Fall ‘22 One Room Challenge – a bed and a loft

Well this week’s update ended up being bigger than I thought it would be! Initially I was only going to showcase the cement-look feature wall behind the bed, but we ended up funded more free time and decided to also build the treehouse/loft…and it ended up growing bigger and bigger until it took over the entire wall!

Roman Clay Cement Wall

First up, the Roman Clay wall. I’ve mentioned before that I’m trying to use as much of the material that I already have at home. With that in mind, I used the same Roman Clay mixture that was leftover from the fireplace and dinosaur mural to add texture to the wall where the bed and loft are going. There was a moment that I considered doing the same technique on the window wall…but that would mean mixing up more Roman Clay and trying to match the colour that I already did on the other wall. And well, I really just didn’t want to venture down that path that could end up being really frustrating! So, on to the one wall!

I used the same technique as the dinosaur. X motions until the whole wall is covered. It looks so unnerving when first applied, but dries so nicely and adds so much texture and depth to the space. I smoothed it out more on this wall than I did with the Dino. Here’s what it looks like in all it’s stages of drying:

Freshly applied Roman Clay

Left – almost fully dry | Right – halfway dry

Design Dilemma

You see it, right? In the first photo of the Roman Clay? The white baseboards just do not look right with the dark grey Roman Clay Walls. I considered changing out all the baseboards in the room for something that looks more modern, but it’s not in the budget right now and honestly, these ones are totally fine. But what to do about the white? I’m not going to go spend money on a different colour paint, that’s for sure. I really just wanted it to blend in with the wall, and then I had a lightbulb moment. Why not paint the baseboards with the Roman clay? Think about it! It will be the exact same colour, it just won’t have the texture because I’ll be applying it with a brush instead of a putty knife. And so…I did it. And you know what? It looks great! Money in my pocket and something purdy for my eyes to see. That’s a win in my book!

I think the wall needs a light second coat to smooth it out a bit, but will wait until the loft is up just in case we ding the wall during installation.

The Bed Frame

I have been eyeing the Zinus bedframes at Amazon for forever! I love how minimal and sleek they are, all while adding that touch of industrial modern feel to the room. But for just a bed base…it’s a little expensive in my opinion. So I waited. And waited. Until finally they were on sale, and just in time for this room reno too!

This bedframe was unbelievable easy to install. My 3 kids did most of it themselves and they’re 1.5, 4 and 8 years old! The part that excited me the most was that it came with an Allen Key Ratchet just like this one from Amazon.

I had no idea these even existed before opening it up in the hardware bundle that came with the bed. But my oh my, is it ever the handiest little tool. Well worth the $20 it costs to buy one in my opinion.

So here is where today’s post should have ended, but John and I got to talking and decided to build the loft this past weekend as well! Let me fill you in on those deets…but first…the bedframe and the wall!

Zinus bedframe and Roman clay cement wall

The Loft

The original plan that I spoke about in the first week of the One Room Challenge was that the loft would only be going in the corner, to the right of the bed. After setting up the bedframe and seeing exactly where everything would fit, we decided that the room looks squished and unintentional that way. The bed was all the way over near the window, and it seemed so unbalance. This is exactly why I set up the frame and didn’t wait unti construction in the room was done. Sometimes you need all the elements in the room to feel the scale and flow of things.

The room is only 11×10 feet, and my son insists that his sofa (it’s really a big chair, but he calls it his “sopa”, so I do too) stays in the room. Soooo….we decided to build the loft all the way across the one side of the room and have his bed scooch under it.

I made up this digital rendering so John could better visualize the plan.

Digital rendering of Loft and Bed

Building the Frame

Once we agreed on this design plan, I got to work drawing it out and estimating how much wood we would need.

Horribly lit photo of the To Scale drawing I did of the loft

Each side of the loft will be 3’x3′ and the raised tunnel between the two is 5.5’x2′.

We headed to Home Depot and picked up the 2×6, 2×4, and joist hangers that we needed and ventured home to get building. All in, the wood and hangers cost us $120. Not too shabby for a full loft if you ask me!

Lumber for the loft and our handy little helper!

Making Boxes

Starting the loft build was as simple as building 3 boxes. 2 identical sized ones for the side and one larger one for the tunnel.

First Box for the Loft base

I’ll be adding a full tutorial here on the blog later this week. Once the boxes were built we installed them using 3.5′ construction screws directly into as many studs as the box went across, 2 in each stud.

To make the structure as strong as could be, we decided to also add posts that the loft would sit on. Not only are my kids going to be climbing inside the loft and playing, but they’ll also be sleeping underneath it, so I’m double triple quadruple securing it wherever I can.

I was going to use two 2×4 boards to crate one large post, but we found 4×4 pine posts from a past project in the garage and believe it or not, one of them was exactly the size we needed. 1/8 of an inch shorter and we couldn’t have use it.

Thinking Ahead

We know that we will be getting in and out of this bed quite a lot, so we made sure to think ahead for how the space will function for us adults as well. That was the deciding factor when playing with locations for the posts. John preferred the way it looked with the post at the corners of the loft structures, but I thought that would give us 1 foot less space to get out of the bed. It also gives the top tunnel structure more support if the post is directly under it, so that’s what we did! We also used joist hangers because they’re much stronger than attached the 2x4s from the face of the frame.

The loft frame is complete! Happy boys, messy construction space!

It looks so warped in these photos, but that’s only because the room is so small I have to use a super wide angle lens to get it all in the photo. I promise, it’s level.

Coming up next

So there you have it! Week 3 of the One Room Challenge was bigger and better than we had planned. Next up…loft flooring, pickets and paint!

Make sure to check out Instagram where I show everything in detail as we go, and head to the One Room Challenge Blog to see all the other participants work this week!

Until next time,

Oli

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