Loft Bed

[Mike OMelia]

Hi, new here but no newbie to woodworking. Most of the time I live over at luthiersforum.com (slackkey_mike). I saw a beautiful loft bed at Costco today. Looking for creative (arts & crafts) type plans. Full size matress, desk, etc. Any ideas?

Mike

[Mike OMelia]

Here is a version of the one I saw:

http://www.whalenfurniture.com/products/illb.html

The one I saw did not have the curved head and footboards, and raised panels were not used. I would guess raised panels wouldadd to the complexity and cost...

Mike

[Mike OMelia]

Did I post this in the wrong forum? I thought someone might have some ideas!

Mike

[John Schreiber]

Welcome Mike,

I've pondered building a loft bed for my daughters, but by the time I've actually been ready to start cutting wood, they were on to a different idea. I found quite a few plans on-line, but almost none are furniture quality like that one in your link.

Perhaps someone else has some other ideas.

[Mike OMelia]

Hate to admit it, but I think I will go and make a few measurements. I am studying the on-line pic, and have a good idea of the minimal measurements I will need.

Mike

[John Schreiber]

I'd suggest getting rough dimensions from somebody else's plan and standard bed sizes. I found that deciding on the correct height required trial and error and testing. There's a trade off between headroom above the bed and below. If it's going to be limited below, be sure to make the inside ceiling does not have hard edges.

After that, I'd import the picture into SketchUp and using it's photo matching features, you may be able to develop a start of accurate plans from there.

[Jamie Buxton]

Did I post this in the wrong forum? I thought someone might have some ideas!

Mike

Mike, I think you'll get more replies if you'll start the discussion. For instance, lay out what you think the piece of furniture should be -- what it does, what it looks like, critical dimensions, and interesting design issues. Then folks have something to comment on. Or an even better way is to post design sketches -- Sketchup is a great tool -- to give folks something to comment on.

[Mike OMelia]

Ok will do, appreciate the advice. The picture that I posted above is not exactly the version I saw at costco. The one at costco (same manufacturer) does not have the shaped head & foot boards. Nor does it have raised panels. It does have floating flat panels. It looks incredibly buildable. This seems to be the kind of project that a lot of folks might be interested in. It is a full size bed, nice study area, and when the kids go off to college, they can take it with them. On top of that, its furniture grade... not those ugly things (sorry if I hurt feelings here, I really don't mean to) I keep seeing out on the web.

Ya know what would be cool? If enough folks were interested in the plan, we could send maybe ten different folks into 10 different stores around the country to get different measurements... That way it might not be so dang obvious. Of course, I would be more than happy to buy plans if I could find them.

OK, off to learn about sketchup.

Mike

[Mike OMelia]

I'd suggest getting rough dimensions from somebody else's plan and standard bed sizes. I found that deciding on the correct height required trial and error and testing. There's a trade off between headroom above the bed and below. If it's going to be limited below, be sure to make the inside ceiling does not have hard edges.

After that, I'd import the picture into SketchUp and using it's photo matching features, you may be able to develop a start of accurate plans from there.

You can import the photo? Like the one I posted?

[John Schreiber]

You can import the photo? Like the one I posted?

SketchUp is a powerful tool and relatively easy to learn. When I say relatively, I mean that compared to traditional 3D cad programs it's a snap, but it will still require some learning time.

Here's a link to an excellent blog about SU. This entry is about Photo Match.
http://blogs.taunton.com/fw-designforum?entry=10 . Note that Photo Match will only work if the photo is relatively un-modified from the camera. If it has been excessively cropped and adjusted, SU won't be able to make everything match exactly.