Forhoja For Bed

Materials: Forhoja + Sultan Florvag + lumber + castors

Description: We were inspired by the recent hack of the Kura bunk bed as our son recently outgrew his crib. Alas, Ikea Brooklyn had no Kuras in stock, so we left with only the mattress and sheet set.

Lying around at home, gathering dust, we had the shelves from a Forhoja kitchen table/cart/sideboard thing (though ours is an older version 3-drawers wide, and no wheels). We decided these would form the headboard and footboard of the bed, we'd get some 2x3s to use for the sides and we'd use pieces from the half-broken crib to support the mattress.

We cut the ends off the Forhoja shelves to make them flush, cut the 2x3s to length, and basically just drilled and countersunk the wood before screwing everything together to form a cuboid. We screwed the slats leftover from the crib in the sides of the upper 2x3s, and then added some more lengthwise for further mattress support. We'll make this a bit neater/more functional down the line (perhaps by using a sheet of 1/4" plywood instead?) but it was bedtime on Christmas eve and we needed to get 'er done!).

We decided we might as well re-use the castors from the old crib too, so we pulled those off, drilled and banged them into place on the new bed.

As for the big gap down the side of the bed: for now, we have a couple of big, shallow trays used for storage under the bed. At a later date, we may find a drawer or two from the chipped and broken aisle that fit, and engineer those in place. Or, we may simply add a filler piece for aesthetics.

~ Peter Campbell, NYC