed with rugs. Oh my god. I'm glad I used a respirator this time, but my eyes are still caked with all this MDF. I'll tell…