High Sleeper Bed

Hi all,

Just thought i'd upload my progress on a high sleeper bed for my son. It's a work in progress, i'm no chippy and learning quite a bit at the same time! Made a few errors but think i've worked around them. By the way, why is there a big knot in the wood exactly where you want to drill? or is this just me? All in the planning I suppose. I've made this to fit into an alcove as you can see. A mattress will fit into the alcove, but not a bed frame, a lot of hastle I know (why didn't I just buy one) but there's a good foot and half dead space in the alcove which will be utilised.
Cost of timber : Around £105
Cost of socket head bolts, coach screws, coach bolts: not sure yet, i'll tally it up when i've finished. Any critisism welcome, lol.
Cheers,
Datadiyer.
Used a 25mm Faustner bit to get a flat bottomed hole
I made this template so holes on rails and posts would marry up
I initially used cross dowel nuts but they were a nightmare to use, as you can see in the top rail here, I split the rail as I had to use some slight persuasion to get the 6mm bolt inserted, decided to change to half moon nylon (much easier) as seen on the lower rail.
I had to take the top side rail off here as the thikness of the mattress exceeded the height of the rail, so placed it higher up the post.
Stuck an 8mm dowel in here for extra strength

I'm starting to think about a ladder now, not sure whether to buy or make one.
After many moons, i've actually finished a DIY job! This is new territory for me! And i'm officially the best daddy in the world for a minute until the novelty wears off. He's finally sleeping in it too. I'll post a pic of it fully finished with mattress.

Looks very good to me, wish I could make something like this. You have gone this far so make your own ladder, all your own work then and be proud of it

thats excellent. you should be proud. i just put one of these together and that was hard enough lol let alone making one from scratch.

Finished (well nearly).
A bit of varnishing now and trim top off ladder.

Nice job. I would have preferred the ladder styles to be rounded off at the top rather than left square but looks good and sturdy for sure.

I agree about rounding the top of the ladder.

Have you tried a nuclear bomb in the room to test it? It looks bomb proof lol

Hi Guys,

Your constructive critisism is much appreciated. I agree, I was going to just trim top of ladder but now will (try) and round them off neatly. Don't know about bomb proof, but should be kid proof (I hope). They've been swinging around on it for about a week now and still intact.
Now for my outdoor playframe project. Another 2 years of my life!

Cheers,
Datadiyer.

excellent job as others have said
some comments
you should avoid knots especially 2 large knots across the timber on a long span you should have used that for the end or shorter span
would also have another support to the handrail centrally

may also be worth thinking about extending the top step back to the bed frame to stop the handrail flexing when you climb the ladder and also give the handrail extra support if someone leans on it heavily