Bedroom Remodel / Update

Our son's bedroom was decorated in Disney. Once he became a teenage it was not longer appropriate for him. The bedroom had a 12' vault, so we decided to put the space to use.

We first mounted a frame of 2 X 10 to the three walls with 4" bolts. We then added the fourth section of frame bolted to the ends of the two side wall. For this section we used 8" bolts (pre-drilled the end). After the frame was complete we put in 2 X 6 joists flush with the bottom to create a 3" lip once completed. A center support was added which served three purposes. The first was to provide support from the floor, Second was a bookshelf and then on the back side of the bookshelf we added pegboard.

Next we added the wiring. There are three light fixtures mounted under the bed. In the loft there are two outlets, one near the peak where a small fan is mounted and the second in the cubby to the right of the ladder where a clockradio is located. Under the front edge of the cubby is mounted a two foot rope light which acts as a night light. There is a light swith in the ceiling at the top of the ladder to turn on the light mounted in the ceiling at the top of the vault.

The memory foam matteress had to be put in before the sides were completed. We used a memory foam matteress since it did not require box springs below it. Next we put up the sides and then painted everything.

The area below the bed is spilt into two areas. The first is his work area, the second has an electric keyboard and pegboards for displaying his collection of toy guns.

Air flow in the room was a concern from the start. The existing floor register was off center and aimed upward. Adding the bookshelf support created a corner that go plenty of air flow, but very little in the rest of the room. While you can not see it in the photo, the keyboard is on a 4" raised floor. The air is diverted between the floor joist and come straight out into the room at the base of the ladder. The temperature in the room is now better controlled than the original design. As mentioned earlier a small fan was added at the peak of the vault to blow the air out of the loft so that it does not get too hot.

Our son loves his loft bed (no one else have one) and it cleared up a lot of floor space making the room seem much larger.