Beginning the Cupboard Bed

 

Make sure you read the post and see the photos of cupboard beds farther along in the blog.

 

 

I was able to put in the deck for the bed, and the two panels on the right and left will eventually become the back boards of the  shallow book cases on either side of the opening.  They are just tacked up there to get a feeling for the space.

 

The boards sticking out like a rather ragged tongue are just there so I could estimate the size and shape of the table.  I have some nice bird's eye maple for the tabletop.  This will slide in under the bed like your grandmother's cutting board used to slide out from the counter in the kitchen.  I just put my chair there and started fiddling with the dimensions using the boards I had lying around.  The black line across the opening is just a piece of angle iron which supports the edge of the bed deck as it crossed the cut out space above the table top, where there is no support.

The space below will have shallow cupboards either side of the table and the entire area below the bed will be storage.

 

The deck is 3/4 inch plywood, not in a high grade.  I plan to put commercial carpet down on it so I will not get too many splinters.  The ceiling is finished and the entire inside will have moldings covering the seams and nails.  It will be painted a hydrangea blue, and have a hydrangea border around the ceiling.

 

I have a coverlet and shams of this color, the walls a bit darker.  I also have snowy white quilts for this size bed, which is a double.  It really would not have been a big sacrifice to do a queen bed, but I just decided that that few inches was better spent elsewhere.

 

 

 

Just the head end of the bed alcove.  Alcove is probably a better word for this unless I choose to put doors on the opening, making it a cupboard.

 

The ceiling above the alcove is the floor of the loft.  I know it is a little difficult to see, but I cut the decking if the upper loft into pieces to allow me to lift them up like doors, with finger holes, for storage in between the beams.

 

I bought Memory Foam double mattresses for both levels, still in their boxes and waiting to go into the space.  Harry and I already took a nap in the alcove earlier today.  He is not too comfortable in the trailer yet, but he seemed to be very comfortable in the alcove.  It is enclosed, but offers good views out of the window and the door and window opposite.