Harold's Renovation Blog: Hackers Help: Help me turn this built-in bed into reality

Please please please,
Do you have any idea how to set up this built-in bed with IKEA furniture?

Source unknown

I’m willing to do it if you could only give me help on which furniture would fit to build up this kind of bed.

I’ll be happy to share the step by step plan once I get the furniture name.

~ by Stefan

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Hi Stefan

The built-in bed is a pretty ambitious project and I’m glad you’re up to the challenge.

There are many ways to skin the cat and quite a few IKEA products may fit the bill. You choice will depend on your budget, skillset and what you’re comfortable working with.

#1 KURA and TARVA built-in bed combo

First off, I think the KURA reversible beds and TARVA beds are the obvious choice. Both are made of solid pine, which would make them play nicely together.

The easiest would be to have two KURA beds on top and slot in the TARVA queen beds at the bottom. But the KURA is quite low (45 5/8 “) so there is hardly enough headroom for the beds beneath, like so:

Help me turn this bedroom into reality

If you wish to go with this, you’ll need to elevate the KURA beds.

You’ll also need to close up the exposed legs for the built-in look.

#2 MYDAL and TARVA

So, on second thought, I would suggest building a wood structure (like how GeekDad did for the TROMSÖ bed) and use the 2 bunks of one MYDAL bunk bed.

Separate the bunk beds into 2 single beds. Position the top bunks high enough for comfortable headroom below. The TARVA queen beds should slot in well here too. Again, add trim, moulding, paint to beautify it.

#3 KRITTER + MALM

The same can be achieved with KRITTER junior beds. Aitor replaced the KRITTER’s head and foot boards with new “legs” made of wood boards to raise them. Aitor reinforced the bed using lateral stiffeners. This way the beds were strong enough. But the addition of some lateral buffers from wall-to-wall made the beds more stable.

Another way to raise them up is to prop the beds with another piece of furniture like the KALLAX or STUVA. This could also serve as the landing of the staircase. Do secure the beds well to the furniture.

The KRITTER would go well with the MALM queen beds. This combo would probably look most like your all-white built-in bed inspiration photo.

#4 Stairs

As for the stairs, it would be better to build it from scratch as part of your structure in #2. That would look a lot more cohesive.

But if you rather not, you could use the most popular stair hack — the TROFAST staggered storage. The end step could be a STUVA wardrobe to raise it into a set of full-height bunk bed stairs.

Or make it a lot more sturdy and built-in, like this.

So that’s my recommendations for you. I would suggest getting all the measurements of your room and dimensions of the IKEA products of your choice. If you do live near an IKEA, do take a look at the pieces and study them.