DIY American Girl Doll Triple Bunkbed

DIY American Girl Doll Triple Bunkbed

I'm very ADD in my crafting. One day it's sewing, another day it's jewelry making, the next it's bow making. The past few weeks I have been keeping busy re-purposing wood fence panels. I've found quite a few uses for them (more posts on that soon), but inspiration hit the other day when my daughter was lamenting about how all of her "girls" didn't have a bed, the poor things. I have pinned a couple different american girl beds projects on pinterest, but never got to them because I didn't want to make 3 beds. The idea struck me to make triple bunk bed and use the fence panels (this could easily be traded for pallet wood). I immediately headed out to the backyard and got to work!

4- 28 inch boards

9 - 22 inch boards

6 10.5 inch boards

12 right triangles, made out of a wider board 2Xsomething 

I had lots of scraps from decking, So I cut triangles out of that

 First things first, make a plan. I decided the bed needed to be 22" long and 10.5" (10.5 is the measurement of 3 panels, so I went with it) 

The four main supports are 28", 8" for each level and 4" for the feet.

To make the triangle, cut a 45 degree cut on your board then cut at a 90 degree angle from that cut

Cut that triangle in half with another cut. If you are using 2X4 you may not need this extra step. 

I made 6... I needed 12, so I made 6 more :)

3 boards will make the bed platform. Line the 3 boards up and nail the supports to the back of them. Make sure there is enough room on either end for the triangle to fit.

One finished bed platform. 

On each support measure up from the bottom 4", make a line, then every 8". Nail the triangles to each support. I used a nail gun for this step and the next.

Nail the platforms to the triangle supports and you have a bunkbed. We were too excited to play that we haven't painted it yet. That will come soon. 

Because it was so "rustic" we decided it needed bedding. We had lot of leftover fabric from Emily's quilt project last year. I figured it was fitting for the "girls" to have matching bedding.

We made each bunk a "mattress", quilt, and pillow.

I love how the quilts turned out. So fun!