Kura bed - an ikea hack

An Ikea Kura bunk bed and an' Ikea Hack' of sorts.

I finished this AGES ago, but haven't got around to taking photos until now. Perhaps that is in part to the fact Little Imp's bedroom is not often quite this tidy!

There are lots of different ways of using the Kura bunk bed, but I haven't seen one that simply leaves out step to leave accessible storage space underneath.

We (the 'Royal We' that is - Little Imp's dad!) made up the bed as instructed other than inserting one of the panels (the longest one opposite the ladder) that in theory would stop your child falling out of bed when it is used as a bunk bed. This leaves a great sized area under the bed for storage - including the panel we haven't inserted into the bed.

I guess you could use a valance to hide the opening to the storage space. In this instance though, a well positioned armchair and some sheer, embellished curtains that I have made and hung part way around the bed work for us (these pics show the curtain slightly pulled back to reveal the storage space) that is normally pretty well hidden.

Of course this project lent itself to lots of fun - a place to stick all the butterfly wall decals we hadn't used yet and time spent making up coordinating bunting and little curtains to embellish the new bed. Fun creative times indeed!

To make the curtains
Stitch together fabric patterned scraps, embellish however you like and then sew onto solid coloured fabric.

Cut out sheer curtain fabric to the length you want plus a few inches extra. Fold over the top and stitch to create a tube for hanging the curtain. Hem the bottom.
Then gather lengths of ribbon, fold an inch over at the top and pin in place along the top edge of the curtain. Cut out some butterfly shapes from coloured netting and arrange to please along with the fabric pieces you made up before. Pin all in place.

Stitch each of the ribbons in place along the top of the curtain.

Stitch  a reinforced line through the middle of the net butterflies and around each of the fabric pieces.

 

Hang the curtains and some lovely bunting....bed time for little ones!

ps. if you like the armchair in the pictures here's the link to my armchair recovering post

Ikea Hackers expedit drawers

We are finally getting to fitting out our not-so-new-anymore home extension with furniture & adding a few personal touches.  One corner area has become One Little Imp's play corner and an expedit 4x4 storage cube fitted the bill to begin to retain the play things.

But a cube by itself was not enough to tidy up of course.  A few pull out boxes helped contain the big bits and then some expedit drawers were installed to become a pretend oven, or 'doddy's' bed, or anything else that Little Imp thinks up.

The plain white expedit drawers looked boring though.  Not exciting enough for a play corner.  A little inspiration from a website I stumbled across recently Ikea Hackers reminded me that even new things can be changed and embellished....

So a bit of bright fabric and some bright red painted knobs later this is the result:

Little Imp is happy with her new play space, and I'm happy with the fact things have a place to be put away! Now to find the right reading lamp to sit atop the expedit.  Mmmm, ideas.

P.S. Note the nice new chair peeking in there on the left of these pics?  It's the one that has replaced the wingback chair that I finished recovering yesterday!! - just waiting for daylight to take some photos to upload.