You already know all of the reasons to acquire a set of bunk beds for yourself when your kids are growing up. They’re not only a blast for the kids, but they’re actually downright convenient for the adults, too, thanks to their space-saving features. And after your oldest child has outgrown the bunk beds, the next one seems to enter the right age to enjoy the bunk beds again, inviting friends over for sleepovers, and having a great time.
But we know what happens eventually. Kids grow up. They outgrow their bunk beds, move off to college, and find their own place.
What’s a parent to do with the old bunk beds? Well, if you follow these tips, you won’t have to sell them, trade them, or give them away. In fact, you may find that the bunk beds do you more good by staying in your house than they ever could in an estate sale.
1. Create a de facto “guest room.” Why a “de facto” guest room and not simply a guest room? Well, the beauty of bunk beds is that they save so much space that you can do all sorts of things with them—and that includes moving them into the basement to be used with storage. A bunk bed can house an additional relative or friend for one night, giving you more places for your loved ones to rest their head, even if you don’t technically have the room for a full-on guest room. A raised loft bed like our Queen Loft Bed Plan is ideal for storing old items in the basement while still keeping an extra bed lying around for a rainy day.
2. Convert the bed. If you really want to exercise that creative instinct and tackle a do-it-yourself project, then converting the bed into something else entirely will make good use of the wood you purchased. After all, who wants to buy an entirely new piece of furniture when they’ve got plenty of perfectly good lumber in their bunk bed? You want to get the full value out of those resources—and you can, with a little bit of creativity.
Search a site like Pinterest.com for ideas on converting bunk beds into office desks, bookcases, and more. You’d be amazed what you can do with an old bunk bed once you take the time to brainstorm where it might belong in your “empty nest.”
3. Transform it into a regular bed. Of course, you don’t have to convert your bunk bed into another piece of furniture entirely—you could simply take it apart a little bit, remove anything in the way, and add a full-sized mattress to convert a bunk bed into a regular size bed (a guide at SFGate.com shows you how). Obviously, you’ll need a little bit of know-how and the right tools to get this done, but it just goes to show you that bunk beds don’t have to be “lost causes” once the kids move out; they can still be a beautiful piece of furniture in the home of your dreams.
