Loft Bed - DIY

My son’s room needed some help. His room is kind of small so
I wanted to find a way to maximize his room and decided on building him a loft bed to regain the floor space.

Building the ladder

each ladder leg has 2 - 2"x4"s ( one 4' long and the other 4'4") that were glued together. I used a 1 3/8 " dowel rods for the rungs and used the drill press to drill through each leg and then glued the rungs.

Building the frame

the frame is made from 3 - 2"x12"x8' boards. I took one board and cut it in half so the frame is 4'x8' (designed to be a little bit larger than his mattress).

* All boards in the project were sanded with 60,100, and 220 grit and stained with Minwax's Red Chestnut and sealed with Minwax Polycrylic

** all 2"x4" boards were jointed / planed to remove the curved edges.

Wall Support boards

I wanted to distribute the weight of the bed to the floor and not completely rely on wall studs to support the weight so I placed 4 - 2"x4"x4' along the wall spaced in 1' from the corner of the frame.

Frame Assembly / Mounting

The frame was assembled on the floor prior to placing it up on the wall support boards with 12 - 3.5" lag bolts (3 on each corner). The ladder support the corner of the frame and was placed on the 4' side to allow full access under the bed. I first screwed the frame on the wall support boards described above and then used a stud finder to screw the frame into the wall using the same lag bolts..

The floor of the loft bed is supported by 2"x"4"x4' boards

The decking is made up 1"x3"x8' that were screwed into the joists with 21/4" bolts.

I glued two 2"x10"x4' boards together to make the desk (desk was trimmed to 3.5'). The desk was mounted to the wall support boards using two metal brackets purchased from home depot.