# Bunk Beds



## StradivariusBone (Mar 31, 2015)

The wife is doing Annie Kids at her elementary school and has demanded requested that I build her two bunk beds for the purpose of the show. At first I was going the direction of building two standard platforms, but with a dimension of 6'x3' and then using 2x4's as legs and bolting it together, setting the top bunk about 4' off the deck. I was figuring on a ladder on the front and back (opposing corners) to stabilize against lateral forces and seeing if it merited additional crossbracing from there. From what I can see, most commercial (read: IKEA-like) bunk beds use the ladders for the shear bracing.

In doing some research, I looked up some blueprints for making bunk beds (for home use) and found these- http://ana-white.com/2010/09/classic-bunk-beds-cleverly-designed.html

I love me some Ana White and have used a handful of her ideas for building furniture at my house, but I feel like the 1x stuff might not hold together. I'm guessing it's fine since people have built this design without much complaining from the peanut gallery It'd be nicer since it's a lot lighter than 2x4, but also more expensive where we are. Lots of tradeoffs here. 

Anyone have experience with safe and economical bunk beds? These are small kids so 6x3x4 is plenty big. I can't rule out more than one kid on top at a time. They will not be standing up on the top bunk beds. 

While we're at it, anyone got cheap ideas for flats that can be freestanding and painted on both sides that can be swapped inbetween scenes? I came up with a 6'x3' broadway hard flat with hardboard on both sides that fits into a 3'x3' base on casters using 10" metal L brackets to lock it to the base, but in materials it will run about $75 apiece. The brackets are $25 of that, so I'm thinking smaller ones might be more cost-effective, but too small and you get the wobble factor. 

I'm trying to convince her that investing in reusable flats that can accomodate 2-3 scenes per show will last her forever doing these MTI kid/Jr shows. Wanted to sell her on periaktois, but she can't drill into her stage to set a pivot point and storage is at a premium. There'd be nowhere they could live in the offseason. 

Thanks in advance!


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## Amiers (Mar 31, 2015)

This is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word bunk beds. 



On a serious note. I think you got the right idea for the beds. 

As far as the flats if you do periaktois just make them so they can break from the triangles to flats again. A vertical flat can't possible take up that much space.


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## sk8rsdad (Mar 31, 2015)

A couple of thoughts:

Using 1x3 hogs trough glued and nailed for the bed legs will be as strong as 2x4 and would shave some weight.

Our periaktoi are built out of broadway flats on castered triangle bases. There's no need to screw a pivot to the stage floor. They knock down for storage taking up a little more space than a comparably sized hollywood. We skin in luaun to keep the weight down.


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## josh88 (Apr 1, 2015)

sk8rsdad said:


> Our periaktoi are build out of broadway flats on castered triangle bases. There's no need to screw a pivot to the stage floor. They knock down for storage taking up a little more space that a comparably sized hollywood. We skin in luaun to keep the weight down.



Mine are the same.we've got loose pin hinges in them. Pop the pins and they become flats that store flat. With the bases stacking on each other.


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## lwinters630 (Apr 1, 2015)

I assume your not using mattresses just foam donated from your local carpet store. In which case, build your first bed as a raised platform maybe 12" tall, plywood all sides and top, add wheels. then bring the 1x3 up on the outside corners over lapping the platform. then continue. ana-white style. Top bunk can have full plywood sheet instead of slats. rip plywood sides to 1x12's and head/foot instead of the 1x3 rails. That may add to stability.


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## StradivariusBone (Apr 1, 2015)

"So much room for activities!" 

+1 on the collapsable periaktois, very clever. The only ones I've worked with were much bigger than what we need and they were built to remain intact (a la Chorus Line), so it didn't occur to me to build them with loose pin hinges. The base would just be a triangle of plywood and maybe a smaller triangle of 2x4 mitered so the flats nest around it? Would the base need to be secured somehow? Possibly more hinges from the bottom of the flat to the base? These are only going to be 6' high, but a majority of the cast will be half that. 


lwinters630 said:


> I assume your not using mattresses just foam donated from your local carpet store. In which case, build your first bed as a raised platform maybe 12" tall, plywood all sides and top, add wheels. then bring the 1x3 up on the outside corners over lapping the platform



As far as the bunk beds, I don't think they're using any foam at all, just sheets and a pillow. I thought about castering the piece, but I don't think they have in the budget for wagon brakes to keep it stationary. I'd worry about the kids riding it off the edge of the stage or some other such nonsense. Choreography could be cool with moving beds though.


sk8rsdad said:


> Using 1x3 hogs trough glued and nailed for the bed legs will be as strong as 2x4 and would shave some weight.



From the looks of the corners on Ana's design it seems that she's got a sort of t-back, hog trough hybrid between the head/foot and the sides. You're suggesting just creating 1x3 hog troughs and bolting them to the corners of the platforms/beds? Would you still use 2x4 for the platform/bed framing or switch to 1x3 as well? I'm guessing the ladders could be made from 1x3 too. Might go with 1x4 as HD is selling 14' sticks of it pretty cheap by us at the moment. 1x is hard to come by cheap locally, sometimes 2x as expensive as 2x4x96.

Is the consenses with hog troughs to mount them to the exterior of the platform frame or to cut out the plywood and put them on the interior of the platform frame? I was thinking with 2x4's I would attach them as is normal on the inside corners and then notch out the ply so it can go up through the top bunk and provide for railings. 

Thanks again for the advice, this will make for a happy wife!


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## sk8rsdad (Apr 1, 2015)

I prefer building with 1x pine instead of 2x spruce.

If there are concerns about strength, run 1x blocking inside a hogs trough to transfer the weight of the platform to the floor, but that may be over-engineering for the weight. It's pretty easy to build up strong lap joints with 1x. I'd probably frame the bed sides in 1x4 or 1x6 with adequate blocking.

Our triangle bases are a sheet of 3/4" plywood with casters attached. A piece of 1x strapped a few inches up on the back of the flats allows them to sit on top of the triangle. The flats mask the casters.


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## StradivariusBone (May 5, 2015)

Just a follow up for the good of the thread- The bunk beds are complete as are the periaktois. 

Bunk bed legs are hog troughs of 1x4 and the "beds" are 3x5' platforms framed with 1x6 and skinned with 3/4" plywood. I did block each corner under the top bed with a piece of 2x4, but mostly to get it as level as possible. The ladders were 1x4 remnants that I sandwiched between more 1x. They're 4' tall and I was astounded that they are as sturdy as they are, there is no give and therefore I decided to let the ladder handle the bulk of the crossbracing. The platforms are also very lightweight and easy to move around, but have no give with joists on 24" centers. I'm sold on 1x for platforms. I jumped as hard as I could on the top of these things and they didn't budge. 

The periaktoi idea worked amazingly well, the only trick was getting the horizontal strip/cantilever piece on the back of the flat to have it sit on the top of the dolly. In retrospect, I would have framed them out differently, but we ended up adding a piece of filler to give the bottom support a good bite into the rest of the flat. I'm told that the kids were impressed by the fact that this theatrical set concept is over 2000 years old, so there's your historical tie-in. 

The nice part is that this school will now have some stock pieces (platforms and flats) to use in future shows and I'm hoping they'll get some mileage out of these pieces. Thanks to all for your advice on this project!


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